We were lucky to catch up with Shaucuana Knight recently and have shared our conversation below.
Shaucuana, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Alright, so you had your idea and then what happened? Can you walk us through the story of how you went from just an idea to executing on the idea
Funny thing, Baking always was just a hobby. Growing up my mother would call me little Betty Crocker. But something shifted during COVID in August of 2020 I decided to act on this hobby and make it a full time thing. Once I made the decision to actually start a business I wanted to do something that honored my grandmother Cora Stewart. My grandmother was an amazing cook but she rarely made desserts. She primarily focused on making the main courses of Sunday dinner. When she passed away June 26, 2016 all of her recipes went with her. In every family there’s the matriarch prepping the Sunday Dinner but whose making the desserts. Cora’s Cakery relates to that family dynamic by ensuring the dessert is never missed. Every grandmother can focus on making the hearty meals and Cora’s Cakery provides the delicious dessert. I began to connect with several programs such as MORTAR to begin to get the supported needed to grow Cora’s Cakery into what it is today. I am a current member of the Incubator Kitchen Collective. A shared kitchen space that I moved into in the summer of 2021. It’s a commercial space that allows me to separate my home life from my business life. It also provides an additional support of learning from other food entrepreneurs’ that are navigating the same journeys. In December of 2021, I finally made the decision to leave my full time position at Hamilton County Job and Family Services and fully dive into being a full time bakery owner. It has not gone without challenges and hiccups along the way. I have had to work around issues of funding, right now majority of the business expenses come out of my personal household income. Cora’s Cakery is slowly starting to build a momentum within the community and more people are starting to learn about Cora’s Cakery and what we have to offer. Cora’s Cakery caters to the relationship between the business and the customers. Not just selling them a cake and moving on but ensuring that we have their trust in the desserts they are ordering by offering order tracking for all orders. Many of our customers love this feature as they don’t have to think about whether or not their order is going to be what they were asking for. I even offer cake sketches so that we get it right the first time.
Shaucuana, 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?
Hello! My name is Shaucuana Knight, and I own Cora’s Cakery. I love what I do and excited to be a part of the Greater Cincinnati area. Baking has always been a hobby that I never truly thought to make a career until August of 2020. Cora’s Cakery was created for three reasons: to honor my grandmother, do something that I love and to make a difference in the community. Our mission is to create an elegantly delicious experience for you.
My grandmother was not a baker but she was an excellent cook. Every holiday we knew exactly who was cooking. Cora’s Cakery will carry on her memory as a great woman. One of the ways we bonded the most was through a cup of coffee. I can remember waking up early just to get a cup of coffee with tons of sugar with her. So when I started Cora’s Cakery I wanted a piece of that memory to stay with us by incorporating Coffee products into Cora’s Cakery.
Cora’s Cakery is a bakery specializing in elegantly delicious desserts, coffee and Hot Chocolate.
Any thoughts, advice, or strategies you can share for fostering brand loyalty?
One of the ways I keep in touch with my customers is for their birthdays. I have the option for customers to provide their birthdays and send coupons for them to use later. Another way is through my loyalty program. I appreciate every one of my customers and their desire to continue to shop with me. So I love the idea of getting to reward them for being a loyal customer.
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
In 2022, I wanted to do so many things with my business but in the Spring of 2022 I found out that I was pregnant with my first child. The oddest thing was that I could not stomach the smell of any of my desserts. Isn’t that crazy. The thing that pays my bills each month I couldn’t even do because it physically made me sick. So for several months I was unable to sell my desserts which resulted in a loss of cash flow for the business. But one thing I learned through all of that is that God is amazing. I stuck it all out and continued to push even through the sickness. And here I am a year later and Cora’s Cakery has grown to a level I couldn’t even imagine. I have been featured on Channel 12 and Fox 19 news channel. My cake mixes will be sold at Jungle Jim. So many great things are happening and it’s proof that if you just hold out and keep the faith everything will work out.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.corascakery.org
- Instagram: corascakery1
- Facebook: corascakery1