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

Heather, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love for you to start by sharing your thoughts about the pros and cons of family businesses.

I love the fact that I can share aspects of the cookie business with both of my daughters as well as my husband. They all pitch in when I need them, even my 7-year-old loves to help and it makes me feel like it’s such a group effort. On the flip side, sometimes it’s difficult to explain to my youngest daughter when she can’t help because the skill level is out of her range. It’s not an easy side gig, but I love the fact that it shows my girls that I can work hard and persevere under pressure.

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

I have been in business for about 2.5 years now. This all came about because my daughter, at age 10, decided she wanted to learn how to bake. I decided to teach her much more, and told her we were going to sell our baked goods at our local Farmers’ Market. With that, I tasked her with coming up with a business name while I found a graphic designer on Etsy to create a logo and color kit for us. Lastly, we had to decide what set us apart from other bakers and realized that due to my husband’s Celiac diagnosis, all of the creations would be gluten free. We have had such fun working together and I definitely have a new found respect for anyone that makes and sells goods at markets like these. The prep time, the time spent selling, and more, can be discouraging and exhausting, but the fact that we have had so many compliments and praise from locals that continue to reach out to us time and again for our unique recipes makes me feel proud that we are putting a good product to market! I am even more proud watching my daughter step outside her comfort zone, talking with strangers confidently about our products, making change, bagging up orders, and more .

This past summer was a huge milestone for our business, as we were contacted by a nationwide event company to partner with the cookie brand- Mothers’ Cookies, to bake and be part of a hugely publicized event with our delicious gluten free blondies and gluten/dairy free brownies. We were a hit and the line of people tasting our product was unending for the entirety of the day. I was beyond excited with the response and proud that our little name is taking off!

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

Working with Mothers’ Cookies was the largest order ever placed. We had approximately 3 weeks to bake and package 15oo brownies and blondies in just our home kitchen and single oven. I was overwhelmed and concerned that I had overpromised the amount that I could supply them with and that the process would not work out well and everyone would be underwhelmed. I was pleasantly surprised at how helpful the team was with the set-up, during the days leading up to the event, and how complimentary everyone that tried the product was. In addition, my daughters helped me set up everything, my mom came into town for the event and didn’t leave my side the entire day, and my husband helped with breakdown after we finished. It was an unbelievable achievement that I did not honestly expect to do as well as it did and am so grateful I was given the opportunity and that I didn’t let my fear of failure get in the way of taking the next step to promote and grow the business.

We’d love to hear the story of how you turned a side-hustle into a something much bigger.

I began baking out of necessity when I was teaching and looking for an outlet from a stressful day, of which there were many. The more I baked and the more consistently orders began to come in, the more I realized that I could at least make some supplementary income. As the year went on, my husband and I realized that the anxiety and stress from my teaching job was one that I didn’t need, and I decided to stay home to take care of our family and bake on the side for additional income. While it certainly isn’t to the point that I would say it has replaced my full-time salaried position, it has allowed us some extra spending money, so we aren’t on quite so tight of a budget and I get to experience the joy of volunteering at my girls’ schools, helping ease the stress of dealing with sick kids and my husband doesn’t have to call off work, and more. While I certainly see myself returning to a full-time position in the future, I am glad that baking has allowed me the ability to stay home and create a flexible schedule that works for our family.

Contact Info:

• Website: mycustombakes.com/sugarbise
• Instagram: @sugar_bise
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sb.glutenfree/