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

Tami, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Getting that first client is always an exciting milestone. Can you talk to us about how you got your first customer who wasn’t a friend, family, or acquaintance?

I gained my first clients via co workers. My co workers were my first clients and I can truly say that they were a staple in my business’s exposure. The selected dessert was milk/white chocolate covered dip strawberries. I decided to allow my co workers to be my guinea pigs a few days before Valentine’s Day. They loved the strawberries. They complimented me on the presentation, the packaging and the pricing if ordered. I had so many orders for V-day from their family members and friends. They put in so many orders that I had to hire my daughter and husband for assistance with dipping, boxing and delivery.

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 like to call myself a dessert stylist. My business transitioned from only chocolate dipped strawberries to dessert styling set ups for weddings, parties, celebration, reunions, showers and more. Customers are able to give me their themes, colors and desires for the dessert setup and that’s when the magic happened. I’ve loved how the dessert table set up has been the major highlight to all celebrations. I have witnessed people in awe of the thoughtful set up, the presentation, displays and eye catching set up. I started with only dipping strawberries and quadrupled my dessert listing to well over 3 dozens dessert selections to pick from to add to your dessert table setup.

What’s worked well for you in terms of a source for new clients?

The best source of new clients for me was social media. The main social media source was Facebook. I am able to quadruple my clientele from uploading images and videos from my latest events to Facebook. Anytime I posted my work on Facebook, I was guaranteed to get at least 2-3 bookings for dessert stylist. Some events that I was booked for were 1 year away but they wanted to secure their spot for their event.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

Customer service was the number one way that I was able to build my reputation. I thought about the businesses and agencies that kept my business due to “how they made me feel” when being serviced from them. I mimicked them. I took their skills and mirrored them for my business. This definitely helped my business reputation.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.blackshearsberries.com
• Instagram: @blackshears.berries
• Facebook: Blackshear’s Berries