We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Jolleen Smythe a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Jolleen , thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. It’s easy to look at a business or industry as an outsider and assume it’s super profitable – but we’ve seen over and over again in our conversation with folks that most industries have factors that make profitability a challenge. What’s biggest challenge to profitability in your industry?

There are many challenges to profitability as a baker and as a creative in general. What outsiders might not understand is that small businesses have to pay to play. We invest a lot of time and money into our businesses in hopes that we will succeed but don’t always see a profit.

One of the struggles I’ve dealt with over my first year as a pop-up vendor is you win some you lose some. As a baker you pay a lot up front just to participate in an event. Our costs include things like permit fees, booth fees, insurance, ingredients, and packaging supplies. Some days are really good and we make the money back plus a little extra. Some days are really slow and we can’t even make back our vendor fee. Days where we end up with tons of extra baked goods end up being a waste.

I learned the hard way that some markets, as popular as they might be, are not always the best. Unfortunately, there’s no way of knowing the turn out of the event or how organized (or chaotic) it will be until we experience it first hand. My luck lately with pop-up markets has been not so great due to many factors. One of the key factors that make or break a market is the organizer. I can never solely say the reason is the organizer but they definitely play a role in the success of their vendors. If they don’t promote enough, it can lead to less exposure for our business or less attendees overall. Also, they don’t always make it affordable. For example, food vendors are required to pay a TFF (permit fee to the Health Department) on top of a vendor fee that can range from $50-$200 for an average market. Then there’s the cost of ingredients that are constantly on the rise. Organizers typically charge the same booth fee for all vendor categories, not considering the fact that food vendors are paying the most but not always turning a profit. Its really hard to choose markets to participate in when there’s risk involved. I like to get to know the markets/organizer first before making any decisions. Some of my favorite markets like AKASSA and LoveSteady have really supportive members and sense of community.

I see a lot of my baker friends and others facing the same challenges and its really discouraging. They all work so hard and continue to participate in markets that they had high hopes for only to be let down. Note: not every event turns out bad! There are some wins and I love seeing people sell out. It’s difficult because were selling individual items that are under $10 each. You can do the math and figure out that we really have to push just for it to be profitable. For me personally, I would never overprice my products even if I could. I want to keep it affordable because at the end of the day the quality of my products speaks for itself. I do not measure success by how much I made but that I’m growing my business in other ways.

Jolleen , 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?

My name is Jolleen and I am the baker behind Space Buns Bakery! We are a small family owned, self-funded cottage food operation. I baked a lot with my mom growing up, and continued to learn more about food science as an adult. I am also currently a Radiology Tech student at Cypress College and a mother of 2.

I love to create using different mediums- dough being number 1 but also any kind of art. Baking is art and science combined. You take all the flavors and ingredients, manipulate it with techniques, and with time you develop your project. I love sourcing quality ingredients and using it to create flavor combos unique to our brand. One of my favorite recipes is my Tiramisu Cheesecake which took 3rd Place in the OC Fair this year. That is something I am most proud of and one day hope to offer in a bakery-cafe of my own.

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

I think with the decline of reach on Instagram that’s affecting everyone it’s really hard to build a reputation per se. Instagram is the main platform we use to promote our business but we noticed that word of mouth is very powerful. For us we try to stay as active as possible within the vendor community. For reputation of the brand and myself I believe I show up authentically both in person and online. I don’t really care what people think of me as long as I’m allowed to be me and my baked goods speak for themselves. Its nice to even have a reputation as a small business where repeat customers will come back and ask where they can find us next! A lot of my customers have become friends and that’s the only reputation I care about.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

I pivot daily. It is a constant challenge to run a business and be a mom and go to school. Sometimes I wonder if I’m supposed to choose between the business or school. In my eyes I can’t have one without the other. I need to go to school to have a career that supports me running the business. Life hits hard a lot but my family always comes first.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/spacebunsbakery/

Image Credits
Dolly Nophaenkham