We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Kassy Gjere a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Kassy, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Let’s start with what makes profitability in your industry a challenge – what would you say is the biggest challenge?
Custom decorated cookies are a labor of love, they’re incredibly detailed and time consuming. Profitability in this profession can be difficult if you’re not charging for your time/expertise along with the cost of goods. I know there are people out there who may not think a single decorated cookie is worth $6 – $7 but a lot goes into that one single cookie. First, as we all know, the cost of everything is rising. I mean, have you seen the cost of butter and eggs lately?! Sourcing quality yet affordable ingredients has been really tough the past year, you don’t want to push all of those costs onto your customers but there comes a time when you don’t have a choice. On top of that, there’s so much time that goes into taking the order, planning the order and then actually executing an order. I can easily put in 2-3hrs of work before I even start baking. Once the order is baked I still have to make icing, mix colors and then get my icing to the right consistency. Once allllll of that is finished then I can actually start decorating. A single dozen cookies can sometimes take 3-5 hours depending on how detailed it is, it can take even longer for someone who hasn’t been in this business as long as I have. When you break it all down, $75-$84 a dozen sounds like a lot of money and a huge profit on a batch of cookies that costs $5 to bake but when you factor in the time it takes to produce that dozen, not to mention my years of expertise being put into every order, the profit margin isn’t quite what people expect it to be. Even still, I keep on taking orders and baking cookies because I love it. I love what I do, I love my customers and I’m super grateful that this is what I get to do for a living.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
My name is Kassy Gjere, I’m 37 and live and work in Lodi, OH. I’ve been married to my husband Matt for 8 years now and we have two beautiful boys, Jameson 3.5 and Bennett 16 months. I started baking cookies when my husband and I were going through fertility treatments. It was an incredibly difficult time for me and I needed an outlet for all of the emotions that come along with trying to start a family. I was in therapy and my therapist suggested I find a hobby to get my mind off of things. I tried journaling, art, reading – all of which I love but none of those really helped. Right around Christmas 2016 I was watching some cookie decorating videos and thought, I could totally do that. I ran out and bought the supplies I needed to make my first batch of cookies and promptly started baking. My first batch of cookies were a hot mess but I was hooked. I wanted to keep baking and decorating more cookies to see if I could improve my skills and impress my family in friends. In those first months they ate a lottttt of cookies! I eventually built up my skills and confidence enough to sell my first batch of cookies for Valentine’s Day in 2017. I worked in corporate banking when I started my baking hobby and at the end of 2020 – in the middle of a global pandemic – I decided it was time to quit my job and bake full time. This was the best decision I ever made for myself and my family. I have the flexibility to care for my babies and be there when they need me but also continue to service my very loyal customers. I mostly just take on custom cookie orders these days but I occasionally dabble in simple cakes, cupcakes and other delicious goodies when time allows. The one thing I want people to know, and I know my customers already know, is that I put my heart and soul into every single cookie order I put out. When talking about the profit aspect, I know there are days I’m barely making minimum wage but I keep on going because I just really really love what I do. I love handing off a cookie order and seeing the shock and awe and pure light on my customers face. I’m often told my cookies are too beautiful to eat but I really hope people are eating them because they’re so delicious! Everything that leaves my kitchen has been painstakingly decorated by my two little hands – and usually baked by my mama who is my very underpaid assistant these days now that she has retired. She deserves a shout out because she works really hard for me! We make a great team and I hope people allow us to make custom cookies for their events for many years to come.
Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?
Social media can be soooo frustrating for small businesses especially with changing algorithms and all of the new trends constantly popping up. Even still, we’re forced to roll with it because for many of us, social media is where 90% of our customers come from. Over the past 7 years I have put a lot of time into building my followers both on Facebook and Instagram with the hopes that a larger following will of course bring more customers. I think I currently have about 3k Facebook followers and 17k Instagram followers. What’s funny about that is that a majority of my customers come from Facebook! I try really hard to stay engaged so I make sure to post quality content every few days, I reply to comments and questions and I just generally try to be very active on social media. I really thing engaging with your followers is key. I find if I post too much, my engagement goes down. I’ve found I gain more followers on Instagram when I post a really fun cookie decorating video and I can usually get a few new Facebook followers when I post a picture of a very trendy cute set of cookies.
For someone just starting out building their social media my biggest piece of advice is to stay consistent in posting but don’t over post. More than one post a day has never been successful for me and I think people find it annoying. Engage with your followers, create an atmosphere where people feel welcomed and included, and most importantly, post quality content.
What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?
The most rewarding part about being a creative is being able to create something for someone that isn’t able to do it themselves. I don’t know how often I hear people tell me that they could never do what I do. I assure you, most people probably could, but it takes a lot of dedication and practice! I love seeing peoples faces light up when they see their cookie order and it’s better than they even imagined. Being a small part of people’s big life events makes me feel so warm inside, especially when they keep coming back for other life milestones.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.kassyscookies.com
- Instagram: @kassyscookies
- Facebook: Facebook.com/kassyscookies