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

Rachel, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today If you could go back in time do you wish you had started your business sooner or later

While my past work experience has helped shape me in many ways, I absolutely wish I had started my cookie business, Bluebonnet Bakery, sooner. In college I found a passion for early childhood and elementary education. As a military spouse moving every few years, I thought this career field would serve me well. Teachers are needed everywhere, right? But the reality of military life also made keeping up with teaching certifications across different states and countries extremely difficult and discouraging. The frequency of our moves (most recently, 4 moves in 4 years, including one overseas assignment) and two little babies at home left little space for a job, but I still felt the need for the fulfillment from a career, something that many military spouses struggle with.

After our daughter was born, and I found myself spending many hours on the couch holding a sleeping baby who refused to sleep in her crib, I started watching YouTube videos on cookie decorating. I thought it would be a fun new hobby to develop (you know, in all my spare time as a sleep-deprived mom of a newborn and two-year-old). But because I have trouble not going all in on something, the obsession quickly developed and I was hooked. Nights and nap times (once baby girl finally started sleeping in her crib) became devoted to recipe development and practicing my decorating skills. It turned out that cookie decorating was the perfect combination of things I already had a passion for: art and baking. The “hobby” quickly turned into a full-blown business, and I’m so very grateful to all of my amazing customers and supporters. And my love for teaching will also soon get put to work again as I’m in the process of writing cookie decorating classes. I‘ll be offering these classes locally in the Ft. Leavenworth, KS area in the fall, and eventually online as well.

My teaching career gave me so many valuable experiences that I’m not sure I’d be willing to give up were I given the opportunity. But if I had started my cookie business sooner, I think there would have been a great personal benefit from the overall sense of autonomy over my own career and the fulfillment that is gained from owning and running one’s own business. As Bluebonnet Bakery grows, I’m grateful for the opportunity to show my kids the sense of pride and accomplishment that can be gained from hard work and reaching for your goals. I hope it teaches them that they too are capable of achieving their dreams, however big or small they may be.

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.

Bluebonnet Bakery is a cottage baking business (which simply means I operate out of my home) offering custom royal-icing decorated sugar cookies for birthdays, showers, really any event in someone’s life. Cookies make every celebration more special! I take a lot of pride in attention to detail and making each cookie beautiful, and I’m always looking for new decorating techniques and ways to elevate the appearance of my cookies. But as beautiful as I hope for them to be, I want them to taste amazing too! There’s absolutely no point in eating a cookie, no matter how beautiful, if it doesn’t taste delicious. In the words of Dame Prue Leith, “It’s got to be worth the calories”. I offer several flavors to choose from, including Double Chocolate, Confetti, and Mocha Latte (my personal favorite), but my customers most often choose my signature flavor, Vanilla Almond. I will occasionally participate in local pop-up markets or hold cookie pre-sales where I will offer a specific cookie for purchase, usually for an upcoming holiday. My next pre-sale will be for Halloween. Custom orders, however, make up the bulk of my work. It’s always exciting to see what themes my customers will request, and I love coming up with designs to make their cookie dreams come to life. In the Fall, I’ll be expanding to offer local cookie decorating classes, and eventually online classes as well.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

This is something I’m actively working on each and every day. One of the hardest things about running a business as the sole employee is running the business AND all of the social media on top of that. But I think the best way to grow is to simply put yourself out there. You don’t have to do anything that makes you uncomfortable (you’ll probably never see me dancing on TikTok…probably…). But just don’t be afraid to be yourself. Post consistently, and don’t be ashamed to re-use content. Even if you’ve already posted something a few times, it will always reach someone new, and those who truly support you won’t mind seeing it again. What’s important is that you’re posting. There are so many “rules” about how to beat the algorithm and get more exposure, but I’ve found it’s best to ignore most if it and just post.

What’s been the most effective strategy for growing your clientele?

I’m so lucky to have the military community as my most consistent clientele base. I live on post, along with most of my customers, and I’m grateful that I get to not only have them as customers but as my community as well. But I didn’t always have my customers right outside my front door. In the very early days of my business I utilized social media a lot, especially Facebook, looking for local mom groups, vendor opportunity groups, and small business groups. These were—and still are—very valuable tools. I posted pictures of my work in the group pages, and advertised my pre-sales. Eventually my name started getting out and I gained more customers. But military life means moving, and each summer (the main season when military families move) I loose a large number of customers. So then its back to social media, getting the work out to more people about my business.

Contact Info:

• Website: Bluebonnetbakerycookies.square.site
• Instagram: @BluebonnetBakeryCookies
• Facebook: Bluebonnet Bakery Cookies

Image Credits
Portrait credit goes to Tanesha Holland. Cookie photo credits goes to Rachel Reilly