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

Julia, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.

It’s been a slow but natural progression. I started baking as a fun stress relief, but rather than eat all of it myself I would bring the baked goods to work or share with friends. Once I started working from home rather than in an office, I started sending the baked goods with my husband to bring to his coworkers. Eventually my husband would come home and ask if I could make a cake for his coworker’s birthday or they’d reach out about making a cake for their wife. Slowly but surely, I’d get ask “how much” and I started looking into cottage laws. When we moved to South Carolina my husband convinced me to make the leap and start my business, he even helped me come up with the name. I opened my business February 2020 and I haven’t looked back.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

Sure thing! My name is Julia Hatch and I’m a home baker here in Hutto, TX. We just moved here a few months ago but I was born and raised in Texas. I grew up a little Northwest of here and went to college at The University of Texas at Austin. I’ve always loved baking and I use it as a delicious stress reliever. I started my business in February of 2020 and have specialized in buttercream cakes and cupcakes, decorated sugar cookies, gourmet drop cookies and few other seasonal items. I’ve taken a bit of a break to move from South Carolina back to Texas but I am ready to get back into the swing of things, I have a lot of fun preorders planned for the holidays and I’m also looking at local venues in and around town to start hosting decorating classes for everyone to enjoy. I look forward to building a relationship with my new customers and helping them celebrate their special occasions.

Any advice for growing your clientele? What’s been most effective for you?

I’m starting from scratch again so I am definitely familiar with having to grow my clientele but honestly I always start in my neighborhood groups. There is always someone looking for a cake or cookies for a birthday or another special occasion and they usually turn to Facebook to ask for recommendations or google bakeries nearby. In today’s world, social media and word of mouth are going to be your best tools.

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

I’m not what you would call a creator or influencer but I do think social media is a huge part on how I’ve discovered customers or repeat customers. Consistency is definitely key. You don’t necessarily need to post daily but posting a few times a week is a good start. On Instagram, one of the best things I learned was using relevant hashtags local to your area and interacting as part of your local community, this helps get your name out there. I have a full time job on top of my baking business so I don’t spend as much time consumed in social media but I do try to set aside time before I start my day job or during my lunch break to get a post in or scroll through my feed to comment on my friends or local businesses.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.juliasjustdesserts.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/juliasjustdesserts
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/juliasjustdesserts
• Other: TikTok: @juliasjustdesserts

Image Credits
Sean Hatch Julia Hatch