We recently connected with Rita Avant and have shared our conversation below.

Rita , appreciate you joining us today. Looking back, what’s an important lesson you learned at a prior job

Before I started making cakes full time I worked in customer service. It was in a call center setting so I was speaking to different people constantly. I’d like to think that the time I’ve spent there has helped me in understanding how to deal with different personalities while showing great customer service and maneuvering in difficult situations.

As a business owner my ultimate goal is to always make sure that my clients are satisfied, but life happens to all of us and you’re not always going to knock it out the park every time. I feel that it’s important that I put myself in the shoes of my clients as a business owner and not take things personally and become defensive when they don’t go as planned. It’s most important to not only make sure that my business is sound fundamentally and the products and services that I’m offering are top tier but my interactions with my customers are what turn them into my clients. I’d like to say that about 75% of my business comes from return clients and that is definitely something that I pride myself in and I’d like to thank that to the knowledge that I’ve gained over the years working in customer service industry.

Rita , 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?

I’ve always loved baking since childhood but my passion for cake making began in high school. I started making cupcakes regularly based off of peer reviews I received from a batch I had made for a geometry project. I started getting custom orders from people for different flavors and combinations that they wanted me to create. It became a daily thing for me and I got named “the cupcake girl”. I got put up to a challenge to make my first custom cake and I’ve been hooked ever since.

I love doing anything that uses my hands and my creativity. Besides making baked goods I know how to cook, do hair, do makeup and nails but cakes hold a special place in my heart. I enjoy using cake as my medium because the possibilities are endless when it comes to desired a outcome and execution styles. But the very best part about making cakes for me it’s the fact that people choose me to be apart of their celebrations and I do my best to make sure I do my part in making it extra special and go beyond their expectations. Like I stated previously I really pride myself in my high rate of return clients. It just shows me that I’m right where I need to be.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

This past year has been a tough one for me. I was struggling a lot with my mental health and it took a toll on my personal life and my business. There where many times where I thought about closing shop and going back to a life that I knew wouldn’t be as stressful but wouldn’t be as fulfilling either and I did. Only for a while though. No matter how hard I tried I couldn’t accept just letting my chips fall where they had because I’ve seen all that I had previously accomplished and I knew that I still have so much to do and if that’s the case then I guess my story isn’t over like I felt it was. As soon as I realized that it was like my internal fire was ignited again and I’ve been more focused on myself and my business now more than ever.

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

Social media can be overwhelming at times but my best advice to someone just starting out and wanting to grow their brand is to learn the algorithms. These social media platforms are created for us to do exactly what we want it to do but you just have to do it right. If an app announces a new feature, use it. Of course they’re going to push more of the content of those who use their new feature. Also, pay attention to the times that you’re posting based on your time zone. Lastly, and the most important in my opinion is to post everything. Every draft, every picture, every video, post it all because you won’t know which one has the potential to go viral until you do.

Contact Info:

• Website: Www.CakeaRita.com
• Instagram: CakeaRita
• Facebook: CakeaRita