We recently connected with Marna Niese and have shared our conversation below.

Marna, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today What do you think matters most in terms of achieving success?

Obviously a lot of hard work goes into creating and running a successful business! Being organized and having a detailed plan every week of what I have to do and the orders I have to complete by the weekend is essential in operating a successful business. It took me a long time to realize this but saying “no” is apart of having a successful business! I realized that I couldn’t do every order, I had to set a limit of what I could physically take on each week. It was so much better for my mental health as well as my family life!

Marna, 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?

Marna Cakes is a home bakery in Sunbury, Ohio where I make cakes, cupcakes, and decorated sugar cookies. I also teach cookie decorating classes! The business was born from a love of baking and decorating! I feel so honored to be included in my customers special days: birthdays, bridal showers, baby showers, weddings, and so much more! My favorite aspect of my business is designing my holiday menus! I love designing the perfect cookie gifts for kids and teachers, as well as treats to enjoy with family on special holidays!

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

I think the best way for people to hear about you is through word of mouth! I absolutely love when a customer comes to me and they say they had my cookies at their friends party, or a friend told them about me! That makes me so happy that someone enjoyed working with me and my products enough to tell people about me!

I also strive for excellent customer service! I always try to connect with a customer reaching out to me within a few hours or 24 hours at the longest! I try to be attentive and minimize the back and forth as much as possible with getting all the information I need, and then communicating what the next steps will be!

I would like to think that these helped build my reputation with my customers!

What else should we know about how you took your side hustle and scaled it up into what it is today?

Marna Cakes came from a love of decorating and with friends and family’s encouragement I started my business! Staying at home with 2 small kids at the time it was definitely a side hustle and orders were small and few and far between. After taking every order that someone asked and trying all kinds of new things (some worked and some didn’t)! Eventually I built up a great customer base from there. I have been able to tweak and grow my business, from doing any cake and cookie custom order to establishing a menu of treats that I offer! Starting a website, also propelled my business forward. Through the website I created an email list which has helped me reach customers who weren’t on social media. So grateful for where my business has ended up and can’t wait to see what the future holds for it!

Contact Info:

• Website: marnacakes.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/marnacakes
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/marnamakescakes