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

Alright, Tarek thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Any thoughts about whether to ask friends and family to support your business. What’s okay in your view?

When it comes to my friends and family supporting Tarek Bakes, they have had the largest influence on my successes. Since day one, my family–especially my mom has been my biggest cheerleader. She helped me with everything from deliveries to social media, and most importantly the dishes. She was the one who came with me to Los Angles for Kids Baking Championship, and even now that I can do most things myself, she still continues to be that cheerleader. My friends have also been a huge support for me. Whenever it came to things like their birthday cakes, they have always been quick to push their parents or other people my way. Even if it’s not an order, fun nicknames like “baker boy” or “Tarek bakes” have been a nice way to see their support. I can’t thank these people enough for what they do.

Tarek, 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?

Tarek Bakes is more than just a small business, it’s the 17-year-old high school junior Tarek Huseini putting his work out there. The abridged version of how I got to this point is that I got into baking after getting bored one day, practiced, and learned as much as I could–and at the age 13 was the runner-up of Food Network’s Kids Baking Championship, season 7. Since then, I have used both grown my abilities and used my status as a “local celebrity” to start really selling baked goods–mainly cakes. What sets me apart from other bakeries is not only the homey nature of my brand but also my to-die-for recipes and openness to unique, or last-minute orders. I’m most proud of baking a part of large events in people’s lives, such as weddings or baby showers. Now that I am in my junior year of high school, it can be a bit more difficult to keep up with orders on top of everything else, but regardless I always do my best and value the effect my baking has on people.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

A lesson I had to unlearn was that I should always try to be productive. Both school and my business have taught me the value of free time and relaxation. I have constantly found myself up at 3 a.m. decorating a cake worrying about the quality or a paper I had due the next day. There was this one Halloween where I pulled an all-nighter making tons of Halloween cupcakes and it made me want to quit then and there. Since then, I’ve put limits on how much I’ll take in a given week–no orders on school nights and putting a firm order notice policy (I need two weeks ahead of time at the least for an order). Now I don’t worry about spending my nights baking, but rather ensure I can get a good relaxing night of sleep.

How did you build your audience on social media?

I’ll be honest, my social media presence is mainly tied to luck and being on Kids Baking Championship. However, I still know a thing or two about Instagram. Three I have learned just from using social media: 1) be consistent in posting, there have been long periods of time where I just never posted because of laziness, and that’s lead to people wondering if I even still bake (which I do!), so maintaining a presence will grow your popularity and communicate to people that you are active. 2) Take good photos, there’s nothing more appealing than an aesthetic feed. People are more inclined to follow and support you when the photos are high quality and really cool to look at. 3) Be authentic, don’t use lots of filters, and don’t be fake and corny in captions–people like authenticity especially when its from someone unique.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.tarekbakes.com/
• Instagram: @tarek_bakes
• Other: @tarek_alhusseini (my personal Instagram in addition to the baking one)