Today we’d like to introduce you to Kayla Lewis.
Hi Kayla, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I first started Kaylas Kakery when I was 13 years old, in my last year of middle school during COVID. I have loved baking for as long as I can remember; I watched endless YouTube videos about baking, just for fun at first. But when COVID happened and I was isolated from a lot of my friends and family, I figured that, in order to reconnect with my community and give myself something to do outside of school, I would make doing what I love the center of my life.
In the beginning, it was mostly just family and friends ordering, but it meant a lot to me, and it was a great way for me to build up to expanding my customer base. What really allowed me to reach a larger group of people was mentoring with a fellow business owner who was holding a summer camp for aspiring entrepreneurs. That experience really helped me build my confidence and mental toughness. I would go out for hours every week and sell my desserts at the harbor with my little basket, and I sold out every single time. That was the start of me becoming more confident as a business owner and learning that my customers were waiting for me—I just had to find them.
Life was changing very quickly for a 13-year-old girl with so many dreams and aspirations, and prioritizing my academics eventually forced me to close down my business for a while. But in my freshman year of college, I reopened and gave Kaylas Kakery a fresh start. I really started putting myself out there again: selling with my pink cart at the harbor, going to different buildings on campus, doing markets—anything I could do to spread the word about my business.
I went from being a little girl just doing what she loved to a young adult who wants to develop something sustainable that my family and I can enjoy. I have hit some milestones that are very important to me, and I still have so much to achieve, but I couldn’t be more proud of myself and thankful to everybody who has supported me along the way.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
It definitely hasn’t been a smooth road. Even though I am very happy to be the owner of Kaylas Kakery, I’ve had to push through some tough times to keep going.
In the beginning, my parents were supporting everything I did. I didn’t have any outside employment, so all of my ingredients, packaging, transportation, and events were covered by my parents, which I’m so thankful for. But transitioning out of that, and being a college freshman without a steady income once again, definitely was a struggle.
Just like when I first started high school, I was trying to balance being a student and a business owner, which I’d done before but on a much smaller scale. Being a pre-nursing student was sure to clash with running a bakery at times, especially because I initially focused mainly on custom cakes and cupcakes. So, on a random Wednesday night, I would be decorating a cake for the next day and then studying for a biology exam an hour later.
I also wasn’t able to get an official website, signature packaging, or even some basic equipment that would make baking much easier until very recently, when I started working on campus. Now, I feel much more stable financially, but working on campus puts something else on my plate, so I’m balancing even more than I was before. Even simple things, such as creating a pickup and delivery schedule that doesn’t interfere with school or work, can be a tedious task.
Even now, I’m still constantly experimenting with different ideas and ways of operating. I think that’s one of the realities of owning a small business: there isn’t always a clear path, and I’m still learning what works best for both my customers and me.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
I am a home-based baker who specializes in from-scratch desserts, and currently, cookies have been my focus. But I have also offered cake jars, brownies, cupcakes, custom cakes, and more in the past.
What sets me apart from others is my commitment to having as much involvement in my business as possible, whether it be developing all of my desserts from scratch with quality ingredients, making my graphics by hand, or consistently showing my face online so that people know exactly who they’re ordering from. I’m also very hands-on when it comes to connecting directly with my customers, whether that’s through pickups and drop-offs, selling face-to-face at markets or at the harbor, or interacting with people through my social media.
My signature colors are soft pink and white. All of my packaging, including my boxes and labels, follows this theme, as well as my website and logo, and I think those details make a huge difference in creating a recognizable brand.
Most importantly, I want everyone to know that this is something I genuinely love to do and pour my all into. Money is not the only measure of success for me, and I think that mindset is reflected in every product I put out.
If you had to, what characteristic of yours would you give the most credit to?
If I had to choose one quality that is most important to my success, I would say discernment. As a business owner, you’ll hear many differing opinions from friends and family, as well as from social media and strangers you’re unfamiliar with. But you have to have the discernment to know when something is for you and when it isn’t. That applies to people, trends, events—every aspect of life.
There have been orders that I’ve turned down, trends that I’ve chosen not to participate in, and people that I’ve distanced myself from because I didn’t believe they represented me well as a business owner, and I don’t regret any of those decisions. It’s easy to do what everybody else is telling you to do, what’s going viral, or what’s going to make you the most money. But it’s difficult to maintain the integrity of your business and consistently give your community quality products, even when doing so costs more or is less popular.
I definitely want to be successful and create a steady stream of income without having to rely on a typical corporate job, but I also want to be confident in everything I’m putting out and in how I’m representing myself at all times. To me, success isn’t just about how much my business grows; it’s about being proud of what I’m building and knowing that it reflects my values.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://kaylaskakery.square.site
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kaylabakeskakes/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100026496221989&mibextid=wwXIfr
- Other: https://linktr.ee/KaylasKakery
