Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Mariah Mitchell. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Mariah, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Being a business owner can be really hard sometimes. It’s rewarding, but most business owners we’ve spoken sometimes think about what it would have been like to have had a regular job instead. Have you ever wondered that yourself? Maybe you can talk to us about a time when you felt this way?
Creating and running a business is a journey, it takes patience, consistency, and a willingness to fail. Ironically, the faster you fail at something, the faster you can learn from it and improve. Since the day I launched my website, I have altered my logo, website design, business cards, and the quality of my packaging & products numerous times. With that being said, no amount of preparation will prepare you for running your first business. I’ve spent countless hours educating myself on business by reading books, watching videos, listening to podcasts, speaking to business owners, taking advancement courses, etc.. But To be honest, I learned the most when I decided to jump right in and learn as I went. Most people never start because they don’t feel prepared enough, but you’ll never know if you don’t try! Starting a business is hard work and it’s not for everyone, but if you have the ambition and strive it’s a beautiful journey.
BlessEm Sweets and the joy it brings to my customers makes me happy, I cherish the good and challenging times throughout. After I graduated college, I worked as a Business Administrator for a little over a year and thought it was going to be my career path. Only 6 months of working in the position and I was bored… I learned so much in that short time and quickly knew I wanted more for my life. Being a small business owner requires wearing many hats and taking on many roles, but it comes natural to me. Growing up, I didn’t really know how to say no to people, so I ended up taking on more than I wanted or could handle. But this ended up working out in my favor because now I do so with ease. Don’t get it confused though, I can say no to people now hahaha. The difficulties I’ve experienced as a business owner have helped me learn and grow more as a person, and I wouldn’t trade it for a “regular” job anyday.
Mariah, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
Hello! My name is Mariah and I am the owner of BlessEm Sweets. Creating my own business has always been a desire of mine. When I was a kid I used to make bracelets and sell items online. I’ve always had little side hobbies that generated extra income like E-commerce Seller accounts, Tutoring, Renting out bouncy houses, etc.. Something about creating movement and profit out of essentially nothing, screamed freedom to me. I’m someone who marches to the beat of my own drum, I don’t care to follow the crowd. I’m very free-spirited, optimistic, and love to express my creativity. Up until 2 years ago, the idea of having my own business seemed so unreachable and unattainable for me. But the past few years I’ve worked on myself, got rid of my limited belief system, improved my internal & external health, and created healthy habits. Now I couldn’t be more proud to say I did it, I created (and am creating) something beautiful with the help of so many amazing people.
BlessEm Sweets specializes in Candied Fruit, but we also offer Custom Chocolate Heart Molds, Chocolate Strawberries, Chamoy Pickle Kits, and Rice Krispy Treats. Candied fruit is the combination of fruit and candy in one. We offer over 25 different flavors to choose from and a variety of fruit options. Fruits such as grapes, cherries, pineapples, strawberries, pickles are coated with a hard candy, dusted with a sweet, sour, or spicy topping, and chilled to serve.
Not only do we offer sweets, but also an exciting experience itself! When you think of candied fruit, you don’t really know what to expect because it sounds so odd and unique. The crunchy candy exterior combined with the cold, juicy, fruity interior come together to make a delicious bite. These delectable treats are perfect for a party tray, gender reveal, wedding, late night snack, sweet treat, dessert, etc.!
I got into making candied fruit in an unusual way. One day my coworker at my previous job mentioned she’d like to try candy fruit, but there was no one close by who made it. Later that week I did some research, learned how to make it and brought her some. She loved it and before I knew it, other people at my job wanted to try too. I began posting about it on my social media and started getting order requests from those in my community. The demand was growing and so naturally , the hobby grew. I never intended on creating a business out of it, it was more for my enjoyment. Within 3 months, I created a website, invested in supplies, created business cards, logo stickers and started to form it into a business.
What else should we know about how you took your side hustle and scaled it up into what it is today?
After college, I started a job as a Business Administrator and tutored part-time. I didn’t really like the idea of working a 9 to 5, but I didn’t have the knowledge or confidence to create something of my own. I knew this position was just the beginning for me and a stepping stone for my future. Every morning before I went to work, I would tell myself, “I am at this job to absorb as much information about business, so I can apply it to my own one day”. So that’s exactly what I did, I focused on the goal and took on tasks that I may not have been the most qualified for, but I knew it was all for a bigger purpose. I worked in Bookkeeping, Customer service, Collections, Billing, Human Resources, Leadership, etc.. These were all positions required in business, and the experience I gained ended up being very helpful in building my own business.
