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Meet Ebonie Carzo of Scrumptious Cakery in Decatur

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Today we’d like to introduce you to Ebonie Carzo.

Ebonie grew up in a bakery and although she loved indulging in her mom’s delicious cakes, she wanted to be different. She was going to go off to college, get a degree, and work for the government or in corporate America. Fast forward a few years…Ebonie moved from her little hometown of Greenwood, DE to the big city of Atlanta, GA in 2002 to attend Spelman College. She started baking in the basement of her dormitory to supplement college expenses and her retail income post-graduation, but she never intended to bake full-time.

While in college, Ebonie traveled the world, from China to South Africa and many places in between. She was on a quest to prove that local and state government support in building sustainable small businesses will stimulate any economy to improve living conditions for the masses. Her final thesis was a brilliant masterpiece that supported this theory based on her study and work exchanges abroad.

While in graduate school, Ebonie helped start a small business consulting firm with 5 of her fellow colleagues called Mastering Consults and Investment Group. Before its demise, the firm worked with more than 20 start-up companies across the country to help people with the basics in starting a business.

In August 2013, after working in corporate America for 6 years, Ebonie decided that in order to truly walk in her passion of helping start-ups and small businesses be successful, she needed to subject herself to the emotional and physical joys and pains of running a small business. At the age of 29, Ebonie gave up her company car, gas card, health insurance, and steady income to start a social experiment of the entrepreneurial journey.

The social experiment was set to prove that the business theories Ebonie teaches to her clients work and it laid the foundation for the fundamental skills needed to build a successful startup business. Ebonie’s consistent and quick success has led to a tremendous launch in her public speaking and advisory roles.

January 2018, marked Ebonie’s four-year anniversary of operating Scrumptious Cakery full-time. Scrumptious Cakery was awarded the Couple’s Choice Award as one of the Best Wedding Cake Bakeries in Atlanta for 2017 and 2018. She was voted in as the youngest Board Member to the DeKalb County Chamber of Commerce and sits as Madam Chair to the Young Professionals Committee for the DeKalb County Chamber of Commerce. She now has a wealth of knowledge and fire in her that she is sharing with entrepreneurs across the world!

Has it been a smooth road?
It has definitely not been a smooth ride! The most difficult struggle is money management while growing your business from the ground up. For some people, it may sound like common sense, but for people like me who were not taught money management at a young age, let alone how to manage business money, it has been very difficult. For instance, when I quit my corporate job, I had $25k saved up and no debt. However, in my first year of transition, several major financial events happened that quickly began chipping away at my savings i.e. the transmission in my newly bought car went up and it cost $4500 to repair. I also had to use those saved monies for living expenses because I had no other income and buy equipment and have enough working capital to fulfill weekly orders.

Fast forward four years later, I have learned that some things in the start-up phase are just unavoidable and when you make such a huge leap of faith like leaving the security of a corporate job to pursue your own venture, life has a way of testing you to make you stronger for the next phase. The top 3 things that I have learned regarding money management as a startup is

1) Hire an Accountant that specializes in small business, startups and has some high profile companies in their portfolio
2) Setup 3 Checking Accounts-one account is for your business transactions; second account is for your business savings; and the third account is for your personal use
3) Get used to moving your money around. In my line of business I get deposits daily, but I don’t know what my actual sales will be from week to week or when I’ll have a sale, so when you receive a deposit set a daily working capital amount for your business checking, mine is $200. Make sure you have the $200 there and transfer a percentage to your personal account (this can be living expenses unless you already have money set aside) and the remainder to your business savings account.

This does 3 things:
1-It allows you to always have cash on hand for business expenses
2-It allows you to have money for bills or personal use
3-It allows you to start saving money for future expenses

Another struggle has been managing customer expectations. I get this question all of the time from clients so here is what I’ve done. In my industry, it is incumbent of us to identify what the customers cake design is that they have in their head and execute that in real life. In the beginning this was a challenge, but now we have mastered it by implementing processes that leave no stone un-turned.

However, there will always be customers who are not satisfied with some part of your process. This weekend for example, a customer sent us a very disgruntled email stating that we were unprofessional and they were disappointed in us because we didn’t call them back ‘timely.’ Although, my assistant did call back within 24 hours and all correspondences from the previous month were answered within a few hours. Although, these types of accusations make me angry and frustrated, I always go above and beyond to take care of the customer. I don’t follow “the customer is always right” philosophy, but I do believe that you should protect the brand at all cost! So yes, I do go above and beyond to do whatever it takes (within reason) to take care of the customer. And in this situation on Tuesday morning, I received a thank you email from the customer. That is a win!

As a business owner, we have to learn to step back and realize that when a customer lashes out on us that it isn’t about us and to not take it personal. Sometimes you gotta just stand up, place one hand on the wall, take a deep breath, then call the customer and handle it head on!

We’d love to hear more about your business.
Scrumptious Cakery is an online concierge cake bakery based in Decatur, GA that specializes in couture custom celebration cakes and wedding cakes. Clients come from all over the country to order a custom cake for their special celebration. We pride ourselves on being a one-stop shop where additional custom desserts can be added to your order to make that picture perfect dessert table the talk of social media!

Scrumptious Cakery is also a baker to the stars of Atlanta, like R&B singer RL and Rapper Young Thug.

At Scrumptious Cakery, our mission is to grow and expand in order to employ as many people as possible. Yes, there are bakeries on every corner and in every grocery store in Atlanta, so what makes us different? Simply put, we pride ourselves on being Atlanta’s premiere cake bakery where we walk each customer through the process of designing the perfect cake that embodies the joy of their special celebration!

Scrumptious Cakery is a two-time winner of Wedding Wire’s Couple’s Choice Awards (2017-2018) and has been featured on RadioX, School for Startups Radio, and the DeKalb Chamber of Commerce Business Magazine.

Is our city a good place to do what you do?
I think Atlanta is an amazing place to start a business like mine. People think the market is over saturated with bakeries, but the reality is that the city of Atlanta is home to over 5 million people, that does not include the suburbs, which means, no one bakery can handle the demands of all the people in Atlanta, therefore, there are tons of opportunity to be successful. You have to be smart and find a lane that others are not occupying in order to set yourself apart.

Contact Info:

Image Credit:
Photographers: MRP Weddings Photo & Cinema, KNoelKreations, and VishionsHD Photography

Getting in touch: VoyageATL is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.

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