We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Liz Malone a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Liz, appreciate you joining us today. Risking taking is a huge part of most people’s story but too often society overlooks those risks and only focuses on where you are today. Can you talk to us about a risk you’ve taken – it could be a big risk or a small one – but walk us through the backstory.
Buying my bakery. I was pastry chef at a hotel at the time, I’ve worked in my fair share of kitchens and bakeries, but this place was especially toxic. My boyfriend, Kevin, was fed up with me coming home upset constantly, told me to find a space for myself, and we would make it work.
I looked for a space to build a bakery, but the thought of the time and money it would take to build a kitchen and storefront was incredibly daunting, and I was working a lot of hours and commuting to Madison. The logistics just didn’t make sense to me. I had no money saved, and I didn’t see anyone giving me any to quit my job to start over on a brand new business.
I dug through pages and pages of Google looking at listings for storefronts and eventually came across Halo Cupcake for sale by accident. My friend Jenny had a commercial realtor’s license, so she set up time for us to meet the current owner and take a look at everything. We visited the bakery and it seemed too good to be true: it was exactly what I wanted, all the equipment I needed was there. It had a built-in clientele. It was already making money. We went and had a drink and talked things over, and it was unanimous: it seemed crazy NOT to go for it. Next step: find the money I needed.
Jenny was also a salon owner and recommended I speak to John at Rockford Local Development Group, who helped her and other people just like me. It wasn’t easy for me to get ahold of John (I heard “NO” a lot), but once I did, he did everything he could to help me, the ball started rolling FAST, and several excruciating weeks later, I got the call: it was a done deal. I still have that voicemail saved on my phone to this day. Nothing has ever come easy for me, and it came as a shock how quickly things came together. I have paid off that loan fairly recently, and I am so grateful to John and RLDC for taking a chance on me.
The transition wasn’t an easy one – it was a LOT of hard work and very little sleep – I was still working my full time job which was easy 60 hours a week, commuting, working at Halo part time, since there was no cake decorator during that period, and I didn’t want business to be turned away, and also making desserts part time for a restaurant that I was going to be taking on as a wholesale client once I took ownership of Halo.
I jumped in headfirst in the summer of 2016 with LOADS of wedding cakes and graduation cake orders, a busy storefront, baby showers and birthday cakes, and things didn’t stop until COVID, when they nearly came to a SCREECHING halt. Things took some pivoting, Kev helped me put everything online, and that helped tremendously, but that’s a whole other story!
We are still reaching people that haven’t heard of us, and some still think we just were doing cupcakes, so I rebranded as Halo Bakeshop last year with a new logo that feels a lot more “me”. I’m proud of how much I’ve grown this little bakery, and have a couple of new things up my sleeve in the works, and just keep pushing forward.
Liz, 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?
I have been baking all my life, I loved hanging in the kitchen with my mom, and took over those duties whenever I could and she’d trade me for cleaning (I still hate cleaning). I have always been in awe of a beautiful pastry case, still visit any bakery I find when traveling, and never get tired of trying new things! I went to pastry school, I’m a chef at heart, I love playing with flavors but also keeping things simple and not too crazy for people to want to try them.
At Halo, I do it all, cookies, bars, cake pops, cakes for EVERY occasion, sweet tables, holiday cookie trays, pies, you name it. I think what sets us apart is we try to accommodate everyone, and we support our community because they support us. That is huge for me.
Have you ever had to pivot?
We had to pivot during COVID shutdown – we had to relearn how to reach our customers when they couldn’t reach us. Moving our menu to online ordering and curbside service definitely kept us going.
We kept shortened hours for a couple of years, but recently pivoted back to open 5 days a week as well – it was obvious that shortened hours were no longer working, and our sales are already showing that was the right move.
Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?
Owning a business has taught me there will be times I will need to ask for help, and it is OKAY to do so! Sometimes, there just aren’t things you can accomplish on your own, you cannot be above asking for help.
I came into the shop one morning to find one of my coolers had broken overnight. Not only was it broken, the temperature was at 90 degrees. So it heated and melted all of my prepped cakes in it from the night before. I called in my baker and another bakery owner whom at the time I barely knew. Both dropped everything and came to help. That other bakery owner is now one of my very best friends, and we rely on each other for a lot. It is incredible to have that kind of friend in this industry. 
Contact Info:
- Website: halocupcake.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/halo_bakeshop
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/settings?tab=profile§ion=username
Image Credits
Amy Ryan