We were lucky to catch up with Jenean Carlton recently and have shared our conversation below.

Jenean, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What do you think it takes to be successful?

I believe it takes courage to start your own business and also lots of grit. There’s so much to consider when starting a business including: having a work space, determining the desired clientele for your business, marketing, creating a brand for yourself, managing start-up costs, licensing, legal decisions, launching a website and more. It’s an overwhelming task and when I was a new business owner I felt buried by the amount of work involved in getting started with my company. Thankfully, I had decades of management experience in the vision care industry and knew how to run a business, purchase items at the wholesale level, write copy and set up ways to meet industry peers as well as potential clients.

Looking back, I still had no idea how much time it would take to achieve all of these goals as well as create cakes for my clients. The first 5 years were extremely difficult. Every day was a 14 hour work day and I struggled to have time with my family while also continuing to develop my business. I did make mistakes along the way that were costly and, looking back, I would do some things differently if I were to start over again. Examples of this are: 1) I would not advertise with local magazines. This seemed like a good idea at the time but ended up being a costly experience that didn’t result in increased business for me. 2) I wouldn’t pay a monthly fee to a wedding industry service again. The leads from this entity did not prove to be quality leads and it was very difficult to end this relationship. It’s hard to end a financial relationship with a magazine or service if you can’t get in touch with the billing department! Lessons were learned.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

My name is Jenean Carlton and I am the owner of Carlton’s Cakes, LLC in Atlanta. I am a custom cake artist and specialize in wedding cakes as well as creative grooms cakes. I started baking as a teenager and learned to enjoy the chemistry and artistry of baking at an early age. Creating recipes is fun because you are combining many ingredients with the understanding of how those ingredients will interact with one another. It’s always interesting to see the outcome of recipe development and this is how great recipes are created; I continue to work my recipes all the time and are rarely ever finished with them. There’s always a way to improve a recipe whether it is with ingredients or technique.

I’ve always enjoyed creative outlets and began taking pottery classes around 2004. It was during this time that I began taking pottery classes. I absolutely fell in love with the sculptural aspect of working with clay. It’s such a rewarding medium and includes lots of chemistry as well, particularly when it comes to glazes and the different types of clay. Once our child came into our lives I realized I didn’t have the time to travel back and forth to a pottery studio so I began sculpting at home with edible mediums like fondant and gum paste. I became hooked on these mediums very quickly and never looked back. I was already working on cake recipes and now I could combine baking chemistry with edible sculpture work. For the next 10 years I took lots and lots of classes to build my skills with cake artistry, cake architecture, various edible mediums and sculptural methods. I don’t think I’ll ever be finished with cake artistry, there’s always something new to learn.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

Regarding problem solving for clients, I make wheat based, gluten free, and vegan cakes. I don’t know of other cake artists in Atlanta that offer this range of options. I have food sensitivities myself and members of my family do as well so I have compassion for people who are limited with food options due to a sensitivity or allergy. Having a gluten allergy (celiac) or sensitivity is very common now and I often have requests for gluten free cakes. The reason I care so much about offering gluten-free items is because I have gluten-free for 12 years due to gluten sensitivities. I know what it’s like to be so limited on food options and to not be able to easily find really good gluten-free cake, bread, cookies or other items. I intensely studied the chemistry involved in gluten-free cakes and developed my recipes over the years that result in delicious cake and cookie options for those with gluten-free needs.

Social Media
I always post my work to social media and often post during the creation process. People really enjoy seeing the progress of a cake as it’s created. I also post education quizzes each day pertaining to the baking. Readers seem to enjoy picking the correct answer on each quiz and I also think they enjoy learning as they are interacting on the platform.

How do you differentiate your business in the Atlanta market?

I always endeavor to create delicious and beautiful cake structures. Many of my clients want large cakes and I greatly enjoy the challenge of very large cake designs. I’m a perfectionist at heart and want the cake to be perfect on the inside as well as the outside. I believe my clients as well as vendor partners appreciate my work and tell their friends and family about me and my business. The majority of my clients learn about me from other clients. I have a great deal of repeat business and enjoy building relationships with my clients.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.carltonscakes.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carltons_cakes/

Image Credits
The image credits are my own.