We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Sade McMullen a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Sade, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today 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?
My first client was my co-worker from when I work at the airport in Charlotte, NC. Everyone knew I was currently attending culinary school at Johnson & Wales and were eager to try some sweet treats. If we had extras from class to take home, I would take them to my job for people to try. Once I took my 2 cake courses and did some practice cakes, my co-worker asked if I could make one of those trending Hennessy cakes and I agreed to give it a try. If you give me a challenge, I am always up to take it on!
I definitely surprised myself with the end result since I only had 2-3 weeks of cake decorating knowledge. Youtube University was my best friend to help with the extra skills we did not learn in my lab courses. After 3 long days of me working on this order, he received the cake and was in complete awe and kept thanking me. Of course at the time I had no idea of what to charge for my work so I made up a price and requested on Cash App. Did I undercharge? Absolutely! It was well worth it in the end.
Once I posted the cake on social media, I started to receive requests for replicas or other birthday cake requests. The funny part…all of the inquiries were from Atlanta consumers. I took them on and took a trip back home to Atlanta 2-3 times per month until I moved back after graduation. Almost 5 years later, I am still doing what I love, learning new techniques, and gaining more clientele by the day.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
My company Sam & Izzy’s Sweets provides luxury and modern style cakes and petite pastries for any special occasion. A big part of my style are fresh florals, stencil work, abstract designs, and everyones favorite: Swiss Buttercream. Getting into my industry was a no brainer. I’ve always had a passion for cooking and baking. I attended culinary school in Charlotte and studied Pastry Arts and fell in love with cake making. Creating cakes was where I was at the most peace because it was like a therapy session and helped me with practicing patience. Working on my craft and selling my first cake I believed I can really turn it into a business and not just a hobby.
I truly enjoy being able to provide my services and beautiful cakes for people when they need the sweet finishing touch to an event. The smiles on brides faces when they walk into the room and see their wedding cakes tells me I am doing an amazing job and this is what God intended for me to continue to do!
In the past year I jumped into my business full-time and the journey has been an emotional rollercoaster. I am most proud of not giving up when times were difficult or when I did not fully believe in myself. Being around so many positive and influential individuals in my circle has been my motivation to push through and continue being my best self.
Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?
Building your reputation I feel is a major key to success for any business entity. For me, staying connected with chefs or others in the hospitality industry was a big help. I kept producing great work, they noticed my talents so they always referred me to potential clients and I returned the favor if I knew a client was looking for services they provided. Also, just being sincere with others, building those professional relationships/true friendships, and remaining my authentic self helped me to maintain a positive reputation.
We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?
Marketing and Social Media is not my strong point in business which is normal for most business owners. Now we have to wear this hat of being a content creator which can be overwhelming and time consuming. It is like, okay I have to bake, decorate, deliver the orders, try to film everything behind the scenes, edit the video, and post! All the work for maybe 30 likes here and 1,200 on another post. At the end of the day, we can’t let the likes and views discourage us from posting because you never know who will notice and it may go viral or lead to gaining a bunch of clients.
I just try my best to keep posting photos and making reels on instagram with trending audio and love to see everyone’s lovely comments.
Two pieces of advice are to keep posting content with the help of analytics or hire a professional to run your social pages if it fits into your budget. There are also many that drop gems online for free to help see everyone succeed.
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Image Credits
Joshua Swinney