Meet Vivian Tran | Home Bakery Business Owner
We had the good fortune of connecting with Vivian Tran and we’ve shared our conversation below.
Hi Vivian, can you walk us through the thought-process of starting your business?
I started my baking business as a senior in high school during the COVID-19 pandemic, not knowing much and only having a newfound obsession with baking. I started off with no supplies, no ingredients—nothing. I wanted a specific cute cake that I had seen online on Pinterest and Instagram, but all the cakes around me were just from basic bakeries or grocery stores. Lame. So I decided to just make my own! I had no experience at all and just wanted to try.
The first time I baked a whole cake and decorated it myself was for an old friend’s birthday. I purchased the cheapest hand mixer on Amazon, some piping bags and frosting tips, and some ingredients from my local grocery store.
I then realized “Hey, I’m not that bad!” and began to slowly bake more for fun. As I started baking for fun and posting about it on social media, people started asking me if I would sell my cakes!
I knew nothing about business or barely anything about baking, but I took a leap of faith and ordered all my cake boxes and supplies and materials I needed from restaurant/bakery supply companies. I began to watch many YouTube and TikTok tutorials on baking cakes and making frosting and practiced until I perfected my craft!
It was definitely hard at first and there were many late nights where I wanted to just give up and scrap the business, but didn’t. I started off just selling to friends and family but it grew into something much bigger and my business is now where it is today with a consistent clientele and new customers everyday!
Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
It definitely is not easy being a small business owner. People typically believe that they can step all over you if you are a small business over rather than a big business, and I have unfortunately run into many complications due to difficult customers! People began to take advantage of the fact that I was a young baker and a small business that needed money, and thought that they could disrespect me and my time/ labor. I grew sick of this and decided to take a stand and become more strict by establishing new rules and policies. I opened up my own “website” store front by purchasing a subscription, and began to organize my business better to make it easier for both me and clientele, and it has been working very well for me!
It is also incredibly difficult managing time as a home baker, as my schedule is always changing due to orders and whatnot. I am a full time student and for the majority of my baking business, I also worked part/full time as a server in restaurants. When I started my business, I was a high school senior in all AP and Honors with many extracurriculars and clubs—all while also working 2 restaurant jobs every day after school, working about 50 hours a week from serving alone. I can’t lie, it was tough having my own side hustle on top of all that stress. I forced myself to manage my time better, and anytime I wasn’t at school or work, I was baking and making more money at home.
Now as a college student, my schedule is a bit more flexible, but still quite difficult to manage especially now that I have a larger influx of cake customers everyday.
Because of these and other complications, some of the main things I learned from starting my own business are 1) managing my time better and 2) learning to stick up for myself!
Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
I am located in Orange County, CA with many fun places and delicious eateries to visit! I would take my friends to The Source in Buena Park to eat some good Korean food. It’s a very popular and modern local shopping/food plaza with many cool things to visit. There are photo booths, delicious restaurants (a few of which I have even worked at so I can vouch!), claw machines, cute stores, and occasionally even performances! It is where I always suggest my friends to visit when they’re coming from out of state, and I often find myself there when I’m bored and have nothing to do too! We could grab a bite and some boba and just chill out 🙂
If my friend wanted to, we could even go to Disneyland or Knott’s Berry Farm as they are both in the area! Or possibly even one of our many beautiful California beaches. A favorite would be Laguna Beach as it has many smaller private cleaner beaches that you can go to! Huntington Dog Beach is also super fun and cute with all the dogs roaming around (and much cleaner than Huntington City Beach!) or maybe even Newport Beach at 3 AM so we could visit the famous Seaside Donuts Bakery there that is open 24/7!
I’d love to even leave Orange County for a bit and visit Los Angeles in certain parts that I love such as Koreatown or Little Tokyo! Little Tokyo is the best little area for some food and a good cute time. I love the Korean barbecue spots in Koreatown and they have the best KBBQ you’ll ever eat!
We could have fun by going to Round 1, a Japanese arcade and bowling arena with karaoke and food! I typically go here for the arcade and the wide assortment of claw machines (which are so addicting!) and love to go with my friends even now.
If there are any trendy flea markets available, I’d love to bring my friends and visit so we could shop from other small businesses and vendors as well!
I love the area that I live in as there’s just so much to do and eat and so many events to go to!
The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I would like to give special mention to my family, who have supported me and my business for the past 2+ years. This is for all the days they’ve helped me run errands for last minute ingredients and all the late nights they‘ve had to listen to me and my loud hand mixer whipping up frosting… I thank them for always helping me clean up the mess in the kitchen after a hectic cake order 🙂 I love my family very much
I’d also like to shoutout my boyfriend, Will, for always supporting me and my endeavors and motivating me to get my cakes done even when I’m tired and lazy!
Instagram: Instagram.com/froggybakeshop
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