We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Shanice Bryan a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Shanice, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Alright, so one thing we think people don’t talk about nearly enough is investments – either time or money. What’s one of the best or worst investments you’ve made and what did you learned from the experience?
One of the best investments I’ve made as a cake artist and business owner is purchasing the Cake Safe. About three years ago I took an order for a five-tier wedding cake. This was the largest wedding cake that I had ever made at that time. The drive to the venue was about an hour and a half so I had to make sure that I had everything planned out. Like so many other cake artists, the plan was simply to stack the cakes at the venue and add the flowers onto the cake once I finished stacking. Unfortunately, that didn’t go as planned. I can laugh about it now but at the time it was probably one of the most stressful moments in my career. As I was stacking the cakes, the very last tier that I placed on top, ended up tipping over as I reached to place it on top. I just barely caught the cake in my hands, but the buttercream had completely scraped off the side of the cake. Thankfully, I had extra buttercream, my turntable, and my tools there to fix the cake. No one could even tell that the top tier almost didn’t survive.
From that day on, I was always paranoid about stacking cakes at the venue until I discovered the Cake Safe. I remember seeing an advertisement on Instagram and I immediately knew I had to have it! Essentially, it’s an insulated acrylic box that allows you to transport your cakes already stacked. It takes the stress out of the delivery process, but it took me a while to convince myself to make the purchase because it isn’t cheap. Today, I can say that I’m the proud owner of not one but two Cake Safe carriers. Not only that but I’m also an affiliate for their brand so if any cake decorators are looking to invest, please contact me and I will answer any questions you have about the product, and I can also get you a discount code for your purchase as well!
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
I didn’t go to school for cake decorating or culinary arts. I actually went to school for business and marketing. I went to college and received my B.S. in Business Administration and Management and went on to receive my MBA with a concentration in International Business. I knew that I wanted to travel the world and I looked forward to landing my first corporate job after graduating college. I did everything that I set out to do career wise but baking and creating art out of cake was a joy that I didn’t know I needed until it happened.
My grandmother taught me how to bake at an early age. When she passed away, it was years before I baked again. It wasn’t intentional but I realized that everything that I baked up to that point, she was always right by my side in the kitchen with me. When I actually baked something by myself for the first time, it was because she wasn’t here anymore and that was a really hard time for me. I missed her a lot but baking makes me feel close to her. My grandmother left me with all of her recipes and her knowledge of not just baking but food in general. I can still hear her whenever I’m making a pound cake and she would say, “don’t you beat that flour too long.” I believe the reason why I love baking is truly because of my grandmother. Going to school for business was basically the icing on the cake because I was able to turn something that brings me joy into a career.
Although my grandmother taught me all the basics of baking, I wanted to take it to the next level and create more custom cakes. I had to do a lot of research and I practiced on a lot of ugly cakes to get to the level that I’m at now but I’m always practicing and experimenting with new recipes and techniques when it comes to decorating cakes. Working with different buttercream techniques is my favorite thing to do but It took some time to figure out what direction I wanted to take my business. I feel like now I’ve finally found a happy medium that works for me and for my clients and customers.
Sweets by Shanice is now the place where couples come to get their dream wedding cake. It’s where husband’s come to get their spouse a special cake for their anniversary. It’s where wives come to get their husband a sweet treat for their birthday. It’s where parents come to get their kids the Super Mario cake that they’ve been talking about all year. It’s also where I get to make pound cakes for the holidays and share them with families that believe you can’t celebrate the holidays without a good pound cake! When I decided to only do the things that bring me joy, I was able to really enjoy everything there is about being a business owner.
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
2019 was an amazing year for my business. We we’re booked just about every weekend with orders and we also participate in a local farmers market each week. One weekend my husband and I were at the Alpharetta Farmers Market and a young woman came up to our booth to try some of our baked goods. She told me that she wanted to take some of my treats to her manager to try so I packed up one of everything that we had to-go for her and I ended up having to send her an invoice because she didn’t have enough cash on hand. I didn’t know at the time, but she was an absolute blessing to my business. She contacted me a few days later and told me her manager loved everything and they wanted to work with me. They worked at one of the top corporations here in Atlanta and she consistently placed corporate orders with my business every week. These weren’t small orders either. Their orders typically consisted of 2000 cookies, 400 cupcakes, 15 cakes, 500 cake bites, etc. My business grew by 191% in 2019 and I was over the moon with excitement of what 2020 would bring.
Unfortunately, in March of 2020, Covid hit, and the state of Georgia had completely shut down. All the excitement and expectations that I had for my business dwindled away each month I went without orders. Even though I went months and almost half of the year without any orders, I continued to advertise my business. I would post on social media consistently and I started doing $1 Raffle Saturdays where you could Cash App $1 for an entry to win whatever special treat, I made each week. It became the highlight of my week and really kept me going during such a dark time.
Even though it was rough, things slowly started to pick back up towards the end of the year. 2020 was rough but it was also the year that made me realize how much I enjoyed making wedding cakes. There weren’t many gatherings happening during that time but once things started to open back up, I was able to book multiple wedding clients that found me on social media. Even though the year started rocky and there were times that I wanted to give up, I kept going. I kept creating, I kept advertising, and I kept putting myself out there because I desperately wanted this to work. Thankfully, it did!
How’d you meet your business partner?
I always reference my husband in interviews because he’s not just my husband. He’s also my business partner and he’s a huge part of Sweets by Shanice. However, when we first met, I’m pretty sure he had no idea that he would be spending nights making buttercream and learning how to make cookie dough from scratch.
Running a business isn’t easy and I tend to question myself a lot when making decisions on things. My husband is great at pushing me to take on the challenging orders. He truly believes that I can do anything. Some of the biggest milestones in my business would not have happened if it wasn’t for him telling me I can do anything I put my mind to.
Not only is he my number one cheerleader, but he’s also a huge help when it comes to day-to-day things like making deliveries, doing prep work, and even baking when I take on large orders. I knew he was going to be the best partner when he helped me bake, pack, and deliver 2000 cookies the same week as our wedding. That’s a story that we’ll both never forget! The most important thing is that I can rely on him to always have my back, and for me, I couldn’t have asked for a better business partner.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.sweetsbyshanice.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sweetsbyshanicellc/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SweetsByShaniceLLC
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/sweetsbyshanice
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@sweetsbyshanicellc
- Other: TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@sweetsbyshanice