Counselor Cakes in the Money with Baking Biz

This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.

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So we begin today's episode. I wanna say a special happy birthday to my sister, Mary Yellaboe. She is also a side hustler, by the way, owner of a website called marbosynth.com. That's Marbo, M-A-R-B-E-A-U, Synth, S-Y-N-T-H.com. She sells gear for musicians that she describes as primitive technologies to deliver odd sounds and super playable devices.

This is a one woman operation run out of her home in Oregon. So shout out to Mary, she's not a sponsor. She's just my sister, you know, so I can do that. I am grateful for her. I am grateful for you, my listener.

Thank you for being out there as well. And in today's story, our side hustle story of the day, when her world is turned upside down from COVID-19, a grief counselor takes a deep dive into her old hobby of baking. Suddenly she has more inventory than she knows what to do with. So she teams up with her husband and they set out on a wistful journey. We're going to go on this wistful journey together.

Counselor cakes in the money with Baking Biz. That's the story that's coming up after this message from our sponsor, our actual sponsor. Okay, stay tuned. [Music]

And Marzlin has been baking ever since she could remember. She even worked in a bakery when she was in college.

10 years after that college gig, Anne was an established professional in the field of hospice care and grief counseling. Although she still loved baking, that was just a household hobby. Then the coronavirus pandemic hit, you know which one I'm talking about, and Anne saw her professional world turn upside down. Suddenly her career working directly with patients was severely impacted. That meant she was spending a lot more time at home.

And like so many other people who were suddenly homebound, she started to bake, a lot. One day she filled the kitchen table with lemon blueberry whoopie pies right next to where her husband Paul was taking calls on Zoom. Those pies were delicious, but they had way too many and needed to find somewhere for them to go. That's when Paul suggested that they try to sell them. Anne, however, was apprehensive.

She didn't think that this was a unique product in any way because she said anyone could bake. Besides, they didn't know anything about the food business. But Paul was convinced. Not only was Anne a great baker, but whoopie pies were a pretty uncommon dessert. I just like saying whoopie pies, by the way.

Whoopie pies. Paul believed that the amazing taste combined with their uniqueness could result in a profitable venture. The couple agreed that Anne would do the baking and Paul would focus on selling. The following Wednesday, he sent out an email to their family and friends to gauge interest. The response was overwhelming.

Within 10 minutes, they had their first sale. Within a few hours, they had sold all 72 pies they were planning on baking. That would be whoopie pies, to be precise. Paul determined the price by adding up all the items they had to purchase, ingredients, tin foil, boxes, and labels, then divided it by how many treats they were making for that batch. From there, he multiplied it by the quantity of treats they would fit in the box and then multiplied that amount by four.

You notice that? He's basically taking all their costs, putting them together, and then multiplying by four. And that way, they were getting the most bang for their bake. They made enough money to cover the less identifiable costs like marketing samples, electricity, et cetera, and have enough left over to profit. After that first week's blazing whoopie pie success, they tried to repeat it the following week.

But guess what? Although they had some positive response, it was nowhere near the level of interest for the initial week. Bummer. Were they a one whoopie wonder? They knew they had to figure out a way to keep their customers engaged.

That's when Paul and Anne decided that they would raise the stakes. From then on, they would make two different treats each week. In addition, they also expanded their products beyond whoopie pies to all kinds of other baked goods. Why not? In the end, they offered a choice of treat A, treat B, or a combination box with various surprise items every week.

They were happy with this decision, especially because it allowed Anne to mix up what she was baking. But it still didn't boost sales, at least not by much. Simply put, to get more traction, they had to reach more people. First, they thought of other friends and family they could add to the email list. Soon after, Paul and Anne created social media accounts for their business.

They began posting pictures of these sweet creations on Instagram, along with the link to order. Now at that point, their ordering system consisted of a Google Form where customers could place their orders, then they would be directed to a link to pay with PayPal or Venmo. Paul says that, although it was low-tech, it ended up being pretty efficient. Since then, they've switched to Squarespace and created a fully-fledged website for their business, now called The Whispful Baker. The couple wanted the name they chose to encapsulate the warm feelings of biting into your favorite dessert.

Mmm. They also liked that it was simple enough to understand, but complex enough to make people pause. Did you pause there? I just felt like I should while I was telling the story. In addition, they stopped offering those combination boxes.

Why? Well, they were fun to make, but they became too much work to determine the pricing, and the couple wanted to streamline their process as much as possible. Now, around a year into their side hustle, Anne and Paul are bringing in about $800 a month from The Whispful Baker. This all comes from people who are within driving distance in their hometown of Raleigh, North Carolina. While they say it's not enough for them to change careers, the extra money has been wonderful.

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Now, here's a fun fact for you. Four states claim to have been the place where whoopie pies were invented. Whoopie pies, remember, it's just fun to say. Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, and Pennsylvania. However, only one state claims the whoopie pie as their official state treat, which is a real thing, by the way.

Every state has an official state treat, or at least many of them do, and that state would be Maine. Now, Paul and Anne are not in Maine. They happen to be located in North Carolina, but if you perhaps are in their area, check out Whispful Baker on Instagram, and you can get 15% off your first order. They have recently added coffee and apricot oatmeal cookies to the menu, so lots of good stuff happening there. Hope you enjoyed thinking about whoopie pies along with me.

Inspiration is good, but inspiration combined with action is so much better. To find the show notes for today's episode, go to sidehustleschool.com/1583, that is 1583. If you've got a comment or question for the show, just come to sidehustleschool.com/questions. Thank you so much for joining me. I hope you'll come back tomorrow.

You can subscribe on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you prefer to listen. My name is Chris Guillebeau. This is "Side Hustle School." [Music]

- From the Onward Project.