Today we’d like to introduce you to Rochelle Wildey
Rochelle, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
My husband and I have been married since 2005 and lived in the area since 2011 with our 2 kids, Brandon and Alana. Our son has severe autism, LGS and other medical issues. With his conditions, I was not able to work outside of the home and I have always loved watching videos of people decorating cookies so I thought I would give that a try. It took well over a year for me to perfect my recipe for my cookies and my icing I wanted my items not only to look beautiful, but also taste amazing as well. I started with just word of mouth and as my skills as a decorator improved business started picking up tremendously. This business has allowed me to take care of our son and also help earn a little bit of extra income. As the years have progressed, I have switched gears a little bit and I don’t focus as much on custom decorated sets as I do working with travel agents, and those traveling to the area to go to the theme parks. The majority of my orders now go to the area resorts for people to enjoy. As our business has grown, our daughter Alana has become more interested in designing custom sets and images for us to put onto our Cookies and my husband has become my head Baker so that I can focus on just the decorating, marketing, delivering, social media aspect.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
As with any business, it has not been a smooth road. There are times during the year where sales are very low, ever since Covid there has been many more bakers come onto the scene so we have had to constantly be shifting to make our business stand out and be remembered so people come back to us. Being a home-based bakery does have its ups and downs. There are times we are up late at night finishing orders because we had to help our son during the day with his needs or if he was having any seizures. We are also being cost conscious with rising ingredient costs.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I own a home based bakery, located in Davenport specializing in custom decorated sugar cookies. We do offer a few other items other than our decorated sugar cookies such as gourmet stuffed cookies, cookie cakes, chocolate, covered items and lunchbox tarts just to name a few. I’m most proud of my family and how supportive they always are and how much more of a family business this has become rather than just my business. I think what sets us apart from others is the flavor of our cookies. It is not a traditional sugar cookie flavor, and people are surprised by that and absolutely love it and keep coming back for more. The sugar cookies that we do that’s what we get the most rave reviews about is the flavor.
Is there any advice you’d like to share with our readers who might just be starting out?
My advice is to just keep going. This type of business takes a long time to be successful, which is something I wish I would’ve known when I started it eight years ago. I thought I would have orders pouring in from my first day and it takes roughly about 1.5 years to build a clientele and then another year on top of that to even start to see a profit. Had I known all of that when I started it would have helped me plan my business outlook, a little bit better.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://Pixiedustcookies.com
- Instagram: https://Instagram.com/pixie.dust.cookies
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/15sh1FCtUk/?mibextid=wwXIfr
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@pixiedustcookies
