We were lucky to catch up with Krista Ford recently and have shared our conversation below.
Krista, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?
I’m a wife, work at home boymom, and caffeinated designer. After I had my second son, my husband and I decided I would stay home and raise our boys. I previously owned a small tee shop geared towards mommas, but with a saturated market I decided to close my shop and find something else to do that would spark my creativity… that’s where cookie decorating came in! Fast forward 4 months and my love for both apparel and baking came crashing together and soon after cookies got left behind. With my love for fashion I wanted cute apparel to wear while decorating, teaching cookie decorating classes and attending events.
There was no other company out there creating what I wanted and needed. I fulfilled everyone’s need for the same! My brand is a unique product and makes all I’m so excited that I have shipped this brand worldwide.
I love what I do and went to school for fashion design and marketing starting in 2003! My company caters to modern day Cookiers and Bakers. I’m here to give you original, comfortable styles for everyday baking!
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I think I covered this first part a bit on the last part.
The Doughmestic Cookie offers apparel, accessories and other items for bakers. Our brand solves the “what do I wear” problem and also serves as a marketing tool.
Our brand creates conversations with potential customers as well as making bakers feel loved, seen and celebrated.
I’m most proud of creating a brand that celebrates others. We are inclusive with sizing, baking styles and more. Potential customers should know that aside from our high quality screen printed apparel, our customer service is top notch!
We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?
Oh the world of social media, where do you even start?!
Our growth on social media is strictly organic. I built my audience by making genuine connections with bakers in the community. I have built relationships from those connections and have built our own sub community within the larger community. My best advice for business owners who are starting to build their social media is to BE YOURSELF! Be genuine, make connections and share what is important to you. Your audience will not only fall in love what you have to offer but feel connected to you and fall in love with who you are on how you represent your brand.
We’d really appreciate if you could talk to us about how you figured out the manufacturing process.
When the brand was first brought to life I used a little ole Silhouette machine and heat transfer vinyl. After the first week, my brand expanded and I switched to screen print transfers which were a faster and better quality product. I was unsure on the process behind screen printing at first but knew soon after I moved to transfers that we needed to outsource our printing due to the demand and rapid growth of the business. There was SO MUCH research involved in trying to find wholesale goods with competitive pricing as well as a competitively priced screen printed that did quality work.
Things I have learned along the way about manufacturing our products are that it is hard work, quality control is always a must and only work with manufacturers that have the same values and outlook as you!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://thedoughmesticcookie.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thedoughmesticcookie/
- Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/thedoughmesticcookie
- Other: TikTok : https://www.tiktok.com/@thedoughmesticcookie?lang=en