Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Tina Newton. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Tina, appreciate you joining us today. One deeply underappreciated facet of entrepreneurship is the kind of crazy stuff we have to deal with as business owners. Sometimes it’s crazy positive sometimes it’s crazy negative, but crazy experiences unite entrepreneurs regardless of industry. Can you share a crazy story with our readers?
Going to markets and presenting my goods is one of my favorite things to do, I love to tell people “I just made what I was craving this week” and that’s so true, I can never tell people what I’ll be making the following week because I don’t know what I’ll want but, what ever it is I know from the way I describe it, people can already taste it. I like to see myself and my family as approachable and easy to talk to when we serve at markets and events. But, one day at an outdoor market, it was truly a beautiful day and we were all enjoying our time there, something came out and of my mouth that shock the customer and me.
A gentleman and his wife came up asking about my preserves and butter (these are my pride and joy of my goods) as I’m giving the run down on flavor the gentleman cuts me off and asks if I had samples (this is a common question, no big deal) I apologized and said I did not. He snapped and told me that I’d have more business if I gave samples. I’m not sure what came over me whether it was the lack of sleep or the fact that I didn’t eat that day but, my response was not my usual happy fun self but, instead I responded with “Do you go into Safeway asking for samples of everything you want to buy before you actually buy it or do you just buy it to see if you’ll like it? Why do I a small business owner have to give samples to get people to buy from me?” I gasped in my head, although this is how I feel, I have never said it to a customer.
His face went into shock as did mine and he got very quiet.
The wife’s response was the best though and made me feel better about what I had just said. She gave her husband a displeased look, looked back at me and asked for two jars, then tipped me.
It was a wild day for me.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
Food has always been a passion of mine, when I was just a girl I would go to my neighbors house to make them dinner. As I got older I would experiment with taste and flavors of different foods and baked goods as much as I could. It got to the point where I always had baked goods in the home and it definitely wasn’t something I wanted sitting around. I originally opened a shop in downtown Tucson on 4th and 7th called Creative Thinking Gift Baskets, the shop itself was short lived but, I did continue markets for a while before taking a break. When I came back to the market life I had four kids in tow, the youngest only being four months old, everyone who knew her called her market baby, they came to all events with me, most the time willingly. It took a lot of focus and determination of balancing family life and business life to finally create what is now called Baked.
I have a great appreciation for everyone who has helped me on my rocky journey to build my brand, the promoters who worked with me because I would bring my kids, customers wearing my shirts and the flood of orders I received from people during the dark times of Covid, those orders kept my business open and for that even with the increase of gas prices I remain to do free deliveries to show appreciation. I love it when people recognize the lettering of my logo (I designed the logo myself) and where it originated from, this is something I let everyone figure out on their own.
One thing about me is always I prefer to tell people that I am the creator of Baked, owner just sounds stiff to me. I want people to know, this is my art, I create every recipe, even if it’s a common treat, I put my own fun twist on it, including making my own vanilla. With saying that I do have to explain that not all bakers are equal, I couldn’t even count the amount of people who try to place decorative cake and cookie orders and I have to explain that I am not a decorator, just a baker who loves what she does.
Alright – let’s talk about marketing or sales – do you have any fun stories about a risk you’ve taken or something else exciting on the sales and marketing side?
I was at an event one evening, this was back when I considered it a successful night if I made $50 and never paid more than $25 to join an event or market. A promoter from Phoenix I never heard of before reached out to me to join their event, the cost to join was much higher than I’ve ever paid before, I couldn’t even confirm that this was a real event and even though my first thought was “no, I don’t want to join” my mouth said “yes, I’d love too”. The day of the event I load up my kids extremely early and start to head to Glendale. Half way there my truck breaks down I have all this inventory and three of four of my kids and the truck won’t turn back on. I had to contact this promoter I’ve never met before and wanted to make a good impression on, to tell them I couldn’t make it, thankfully it was a two day event and after getting a new alternator at this amazing mechanic shop in Queen Creek, we made our way for the next days event.
We get there early to setup, my kids are already making their rounds, making friends with all the other vendors, while I apologized profusely to the promoter.
I’m still worried I’m going to have left over inventory and I just spent a lot of money on something I shouldn’t have.
Cut to the event being three hours in and three hours left, I’m sold out and just standing there smiling with the biggest grin ever, I took a scary chance, everything tried to hold me back and for the first time ever, I sold out at The Glendale Chocolate Experience.
How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?
When covid hit, markets shut down, no one was allowed out and my business was at a standstill. Eventually I went in the kitchen stressed about my business, stressed about how covid was affecting everything and everyone and especially homeschooling. I just started baking, this is also my therapy, when I was done, I knew there was no way we could eat all of this, so I did a promo on Facebook and I offered free delivery. The response was amazing, nothing I could ever have imagined, this made me think, I need to keep this going, I made a website and offered a different menu every week with two delivery day options. This was going great for a while but, nothing prepared me for Roux Events with BlaxFriday getting involved. Sales went way up and it was in that moment I knew that my business was going to make it, despite everything going on and I thank everyone who helped me keep my business afloat.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.BakedCreation.com
- Instagram: @BakedCreation
- Facebook: @BakedCreativeInspiration