We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Hannah Campbell. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Hannah below.

Hi Hannah, thanks for joining us today. Owning a business isn’t always glamorous and so most business owners we’ve connected with have shared that on tough days they sometimes wonder what it would have been like to have just had a regular job instead of all the responsibility of running a business. Have you ever felt that way?

Sometimes, when I get really overwhelmed with small business ownership, or when I’ve made poor strategic decisions and am feeling the financial impact of those decisions on my business, I start to question if I’d be happier in a more stable “regular” job. Most recently, this happened this summer. I was vending at two different farmers markets for the summer and was performing poorly at one of the markets. When I commit to markets, I have to take on less custom work so that I have the time to bake for and vend at the markets. When I don’t make sales at the market, I’m out the money I could have made on those custom orders. As I watched my business account slowly dwindle this summer because of this bad strategic decision, I began looking at job listings. I saw bullet points on job postings like “must excel in a resource-lean environment” and had a full-blown panic attack. I remembered a session I once had with a therapist before I started my business. She asked me to list out 3 major requirements that were a priority to me in a job and to only pursue opportunities that fit into those requirements. They were: flexibility, autonomy, and creativity. I have a career history in food science and have worked in quality control labs (no flexibility, no autonomy) and have worked in corporate quality control settings (no flexibility, no creativity) and it was soul crushing for me. It became very apparent that I needed to take my career entirely into my own hands. I remind myself of this when things begin to feel very hard. Things are hard, but I’m having fun and my soul is flourishing.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I graduated from Purdue University with a BS in Food Science. I worked for about 5 years in the industry in both laboratory and corporate environments. I then took a break from the professional world to focus on my family as a stay-at-home-mom. Those were some of the best years of my life, but as my children grew older, I began to panic about what was next for me. Going back to the food manufacturing industry wasn’t an option for me. I felt extremely stifled creatively and the lack of autonomy was confusing and extremely challenging for me. I pursued several potential options including, but not limited to, becoming a nurse, lactation consultant, teacher, and librarian. My partner often soothed my panic by telling me that eventually something would feel right, and what do you know, eventually something did indeed feel right. I was given the opportunity to bake for a friend’s restaurant and it suddenly clicked that that was what I was meant to do. I quickly began researching how to legally sell baked goods from home (because I am terrified of breaking rules) and began practicing decorated sugar cookie art daily. The rest is history!

Today, I mainly sell custom decorated sugar cookies for all sorts of clients. I have made cookies for all sorts of events from baby showers to hysterectomies, from first birthdays to retirements, and from gender reveals to top surgeries. I truly enjoy working with clients to create cookies that feel special and elevate their events. About a year ago, I also began teaching decorating classes and I find these extremely exciting. I am, in general, a fairly introverted and socially anxious person, but I really enjoy pushing myself out of this comfort zone to share my joy of cookie decorating with others and they are always such a blast.

There is no shortage of cookiers in Chicago. We all offer something unique and special. My cookies are chewy and rich (thanks brown sugar!) with a sightly citrus icing with a soft bite. My style is generally clean (but not flawless) and creative. I don’t think what I offer is better than all the other cookiers in Chicago, it’s just the most me! I have a lot of clients who love me and what I do and keep coming back, so that’s what matters to me. I am extremely proud of the brand I have built and how I reflect who I am as a person, baker, and artist in what I do.

Can you open up about how you funded your business?

Determining how to fund my business was one of the scariest parts of starting a small business. The cool thing about cottage food law, however, is that the startup costs can be extremely low. Within 2 months of beginning to learn to decorate sugar cookies, I was able to start selling them with very little personal financial investment. I already had a mixer and ingredient costs are fairly low when you’re not selling much! I was able to start very small and slowly build my business with profits. I invested less than $500 of my own money to get my business off the ground and it has been entirely self-sufficient ever since! The first year or so, all of my profits were re-invested into the business (e.g. a bigger mixer, a projector, a work table, additional baking pans, etc), and I eventually reached a point where I could continue to invest into my business AND pay myself!

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

The absolute most important thing for growing my business and building my reputation has been networking. Very early in my business’ conception, I began working hard to build my network, especially with other small business owners. Business owners talk to one another, and I realized that once I was established within a certain area (e.g. a local mom group, local interior designers, etc) word of mouth would help my business grow and spread. I cannot emphasize enough how important it is to build relationships and talk about what you do. The right people will lift you up!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.topnotchbakeshop.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/topnotchbakeshopchicago/

Image Credits

Aline Stern Photography