Icing on the Cake

Patty Newkirk was not a cake lover--she always preferred pie-- until her daughters, Laurie and Nancy, graduated from college and started looking for careers. They began experimenting with recipes 15 years ago and making customized cakes for their friends, then opened a store in Long Beach. They have been so successful that their customers begged them to expand. This year, mother and daughters decided to franchise their concept. Patty Newkirk was interviewed by Karen E. Klein.

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The girls would come home weekends and make things for their friends. They came up with some recipes that were very popular, so we made up a flier: “Whatever your theme, we’ll whip up a dream.” One friend would tell another friend and pretty soon we were running a business.

We each put in $3,000 to buy some equipment and lease a store. Every month of every year our business grows. It’s exciting, but you get tired. People have been asking us to open more stores for years, but we realized it was beyond our capability. Running one store is plenty of work.

People come from all over to buy our six different cakes and our cookies and dessert bars. Since they are frozen, they can pick them up whenever it’s convenient and we ship them all over the country.

We had considered franchising before, but we were scared. We didn’t know who to trust, especially since our recipes are very precious to us. People will buy cute once or twice, but if the cakes don’t taste wonderful, they won’t come back.

Then early this year we had dinner with a mentor who had just met a man who set up franchises for a living. We called him and he came to look at the store, thinking it was just another bakery. When he saw our concept, he got really excited.

Since then, we have been drawing up contracts and writing many, many procedure books. Everything has to be written down.

To protect our recipes, we had a company analyze them and package the dry ingredients in full- and half-batch packages, so the franchisees will simply follow the instructions for adding the eggs and the liquids.

We have always been very, very fussy about the quality and the presentation of our products, so we will teach the franchisees how to make and decorate the cakes and then travel around doing quality control. The last thing we want is to have our reputation ruined.

We have already sold one store--to an existing customer who got wind of the franchising plans before we had even announced them. Two other potential franchisees are seriously interested.

When we started, we thought this would be something we would do for two or three years, then the girls would find husbands and we’d close up shop and all live happily ever after. Well, here we are 15 years later still at it.

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If your business can provide a lesson to other entrepreneurs, contact Karen E. Klein in care of the Los Angeles Times, 1333 S. Mayflower Ave., Suite 100, Monrovia, CA 91016, or send e-mail to kklein6349@aol.com. Include your name, address and telephone number.

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AT A GLANCE

Company: Creative Cakery

Owners: Patty, Nancy and Laurie Newkirk

Nature of business: Customized gift bundt cakes

Location: 636 Redondo Ave., Long Beach

Founded: 1983

Employees: 10

Annual sales: $600,000