This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
Hey everybody, what's up? Welcome to Side Hustle School. My name is Chris Guillebeau. Welcome as well to our Throwback Thursday segment, also known as Where Are They Now? In this segment, we take an in-depth look at someone whose story has evolved since we first featured them.
Recent adventures in this segment have included neurogum, which is effectively performance energy in the form of chewing gum, a seven-figure handkerchief business that pivots to face masks during COVID, and eco-friendly candles that were featured on Good Morning America. They were also featured on Side Hustle School. I'm sure they were more excited about that than GMA, but hey, everything is good. Today in our latest feature, we'll visit Toronto, Canada, at least virtually, and hear from my favorite cake baker in the world. Her name is Karen Nguyen.
We first featured her in episode 944, I believe. I had the experience of enjoying an amazing custom cake decorated for my book when I was last in Toronto. I did an event for the "100 Side Hustles" book, and Karen came out and brought this incredible multi-tiered cake in the exact colors and style and design of my book cover, which was so cool. I got some great photos on my Flickr page, if you'd like to see. But for now, you can listen, because 944 was a while back, so let's hear directly from Karen with her updates, and I will come back at the end to wrap us up.
[Music]
My name is Karen Nguyen from Toronto, Ontario, Canada. My side hustle is Sweet Afternoon, and I was featured on episode 944. Sweet Afternoon is a home-based bake shop that specializes in baked goods and custom cakes. I had always been baking growing up, but one day I was just at home, and I felt this push to do something creative, and just like a lot of people, I went down this rabbit hole of watching YouTube videos and landed on some cake tutorials. I was like, you know what, let's give this a shot.
So I bought cake mix in whatever decorations that I could find at the grocery store, and made my first cake. I had so much fun, and I wanted to keep practicing, but because it was a lot of cake just for myself and my family, I decided to bring it into my workplace, and that eventually turned into making cakes for employees' birthdays, for any events that we had, any kind of lunch and learns, and then I started sharing my creations on Instagram, just to kind of have it as a place to share my creations, and the more people that found my Instagram, the more they would ask for them to order, and then two months later, of just putting all my creations out on social media, I got my first paid order, and the rest was kind of history. I continued to experiment with different desserts, different recipes, and was able to build a community, and a menu that I'm super proud of. When I first started Sweet Afternoon, and when I was last featured on the show, my main service with Sweet Afternoon was custom cakes, but because of the last year of the pandemic, and all the restrictions with events and gatherings, I had to really brainstorm how I could still serve my community and my customers. So I started to make these little mini cakes that would serve around two to three people, which was perfect because of all the limitations on gatherings and parties.
I thought quite popular on my social media, that I even launched a cake decorating product for many cakes, for other bakers in the community, or even in Canada and the US. I did well for a bit, but after some time, with some inconsistent sales, and less people getting together for events, or even celebrating, I decided to put cakes on hold, and started promoting specialty treat boxes. These boxes includes brownies, blondies, and what I'm actually known for now, which is a ruffled marshmallow treat, which is essentially a rice crispy made with potato chips. The best part of this shift is now that I can actually ship my product Canada-wide, and I'm not limited to just my local community. The name difference from before is now from offering cakes, is that I used to work, you know, early mornings, evenings, all weekends, just to prep and fulfill orders, but now with these specialty treat boxes, I only have to dedicate two weekends a month, but this actually still generates twice as much revenue as before.
I think the biggest challenge I'm currently facing now is keeping up with the demand, and being able to fulfill the capacity of orders I wish that I could. I'm super grateful that I have this problem, but since I don't have a team, or a commercial kitchen space, I'm limited to the amount of orders that I'm actually able to fulfill myself. I would say get on social media, and start posting photos and videos of what you're creating, and don't be afraid to share your journey, whether that be on Instagram, Facebook, or even platforms like TikTok. So many people wait until they have a logo, or curated a bunch of photos, have a website going, or they're afraid of not being perfect, but getting out there is much better than not at all. Especially for treats and baked goods, people want that social proof, so creating for family, your friends, and your coworkers to start, and having them share their feedback, you know, on Instagram or Facebook.
Especially in this day and age, I think it is important to get to know the person behind the brand, because at the end of the day, they are buying from you. So don't be afraid to share your ups and downs, because this will help build your community, and your local customers. [Music]
Awesome, thank you so much, Karen. Really appreciate those updates. I'm still thinking about that cake that you made back in Toronto, so hopefully I'll get a chance to visit again soon, and we can do it again.
I need to write another book so that she can make a new custom cake for me. By the way, here's a fun fact. Karen is also a power lifter who doesn't eat her own cakes. She, in addition to working her full-time job, and what is kind of a full-time side hustle now, like this is keeping her really busy, she's got so many orders, as mentioned in the episode, and also on her Instagram, which I'll talk about in a moment. She is also a power lifter, like someone who is lifting a lot of heavy weights, and going to competitions, and being coached every day, and it's pretty crazy.
So I don't know how she has time to do everything, and also not eat the cakes. That would be my biggest problem. But in any case, I'm grateful to her for helping us out with this segment. Check out sweetafternoonbakeshop.com. That's sweetafternoonbakeshop.com, or if you wanna see pictures of these beautiful creations, go to sweetafternoon on Instagram.
This was one of our most popular new features of 2020, Throwback Thursday. So as you have heard, we're gonna keep doing it this year as well. Let me know what you think and who you'd like to see featured. If you have a question, if you'd like to update us about your side hustle, just come to sidehustleschool.com/questions. This has been episode 1587.
Thank you so much for taking some time to join me today. I hope you're doing well wherever you are in the world. I hope you're also thinking about what you can do to get closer to a goal that is important to you. That's all for today, but I will be back again tomorrow. My name is Chris Guillebeau.
This is "Side Hustle School." [Music]
- From the Onward Project.
