We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Kristen Patten a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Kristen, appreciate you joining us today. Before we get into specifics, let’s talk about success more generally. What do you think it takes to be successful?
Being successful can mean many things to many people depending on the context. For me it means running, growing a business that you are proud of. To me its not really about money, it’s about the customers. If you see repeat customers time and time again its a sign of success.
Kristen, 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?
7 Deadly Confections is a 100% Vegan home based bakery. We started this business in May of 2015 with the hopes of sharing our baked goods with Vegans and non-vegans as well. Every recipe is researched and fine tuned to create the best product we can. We do a range of desserts from coffee cake, cupcakes, brownies, pies and more! Most of our business comes from Pop-up events like Market Nights or Farmers Markets. However, we do custom orders for parties, weddings and just because events. We stand by our products and feel they stand out in the ever growing Vegan marketplace.
Can you talk to us about how your side-hustle turned into something more.
Initially, when 7 Deadly Confections started I was working full time at UC Riverside. I started working there in 2008 and then started my business in 2015. At first it was easy to work full time and bake because I was still working on building a cliental. As the years went by I started to get busier and busier. In 2020 when Covid-19 hit we were laid off for 4 months, but my business continued to thrive. Fast forward to summer of 2021 we were laid off again for 7 weeks. During this second lay off I realized how much more I could do if I didn’t have a full time job. Somedays/weeks I was turning down multiple orders which really bothered me. I really don’t like to say no and try to accommodate as many orders as I can. September 30th, 2021 is when I said goodbye to my full time job. It has been the best decision that I could of made for myself and the business. Things have been pretty steady since then and I look forward to what the future holds.
Where do you think you get most of your clients from?
Most of my customers are repeat and we’ve built a great relationship with them. However, I meet most of my new customers during Pop-up events. It’s been the best way to talk to more people, tell them about out products and build a new relationship with them.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.7deadlyconfections.com
- Instagram: @7deadlyconfections
- Facebook: Facebook.com/7deadlyconfections
- Yelp: 7 Deadly Confections
- Other: vKind App or Website: 7 Deadly Confections
Image Credits
All take by 7 Deadly Confections.