6 months into working my office job, I still didn’t have a business Idea and I was bored. I learned a ton of information and wanted to put it to use, but didn’t know how. One day in October of 2022, I made candy fruit for my co-worker who wanted to try some and she loved it. Soon after, others wanted to try and it became a hobby of mine. At the time, I was working my 9-5 , tutoring after work, and then making candied fruit orders in my free time.
Making candied fruit made me really happy, it spoke to my inner-child. It remained a hobby until a turning point in December of 2022. I visited back home to Virginia for Christmas and brought all of my supplies to make candied fruit. To my surprise, what I was anticipating to be a family centered trip, ending up being business centered. I announced I would be taking orders for candied fruit on social media, and within the next four days I was out of all the products that I brought with me. The demand for my products gave me the confidence to take this idea to the next level.
When I got back to Washington, I started to come up with a game plan. I knew I wanted my own business and I had faith that I could grow this to be something bigger. I didn’t have the funding for a physical storefront, so I created a website where people could place their orders online. This took weeks to create, the idea opened a whole world of learning topics that I didn’t even consider.
Everyday after my 9 to 5 and tutoring, I worked on creating my business for 3-4 hours. On the weekends, I would spend 10+ hours researching, learning, and creating. A lot of my knowledge in business came from podcasts, books, and Youtube videos. I didn’t know too many business owners at the time, so I joined entrepreneurial Facebook groups and started to network. I wanted to create a like-minded community around me and it really helped guide me.
After several weeks, I finally got the website up and it was go time. I knew I needed more exposure in order to increase revenue, so I created a Tiktok and Instagram account for my business. Every month I grew in size and started getting better with the quality of my work. I began investing into more supplies, creating more flavors, and upgrading my packaging and logo designs. My business was doing well and it never felt like work because I enjoyed the process.
Fast forward to March 2023, I was no longer working as a Business Administrator or Tutor, and instead went all in on BlessEm Sweets. At this point in my life, business was a little slower and the support of others was low but I was confident in my ability to turn nothing into something. I am a big believer that you create your own reality, and so with that blind faith, I started putting all my effort into the business. I would wake up at 6AM everyday and work on anything I could to propel the business. This included working on myself too. I started eating healthy, working out, and taking care of my mental health to become the version of myself who could handle and maintain a business.
April of 2023 rolled around and I was DM’d by an influential food marketing group on Instagram called Best of Washington. They reached out to me with a collaboration proposal and we ended up creating a video that reached an audience of over 100k people. I was featured on their page as a cool sweets spot to try. This propelled my business and I gained hundreds of local followers over the next few weeks. I was booked and busy with orders and inquiries and I felt so blessed to have believed in myself.
As time went on, I started posting tasting review videos of customers on Tiktok & Instagram and people loved watching them. I was able to collaborate with micro influencers that assisted BlessEm Sweets’ growth as well. Mid July, I did my first vendor event and I met so many amazing customers and business owners. Over the continuing months to now, I have been focusing on marketing , networking, and mastering my skill in order to further expand BlessEm Sweets.
Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?
My audience on social media was built by utilizing social media platforms, posting consistently, and collaborating with business owners and influencers.
One of the first steps I took with building my online presence was creating social media accounts. I started out by posting videos of the candied fruit making process on Instagram and Tiktok. Slowly over time, I created Facebook, Yelp, and Google pages to reach a larger audience and connect with customers.
I like to switch up the content I share to keep my pages interesting. I frequently post giveaways , tasting reaction videos, reviews, collaborations, event flyers, etc.. Instagram and Facebook reels are my everyday go-to posts because they reach audience’s outside of my normal following.
Consistency is key when building a social media presence because people lose interest fast; posting content regularly keeps the product in your target market’s view. Daily posting, combined with building SEO, and running good quality ad’s helped me grow tremendously.
Though I do all the marketing and designing for my business, I recommend hiring someone to manage your social media and/or content because it can be very time consuming.
The majority of my social media following came from collaborations and vendor events. I was fortunate to be able to collaborate with an influential food marketing page early on. This grew my following immensely and since then, I’ve collaborated with multiple micro influencers. I also really enjoy selling at Vendor events, they are a great opportunity to meet other business owners and connect with customers face-to-face.
The biggest part of building an audience is just being committed to the process. Some days you might not receive any interactions, likes, shares, purchases etc. but that’s ok. As long as you stay consistent and continue to focus on yourself and your business, things will grow with time. One piece of advice I have for anyone wanting to start a business is, whatever you do, just don’t give up. You can alter, edit, change, and start over… but do not give up!
Contact Info:
- Website: Blessemsweets.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/blessemsweets/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BlessEmSweets/
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/blessem-sweets-everett?osq=blessem+sweets
- Other: Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@blessemsweets?lang=en