对于我们可能的小企业聚光灯，我们与Rebecca Pham交谈过的所有者贝嘉蛋糕.
贝嘉蛋糕prides itself on making breathtaking and uniquely designed wedding and event cakes that are both high-end and whimsical. Established in November 2017, this quickly growing Houston-based business (with a storefront coming soon) is one you won’t want to miss!
你能告诉我一些关于你所做的和提供的东西吗？
Right now, I do mainly wedding and event cakes, dessert bars, and things like that. We are in the process of opening a bakery so we can get into more retail—including cakes, cupcakes, macarons, cookies, and things like that—so we can expand our brand.
I guess for my business, we really like to do more artistic, high-end designs that are whimsical and floral-inspired … things that are really pretty and different from what you’d get from a traditional bakery.
我们也从头开始做一些新鲜的一切。我们希望一切都味道伟大，看起来很好。
How did you get into baking and decorating?
我曾经在学校工作过办公室工作。我不是训练有素的糕点厨师，但我总是有一个巨大的甜食，并且一直是创造性和艺术的。我一直都是绘画和缝纫，以及其他随机，狡猾的东西。
我的妹妹和我会烘烤很多，看着老板。在成长，我们会玩东西像试图制作自己的软糖一样，当我变老时，我有点忘记了它。
一旦我开始在办公室工作9-5个工作岗位，我会回家并需要事情要做。所以，当涂糕点和蛋糕来时，我将它恢复了备份，然后开始学习更多关于不同艺术家的更多信息。
I am mainly self-taught. I’ve also done mentorships and workshops with well-known and famous cake designers. I have training when it comes to sugar flowers and modern cake techniques. So while I’m not a pastry chef, I have some background in it.
In my local industry (bakery), I was really able to grow a lot and succeed because the market was really traditional, so nobody was really doing what I was doing. It was something new and fresh to my local market. I was really lucky to be able to grow my business really quickly, and now we’re opening a shop, so it’s been a whirlwind.
What’s your favorite part of running your own business?
我最喜欢运行我的业务的部分是让自由做我爱的事情，同时也是为了谋生。我也喜欢能够为我的客户提供服务，并在我的团队中拥有人们。我有员工，我真的可以训练，它给了他们一个创造性的出口，他们可以成长和享受。
这不仅仅是我们在装配线上的面包店。我希望能够教导和成长，并给予人们一个成长的地方。这是一种创造性和有趣，而不是你的常用工作。
What are some of the biggest challenges of being a business owner?
对我来说，最大的挑战是在管理方面：如何做工资的东西;如何提交业务事物;一切的法律方面，如同合同;确保你正常做得正常;并做你的税收。对于我来说，没有去商学院或在之前运行业务 - 这是一项挑战。
How many hours do you typically work per week?
我们可以在每周40-60小时的任何地方工作。它真的取决于我们的工作量以及我们正在进行的事件。
在休斯顿，我们的婚礼季节在凉爽的月份，春天和秋天，夏天真的很慢。夏天是行业中很多人的假期。事情很忙，我们有时会在一个周末有三四个婚礼。
爱国者的Payroll软件如何帮助您运行您的业务？
它真的很容易使用，我真的很高兴找到了爱国者的软件。vwin彩票开户我觉得它在你把员工进入的方式都很简单，以及它们如何在他们的手机上进入他们的时间。我们都可以批准时间，他们可以看到他们的工资存根，这一切都是作为雇主和他们作为员工的薪酬。
一切都在一个地方，所以在两端 - 雇主和员工都很容易使用 - 我不必专注于跟踪他们的时间。
How have you adapted business operations to handle things beyond your control, like the coronavirus?
So for us specifically, we’re lucky that we can still serve food. We were very quick to adapt. For me, my business relies on weddings and events, so when the CDC said no more events under 50 people, and then 10 people, all of our couples had to postpone or cancel their weddings.
I decided I would do small cake deliveries (contact-less and free locally) and adapt to something with a much quicker turnaround. Whether it’s birthdays or anniversaries, people are still celebrating.
我们从习俗蛋糕到小的个人蛋糕，人们可以在家享受或发送给他们的朋友。这一切都是惊人的，我的客户如何在与蛋糕的特殊场合令人震惊的朋友和家人。它允许我们在不相互看的情况下进行一些社交互动。
Adapting is really evaluating what you can and can’t do in your current situation. We have been getting so many orders every day—I was blown away at how people received it. Even other bakers locally were asking if they could copy my business model! If we’re lucky enough to work, we have to do what we can to pay rent and employees.
What are you most proud of when it comes to your business?
I’m most proud of how quickly it’s grown and how my community has received my business. Supported it so much in such a short amount of time. Being able to have loyal clientele, and continually grow, I feel really lucky that everything has been relatively smooth sailing since starting.
什么是您可以给予人们开始启动自己的事业的最佳建议？
My best piece of advice would be to really know your product or service—whatever you’re offering—and be really passionate about it. Think everything through and don’t be afraid.
Stand behind what you’re offering, and offer something true to you that you’re passionate about, and everything else can be learned and will fall into place.
Connect with Becca Cakes:
关于Patriot Software
在爱国vwin彩票开户者软件，我们致力于提供accounting and payroll softwarethat lets small business owners keep their time and money for what they love: running their business!Our #PatriotSpotlight customer success stories celebrate and inspire U.S. small business owners across the country.
