Today we’d like to introduce you to Maya Six.
Hi Maya, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Thank you so much for having me, I’m really excited to be doing this. I’m a Tennessee transplant and am originally from Southern Ontario, Canada. My husband and I moved here from Maryland on an 8-9 month work assignment. Almost 9 years later, we’re still here and I’m beyond grateful that we are. I’m a very proud mommy of 4 now, Sofia (8), Danica (6) and our two newest additions, Nikola and Luka, our 8 month old twin boys. I’ve pretty well much been a stay at home mom our entire time here, and it’s been such a privilege and pleasure being able to raise our children in such an amazing place. I also owe my children a huge amount of gratitude, as it’s really because of them that I started my business. Growing up, my mom would always make my sister’s and my birthday cakes and I always knew this was something I wanted to continue to do for my children. I never really did any crazy designs like I do today, it was always pretty simple, a cake covered in sprinkles for instance or a simple buttercream cake with some figurines on top. Then about 5 years ago, I had a friend ask me to make cakes for her twins’ first birthday smash cake photo session. I still remember the cakes, one blue ombré, and one green ombré cake. From there, I had a few more friends ask me to make cakes and then their friends asked and so on and so forth. Again, I was still fortunate enough to be a stay-at-home mom so this was a very welcomed distraction or break from being a wife and mom. I started a Facebook page and got a new email address, booked several vendor shows to help get my name out there, and within about a year, I seemed to have built myself a pretty successful little business.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
It has definitely not been a smooth road. As I said before, I’m a stay-at-home mom, so most of my time is taken up with that amazing role. Daytime is mommy/wife time, so I did all my work after bedtime. There have been many Friday nights where I wouldn’t go to bed until 4-5 am, and then I was up at 7 making the kids breakfast. I’ve also never had any form of training and some cakes would terrify me! I am, however, extremely lucky as my amazing sister is a trained pastry chef, so she would often coach me through different techniques and recipes. I would also watch a ton of YouTube tutorials to learn new skills.
I also 100% would not have been able to build this business without the amazing support of my husband. He would help with the kids so much, run errands, do deliveries and now even makes me my custom cookie cutters and cake toppers,
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I’d love for people to know how much I enjoy making their celebrations even better with one of my creations. Some requests would really be out there and I’m overjoyed when I can, a) pull it off! and b) my customer loves not only the way it looks, but also tastes! I’m always so honored when a customer shows me a picture of one of my cakes and asks for it, rather than showing me a picture they’ve found elsewhere.
I make custom cakes and cookies for any occasion! The core of my business is making cakes for parties and other celebrations, but I’ve also been focusing on branching out on doing full dessert tables for weddings and corporate events.
What has been the most important lesson you’ve learned along your journey?
There are really 2 main lessons I’ve learned. First, organization is key!! Having a good calendar and setting realistic time frames for myself is essential. And that it’s ok to say no. For the first couple of years, I would be terrified to turn down a customer as I was still trying to grow my business and I didn’t want to turn anyone away. This was becoming a very big problem as I would only have a limited number of hours to be able to work while still taking care of my other responsibilities. However, given enough notice, I will always try my best to fit someone in.
Second, is to practice. Anytime I had a request for something I was unfamiliar with, I would always practice and ensure I allowed myself enough time to make not only what my customer wanted but that I was also proud of.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sweets_by_maya6/?hl=en
- Facebook: Fb.me/sweetsbymaya6
