We were lucky to catch up with Jolianna Renfro recently and have shared our conversation below.
Jolianna, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Let’s talk legacy – what sort of legacy do you hope to build?
The way I treat people should be part of my legacy. I always strive to be kind to everyone I come into contact with, and no matter how they treat me I will always show love and compassion. I hope to be remembered for having the most amazing treats, desserts, and pastries. Hopefully people will forever be affected by the flavors that I have carefully mastered, and will continue to remember the feeling of trying something I’ve made for the first time.
Jolianna, 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?
For my whole life I have been in the kitchen constantly experimenting with flavor combinations, cooking and baking techniques, and new recipes. My mom had me in the kitchen starting as early as 6 months old, and maybe even earlier. Every time I would visit my grandmas on either side of my family, they would have me in the kitchen helping cook or bake something. My aunts would also help out, and when they got old enough they would have me help them in the kitchen! When I was 11 years old, I decided I wanted to bring cookies to my 5th grade class, so my mom said we should print some stickers out with a business name. That was the day I decided on Joli Bakes. From there I knew this was what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. I only got really serious about my bakery a few years ago, when I decided to start selling my baked goods at a local farmers market starting in the early summer of 2021. It was pretty good at first, but with the location being in a very weird and remote place, business started getting very slow, so I knew it was time to move on to greater things. I opened up a Facebook and Instagram account to start promoting my products on there, and slowly started getting more and more orders. Now I am constantly accepting orders, and my business has finally become closer to a full time job than just a side hustle! I also work a few days at Thirdspace Coffeehouse, on the side, just to bring in a steady income as I’m trying to grow my business to the highest level.
I was able to transfer to online schooling my junior year of high school. This allowed me to take more classes at once, and graduate a full year early at just 16 years old. I’m really grateful that I was able to do that because it has given me so much more time to focus fully on my business!
About a year ago, we discovered an old abandoned auctioneers trailer, and the owners of the land basically said, “If you can tow it, you can have it.” So we did just that. We brought it home, and began working on redoing this amazing trailer to become my new baking trailer. I’ve been able to attend two events with my trailer so far, and sold out at both events!
A lot of people have misconceptions that I am being fully funded by my parents, and that they are really the ones running the operation, I just bake, but in reality that is not true at all. At 17 years old, I run both of my social media accounts, I photograph all of my baked goods, I edit all of the pictures, I buy my ingredients, I paid for all of the trailer equipment/materials, I bake everything myself, and I run and keep my own books!
I try to offer the best quality projects for every single one of my clients. I come up with my own recipes (other than the occasional one I steal from my Nana because she has too many good ones, ha!), and I try to experiment with new flavors and combinations to always have new options for customers. I offer custom cakes (which are my personal favorite thing to make because I love the decorating part), massive signature cookies that are the size of your hand and come in all sorts of flavors, custom cupcakes, french macarons in every flavor you can imagine (currently these have been a fan favorite!), and so many other things.
Overall, I’m proud of how much I’ve been able to accomplish at just 17 years old. I’m so grateful for everything I have learned so much in the last 6 years, and I hope to continue learning new ways to improve my service and my business. I hope everyone can see just how hard I’ve worked and how hard I will continue to work. This is my life, and I just want to show everyone what I can do!
Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?
Honestly, my social media presence is not quite where I would like it to be yet. I would love to gain more followers, and gain more interaction with my posts. Supporting a small business does not always mean purchasing products from them. We understand that sometimes our products or services are not within budget means, but liking and sharing our posts is such a huge help to us, and I don’t think people realize that. Also tell your friends and family about us, and what we do! Referrals are so so appreciated. I think just constantly being active on social media is super important. The media moves so fast, and if people are not seeing your products being promoted, they may not think about you when it comes time to place an order! So keep posting, once a day, or even more! Definitely don’t give up!
We’d love to hear the story of how you turned a side-hustle into a something much bigger.
I genuinely just started putting 110% of myself into my business. While I still worked other jobs, I tried to devote my extra time to growing my business. I started promoting my products more, and started to push out new flavors and new options to keep customers interested and coming back. I still work a very small part-time job, but I spend way more than full time hours on my business each week. I think my key milestones have been surpassing sales of prior years, gaining and working on my baking trailer, and being able to cut back on other jobs to be able to fully submerge myself in my growing business!
Contact Info:
- Instagram: @joli_bakes
- Facebook: Jolianna Renfro