Soooooo…… I have big news. I don’t want to ramble on and turn this into a 92 page mini-novel, though I easily could. I’ll try to make this brief.
I’m leaving the bakery. Yikes. I said it. It’s bittersweet. It’s sad and scary but I think it’s best for my business. I know you’re wondering WHY. No worries….Sugar Dot is going strong. Stronger than ever actually – just in a different way. Let’s go back to the beginning for a moment..... My cookie business began in 2013. At that time in Maryland, there were no real cottage food laws, so I worked out of a local bakery in Middletown. After four years, my lovely landlord left, so I had to find a new kitchen. I thankfully found Piece O’ Cake in Frederick and have been working my business from there for the past four years. Boy, was I fortunate to find two kitchens to work out of – that helped me grow my business and were an absolute PLEASURE. I adore the women who took me in and that I have worked with over the years. I made custom cookie orders, taught classes and held cookie parties. In 2015, I taught at Cookie Con in Salt Lake City about the business of cookies. Since then I’ve worked to support other cookie decorators – with ebooks, online classes, private consults, and offering some supplies. I LOVE helping other cookiers start and grow their businesses. I also LOVE teaching people to decorate cookies! These two areas of my business grew to the point that I stopped taking custom cookie orders in late 2019. I was happy to focus on those other areas. I was glad to stop taking customs for another reason….. It felt strange to me to be “competing” with local cookie decorators that I wanted to SUPPORT. Leaving the cookie decorating to them feels RIGHT. I was teaching several classes and hosting parties in different venues every week in 2019. My parties were anywhere from 20 to 120 people attending! I was living the cookie dream! Then Covid. March, 2020. All parties cancelled. All classes cancelled. Hmmmmm. Time to focus on that supply shop, my cookie business ebooks, consults, and my cookie business online classes - mostly from my home. I did bring back private one-on-one decorating classes at the bakery after a short time and those have been going strong ever since. Supporting other cookie decorators has been my true focus now for exactly one year. And guess what? I’m busier than ever! The bottom line is looking better than ever. My supply shop has grown immensely. I’m meeting cookiers online to talk about their cookie businesses. I’m helping OTHERS with THEIR businesses and just LOVING it. I am so blessed. So many businesses went under last year. I was worried for mine. I’m so thankful that my business is going strong and growing. For a while now, I’ve wondered if I should leave the bakery. Would it make better business sense to stop those decorating classes (the only thing I was actually doing AT the bakery in 2020)? I was teaching one per week on average. So I would leave my work at home on the supply shop to get to the bakery to prep for and teach that one class per week, then hurry back home to get those orders packed up and out the door in a timely manner. Hmmmmm. It was a tough decision, but I think one that is best for my business, me, and my family. I am sure going to miss those girls at the bakery. I am sure going to miss teaching in-person cookie decorating. But I do enjoy all of this other stuff too. I am beyond blessed. I am so thankful. If you’re a cookie decorator, I hope you’ll let me support you in some way. I will definitely be seeing you around online! You can shop supplies here. Ebooks here. More info on those private consults here! And there’s always my facebook group – “Cookies as Business with Sugar Dot”. We’re having tons of Facebook Live classes on a variety of topics with a variety of teachers! Be sure to stay in touch on Instagram. I didn’t write 92 pages! I’ll close here. Thank you for reading. Thank you for supporting me. Much love. Dotty
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