The most valuable advice that I’ve received was from my first boss in the industry. He is a small business owner and he would talk to me openly about what he had learnt about the business. His piece of advice, which is one of the biggest challenges of a small business owner, is to not be too integral to the day to day operations. You can easily find yourself caught up in the daily projects of the operations and not the parts that will help you expand. You have to be able to step away and train your team to the do daily tasks to be able to effectively grow and expand your business.

I look for people who have spent time in other small restaurants like ours. If all your time was spent at a large company with advanced equipment, they may have never learnt the skills that we require in our bakery.

We have a somewhat set menu but when we do add a new item, I ask my team for suggestions. I want them to feel like I’m a resource for them to come to to find a recipe and ask for advice but I really want them to create new things on their own.

As a business owner, I cannot live without my laptop, but as a pastry chef, I cannot work without a small offset spatula.