We were lucky to catch up with Mikala Everson recently and have shared our conversation below.

Mikala, appreciate you joining us today. Can you talk to us about your team building process? How did you recruit and train your team and knowing what you know now would you have done anything differently?

I love talking/ bragging about my team. I have had the best experience with recruiting who I have now.

My first (non- family) employee was Cade. He helped me decorate cakes before we opened our doors. We did wholesale before we went to brick and mortar. I was growing so fast, but I was still working part time as a bar manager. We had a private party where I met his parents. We got to talking and they realized I was looking for help, so they sent me Cade’s info. We met and everything else is history. He still makes cakes and cookies for the shop today.

My second employee was someone I grew up with. Chester and I met when I was 15 at my first job, Market Street. He was a food service manager while I was a bakery clerk. He was always so nice to me and we got along really well, so when it came time I reached out he was looking for a job. He does all of our baking and is our bread whisper.

Most of my employees after that came to the shop looking for a job and have stayed on. I have been blessed that I have more people wanting to work for us than I need. We are growing so there is potential in the future.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I grew up loving to bake. I have been in the kitchen since as long as I can remember. I never knew I could make this a career but now I can’t imagine doing anything else. My Granny was the one who got me to fall in love with baking. She and I use to bake together all the time. She is the one who pushed for me to make this a career and we talked about opening a bakery together. Unfortunately, she passed away my sophomore year of high school. I made it my life’s mission to open this bakery and teach everyone what granny taught me. A week later the Culinary Institute of America came to my high school so I knew it was a sign to make this dream come true for the both of us. As soon as I graduated from Prosper High School, I started at the Culinary Institute that summer. I got the opportunity to learn from chefs who have been in the industry for decades. We had a different class every three weeks that focused on a specific part of the industry. For example, we had a class for breads, entremets, confections, chocolates, etc. One of my favorite parts of the program was our externship. We got to choose where to work for an entire semester so we can get a glimpse of what it will be like before we graduate. I moved to California to work at Google. I spent time in their pastry kitchen, I learned how to be a barista, and assist the savory chef in their innovation kitchen where googlers learned how to cook. Shortly after I finished the externship, I graduated with my associates degree in Baking and Pastry Arts. After graduation I had some down time before I could start my bachelor’s program. I chose to pack everything up and move to Tennessee. I got the opportunity to work at Gaylord Opryland as one of their many pastry chefs. It was really cool to experience a fusion of fine dining and catering. They had events all the time and it was cool to experience pastries on such a high volume. After my time in Tennessee, I moved back to New York to start my bachelor’s degree. I studied business administration with a minor in Entrepreneurship. In this degree we got to come up with business concepts, pitch them, and then make the winning concept come to life. We had an innovation kitchen in our dining hall that changed every semester for the students that went through this program. Our class went with the concept of bao buns and called it Bao Town. We created a business plan, created manuals, hired people and ran the restaurant on a small scale. It helped us realized the true struggles that business owners face to run a successful establishment. We ended up having the highest profit from all fourteen concepts that went through that kitchen. This degree really confirmed for me that I am right where I am supposed to be. After graduation I worked on National Geographic Cruise Lines as their pastry chef. I loved this job. Not only did I get to travel the world doing what I loved I got to learn how to be 100% self-sufficient. I prepped five breakfast pastries, three lunch pastries, and a plated dessert for dinner as well as thirty loafs a bread a day. I worked on the boats until covid hit. This ended being the biggest blessing for me because that lead me here today.

Any thoughts, advice, or strategies you can share for fostering brand loyalty?

I am really excited about our loyalty program we have at the shop. We have a program that logs all the money each customer spends that translates into points. Every dollar equals a point. After you spend one hundred dollars, you get ten dollars off the following order. We also give out one free birthday cupcake to each person that signs up. additionally, I like to sprinkle in some fun offers here and there. I really enjoy seeing repeat customers that soon turn into feeling like you see family.

Something else unique about us is the amount of cake flavors we offer. We offer eighty eight and counting. If a customer has a cake idea, and it turns out successful, they get to name the cake. It’s a win win scenario because we get more cake flavors and people get their own cake in the shop without having to make it.

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

I get this question a lot so it’s fun to talk about. I was previously on a cruise line when covid hit. I had to move back to the area back in 2020. When I first got back home I really didn’t want to sit around to see what was going to happen with the shutdowns and be out of practice for that long. I reach out to my friends at Toasted Walnut and asked if I could work their part time and make their desserts. I really enjoyed making the desserts there because we started with flourless chocolate cakes, pear galettes, and many other specialty desserts. When I started wanting to get serious about making my dream a reality, I met with Dante and came up with specializing in cake by the slice.

When I started I was only in Toasted Walnut and Tender Celina. The slices started taking off, so I moved into all the Tender locations. Shortly after that, I met Tabitha at Bongos and started selling cakes there. I quickly got the reputation that I like to work with other businesses so my wholesale accounts kept growing. Once people started recognizing my brand and tasting the cakes, they would ask for custom orders. That part of the business grew as well. Suddenly in a short span of time it was hard to balance my job with waiting tables and taking care of my growing business. I stepped away from Toasted as an employee and moved to being just a vendor there.

When my popularity was growing, I was approached about a building in the downtown square. I met my general contractors (who also happen to have a business in downtown Celina) I was fortunate enough to work for them to still earn a little cash to go towards the business. They were gracious enough to still allow me to have flexibility to run my new business. This continued into we were able to move into our new building.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://grannyssweeties.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/grannys_bakery_celinatx/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/grannyssweetiescakeandconfections
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/granny-s-celina
• Other: Tik Tok: https://www.tiktok.com/@grannys_bakery