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

Jennifer, appreciate you joining us today. Let’s start with what makes profitability in your industry a challenge – what would you say is the biggest challenge?

Baking, a blend of creativity and precision, often attracts hobbyists who see their confections as works of art. However, this artistry can lead to a major problem in the baking industry: the struggle to determine fair pricing that ensures profitability. Many bakers find themselves grappling with the challenge of valuing their masterpieces correctly. It’s not merely a matter of understanding the costs of raw ingredients and time invested; it’s also a battle of confidence in assigning value to one’s artistic creations.

As bakers and business owners, we pour our hearts into crafting hand-made cookies and cakes, but when it comes to pricing, the emotional attachment to our work can cloud our judgment. The fear of undervaluing our art or driving away potential customers often results in underpricing. Consequently, despite witnessing rapid year-over-year growth, profitability can remain elusive. There a delicate balance between expressing artistic passion and recognizing the need for sustainable financial gains.

During the early years of ellenJAY, we worked incredibly long hours and repeatedly charged too little for our efforts. While it hurt to see financial losses as business owners, we learned many invaluable lessons. Looking at the year-end numbers, we realized that understanding the business aspect is just as crucial as perfecting our recipes. To thrive, we must grasp the true costs involved in our craft and then muster the confidence to price our creations accordingly. As we embraced the art of pricing, we found that our clients appreciated the value of our work even more. By combining our creative flair with a strategic mindset, we can savor the sweet taste of success.

Jennifer, 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?

ellenJAY, a bakery located on the Gulf Coast in Mobile, Alabama, is best known for our hand-decorated sugar cookies, our soft-baked buttercream sammies and our locally famous sweet potato cake.

We start with the very best ingredients like real butter and eggs. Then, lots and LOTS of work goes into each and every decorated sugar cookie! This process is truly a labor of love that starts with prepping the dough, cutting out the shapes (sometimes with the finickiest of cookie cutters), mixing royal icing colors of various consistencies, hand decorating and, finally, packaging.

Every. Single. Day. Someone asks, “Are you Ellen?” We laugh and say, “Wellllllll, there’s no Ellen!” Our Mobile, Alabama bakery named ellenJAY is based on our initials “L & J” for Lauren and Jennifer. We met in 2008 training for a marathon. Running all those hours forged the best friendship as we chatted for miles and miles. We quickly discovered we shared a passion for all things sweet, modern and simply beautiful.

Years later, we became Mommies within 6 weeks of each other. We continued to run lots of miles, but this time, we were pushing the sweetest babies, Sam and Cora, in their strollers. Soon, running chats revolved around how fun it would be to go into business together.
Just before Sam and Cora celebrated their first birthdays, we said, “Let’s do this…for real.” Our business partnership was born when we dreamed up a mega girly dessert table for Cora and then, weeks later, a totally handsome dessert table for Sam. And, you know what? We got RAVE reviews. Everyone loved the cakes and cookies, but even more, we were officially 100% obsessed with pursuing this shared passion of crafting deliciously beautiful treats.

From that point on, we figured out all the things we knew absolutely nothing about…business permits, health code, finances, growing a team and operating a commercial size mixer (let’s just say confectioner’s sugar went flying the first time that baby was turned on!). We opened our corner bakery for business on October 6, 2014 with a big, bold dream of creating a brand with the simple mission of spreading joy through good ole butter and sugar. Inside our bakery located in the heart of Southern Alabama, every gourmet cookie and cake is a labor of love, prepared by hand as the perfect sweet gift.

Our customers come back to us year after year, because they say “it’s not JUST a cookie…it’s a work of art!” Customers love our signature product, sugar cookies with royal icing, because they are meticulously decorated by hand and, most importantly, taste as good as they look. By using premium ingredients like real butter and eggs, we deliver the promise of excellence in both taste and appearance. Our customers are proud to gift our cookies to someone they care about because they know they’ll arrive beautifully packaged and tasting delicious.

Any fun sales or marketing stories?

Every St. Patrick’s Day, Jimmy Kimmel shares Mobile, Alabama’s hilariously silly pride and joy: The Crichton Leprechaun News Story.

We knew Jimmy needed a box of ellenJAY cookies to commemorate the mega viral news story from our hometown! Our co-owner, Lauren, googled the address to his studio, wrote a little note saying “Where Da Gold At, Jimmy?” and shipped our hand-decorated Crichton Leprechaun cookies off to Hollywood with fingers crossed they would actually get to Jimmy. Can you imagine our complete and utter shock when Jimmy pulled an ellenJAY sugar cookie out of his pocket on air, thanked ellenJAY and told us they were “Magically Delicious!” Whoa…we’re still not over this one.

How’d you meet your business partner?

Lauren and I met in 2008 while training for the Nike Women’s Marathon. We were both involved in a training group called Team in Training, which aimed to raise money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. There’s something special about getting to know someone during those long training runs, where you have the opportunity to chat for hours on end. Through these shared experiences, we became not only training buddies but also dear friends.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.ellenjay.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ellenjaysweets/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ellenjaysweets

Image Credits
Hannah Stinson Photography