We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Stephanie Long-Sims. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Stephanie below.

Stephanie, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. One of the things we most admire about small businesses is their ability to diverge from the corporate/industry standard. Is there something that you or your brand do that differs from the industry standard? We’d love to hear about it as well as any stories you might have that illustrate how or why this difference matters.

When it comes to the food industry, I see more and more businesses taking shortcuts to lower costs and product faster. This leads to the use of lower quality ingredients and in turn, lower quality products. I strive to ensure that my business stays true to the values I set when I first started ten years ago, everything is made from scratch with real ingredients. Too many times do I see a bucket of buttercream where the first ingredient is usually a word I can’t even pronounce. The first ingredient in my buttercream will always be butter, they way it should be! Customers are also so shocked when the buttercream actually melts in their mouth. By using real ingredients, I am able to make sure my product is sold at the highest quality and my customers get the real eggs, butter, and extracts they should expect from a bakery item.

Stephanie, 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?

Growing up, you could always find me in the kitchen with my mom and sister baking up anything we could get our hands on. Our favorite book to pull from was from my mom’s home town in Nebraska and has recipe from the town from the last 100 years. The best recipe in that entire book is a deep dish brownie… used so many times, the pages are covered in brownie batter! My mom really gave me my love for being in the kitchen and my whole business journey started at just 17 years old. I always knew I wanted to have a bakery one day, but never imagined that a foot surgery 5 days after high school graduation would quick start the business that I still run to this day! I did what any bored teenager would do and started posting things I was baking in the kitchen and it quickly turned into a farmers market stand, which lead to custom cakes, eventually turning into wedding cakes and all the pastries in between.

While somehow convincing my mom to let me run a cake business out of her kitchen, I studied my way through school at Brightwater Culinary Institute and the University of Arkansas – Fort Smith. After graduation I continued to hold a job in the food industry for a few years and eventually took the leap of faith to run my business fulltime in 2021. Probably one of the scarcest decisions I have made, but I wouldn’t change anything for what I get to do every day!

Over the past few years of running my business full time, I have had the opportunity to grow not only by hitting sales goals but also by creating new streams of revenue I never imaged possible. Not only do I serve cakes and [pastries, but I have began to explore hosting cake classes. This has been such a fun outlet to offer to my community and see new growth potential in my business.

I love having the ability to work with my customers to create something for the special moments in their lives. I never look at it as ‘just a cake’ but rather a celebration of so many things!! From weddings, babies, birthdays, cancer survivors, and anniversaries, the special moments are always best celebrated over a meal and the best bite is always dessert.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

Starting my business so young, I have always relied heavily on social media to help me market my products. In the world we live in today, it is vital to have a strong online presence. I have been able to build a community of followers not only in my area but all over the world! The key success to building this online presence has been consistency. Sure people can tell you they went ‘viral’ and blew up over night, but the real success comes from the persistence to stay consistent. My strategy includes both static and video content. Yeah, video content is the hot commodity right now, but your customers also want to see finished products which is where static posts come into play. The video content is the more personal side, allowing you to show more personality and a peak into your business. By keeping a stream of post on your followers feed, you can guarantee that they will see your brand and begin the gain recognition. The product may sell, but you as the business owner is what will keep them coming back. Allow your customers to connect to YOU. People buy from people, not brands so don’t be scared to get personal and share your WHY and have your customers coming back.

If you have multiple revenue streams in your business, would you mind opening up about what those streams are and how they fit together?

When I first started my business, I just wanted to be a bakery and sell my cakes and pastries directly to the customer. Over the past 10 years that mindset has shifted to becoming a multi-revenue streamed business.

Stream #1 – selling directly to the customer – custom cakes/pastry orders and weddings
Stream #2 – selling to other businesses – more of a whole sale opportunity
Stream #3 – cake classes and community events
Stream #4 – online eBook and recipe sales

By combining the multiple streams of revenue, I have been able to alter my workload drastically. Instead of working 70 hours a week on JUST custom cake orders, I am able to mix in online eBook sales and cake classes that can have a smaller work load and produce a larger amount of income.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://thecakeoccasion.com
• Instagram: @thecakeoccasion
• Facebook: @thecakeoccasion

Image Credits

Corrie Childers
Kyra noel photography
Villar Co Photography
Alyssa Simpson Photography
Freckled Fox Photography