Today we’d like to introduce you to Erinn Wilson.
Erinn, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
The idea for Bill & Bernies Baking Co. started during the Covid19 pandemic when I was locked up at home and wanted to cheer up family and friends with some homemade baked goods. Each time I sent some treats to my loved ones I kept hearing the same thing: “You really should sell these”. What grew from there was something I couldn’t have imagined. With more and more interest in my cookies I decided to start the business, get licensed, and use social media as my primary advertising strategy. Now I bake for all sorts of events: from bachelorette parties, to children’s birthdays, to corporate events. Each event is unique and no two designs are ever the same. It keeps me on my toes and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
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?
For the most part building out the business has been a smooth road, but don’t get me wrong I have faced my fair share of challenges. During the beginning years of my business I was going through IVF which severely complicated my ability to keep up with demand. Through 5 years of IVF there was many surgeries, procedures, a miscarriage, and now by the grace of God and the help of a wonderful surrogate, the birth of my son and maternity leave. With all of that I had to ebb and flow with the demand of the business, taking on orders when I was able and being willing to potentially lose business when I simply couldn’t take on anymore. That was inevitably challenging but I’m so grateful my clientele stuck with me and gave me the grace to do what I needed to do for my family.
The biggest lesson business wise I learned through that experience was to find ways to pivot. It taught me to reimagine the way I work and to figure out new strategies to plan ahead. I could design from the Ipad while laying in bed recovering. I could pre measure ingredients and prep for future orders when I couldn’t decorate cookies for hours on end. Finding those specific ways to pivot and rework my routine allowed me to keep things going even when it looked a little different than my usual workflow.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
My work is very specifically design focussed. I offer one product: sugar cookies. You don’t come to me for just an average cookie after school or when you’re craving something sweet, you come to me for your special event where you want the treats at your event to match the same aesthetic as the event itself. I am trained in design with a background in Interior Design and I pride myself on letting my creative artistic abilities be the reason you choose Bill & Bernies Baking Co. for your event.
While I love baking, the design element is where I truly thrive. I focus on taking any ideas you already have for a given event and finding ways to make the cookies you order add to the excitement. Clients typically send me inspiration images, party ware they plan to use, and decorations they have, in order for me to achieve a cohesion to their event. I have the ability to create custom shapes by 3D printing my own cookie cutters, match your exact color pallet through my color theory background when making icing colors, and even print imagery directly onto cookies with edible ink to ensure the cookies feel right at home at your party and are unique to your specific special event & theme.
I am always most proud of my holiday cookies. I am such a huge Christmas gal who enjoys the holiday season possibly a little too much. Every year I decorate to the nines and wear my Santa hat everywhere starting in November. I take huge pride in my Christmas cookies because they are such a labor of love. I look for ways to reimagine the typical holiday cookies we would make for Santa as kids; one year focussing on gingerbread house themed cookies, another year trying to see what Santa would look like delivering presents from a Vespa (as a cookie of course). Everything about the holiday season brings me joy. I love the color pallet, the smells of cookies in the oven, and the nostalgia that the season brings. I listen to all the classic holiday songs while I bake and decorate and I truly have so much fun. Year after year those sets always seem to be my best selling and highest performing cookies and I think it’s because my joy and creativity comes through even more than normal during the holiday season.
Alright so before we go can you talk to us a bit about how people can work with you, collaborate with you or support you?
I always love collaborating with my clients. Some clients love to give me exact instructions on what they are looking for and others say here’s the color pallet, here’s the theme, now you do your thing. Both options are great but I get particularly excited when people trust me to just go for it.
One example of something completely out of the box is when a return client of mine came to me with a very specific idea. Her son wanted a birthday party with his two favorite things: construction trucks and his favorite animal flamingos. I absolutely loved the uniqueness to this theme and had such a fun time designing and finding ways to decorate flamingo cookies in construction hats and have flamingos driving dump trucks all made from cookies. It’s unique criteria like this that sets me apart from competitors. Side note: That same customer has been with me since the very beginning of Bill & Bernies and I have done every birthday for both of her kids since they were born. How cool is that!
Pricing:
- Typically $100 per dozen cookies based on request
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.billandbernies.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/billandbernies
