We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Nathan/Natalie Noiman a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Nathan/Natalie thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Alright, so you had your idea and then what happened? Can you walk us through the story of how you went from just an idea to executing on the idea
Natalie – It was all a dream. I am from England with Greek & English heritage. After finishing college I came to America and married my college sweetheart who I met in Fez, Morocco! We were both studying Arabic. I have always loved baking since I was a child and to have a bakery was always a dream in the background. After moving from California to Arizona in the Winter of 2016 Sugarloaf Lane Bakery was founded in 2017.
Nathan – Research is always important to understand what you’re planning to get yourself into. Arizona is a business-friendly state and the hurdles aren’t too high to get your business off the ground. We started baking from home at first under the Cottage Food Law. There are different forms of this law around the United States. It basically allows you to prepare food from home and sell it to the public with a few restrictions. With this knowledge and a little more research about LLCs (founding a company) we moved forward. We have just kept doing that until this day learning along the way. I am still so surprised about the number of things I don’t know even after 5 years of being in business. Each field has their own specialties and niches that they dominant and collaboration among businesses allows consistent growth.
Natalie is the baking master behind the whole operation. She has taught me the majority of things I know how to bake. She is very humble but she used to cook privately for families in California as well as Arizona. Always plant-based. We have been vegan for 8 years now and all that experience can be tasted in every single bite of our pastries. There is a love that people can taste. It’s not that it’s vegan, it’s just good!
Our baking operation is focused on wholesale. We provide almost 30 coffee shops with vegan and gluten-friendly pastries around the valley. From Queen Creek to Peoria and almost everywhere in between. Where we are in the this phase of our business has purely been from learning lessons. We first sold our pastries at farmer’s markets, art shows and vegan events. We gained a small following from the growing community around the valley. We ended up transitioning to wholesale and providing coffee shops with pastries. This model was better for our home/work balance. We baked 3 days a week, delivered the pastries and we were able to have weekends off as well as one or 2 days off in the week. As we’ve continued to grow more lessons have come and we continue to pivot (change one’s balance or direction in regards to a business) and learn.
Natalie – We have some changes to come in the near future. We are planning to relocate to London, England. This will be a surprise to a few people but it is the best for our family. We plan to keep the business running from abroad with great staff and systems in place to troubleshoot. This is a live action idea to execution because we are currently doing it now. Tickets are booked. Thinking about the future allows us to analyze the processes we do now and how we could automate them. Our business is a people focused business. With our staff we couldn’t do this at all so that is the first thing. We really try to take care of our employees and make sure there is an open line of communication. This is 2022. Technology abounds and we are trying to take advantage of it. Apps like WhatsApp, Signal, Zoom they allows flawless communication around the world. We are but a call away whether we’re at home in Chandler,AZ or London, England. A business with a good foundation and a vision that everyone understands and is willing and able to get behind makes things easier to say yes and say no to in regards to moving forward. Our relationships with the coffee shops and small businesses we work with has been amazing. We utilize Square and other cash payment services like Venmo, Cashapp & Zelle to facilitate easier transactions and flexibility. Almost all of these services being able to be used around the world it makes things that seem like dreams more accessible, more tangible. The community at large out there, old and new who continue to buy our pastries. Thank you! Without them we also would have no business. Arizona has grown since we have been here the last 5 years. Phoenix specifically has moved up in the ranks of biggest cities in the United States. The growth will continue and we are very thankful to everyone for their support and collaboration.
Nathan – We are very thankful for this opportunity we have to be in the community. Not just supporting our staff and the coffee shops and small business owners but the people at large I have not
had the pleasure to meet. Thank you. Sugarloaf Lane Bakery says Thank You & God Bless!
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers
Nathan – We are a wholesale vegan bakery offering gluten-friendly pastries to coffee shops and small businesses around the Greater Phoenix Metro/East Valley areas. Neither Natalie or I are specially trained. We did not go to culinary school. We are normal everyday people who decided to take a risk. People like coffee everywhere. Coffee and a pastry are easily one of life’s greatest combinations. Our desire is to give this experience to every customer who buys our pastry to go with their beverage.
Natalie’s experience with a wide range of foods and my pickiness are a great combination. This is how we first started but now we don’t sell anything new before at least a dozen people have tried it and LOVE it(including our girls). Natalie’s repertoire allows her to pull from a vast library of experience to craft beautifully perfect pastries. I don’t think there is a pastry she doesn’t know about. She’s so good that she can just look at a recipe and tell you what’s wrong with it without even having to prepare it. She is really amazing! We used to do more European style pastries, danishes, croissants, baklava, etc but I have slacked on my training. I’m sorry y’all. Maybe we’ll get back to it one day!
Honestly, people never can tell our pastries are vegan. There is this sort of stigma to “vegan things” and we are trying to destroy that. All it should mean is we use plants to make everything. We don’t NEED animal fats and animals proteins, the plant kingdom supplies all that is needed for our growth and development. It is just a matter of research. The same spices, herbs and flavorings people put for or on animals products are usually plant-based. It’s the same. We’re just going one step further and not using the animals.
We did not go vegan for the animals. We went vegan for health. As we learned and grew the plight of large scale animal farming became aware to us and their treatment. These smart sentient creatures are afflicted for sake of tradition rather than logical processes. If you want to eat meat, I cannot stop you and will not stop you but I
think it important that you see how it is this happens. What takes place in order for you to eat that meat and even if you’re willing to do it yourself and see if you could do it. There is a disconnection and we are just trying to show it from another perspective. We don’t need those things to eat good
food!
To know…online retail is coming soon…a National vegan bakery is coming! Fingers crossed!
What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?
Integrity – If we say you’re going to get pastries, you get pastries. We don’t do contracts. It’s a verbal or written (email) conversation and that is how we have grown.
Word of Mouth – People are always sharing things on social media and we’re thankful to everyone who posts about our pastries and the shops and businesses they acquire them from.
Goals – These are destinations. If you fix a course on a destination you will reach it over time as long as you keep moving. It is inevitable. Adjust and pivot, keep moving.
Can you talk to us about how your funded your business?
Nathan – I remember the first $20 we had invested to buy flour, sugar, etc. the first ingredients for our first ever wholesale partner Provision Coffee. Lawrence, the owner had given us the go ahead after trying some cake we had brought to eat with our coffee. “I’ll sell that, it tastes good!” A few simple words but this was the start of our wholesale journey. Google Maps, phone calls, mistakes and rejections ensued but we kept going, learning along the way!
Contact Info:
- Website: www.sugarloaflane.com
- Instagram: /sugarloaflanebakery
- Facebook: Sugarloaf Lane Bakery