We recently connected with Teni “Ten” Lacy and have shared our conversation below.

Teni “Ten”, appreciate you joining us today. Looking back, do you think you started your business at the right time? Do you wish you had started sooner or later

I started TopTEN Cookies Clt back in September 2023, two years after packing up my life back in New York City and moving to a new state that I was not familiar with at all. I moved to Charlotte, NC towards the end of 2021 with my fiancé and our 3 children, and I’ve been a stay-at-home mom ever since.
Being a stay-at-home mother honestly took a huge toll on my life in every aspect. I was battling with my mental health every day, trying to navigate through life in a new state, figure out finances as a stay-at-home mom, going back to school, having my fourth child, strengthening my relationship with my partner- among so many other personal matters. I was 29 at the time and I just felt that I needed to have every inch of my life figured out already.
Being an entrepreneur wasn’t something new to me, though. I’ve owned multiple businesses since 2017- from my own small cosmetics company, to owning a graphic design and branding business, to being a nail technician, and a content creator. Baking, however, wasn’t something I’d ever thought I would turn into a business. I never had an interest in baking at all, I never did it as a hobby or anything like that growing up. But knowing what I know now, there’s been so many times where I would sit back and wish that I had started this business years earlier. I wonder how popular my business would be had I started earlier. How many social media followers I would have, how many sales I would make in a month compared to now.
Nonetheless, it hasn’t even been a full year yet since I’ve started TopTEN Cookies Clt, and I’ve honestly accomplished so much more with this company compared to all of the previous businesses that I’ve owned. I’m one of those people that believes in God’s timing. So, although I do wish that I could have started this business sooner, I definitely don’t regret my timing and I am forever grateful for how my business is going right now.

Teni “Ten”, 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?

My name is Teni “Ten” Lacy. I’m a stay-at-home mom of 4 from New York City, currently living in Charlotte, NC. My zodiac sign is a Taurus, I love the color pink and black, I write poetry, I love books, and I’m set to receive my degree in Psychology real soon. Aside from being a business owner, my biggest career goal has always been becoming a mental health therapist.

Being a stay-at-home mom, I wanted to start getting into some new hobbies with my children. I remember scrolling through TikTok everyday last year and seeing so many videos of these trending Cookie Monster cookies- so I decided to make a video with my 5-year-old daughter baking Cookie Monster cookies. From that point on is where I would say I instantly started gaining an addiction to baking cookies. For those next few months, I would research and experiment with my own cookie recipes until I narrowed down the perfect one. I experimented with so many flavors and ultimately decided that I wanted to start a cookie business. I launched TopTEN Cookies Clt in September 2023, offering a wide variety of gourmet 2 ounce cookies and stuffed 6 ounce cookies, over 20 flavors to choose from, also offering limited Cookie of the Month flavors every first of the month. I do provide pick-up options locally in Charlotte, as well as nationwide shipping across the U.S.
Owning a cookie company subsequently led me to developing a love for baking as a whole, and I later created a secondary business where I sell cakes, cupcakes, and dipped treats.
I think what sets me apart from others is my authenticity, confidence and creativity. Being in an industry where there’s so many others doing the same thing as you, it can honestly be intimidating and discouraging stepping your foot in the door. But for me, I always remained confident in my business. I think that’s what I’m most proud of, as well. My confidence. Being able to remain consistent and determined, putting in so much effort, dedication, and passion into my craft is what I would say makes me the proudest because it has led me to many great opportunities in under a year.
The main thing I want potential followers and customers to know about me is that I do everything with love. As a small business owner- and a mother- everything is done with precision. Everything is made with the utmost love and care. And that’s what sets me apart from most.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

I think the main lesson I’ve had to unlearn is that family and friends are your biggest supporters. Unfortunately, since starting my business 10 months ago, I would say I’ve had a handful of family/friends that faithfully support me. I think we instinctively hold onto this mindset and expectation that our family and friends are supposed to be naturally happy for us, and would want to support us like it’s their obligation- but in reality, that’s not always the case in their eyes. It has been very disheartening at times, I can’t lie. Especially when you are a person that has always supported everything your friends/family do. I’m naturally a person that is always genuinely happy for others. I love seeing other people grow and prosper and live out their dreams and aspirations- so, I just instinctively expect the same type of happiness in return. But I think the biggest takeaway, the new lesson that does need to be learned is that strangers will always end up being your biggest supporters.

We’d love to hear the story of how you turned a side-hustle into a something much bigger.

Upon starting my cookie business, I wasn’t sure whether or not it would turn into a main business. I had just gotten back into my nail business a month prior to launching TopTEN Cookies Clt and that was going very well for me. I had a video go viral on TikTok of the press-on nails that I was selling, and I just felt like that was my moment. Everything had previously slowed down drastically for my nail business once I moved to Charlotte, and here I was now feeling like I was back in the game and everything was going great.
Eventually, once things started picking up with my cookie business, I got to a point where I kind of felt tired of doing nails. It wasn’t making me happy anymore. Especially after realizing that I would be entering my 30’s soon, I started to believe that a baking career would have more longevity than being a nail technician. Baking was something I saw myself doing for a long time now, making a career out of it.
I was putting my all into my cookie business, from constant self-promotion, to creative marketing and content creation. All of those factors helped scale my business to where it is today. So far, one of the biggest milestones I’ve reached was being featured on Charlotte’s WBTV News. I think that was the moment where I started to fully embrace myself and how much work and passion I’ve been putting into my business. To be fortunate enough to have a news station reach out to me and feature my small business on live television- I knew I was doing something great. I knew I wanted this to be a full time career. Hopefully, one day soon, I’ll be able to open up my dream bakery storefront. That is the main goal I hope to accomplish with the growing success of my business.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://top10cookiesclt.square.site
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/top10cookies.clt
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/top10cookies.clt

Image Credits

WBTV