We were lucky to catch up with Ernesto Rojas recently and have shared our conversation below.
Ernesto, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Folks often look at a successful business and imagine it was an overnight success, but from what we’ve seen this is often far from the truth. We’d love to hear your scaling up story – walk us through how you grew over time – what were some of the big things you had to do to grow and what was that scaling up journey like?
I opened D’Lites Cakes almost 10 years ago, mainly as a hobby to make cakes for friends and family and a few customers here and there. Never in my dreams would I have imagined that 10 plus years later, I would be running a super successful business which grow’s every year more and more. I think it has a lot to do with your drive, and your passion. Although I run my business from Home, I love coming home to work on orders no matter what day it is, or how long of a day I’ve had. When you do something you love, its not work. Every year I try to keep up with the new cake trends, teach myself new techniques and gain more and more customers by creating one of a kind cakes for peoples events. A follow and a like, has a lot to do with my business growing, customers sharing my work, tagging me and giving me great feedback provides me with the tools for success and to show my new customers they have nothing to worry about when ordering a cake from me.
Ernesto, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
My name is Ernesto Rojas, I am the owner of D’Lites Cakes, I came to the United States from Costa Rica when I was 2 years old and basically grew up in Houston my entire life. D’lites cakes has been serving the Houston and surrounding communities for over 10 years now, We offer a wide variety of custom cakes, cupcakes, cake pops, cakesicles. I think what sets me apart from other bakers in Houston is that I do not stick to one type of cake styling. I can do an all Buttercream cake with floral, I can make you a 3D Figures Out of fondant and rice kipsies, I can make animals out of fondant for a cake. Being able to provide my customers with a wide variety of options I believe sets me apart from other bakers in the city, because pretty much whatever type of design you want or style of cake, I can do it. I don’t limit myself to what’s popular at the moment, or what’s trending, if a customer wants an old school cake with a waterfall in the middle and a staircase on the sides I can do it. I also would love to have help one day, but I never want to get to the point to where I do not make my own cakes and decorate them, I don’t think anyone but me will put their heart and soul into something like me, or have my creative touch! I take pride in every order I get no matter how big or small, or how famous or not famous the person is. Every order is important, every customer is just as important as the next. And when I tell you I cannot do an order for you its not because I don’t want to, its because I don’t believe in taking on too many orders to where I cannot dedicate my time to each one and have them come out perfect!
How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?
When my fiancé got diagnosed with cancer, I remember having to juggle my business while also caring for him daily, it was very difficult to overcome, but luckily I did and he is doing great now.
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
The Covid 19 Pandemic, was good and bad, I had tons of cancellations due to the Pandemic. So I turned to individual dessert sales for about 6 months to keep my business afloat. Luckily it went great.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: Mr.Rojascakes
- Facebook: Dlites Cakes
- Yelp: Dlites Cakes
- Other: Tic Tok Erojas0428