Page 25 - EQ Magazine Issue #3

COVER STORY (CONT’D)
time I started making $1,300 in a month and thought I
was making a lot of money. My checks from my part-
time job was averaging $200.00 every couple of weeks.
And my baking orders was producing $1,000.00 a
month. I was like if I quit the part-time job and bake
full-time, I could make a lot more money. So, on my
21st birthday, I walked away from my part-time job and
never looked back.”
Usually, a job gives a sense of security, but for Autumn it
held her back from her potential. She took a risk and
plunged right in after she saw the money she could
make from baking cakes and cupcakes. With a simple
marketing move she began to realize her true potential.
Her business evolved beyond her initial goals.
“I decided to make an Instagram page; because I didn’t
have Instagram. I was just doing everything off of
Twitter. And I knew that Instagram was like really big
for business but I didn’t like it because I didn’t post
pictures. But thought, if I’m in Instagram I can make a
cake page for my business. And it literally just took off
from there. I went from making $1,300.00 in September
to almost $9,000.00 a month by March. And I wasn’t
all that good. When I look back at the cakes that I was
doing my eyes start ‘bleeding.’ They were so terrible. But
today, I still have so many loyal clients, who trusted me,
grew with me and stuck with me throughout that phase
of my journey. And I’m very grateful for that.“
[As seen on Fox 8 News, Cleveland, Ohio]
From that simple Instagram page her clientele grew so
much that she decided she wanted to have her own
storefront bakery. She very wisely became frugal and
saved all the money she could in an effort to get the
storefront she wanted. There was an advantage to her
saving more money because her mother had all the
equipment that was needed to run a bakery. That was
money she didn’t have to spend, she told me. Before
long she had saved $20,000.00. In the middle of her
looking for her own store, the encouragement from her
grandmother meant so much when she told her that if
this is what she wanted to go for it. She shared that by
the time she saw the 2,000+ square foot building she
wanted to buy, her bank account had grown to about
$26,000.00. With an additional $10,000.00 loan
Autumn knew that she had enough money to put down
on the building she desired. Not a person to give up,
Autumn said, “The building was in a residential zone
and not in a retail zone. So, right before, completing the
transaction, I consultant a Realtor. I thank God for my
realtor. He looked into it. He said we had to go to court
to get this approved which took months. I went and
viewed the building in December; and we didn’t get the
final approval until April. But my landlord, also had faith
that they were going to approve it. After he’d seen my
work, and after he had seen my vision, he really wanted
me in his building. And also, instead of me buying it,
24 | www.equitymovement247.com
he’s letting me rent it with option to buy. It’s really nice.
She stated that if she buys the building this year, the
seller will take $20,000.00 off the asking price.
This business savvy young lady with her own building
attributes her mother for passing on her entrepreneurial
spirit and positive outlook on life. But when asked about
the vision she has, it’s her own unique vision: “My
mother is very, very nice. I’m a lot stricter than my mom
when it comes to the way I do my business. She’s
extremely nice, but I’m a lot more business-like.” Her
mom and grandmother wanted her to take the bakery’s
original name “Baby Cakes” and just rebrand it. She
told them that she couldn’t do that, “That’s not me…it’s
gotta be mine.”
When asked about her vision for the future of the
bakery, Autumn quickly and excitedly shares that she
wants to expand her bakery to other locations. One city
she wants her bakery in is Cincinnati. She even used the
word global when looking into the future of her
business. Interestingly, she revealed that her original
business idea was to open up a smoothie bar. She
always wanted to do smoothies. “That’s what I was
working on and I have a recipe book, I have a name, I
have everything for it. I was ready to go. The only thing
was I didn’t have the money. And after a while I just got
totally fascinated with baking and I scrapped my book. I
still have it though. That’s what I plan on doing next.
When my baking business is very successful that’s what I
plan on doing next. To get my beverage bar, that what I
call it.
When asked if she was able to influence other young
people like her she admits that she was the youngest
baker she saw on Instagram. She was just 21. But when
her peers saw what she was doing and that she was
successful, she began seeing more of her peers baking
and even contacting her for advice. She even has
classes for those interested in baking, and she employs
family members and young teens to assist her in her
profession, paying them for their services.
I asked her that as a second generation family
businesswoman what is her dream for her family into
the future. In her own words, “I want to make my
family, not proud…I want to make my family successful.
I want everybody in my family in position just to win; so
we can all win together. I want to put my family in a
good financial situation, whether they want to bake or
do something else that I can help them with.”
For an evolving millennial in this 21st century she gave
age old advice for any other young person seeking to
become an entrepreneur, “I would really just say not to
give up and to be patient with learning whatever your
craft may be…perfect your craft and not try to keep up
with other people. Just don’t give up.”