Check Out Brandon and Nikki Alexander’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to Brandon and Nikki Alexander. 

Hi Brandon and Nikki, so excited to have you on the platform. So, before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today.
I (Nikki) started baking cookies after we had our fourth son, Rylan, in 2016. I was diagnosed with Postpartum Depression and was in a really dark place contemplating life. I took a cookie decorating class at my church and really enjoyed it! My cookies were SO ugly and Brandon, my husband, never lets me forget that! I remember thinking that I could totally make a business out of this with a lot more practice, so I did! I would stay up at night and bake during those first few months of Rylan’s life. It was just me and the mixing bowl playing my worship music. Baking became a therapy for me. Most days, I could hear the devil so loud in my head, and baking was a way to let all my emotions out and think through things. I ran our business out of our home until 2021, when we really felt God nudging us to open the bakery. A studio space opened up at the Morrow Arts Center, and all it took was a tour of the building and meeting the owners to make us fall in love with the space!!! It was never my dream to make cookies for a living, but I love gathering people for fellowship and community. In those first few weeks, while we were getting the bakery ready to open, Brandon and I felt God calling us to use the bakery as our mission field to spread joy through cookies and make it a safe space for our customers to bring their mess and not be judged. Sometimes a coffee or a cookie is all you need to turn your whole day around. We opened January 23, 2021, and Brandon quit his full-time job in mid-March 2021 to join me at the bakery. That was even scarier than opening the bakery! Brandon was working nearly 100 hours a week painting cars, and we never saw him. He missed every activity the kids had and was seldomly home for dinner. Those first two months of opening the bakery were so hard with him working full time and me trying to manage all of the kids’ schedules, being at the bakery, and trying to find time to bake the cookies! We felt so at peace with this decision, and we knew the Lord would take care of us. 

Today, we run the bakery full time and have expanded to a larger variety of cookies and coffee drinks, as well as adding fun slushy drinks for summer! 

I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
One of the ongoing challenges we face is juggling finances. We didn’t start this business with a trust fund or really any money in the bank. We’ve grown this business slowly without loans or creating debt, all while trying to give back to the community we’ve grown to love so much. We love getting to change so many people’s days and build relationships with those in the community. Exhaustion is the other challenge. What I don’t think people know is we bake from scratch. None of our products show up on a delivery truck each day. Every recipe is 100% originally created by us. Every single cookie that goes into our store is made from scratch with love. We spend so many hours a week baking and decorating cookies, and that part is exhausting. Every iced cookie is decorated by hand; every gourmet cookie is scooped and molded by hand. We typically bake after our kiddos go to bed and are often up until 3 or 4 am baking. Thankfully we have some help baking the last few months which has helped tremendously! 

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
We specialize in soft, gourmet cookies! Some of our cookies include half-pound stuffed and jumbo cookies, buttercream sandwiches, and our famous, soft royal icing cookie. Everything we bake is from scratch with love. Every recipe is 100% originally created by us. Every iced cookie is decorated by hand, and every gourmet cookie is scooped and molded by hand. We are also known for our fresh cold brew and hot coffee. Our coffee is locally roasted by Script who put together a blend just for our store. We also love supporting other local business and offer a wide variety of locally made products, from chocolate-covered pretzels, jams, meat rubs, and BBQ sauce to tumblers and coffee mugs. 

Contact Info:

• Instagram: shopsweetjoy
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/shopsweetjoy

Image Credits
Heather Beckman Photography