We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Patricia Richards a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Patricia, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Getting that first client is always an exciting milestone. Can you talk to us about how you got your first customer who wasn’t a friend, family, or acquaintance?

I worked for Occidental Petroleum and I would bring samples of cake to work. One day a lady asked me to make her wedding cake. Mind you I never made a wedding cake, stacked a cake or made buttercream to ice a cake before I told her I never made one before and she said I trust you will do a great job. I quit doing the cake a 100 times and wanted to call it off a 1000 times before I had a cake I thought was presentable for a wedding. She loved the cake and that started my journey into the world of Cakes.

Patricia, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Growing up as a little girl, I used to watch my grandmother bake. As I got older, I started to listen to the voice that I was hearing from God, telling me that I have a gift I started baking and truly engaging with my grandmother and getting to know the ins and outs of delicious treats. My business started all small by just bringing little things such as cookies and cupcakes to work and receiving feedback from my coworkers, I started to gain orders. Still learning how to perfect my craft. My longtime customers understood and stuck by me the better I got the more orders I got the more help I needed. I started to recruit my children mainly my daughters, and they have helped eliminate a lot of stress when it comes to massive orders. My orders went from just simple cookies and cupcakes to designing cakes and making wonderful treats, such as chocolate, covered rice, crispies, chocolate covered strawberries, pretzel sticks, chip bags, customized to fit the theme of the party. I went from being a small cookie and cupcake maker to a more luxurious cake, baker and designer. I started to take classes to help with my decorating portion of baking. The most proud moment that I gained from servicing. All of these families is that I’m able to make an idea for their celebration come true. Being able to not only listen to their needs their preferences their wants but also making it possible, having dropping off the cakes and treats watching their amazed faces, and listening to their gratitude is what makes it worth it.

We’d love to hear about you met your business partner.

My lovely cofounder/business partner is my husband. Being a family owned business has its ups and downs, but working with the love of my life has made it all more durable his input and advice on the business portion of it, such as pricing has not only motivated me to give my all in my best, but also to show worth in my work. We’ve met in my late 20s and fell in love. The story on how we met is pretty hilarious. He was sitting at a red light and my friends and I were at a gas station on the opposite side of the street he see me from a distance and wanted to talk to me so I told him that if you wanted to talk to me that he will drive over and come get my number and the rest is history.

Any advice for managing a team?

The first step to managing a great team, while maintaining high morale is to always do what you love. The team that I have is my daughters, and because they love their mother, they listen to their mothers dreams, and they want their mother to accomplish them. I myself have a goal to make sure that my customers understand that I want to make their dreams a reality. Giving them the best of the best that I can possibly give them and if I don’t have the skills, I will do my best to learn them, so that I can be more universal when it comes to my clients. I have learned how to make a vegan cake. I have learned how to make designer, shoes and handbags using fondant. I have learned how to make a spectacular wedding cakes I have learned a lot more skills to fit the needs of everyone that comes to me.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://instagram.com/trishannsdesserts?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/trishann.treats.5