The Savvy Entrepreneur

A few weeks ago, I held a Name That Blog Post contest to see who would come up with the best title for my weekly quote of the week series.

Well, Ricki Heller from Bake It Healthy is the winner, coming up with the best name: The Savvy Snippet.

She received a $25 gift certificate as a small token of thanks and recognition. Ricki agreed to sit down with me (virtually) to tell me more about her company (I promise you’ll be starving after reading this interview).

In one sentence, Ricki, what do you do?
I make delicious, healthy sweet treats free of refined sugar, eggs, dairy, or wheat.

What makes your company unique, different from your competition?
As far as I know, I’m the only company in the Greater Toronto area that is all of these: vegan, organic, wheat-free, egg-free, dairy-free, and refined sugar-free.

Who is considered your competition?
The only competition are other vegan baking companies, but no one is entirely organic, AND most use sugar and/or wheat flour.

Who’s your target market/ideal client?
Target market is, first and foremost, people who love dessert but don’t want to feel they’re compromising their health by indulging. Most of my customers are people with food sensitivities or health issues that prevent them from eating wheat and/or sugar (esp. moms with kids in this category). Many customers are vegan.

How do you promote and market your business (what works, what doesn’t)?
When I was selling in health-food stores, I did a lot of samplings in the stores. I have found that advertising doesn’t work for this type of thing; because it’s so different from what people are accustomed to (“a CAKE without wheat, eggs, dairy or sugar???“), they have to actually taste it to believe it. Once they try the stuff, they are amazed and delighted, and I’ve gained many repeat customers that way.

How did you know this was the right business for you? Do you believe you were born an entrepreneur?
While I wasn’t a born entrepreneur by any stretch of the imagination, I was practically born a baker. I’ve been baking since I was six years old. I’ve experimented with virtually every kind of dessert you can think of. When my own health issues forced me to stop baking “traditional” desserts with “conventional” ingredients, I had to experiment to see what I could come up with to satisfy my own sweet tooth.

I discovered that I LOVE creating new recipes, and, thankfully, I’m really good at it. So far, I haven’t met a dessert recipe that I couldn’t convert to a healthy, vegan version. I have the heart of a scientist in this regard, as I love to play with the chemistry of baking and the different reactions between ingredients to allow for delicious substitutions that are as good as, or better than, the original recipes.

As to the entrepreneurial part of it, that came with the territory: if I wanted to run a business, I had to learn how to be an entrepreneur. Some of it I still dislike (pushing myself to make cold calls, or keeping up with paperwork), but I do love the “getting out there” and meeting people, giving informational talks to the public, doing recipe demos, being part of food events like the annual Vegetarian Food Fair here in Toronto, and so on.

What’s the best thing about owning your business? What has been your greatest accomplishment?
I love the flexibility, the creativity, and the autonomy. My greatest accomplishment? Besides the great feeling of hearing back from happy customers, the one mom who told me (after I made her daughter’s birthday cake for her 7th birthday), “This is the first year EVER in her life that my daughter was able to have a cake that looked like a regular birthday cake, and could share it with all of her guests.“

What’s the hardest thing about owning your business? What has been your greatest challenge?
I think I covered the hardest part above, in what I dislike. The greatest challenge has been moving from being in the red to being in the black–my business still does not turn a profit, despite rave reviews and loyal customers.

If you could go back in time, what would you do differently?
I’d find a business partner who had skills different from mine, and more money to invest.

What one piece of advice would you give to an aspiring entrepreneur who would like to start this same type of business?
The food business is HARD. The profit margin is tiny (and even tinier with organic ingredients), and you have to be willing to work 16 hour days for several years before the business can hold its own. If I were 20 years younger, I’d still be doing the wholesale. I firmly believe that I have a great product and it could be an incredible success. I’m just trying a different course to reach the same result. It’s been said before, but if you really believe in what you’re doing, don’t give up. As Jack Canfield tells us in The Success Principles(TM): How to Get from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be (a book I highly recommend, by the way), “Persistence is probably the single most common quality of high achievers.” It’s amazing how many ultra-successful people got that way after a huge number of failures, but just didn’t give up until they made it in the end.

What can we look forward to from your company in the future?
Waaaay in the future, I’m hoping to open a bake shop and sell directly to the public. For the time being, I’m working on a cookbook.

Anything else you’d like to share?
Although I developed a successful career as a teacher before I created Bake It Healthy, I experienced more joy and felt more devotion to my career in the two years I ran the baking business than in my entire teaching career. Why? Because I’ve always LOVED baking. Even now that I’ve had to move to part-time baking (in order to pay the bills), my focus is still firmly on my company, and I spend most of my waking hours thinking about how I’ll get back to it full-time. This, even though I have never been so physically exhausted as I was when running the business, and never had to deal with so many new learning experiences or challenges as I did then.

If you have something you love to do, and your heart and passion are truly directed that way, you MUST find a way to pursue it. To do less is to deprive yourself of some of the greatest satisfaction you will ever know; it also deprives the rest of us from experiencing your unique gifts.

How do we find out more?
Company is Bake It Healthy, www.bakeithealthy.ca. I also send out a monthly newsletter about healthy foods in general, including articles and new recipes every month, through my website Ricki’s Kitchen, www.rickiskitchen.com. To subscribe, send me an email at rickiskitchen (at) rogers (dot) com.

A while back, Ricki gave me a sampling of her baked goods. All I could say was “WOW!” The bars, muffins and cookies were so sinfully sweet, delicious and moist, I would never have guessed they were actually good for me (like entire servings of veggies). My discriminating husband loved the brownies and blondies best (he didn’t believe me when I told him they were made without “traditional” baking ingredients). It’s something you have to taste and experience for yourself.

Thanks again to Ricki for coming up with The Savvy Snippet!

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