We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Kaity Krontz. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Kaity below.
Kaity, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Before we get into specifics, let’s talk about success more generally. What do you think it takes to be successful?
My cake pop business started becoming more successful once I built relationships with other local businesses and our community. This looked like walking into local businesses offering a box of free cake pops and introducing myself, joining the local chamber of commerce and donating to community events. I realized in order to make money, I needed to expose the community to my amazing product- and what better way than to offer free samples to local business owners and their staff. I really hit the ground running when I started selling my cake pops at a weekly festival in downtown Chelsea on Thursday nights called the Sounds and Sights festival. By participating in this weekly, it put me in the position to organically meet fellow business owners, become memorable to the community and also develop a relationship with the Chelsea Area Chamber of Commerce- as to which I am now an Ambassador of. Each week I would sell out of pops at these festivals once my product got more exposure, but I also chose three local businesses each week to donate my pops to as well as introduce myself and my pops. By end of summer I made many new partnerships, developed new friendships and this set me up with a very busy event schedule for the remainder of the year. Because of this I held many local pop ups at these businesses and also have been booked out monthly for custom pop orders from our community since August 2022. Now, when I hold community events I am fortunate enough to have ‘regulars’ and a community who shows up and supports me at each event- usually ending with a couple hundred cake pop sell out. When I walk downtown people yell out “Cake Pop Kaity!” now and nothing could make me happier.
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
I create custom cake pops for any special event. My business sets me apart from other bakers because I only create one item- my unique cake pops. I offer a popsicle cake pop shape which allows me to fully customize them to any theme and do very intricate decoration. Due to only offering cake pops, I have been able to really hone in on my skillset and can now create designs for my pops I only used to ever imagine. I am most proud of my growth. I only started my business in March of 2022 and now have a wide portfolio of work, 20+ events under my belt and a variety of networking relationships.
For 2023 I had a goal to market myself towards larger events- most specifically weddings. I am proud to say for 2023 I have 15 weddings booked and LOVE working with brides and grooms to customize the pops to their wedding colors and make their day extra special.
How did you build your audience on social media?
I built my audience on social media strategically. First, I made sure before I launched my company on social that I had a strong collection of my work (photos and videos) that I could post about consistently. I have found that consistency is key when growing your social media account. Second, once I launched I made sure to connect with other local small and large businesses. I did this by following their accounts, and reposting their offerings or work on my page. I made sure to introduce myself via messaging and praise their business and products. This then encouraged some of them to do the same for my business! I continued to post daily and once my audience started growing- I made sure what I was offering was simple, easily recognized and that they knew how to message/contact me. Once I continued to feel more comfortable with my growth, I experimented with video demonstrations of the creation of my pops- which has led to large social media growth.
My advice would be to stay consistent when posting and engaging on social, even when you think you may be annoying- stay consistent!
What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?
One lesson I had to learn is that you can’t please everyone- and that’s okay! I have learned that my product is not for everyone- it is okay to be more exclusive and to not be in everyone’s price range. When I first started out, I took every order- even if I didn’t feel comfortable with the design request, the customer, or the customer did not have a budget within my price range. These decisions led to me being uncomfortable with my own business, working with people I didn’t necessarily want to, or shorting myself to fit someone else’s budget.
I quickly learned that it is okay to say no, to stand up for my skills, my exclusivity and my prices and that the right customers will follow- and they sure have!
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/cake.by.kaity?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100083010450757