We were lucky to catch up with Miriam Szkup recently and have shared our conversation below.

Miriam, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Often the greatest growth and the biggest wins come right after a defeat. Other times the failure serves as a lesson that’s helpful later in your journey. We’d appreciate if you could open up about a time you’ve failed.

It wasn’t so much a failure, but more of a step back to re-evaluate what I really wanted to focus on in my business without compromising my health, mental health, the relationships in my life, as well as the products I serve.

When my baking business took off over a year ago, I hit the ground running. I was at times making over 30 dozen pastries a week, all while still maintaining a part-time baking job. I was working so much between my business and my part-time job, that my mental health and health in general began to suffer. Being a small business owner is very difficult, especially when you are doing the majority of it on your own.

After a year or so I decided that I needed to scale back my business. I needed to grow slowly, versus what I was currently doing. Also, because I was making so many pastries every week, baking started to feel like a chore. So, in the end, I decided to drop some of my wholesale clients in order to focus on not only my health, but my relationships, and products. I wanted my products to feel special again when I made them.

Overall, I made the right decision. I still make about 10 dozen pastries a week, but am able to not only focus on my business, but also my life.

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?

My passions for baking probably started when I was a child. My uncle was a chef, and used to make the most delicious cakes.

I personally started baking when I was in college to make some extra money, but also because I loved it and I seemed to be good at it. I actually went to college and graduated with a Bachelors in Nonprofit Management. Very different from running your own baking business, but the management aspect of my degree has helped.

It wasn’t until 7 years after graduating from Cleveland State that I started baking baking professionally. Once I started baking for an actual baking company, I decided to see if I could try my hand at running my own baking business. At first it was just personal orders from people in my community and off Instagram, but now I not only take private orders, I also make wholesale pastries for Bookhouse Brewing, and cookies for Superelectric Pinball.

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

Consistency, quality, variety (uniqueness), and reliability have definitely helped my reputation within my community.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

A lesson that I feel I am constantly having to unlearn, is that you can’t always do it by yourself, and it’s okay for you to ask help.

I have always been very independent in general. My parents divorced when I was in second grade, but it was when my mom passed away when I was 19 that I really had to be independent. I ended up forgetting that you actually need people, and it’s okay not to always do it on your own.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @miriyumyums