06/01/2026
We just hit our one-month milestone last week, and what a wild ride it’s been! I’m still in love with baking, and every day I’m learning something new. I have a wonderful team, great friends, and extended family who regularly check in on me to see how I’m doing, and an amazingly patient and supportive husband.
Before I opened The Frosted Sheep Bake Shop, I read countless books on owning a bakery, took a Master Class from Brooki, and even had the good fortune to intern for a few days at The Flour Girl Bakery in Hebron (www.flourgirlct.com). But nothing truly prepares you for what it really takes to own and run a bakery—especially if you’ve never worked in the food service industry before.
Below are 10 things I’ve learned during my initial month in business:
1. Build a strong team that shares your vision and is willing to learn, speak up, and offer suggestions—and just dive in and do whatever it takes to make things happen. This goes for not just my current staff—but the construction crew, the electricians, painters, tiling experts, and the myriad of other skilled trades who came together to bring my vision to life.
2. If friends and family offer to help, take them up on their offer. I would not have survived the first few weeks without my cousins, sister-in-law, and friends like Jeff, Anne, and Steve all pitching in.
3. You will be working 18-20 hour days. The work can be both exhilarating and grueling!
4. You will have a newfound admiration for those who do the dishwashing in restaurants. Madge the Manicurist (yes, I’m truly dating myself with this Palmolive reference) would not approve of my hands and nails.
5. If something can go wrong, it will. Delayed packaging shipments. Refrigerator and freezer failures. Point-of-sale system crashes. Commercial ingredients aren’t always the same as what you purchase in the grocery store—so you have to modify your recipe.
6. Have a great plumber on speed dial (future story in the works on this!).
7. Be prepared to do A LOT of laundry (unless you can afford a laundry service); keeping a bakery clean and sanitary takes a lot of rags!
8. Cocoa powder gets everywhere!
9. Drink a LOT of water—and then drink more.
10. Eternally grateful that I’ve had the opportunity to open my bakery in such a wonderful and supportive community.
