Today we’d like to introduce you to Loreana Ramirez
Hi Loreana, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
We started in 2020, with no money in our accounts to take courses or make investments, but we had a lot of confidence in ourselves. We knew that if we put all our effort into this project, we would take it far.
I started studying and practicing with YouTube videos, recipes from the internet, and practicing every day. I managed to save some money and invested it in a personalized cheesecake course since we wanted to focus on that dessert. We wanted it to be our signature dessert. After taking the course and practicing a lot, I opened my Instagram account @somosvanilla and started offering them.
We created a special box called “VanillaBox,” and that box started spreading all over Orlando. It was a box with four posters, with four cheesecakes of different flavors, for example, passion fruit cheesecake, Nutella, Ferrero, and coconut (we had many more flavors). This box helped us get many customers and grow faster than expected in the market. Some time later, my best friend asked me to make her a specific birthday cake. We took photos of it, uploaded it to social media, and from then on, it became our true signature dessert. These are the much-loved “Vanilla Capitas.” We are pioneers in Orlando in making this type of cake, as our signature recipe is completely different from the traditional one. A few months after the business was up and running, we found out we were becoming parents, and three months later, we also learned that our son was suffering from a fairly serious condition. This forced me to shut down my business for a full year. We lived in the hospital with my son until his last day. However, I never disappeared from social media and always updated my followers on Instagram. A few times during those months, I also traveled to Orlando just to work on orders and clear my mind a bit (my son’s hospital was in St. Petersburg).
My son died on November 12, 2021, and by November 17 of that same year, we were already taking orders again. My customers were a great help in keeping my husband and I from drowning in depression over the loss of our son.
Today, four years later, we’re still here with our business, two children, a daughter (Hannah) and a son (Thiago), and together as a family, building this business we promised our firstborn would take far in his name.
We’ve been running this wonderful business for five years now, which has allowed us to meet and connect with wonderful people, helped us support our family, and has pushed us to always move forward no matter what. We continue to pursue our flagship product, which five years later is still “VanillaCapitas,” but of course, we sell other types of desserts, have retail outlets, and many surprises will soon be coming for our customers, all of whom we’ve worked so hard to achieve.
Thank you for allowing us to tell our story through this medium and to be an inspiration and motivation for others.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
It hasn’t been an easy road; there have been many ups and downs. We’ve learned that one of the most important things about being a business owner is making good decisions and not getting carried away by the emotions of the moment. Sometimes those emotions can lead to the worst decision.
Without a doubt, the biggest obstacle was the loss of our son. However, as I mentioned, our clients were a great help. Working helped us take our minds off things, especially because it’s something we’re passionate about.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
We specialize in cheesecakes and cakes in many different shapes and sizes with many types of fillings. We also make many other desserts such as tres leches, chocolate volcanoes, lemon pie, passion fruit pie, brownies, and mini desserts. We don’t make cakes with elaborate decorations; we focus on basic decorations.
We have a point of sale where customers can get the full variety of slices we have from Monday to Monday. We take pre-orders for meetings, parties, birthdays, or even offices. On important dates, such as December, we cater desserts for corporations and take care of those little gifts that bosses often want to give their employees.
Are there any important lessons you’ve learned that you can share with us?
For us, customer service is the most important thing. It’s what we care about the most because thanks to them, we grow every day. We have an incredible community, as we treat and serve them so they always come back, and of course, by delivering a good product.
But we’ve also learned a lesson that not all customers will have the best attitude or response, no matter how well you treat them. This doesn’t mean that the product isn’t good or that the treatment wasn’t right. It just means that we’re not all the same, and that was hard for us to understand.
Pricing:
- 8$
- 10$
- 45$
- 74$
- 95$
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.somosvanilla.com/home
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/somosvanilla?igsh=MTdicmNycHlqY2pjZQ%3D%3D&utm_source=qr
