We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Stefanie Hockett a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Stefanie, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Do you take vacations? How do you keep things going – any advice for entrepreneurs who feel like they can’t step away from their business for a short vacation?

Yes, I do take vacations. At the start of a business, its important to be consistent for your customers so they know they can count on you. In order to be consistent I think you also have to be able to pour from a full cup. Taking time off as a business owner has been integral to my mental health. As a business, we close down roughly for two separate weeks a year in which the whole team is on vacation. Every few months I try to take a long weekend to make sure I’m also giving back to myself. The first couple years of business you say yes to more things than you might like to see what works and sticks. Hopefully after a couple of years you can develop a team you can rely on, have consistent business and know the trends. I still work on days/holidays that my employees have requested off and when we have orders that require custom touches. So I try to make up for those “extra” days and weekends with short trips. However, even on my “off days” I’m still managing orders, purchasing, employees and production from afar. It’s important to build in these vacation days off into your yearly schedule. This way your customers and employees can know what to expect and you always see a light at the end of the tunnel.

Stefanie, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I was born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area. Growing up I was fascinated by watching CIA Chefs on PBS on weekend mornings create wonderful dishes. Before the days of Food Network and The Cooking Channel, I loved listening to the sounds of the kitchen and the whisks beating against the copper bowls to make whipped cream. Over the 15 years of my career I have traveled throughout the US learning new techniques, meeting inspiring mentors and creating my award-winning recipes.

F & Goode Desserts was created from my passion of baking for others. I love baking knowing that what I can create with my hands from my heart can change someone’s day. Our tagline “Baked with Aloha” is a nod to both of my grandmothers who always had a full cookie jar waiting for me to raid, and full hearts ready for hugs. Our pastries are made with love and the Hawaiian spirit of Aloha.

F & Goode Desserts is a custom scratch bakery. We are a flourful, all sugar, extra butter bakery. We bake from scratch to order. What does that mean? We use real ingredients, no preservatives and we make it fresh for you. F & Goode Desserts is a business focused on baking with Aloha. As a West Coast native, you’ll find sunshiney nods to tropical Hawaii and warm California in our menus. In our approach to deliver sweet treats to the world, we also find the message of aloha and love for each other very important. Order something from us and we promise to make your world a little bit sweeter.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

F & Goode Desserts actually began because I was let go from a position that wasn’t a good fit for both parties. I was working as a nanny and couldn’t find the right position in my field as a pastry chef. So I decided to start my own business. F & Goode Desserts began as a cottage business from my house in California, creating wedding cakes, teaching baking classes and little by little gaining new clients. Within a couple of years I had the opportunity to open a small 300 sq ft store front in San Clemente, CA. I knew that in order to be “successful” it was going to take a lot of hard work and learning to turn “No’s” into a “Yes”. We were able to acquire wholesale accounts that kept us busy 7 days a week, hire staff to help bake and clean and even be featured on the Ryan Seacrest show. We won numerous awards at the Orange County Fair as well. After a couple of years it was time to grow, change or close. I had a hard decision to make. While going through a divorce, I decided to take a moment to collect myself and figure out what was next. I closed our small storefront and moved back to Hawaii. In Hawaii I worked with a local coffee shop providing handmade pastries and a cacao farmer creating one of a kind desserts with their by product of making chocolate, miel de cacao.
After a few years I moved to Oregon and operated the business via online store, creating decorated cookies and treats for family and friends. In the summer of 2020, I again, relocated to the Cincinnati/NKY area and continued my online business.
In the winter of 2020 I made and shipped almost 1500 cocoa bombs.
I had the unique opportunity to get one of the first Kroger grants with the Incubator Kitchen in Newport, KY to move my business to their kitchen. I knew that after a surgery and move across the country that rebuilding a business would be a lot of hard work. Since then, the business has grown a whopping 1700% (WHOA)
I’ve gone from doing it all myself and hoping to make a few hundred dollars a week to managing a team of talented bakers, and coordinating up to 15 weekly wholesale accounts.

Has your business ever had a near-death moment? Would you mind sharing the story?

Since 2020, the business has changed from just me and help from my fiance when he had some extra time to managing a team of bakers. I’ve had 4 employees that have not quite worked out … whether it be indecision on what was next for them in life, people “ghosting” after working for 6 months, or not having the right attitude and fit to work without our fast moving small business. There have been times when I’ve had a full team and then down back to just myself and back up again. This has forced me to create standardized practices, write and re-write recipe books and really take a good deal of time to train new staff.

Just losing one employee can be such a huge weight on the way business flows. We definitely want to create relationships with our staff that keeps them around, allows them to grow and have opportunity.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.fngoodedesserts.com
• Instagram: @fngoodedesserts
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fngoodedesserts
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stefaniehockett/

Image Credits
Tasha Pinelo – headshot Catie Viox – some food photos