We recently connected with Tornica Chaney and have shared our conversation below.

Tornica, appreciate you joining us today. Do you manage your own social media?

As for my social media, I manage it myself. Trust me it is a tedious thing to do as I’ve had a mentor to help me with gaining more traffic and potential clients by explaining to me the importance of different techniques that will help my social media platform to become even more successful.

Tornica, 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?

For those that don’t know who I am, My name is Tornica Chaney and I’m the CEO of Cakes by The Pound and More! I’ve been in business for 7 years now and I love the business that I’ve started. I got into baking when I was a young girl because I’d watch my grandmother and my mom bake cakes all the time. When I left for college….way back when LOL and moved off campus, I started baking and cooking meals. Some of my friends would come over and eat the food and tell me how good it was but I never really had the confidence to start my own business. After some time went by and I’d graduated, moved to another state and purchased a home, I met new friends. We would get together almost every Sunday for Sunday dinner and to watch the football games…(Yes I’m a girl who loves football!). I’d always be in charge of baking the cakes for Sunday dinners, but again…never really thought to make it my own business until later on. I still work my full time job and one day I said to myself, “I have to figure out something else to do.” I sat down with a friend of mine and he said, “why not turn it into a business?” Since I loved baking, just see how far it could go? So I thought about it and started taking a few classes and looked up all the different things I’d need to have taken care of on the legal side to start my own business.

The types of services I offer would be custom cakes, wedding cakes, cake pops, cupcakes, brownies, dessert cakes, cookies and shooters.

I took many classes, went on YouTube to learn different techniques and really just invested more into myself so I could become the best that I could be when it came to being a business owner. I’m in retail and I’m a manger so the customer service piece I have down to a T, but when it came to making sure that the product was EVERYTHING, that’s where I had to invest more time and patience because I believe in giving 100% when taking clients orders. I always want to build a great rep-or with my client so they’ll keep coming back.

Fast forward to now, I have become a successful baker that gets to meet and gain more loyalty within my customer base. I love meeting new clients to help them bring their dream cakes to reality. I’ve definitely become more disciplined within my craft…always wanting to expand and gain more knowledge so I can stay in tune with the trends of cake making. What sets me apart is that I take all of my orders to heart. Every order that I take, I’m trying my best to make it different and to WOW the customer. My clients love the fact that I’m the one they’re actually speaking to vs someone else virtually, when they call me, they’re actually speaking with the owner. They love my quick responses, turnaround and they love the finished product. I treat all my clients the same way I’d like to be treated. I’ve had nothing but great reviews so that to me means a lot! I take pride in everything that I do and my products show it.

I’m most proud of what Ive accomplished because this shows my now 14 year old daughter that she can do whatever she puts her mind to. I never thought that I’d be making custom decorative cakes in my life, but this is a talent that God has revealed to me and I’ll continue to do so.

What I’d like my potential clients/followers/fans to know about me is that I’m a very knowledgeable person when it comes to my craft. I’d never take on anything that I know I could not complete. I believe in giving nothing but the BEST customer service to my clients. My work speaks for itself and once you try my cakes, I promise that you’ll come back! I also would like for them to know to go check out my instagram page and follow because if you’re in the Georgia area…I do have pop up shops that you all could definitely come check out to try some of my goodies!

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

I feel what illustrates my resilience is my ability to continue pushing myself to excellence daily. I am a single mother of a freshman in high school. I wear many hats when it comes to my own baking business as well as my day to day life. I’m a store manager of a major retail chain and have been employed with them for over 20 years. I run my business daily, posting to social media, making reels, answering emails/phone calls on top of making sure that my daughter gets to all her extra curriculum activities daily. For some, they wouldn’t be able to do this on a daily basis. Some days/nights I may go to bed around 2-3am to get right back up at 5am and get us both together to head out to work/school. While having a busy schedule everyday, I also try to find time to get to the gym because I’d like to get back on stage to do bodybuilding competitions.
There were days where I said I just need to throw in the towel and quit, but this is my passion and I will continue to grow my business in hopes that one day I can leave my 9-5 and work for myself which I know will end up being more hours, but it would also be my JOY!

Another journey that illustrates my resilience would be that I’d always compare my work to others…this made me think that my work wasn’t good enough. I use to think that this wasn’t for me at all! I’d look at other bakers and think like, “how in the world did they get that good?” After a while I had to remind myself daily that my work was enough and in order to become better, it took time and practice to get to where I am today….We all had to start somewhere but always remember if it’s a passion and something that you really want to do, then you have to put in the work to be the best YOU that you can be!

Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?

The most effective strategy to growing your clientele to me is marketing! You have to be big with marketing your brand. You have to make sure you get out and talk to people, different companies, mom and pop stores, paying the money to get into the pop up shops. I remember there was a time I’d drive around and sell cakes out of my car. I’d go to the local salons, barbershops just to get my name out there. You want to also have a name that’s catchy in my opinion. Social media….is definitely a huge way to growing your clientele. You have to be consistent with posting and making reels.

Have to get out there and sell yourself! Let people know that you are the best! You guarantee your product and speak about your business with all the confidence in the world!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.cakesbythepoundandmore.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/cakesbythapound
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/cakesbythapound
• Yelp: Cakes by the Pound and More
• Other: TikTok: @cakesbythapound