Published April 30, 2019
Tiffany Frelich of Green Bay calls herself the "cakerator," a custom baker and cake decorator all rolled into one. That skill is apparent in her business, Teddies Creative Cakes, a web-based bakery.
"In September of 2015, my life changed forever when my dad, Ted Giese, passed away after a short 34-day fight with lung cancer," Frelich said. "I was a daddy’s girl and took this very hard. My dad and I always joked about starting a restaurant; so, to deal with the void, I started this business."
Although trained as a medical assistant, she had years of baking experience and loved acquiring new techniques by watching demonstrations on YouTube and cooking shows. She spent hours experimenting and learned how to excel in baking everything from custom cakes to muffins to cookies. In April 2016, she decided to test the market.
"First, I took to social media," Frelich said. "I asked my followers, ‘Do you like this? What can I do differently?’ Basically, I was giving things away to see if this was going to work."
After getting overwhelmingly positive feedback, she started the business in April 2016. The word got out, and as orders increased, she decided to go all-in and formed an LLC in September. Along with her husband, David, she learned about regulatory issues and the hoops that must be jumped through to gain compliance. "It took a year-and-a-half to figure out what the laws are and what we can and can’t do," Frelich said.
There were surprises. Originally, she thought she could offer a bakery for special diets, such as gluten-free products, but that idea was abandoned when she found out that would require a separate kitchen. Since she doesn’t have a commercial kitchen in her home, she also had to rent kitchen space.
Then there were the ongoing tasks such as developing a marketing plan to gain brand recognition, finalizing a business plan, making up a pricing schedule, posting on social media, purchasing supplies, and learning more about the bakery business.
David works full time but spends his off-work hours helping Tiffany. Between them, she estimated that they are working 80 to 85 hours per week to launch the business. "He is the brains behind the computer aspects and developed our website and social media presence. I am a creative person," she said.
As the creator, Frelich has taken a long look at the competition and has found her niche. "I specialize in 3D custom cakes using multiple different mediums, and everything is 100% edible and made from scratch," she said. "I also create fun 3D figures I call ‘Little Teddies,’ edible figurines. I can replicate anything."
In addition, she says she has perfected a frosting that has all of her customers hooked. And, as evidenced by the more than 1,300 followers that "like" her Facebook page, customers are also drawn to the unique designs and quality of the products. The design aspect is also a challenge because Frelich loves intricate work and can get lost in perfecting a design. "The longest one took about 24 hours," she stated.
But spending that long on a design means it is impossible to be compensated for those hours. It is an area she needs to work on in order to have a profitable business. She has a computer program that helps with pricing, but when those hours are plugged in, the result is a price that customers would not be willing to pay.
She is working on speeding up the process while retaining quality. That will give her more time for attending cake conferences (she recently attended one in St. Louis), trying to get featured on food network shows, producing more videos, offering to sample and taking part in area trade shows and markets.
Recently, she met with Green Bay SCORE mentor Shirley VerBruggen to help fine-tune her business and is looking forward to gaining insight on the issues of pricing, work/life balance, and time management as she takes the business to the next level. "Within a year, I want to grow the business, be on a Food Network show, and have a following of 5,000 on Facebook," Frelich said.
"I specialize in 3D custom cakes using multiple different mediums, and everything is 100% edible and made from scratch. I also create fun 3D figures I call ‘Little Teddies,’ edible figurines. I can replicate anything."
Tiffany Frelich, the "cakerator"
Tina Dettman-Bielefeldt is co-owner of DB Commercial Real Estate in Green Bay and past district director for SCORE, Wisconsin.
Source
Green Bay Press-Gazette