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

Stephanie , thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Are you happier as a business owner? Do you sometimes think about what it would be like to just have a regular job?

I am very happy as a business owner! I bake cookies all day. What’s there to not be happy about?

However, I know that life would probably be easier if I worked for someone else. Time off is rare. There is no such thing as “paid vacation time”. If I don’t work, I don’t get paid. The hours are long. I work from home, so there’s no home life/work life balance. The work is always there, right in front of me.

I tend to feel a bit burnt out during the holidays. Last week, for example. I have been doing large events, sometimes several, every single weekend. During the week I still have customers picking up orders for their holiday meals and gatherings. So it’s go, go, go with no end in sight.

When this happens, I schedule a weekend away with my family ASAP. We go on a little road trip to a town a few hours away and lock ourselves away in a nice hotel. We explore the town if we want to. We play board games for hours on end. We watch shows about haunted places. We order in food and eat way too many snacks. I’m always back to good once our little trip is over.

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

My name is Stephanie Smith, and I am the owner and baker at Jam Cottage. Jam Cottage specializes in gourmet cookies and artisan jam. I also offer delicious home baked breads, scones, cinnamon rolls, and other pastries. My two most popular items are my Jalapeno Cheddar Bread and my Lemon Sunshine Pie, probably because these are some of my favorite items on the menu and I serve them to my own family.

I sell at a local farmers market every weekend during the regular market season and do pop ups at coffee shops in the area. I also offer my bakes for local pick up.

What sets Jam Cottage apart is the individualized service my customers receive. I know many of my customers on a first name basis. I listen to their wants and needs, and customize their orders based on this. I think it’s pretty special that I get to bake gorgeous and delicious goods for my customers, and then personally hand it off to them. It’s more than a business relationship. My customers tell me stories about their food memories, their families, and their events and celebrations. I am so honored to be a part of their lives in this way.

I truly believe that food brings people together and helps to create memories. Helping to create that for my customers is such a joy

Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?

I am a great baker, but the business and technical side of things is sometimes a struggle for me. I subscribe to two different coaching groups to learn everything I need to know to run my business successfully.

The first is The Entrepreneur’s Community at Baking for Business (http://www.bakingforbusiness.com). I couldn’t live without this group! Chef Amanda Schonberg is the expert on the cottage baking industry, because she is out there doing it herself. She brings in experts to teach classes on everything from marketing to mindset to photography. The Entrepreneur’s Community also offers monthly social media captions, all ready for you to use. Just plug in your picture and go!

I also subscribe to the Female Entrepreneur Association (http://www.femaleentrepreneurassociation.com). This subscription has been so valuable! The classes cover everything any businessperson needs to learn. There are classes about marketing, building funnels, public relations, visibility, tech, you name it.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

I started my little cottage bakery with no financing and no credit. I had been a stay-at-home mom for many years, and we made many financial sacrifices to make that happen. We did not have a huge savings account to dip into, and I did not want to add financial stress to my husband by taking out loans to finance my business. I started out with ingredients from my kitchen and our household kitchen tools. We decided to bootstrap it and add to the business as we went along.

My first year as a cottage baker started successfully. I was gaining new customers weekly by participating in a farmer’s market. I was headed in the right direction, and everything was going well. Then I had a major heart attack and needed quadruple bypass surgery. This ended my market season early and forced me to take many months off to recover and focus on my health. I had to learn to slow down and take care of myself first.

When I was ready to return to baking it felt like starting from scratch. I had to remind my customers that I was still here after taking a six-month break. I moved to a farmer’s market closer to home to make life easier on myself and my family. There were many other pivots I had to make, but I was determined to follow this dream through.

It has now been two years since my heart attack, and life is returning to normal, albeit slowly. We are still adding things we need for the business slowly. This winter I hope to create a dedicated baking room to my house and furnish it with commercial ovens and mixers a little at a time. I am not a patient person, so this is not easy for me. When I want everything to happen NOW, I sit back and remind myself of how far I have already come, and that it will happen.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.jamcottage.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/jamcottagebakerykc
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/jamcottage