We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Sammuel & Kelly St. Fleur a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Sammuel & Kelly, thanks for joining us today. What was it like going from idea to execution? Can you share some of the backstory and some of the major steps or milestones?

Kelly started by making cakes for our family’s birthdays and other parties. Soon after, friends and a few friends of friends began reaching out to Kelly to start making cakes for them as well. From there, things began to grow more and more. This was unexpected, as we never really planned on growing this little venture to be bigger than a few cakes here or there for our family and close friends. As things started to become more than what Kelly could handle on her own, I (Sammuel) started to step in and help with things as well. We began to have conversations about how we wanted things to look and if we wanted to turn it into a legitimate business. We decided that we enjoyed creating and building together and so decided to really go for it. So we reached out to my (Sammuel) brother for help, as he has started and run several successful businesses. He has been a big help as he has helped us set up our LLC, figure out taxes, etc. We then went on to selling at the Salem Farmers Market for a couple of years and that was a big help as it was a consistent form of income and a way to let the community know about us. After a couple of years of selling at the market, an opportunity popped up to rent our current space near the Glenvar Minute Mart and that has been an awesome move for us. From there we can use the commercial kitchen to make baked goods for people to pick up that they have ordered online, and make cakes for weddings to deliver, and have people come to our store front to buy what we have set out for that day.

Sammuel & Kelly, 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?

We’ve (Kelly and Sammuel) have spent the last 3 years slowly building this business together and take a lot of pride in figuring everything out with little to no help. Our team is currently made up of Kelly, Sammuel, Joe, Paige, and Laura. The flavors on our menu changes every month, but we make cakes, cupcakes, scones, bagels, cookies, and cookie sandwiches.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

We started off making only custom cakes and cupcakes. We pretty quickly realized that this wasn’t a very profitable model for us with how long it took to make every individual cake and with how many different ingredients we were always buying for all the different types of cakes. We decided to shift toward a model that allowed us to make delicious cakes, but limited the designs to 4 different options. We then started making and selling scones, bagels, cookies, and cookie sandwiches.

What’s been the best source of new clients for you?

We live in a relatively small town, so our best source of new clients has typically been word of mouth.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://bohobake.square.site
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bohobake/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bohobake