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Mrs. Erica’s Babycakes & Sweets offers good quality homemade cupcakes, cakes, and pies Detroit families love! Owner, Erica Stewart, is a featured move maker on our Motivational Entrepreneur List. Between family, clients and the less fortunate, Erica contributes to her community by baking smiles one cake at a time. For desserts Detroit families have grown to love, contact Mrs. Erica’s Babycakes & Sweets at (313) 748-3413.
Erica loves baking and creating foods that makes people happy. She began making homemade cupcakes, cakes and pies for family functions. Then one day, Erica’s sister asked her to make some homemade cupcakes to take to work to pass out to coworkers. Her sister proceeded to inquire on how much she would sell them for because her coworkers were interested in purchasing some desserts. Erica came up with a price and the ideas, orders, and customers kept coming!
Mrs. Erica’s Babycakes & Sweets became an official business in 2011, offering a variety of sweet treats, such as cupcakes, cheesecakes, pound cakes, chocolate covered Oreos and pretzels, and much more to Detroit residents. Erica makes everything from scratch, no short cuts. She is something like a perfectionist when it comes to baking and creating her homemade cupcakes. “If I don’t like it or wouldn’t want to present it, then I wouldn’t give it to my customers,” Erica explains. “Nothing leaves without my satisfaction, even if I have to redo it.”
In addition to selling homemade cupcakes, cakes, and pies, Erica keeps herself active with many activities with her family, part time work and volunteering. Erica volunteers with a mom group called 1 MOTHER 2 ANOTHER, where they help out at different organizations such as Gleaners and Ronald McDonald’s house cooking and packaging food. She also donates food/cupcakes for the homeless through her friend’s organization, We Are One Community Unity. “My faith, family, friends, and customers keep me going. I have a great support system that helps me when I need extra motivation!” – Erica
CHALLENGES TURN VICTORY
Erica overcame some challenges along the way. At the beginning, Erica would underprice her homemade cupcakes to the point where she found herself paying out of pocket. But no longer and now her business is funded by sales.
Another challenge Erica had to overcome was spending money on items that would not sell. In preparation for big orders, Erica would buy all the materials needed first, and then inform the customers of the price. When finding out the price, customers would downsize tremendously, which became very costly to Erica. After this kept happening, Erica found out about PayPal and created a business account, where she would create invoices that would have to be paid before she would begin orders. Erica stated this alone was the best thing to happen for her Detroit business of homemade cupcakes and sweets. It took away a lot of stress and saved a lot of money.
ADVICE TO OTHERS
“Be clear and concise about what your rules/guidelines. Don’t allow anyone to guilt you into doing/not doing things. You, your product, and your time are valuable. This is your brand, you are your first and best advocate.” – Erica
FUTURE GOALS
Erica is currently working on getting her website up and running for her business. Erica is looking to start shipping her Detroit homemade cupcakes soon, as well as searching for a store front.
SUMMARY
Mrs. Erica’s Babycakes & Sweets offers a variety of desserts:
- Homemade cupcakes
- Pound cakes
- Cheesecakes
- Pies
- Chocolate covered Oreos
- Chocolate covered pretzels
- Chocolate covered strawberries
- Red velvet cake
- And more!
Mrs. Erica’s Babycakes & Sweets offers good quality homemade cupcakes, cakes, and pies Detroit families love! Owner, Erica Stewart, is a featured move maker on our Motivational Entrepreneur List. Between family, clients and the less fortunate, Erica contributes to her community by baking smiles one cake at a time. For desserts, Detroit families have grown to love, contact Mrs. Erica’s Babycakes & Sweets at (313) 748-3413. She’s Baking Smiles One Cake @ A Time!
