Today we’d like to introduce you to Jessica Martin.
Hi Jessica, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today.
I moved to Ohio in 2011 with my hubby and two kids, who were 3 and 6 months old. I was born and raised in Alaska, so I didn’t know a soul in Toledo beyond my husband and his family who I had met once. I met him when he was stationed in Alaska as a soldier, and we had a whirlwind romance that turned into marriage after 8 short months. After a tour in Iraq, he decided he wanted to move home to be closer to his mom, and I was ready for the adventure. I had a lot of free time in the first few years of being here as I am quite introverted and don’t make friends super easily so I watched a lot of TV. Cake Boss was very popular at that time, and I fell in love with the artistry of cakes. I decided to take an introductory class and while I don’t use any of the things, they taught me (they said people preferred Crisco over real butter in buttercream!!) The class reinforced my growing interest in decorating. I met a lady who had a successful cake business and around the time she decided not to do cakes anymore, she really started pushing me to start a business, after seeing the cakes I had done for fun, for family, and friends. While I had no idea what it meant to start a business, I took that leap of faith because it sounded like fun. I had been working a few desk jobs the first couple years here and felt no passion for anything I did, so I followed my heart, and eight years later, I cannot believe what I have accomplished! The business grew naturally and fast. By the end of year one I could not hold a desk job anymore as I got too busy with orders. Around year four an opportunity presented itself to open a store front, and again I took another big leap on faith and opened a shop. It was a truly grand grand opening. The mayor, who has been around for years, told me it was the largest grand opening he could remember attending in our little town of Rossford. About six months after opening is when the pandemic hit and that affected walk-in business. It became harder and harder over the next year to manage the storefront while taking custom orders and eventually made one of the most difficult decisions ever: to close the storefront. My heart simply was not in managing that space and it took the joy out of what I originally started the business for, to create art, not to simply make rent. I have been working out of my home ever since, and I love having total control over everything I do, taking exactly as many orders as I would like each week. It’s been a wonderful experience and journey to own this business!
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Other than opening the storefront right before Covid, in the beginning, I struggled a lot with what other people thought of my work. I was still so new and scared to make mistakes. When I got my first bad review online, I was SO upset for weeks; it completely shattered my confidence. As I have grown in skills over the years and grown as a person, I have come to realize that you cannot please everyone 100% of the time. I rarely ever get negative feedback but now when I do, I am able to shake it off quickly so say to myself, I knew that would happen. The more you deal with customers, the better your intuition gets at understanding who is going to be problematic and who is going to become an amazingly easy-to-please customer. I have learned how to say no immediately to some customers when I don’t like the way their inquiry feels.
As you know, we’re big fans of Crowned Cakes by Jess, LLC. For our readers who might not be as familiar, what can you tell them about the brand?
Around the time I started my business, I was really passionate about living a cleaner life. I went through a phase of making my own laundry detergent and toothpaste just to have the cleanest possible products. I decided to create my own cake and buttercream recipes based on this understanding of how many chemicals are put into things we use on a daily basis, including the food we eat. Half of my ingredients are organic, and the rest are the real thing, I like to say, “no fake in my cake.” Pure extracts, real fruits, nothing artificial including the colors I use in my buttercream. The one exception is the fondant that I use simply because there isn’t an organic option on the market, and I don’t have the time to make the amount needed each week from scratch. I tell those who don’t “like” fondant that they’ve probably had a bad experience with someone who didn’t know how to use it properly and put a very thick layer of low-quality fondant over a mediocre-tasting cake or they just haven’t had MY cake yet. I have the perfect balance of great tasting high quality cake, with several layers of buttercream in between, topped with a thin layer of fondant to give my cake that signature smooth look. When all else fails, I tell my customers… just peel it off 😉
Do you have any advice for those just starting out?
Everything I learned came from the experience of just doing it. I never have turned down an order that sounded like fun, even if I had no idea how I would do it. We live in a world of limitless YouTube tutorials and cake groups, there’s always answers for the basics. Even after eight years, I still question my pricing even though I know the proper way to calculate profits. You will always be on a learning curve in business; what was popular when I first started is totally different from what works today. Let your why and your vision guide you. I have never made a basic buttercream-decorated sheet cake, ever. I have always only wanted to do “cool” cakes and never found any joy in sheet cakes therefore I have turned down probably hundreds of orders over the years because it wasn’t what I wanted to do. Know what your brand is and stick by it.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.crownedcakesbyjess.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/crownedcakesbyjess
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/crownedcakesbyjess
