We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Nicole Greer. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Nicole below.

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

Drive and motivation. I am very self driven when it comes to my baking business and often motivate myself simply by baking and coming up with new creations. Or new ideas on how I want to brand and market myself.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I am a self taught baker. But by trade I am a Patient Care Coordinator and have been in the dental field for over 20 yrs. During Covid & Shutdowns I got laid off as so many others in my profession. Instead of being upset I took this opportunity to continue teaching myself a new skill. I started baking breads in Dec of 2019 and continued perfecting my new talent throughout the shutdown.

I always wanted to learn how to bake bread. Born and raised in Germany I am used to eating fresh bread and always wanted to learn how to bake my own. Having the urge to learn the art of baking bread has always been on my list of things I would like to learn. I worked on my new skill and practiced baking for many months, sharing on social media.

I would post pics on social media just to share my bread posts and my community & followers responded so positive which I truly loved. Then after a while my friends would start asking, if I am selling any of my baked goods. That‘s when I started thinking I might really have something to work with here.

I started looking into how I could start making a living or have a side hustle using my baking talent.
When I got hired at another dental office I wanted to continue baking and really work my side business. But I put that thought on the back burner for a bit but kept thinking I need to do this because the requests kept coming for me to sell my breads. So in July of 2021 I got my food handlers license and my LLC.

I officially opened my business on August 20th, 2021. It is still a home bakery as of now. A business I run out of my kitchen. I am doing this part-time as of right now and bake 1-2 days a week when I’m not working at my dental office.
I know it takes time growing my business but I’m doing it.

What sets me apart is that all of my products are fresh and without preservatives. I take a lot of pride in the fact that I get to share my European Culture by selling Fresh Breads & Authentic Coffee Cakes. Within one year I worked on a full menu and expanded it quite a bit from when I first started.
French Baguette, Artisan Bread, Authentic German Pretzel Rolls, German Cheese Rolls are just a few. I now offer 3 different kind of Breakfast Muffins, Authentic German Apple Cake, German Marble Cake among others and all are made from scratch.

What I came to realize is that people truly appreciate what I’m sharing and selling. I stay busy any time I announce my baking days and usually always sell out. But the most important is that I take my time. Everything I prepare and bake is made with love and a lot of passion. It is not important to me when it comes to the quantity but the quality. I want my customers to be happy and come back for more. I am in Katy, Texas.

Any advice for growing your clientele? What’s been most effective for you?

When it comes to growing my business or clientele I have to say it’s staying consistent, letting people know I exist. It is different when you own a brick & mortar business compared to working out of your own kitchen. I keep sharing food posts on social media and I keep coming up with different things.

The other thing is word-of-mouth! That is very important in my case. I hosted my daughter’s College Grad Party and literally made everything myself.

Sandwich platters, Charcuterie Boards, different salads. People noticed and I have been asked to do several things for Katy ISD from several of my friends who are affiliated with the school district. And private parties for friends. Word-to-mouth and social media can open a lot of doors and knowing a lot of people helps too. But of course work ethics, passion and going the extra mile also come into play.

How did you build your audience on social media?

I have a personal page on FB and a business page. Same goes for Instagram. I am fairly new to Instagram but have a pretty good audience on Facebook. As mentioned consistency is key. I constantly keep branding myself. I have a logo which I use on my business pages, my business cards and packing material such as cake boxes etc.

Food is my love language. So I share all kinds of pics of things that I cook or make. So people stay interested. But I always work my breads in somehow and occasionally share about my culture.

I constantly share pics of the breads and cakes I bake. Or Charcuterie Boards I made with my breads etc.
So my advice is consistency, branding yourself and keep sharing about your product.

I go out and do marketing such as dropping off samples and then share about it. I sent messages with my business link to people I know on Facebook to let them know that I own European Baking Business.

Also I recently dropped off Breakfast Muffins at a few local Fire Stations in my community in Katy, TX. It’s my one year anniversary this month so I wanted to do something nice for our first responders and shared the experience on social media. I instantly got new followers on my business pages. It takes time to build and I know I can not get impatient.

I know my time will come as long as I keep working hard and focus on my long term goal. People see that I am passionate about what I do and it has a lot to do with my current success.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: theeuropeanbreadbasket
• Facebook: The European Bread Basket LLC
• Other: europeanbreadbasket@gmail.com

Image Credits
Nicole Greer owner of The European Bread Basket LLC.