We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Claire Woller a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Claire, thanks so much for taking the time to share your insights and lessons with us today. We’re particularly interested in hearing about how you became such a resilient person. Where do you get your resilience from?
For me, starting a business at 14 has not been easy. On top of all my extra curriculars and high school activities, finding the time to pursue my passions has been very difficult. While surrounded by people who love and support me very much, it can still be difficult to feel like owning a successful bakery is possible for me. A lot of my failures and mistakes have been an incredible learning opportunity for me, but that does not negate the hit these failures can take to my confidence and hours of sleep. I love doing what I do. Getting to interact with customers at farmers markets and other venues feels incredibly fulfilling and what I am meant to do. I love every part of my work that allows me to provide a service to someone that they wouldn’t be able to find elsewhere, such as gluten free freshly baked deserts. Yet when I’m faced with the limitations of my schedules and the lack of time required to complete everything, it can be exhausting. I try my hardest to give each and every customer the best quality of goods that I can. Through these years of high school I have learned that I cannot do everything, I can’t be in the musical, speech, show choir, student council and also bake 48 cookies in a school week. But, because my business is what gives me so much joy, I will never stop this part of my life. I have failed, many times, and when that happens I pick up a new cookie and start decorating again (even if it’s already one in the morning).
Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?
I love my work as a small business owner. I like to define my brand as, whatever you want, I can make it come to life for you. I make primarily gluten free baked goods now, but finely decorated sugar cookies are always where my passions lie. The most common comment I get when people see my cookie art is , “that must have taken you so much time, I couldn’t eat it!”. And I always have to respond with, “that’s the fun part!” Because for me, the fun part is trying art I can create on a cookie along with the joy it gives my customers to see ornately decorated cookies. For them, the fun part of eating it! I love to improve my skills and try new things on every order. I try my best to give each customer that joy of seeing their vision come to life for their event. This business idea started when I first made butterfly cookies just to try my hand at “fancy decorating”. When my parents saw how excited I was about this new hobby, they were supportive of my hopes to sell at a farmers market in North Mankato. Before I could drive, before I had a logo or even a tent to sit under, my mom came with me every week and they have both supported me in countless ways these past years. I am so incredibly thankful to the people who purchased cookies from me in the beginning, knowing I was still learning the ropes of decorating. Despite my horizons widening to cupcakes, cakes, decorated macarons, and millions of other types of cookies, I still love to sit down at the table and use the talents I have been honing to make a perfect set of cookies, one at a time.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
My mother owns her own photography studio, Woller Photography, and her experience with being an entrepreneur has provided me with valuable advice and support throughout my journey. She has helped me through the difficulty of figuring out how much my time is worth, and the incredibly hard decisions of what to price my goods. Without her backing me up, and validating my hundreds of hours spent on each order, I would not be willing to price my goods according to the labor that went into each one- which is a timeless struggle all business owners have.
My creativity has been a muscle I have been thankful to keep exercising through my baking. I love to try new things and am constantly trying to do new things and am experimenting with making the best gluten free baked goods I can (which is often hard to find!).
I am wholly dedicated to providing the best customer service that I can when interacting with anyone at a market. I care deeply about my work, and the people who I meet. I am sure that my experience with farmers markets has improved my soft skills of communication and problem-solving, but I have always been an extrovert who love talking with people.
Any advice for folks feeling overwhelmed?
I often do feel overwhelmed. The things that I am involved in, however, are all things I love. When deadlines are approaching and tasks are piling up, it’s very easy for me to feel like it’s impossible for me to accomplish everything to the best of my ability. When I am feeling overwhelmed, the first thing I always do is take just five minutes to sit and relax— not on my phone just simply sitting without any distractions. I accomplish the things most pressing from smallest to biggest. For me, getting a small task completed will feel better than getting a little bit done on a big task. And as the task list gets shorter, I have more hope to finish everything I need.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/claires_confections22?igsh=MjRpd2FqanNyMWY4&utm_source=qr
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/18sAfGymH2/?mibextid=wwXIfr
Image Credits
Woller Photography, Denice Woller
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