We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Diana Ayala a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Diana, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We love asking folks what they would do differently if they were starting today – how they would speed up the process, etc. We’d love to hear how you would set everything up if you were to start from step 1 today.

I like this question a lot. A part of me says, “I wouldn’t do anything differently because all the decisions that I have made have led me to where I am today. I have tried somethings, I have failed and I have learned from those mistakes.” A different part of me says, “If I had known what I know now before I started my business, how far ahead would I be now? Maybe my journey would have been easier and I would’ve saved myself so much stress!” For sure the one thing I would do differently is stay organized with inventory, pricing, and expenses. In the beginning I struggled a lot because I wasn’t keeping record of all those things. I was winging it and when time came around for tax filing I was all over the place. It took me longer than it should have to trace back all of my purchases. If I was starting over I would make sure to keep a record of everything with spreadsheets or by using quickbooks. I think I would have saved myself so many headaches!

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers?

When I was a child I never had a clear idea of what I wanted to be when I grew up. As a first generation college graduate from a Salvadorian immigrant family, the expectation was that I would go to school to become a doctor or a lawyer. It was hard to live up to that expectation because I didn’t feel that was the career path for me. Throughout middle school and high school the subject that excited me the most was science so when I went to college I decided to major in Biology. Even though I had decided on my major I still wasn’t sure of what I would do after I graduated. After I graduated I knew I had to put my degree to use so I applied to many laboratory jobs but had no luck getting hired. I started feeling defeated and questioned my purpose in life. At that time I came across a YouTube tutorial of macarons. The baker in the video talked about how hard they were to make and all the extra steps you had to take to make them correctly. I thought to my self, “come on it can’t be that hard!” The next day I went and bought everything to make them. I made them and I failed… The baker was right, they were hard to make. I became determined to get them right and the more I practiced the more I fell in love with the process. I experimented with different methods and recipes until I finally got them right. Since then I started seeing my kitchen as my laboratory.

I started an Instagram page only to share the progress of my macarons but to my surprise people started asking if they could buy some. I had family, friends, and even strangers encouraging me to start a baking business. I researched how to start a home baking business in Texas and Dayala Treats took off from there. . Macarons will always hold a special place in my heart because I genuinely feel that they gave my life purpose.

As my business grew I started baking other treats besides macarons. As a business owner it’s important to understand that sometimes not everything you make/sell will be successful with customers. Throughout my baking journey I’ve had to remove and add different items to my menu. My most recent addition to my menu is conchas, My obsession with conchas began when we had the snow storm in Texas and we had nowhere to go and nothing to do. In the same way that I was determined with making macarons I became determined with perfecting my conchas too. I ended up falling in love with the conchas process as well.

As of right now Dayala Treats focuses on custom macarons and custom conchas. For both my macarons and conchas my customers can decide the themes, flavors, and colors. My favorite option on my menu for my macarons is my macaron birthday boxes. Each box comes with regular sized macarons and also a “macaron cake.” There’s different options for the boxes and every box is baked from scratch and decorated by me. Earlier this year I started selling mini conchas and concha bouquets. To say that my customers love them would be an understatement. They beyond love them. Mini conchitas and concha bouquets have been my most sold items this year.

Knowing that my customers choose Dayala Treats to make their treats for their special occasion or for a special someone is truly such a wonderful feeling. I will never have enough words to thank all of my customers for their endless support.

Since I started my business I have been fascinated with content creating and sharing my baking process. Towards the end of 2021 I started my YouTube channel and created a website for my business. My plan is to continue to grow my YouTube channel as well as my blogging through my website. I have also started presenting live baking classes/tutorials with Girls Nite Live. Girls Nite Live is an online network for women to learn new skills every week with daily workshops. Workshops are provided by women from around the world on literally any topic you can think of! I am very thankful for Girls Nite Live for providing this opportunity for me to share my voice as a Latina small business owner.

Sometimes we are ourselves harshest critic and we fail to congratulate ourselves for our success. This is something I am working on unlearning and I have been getting better at it. I do feel very proud of graduating college even though I had uncertainty of what I wanted to do. I didn’t give up and I pushed through. I found my purpose through baking. I love what I do. I am so happy and so very proud of where I am now.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

Social media has been a huge part of Dayala Treat’s success. Since I started Dayala Treats I began posting pictures/videos of my baking process to Instagram and Tik Tok. Social media is honestly such a powerful tool for businesses. Many of my videos have gone viral and they have generated sales. My social media accounts took off in 2020. I posted videos every day, sometimes multiple times a day. I used trending sounds, shared baking tips, and participated in trends related to baking content. I have continued this, not as hardcore as before but still keeping a social media presence and my Instagram has reached over 9K followers and my Tik Tok 237K

My advice is stay consistent. and post your videos. Even if you feel that it doesn’t have good lighting or you fear getting judged. POST YOUR VIDEOS. Don’t feel discouraged if you post it and it doesn’t go viral or only gets a little bit of views. The point is for you to build your community within your niche. There is a saying I always think back to, “there’s an audience for everything.” Stay consistent, don’t let fear hold you back, post your content and slowly but surely your audience will show up.

We’d love to hear about how you keep in touch with clients.

I’m a strong believer that if you love what you do and you pour your heart and soul to everything you make, you will foster brand loyalty. With every order I make I do the best I can and if possible I go above and beyond. Because of this many of my customers are repeat customers. A lot of new customers let me know that my repeat customers have recommended them.

I stay in touch my my customers through my Instagram. I share pictures of their orders. I engage with their posts and stories. I make sure they know that they can reach out with any questions or concerns.

Contact Info:

• Website: Www.dayalatreats.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dayalatreats/
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/c/DayalaTreats
• Other: Tik Tok: https://www.tiktok.com/@dayalatreats?lang=en Girls Nite Live: https://www.girlsnitelive.com/about/ambassadors/