Daily Inspiration: Meet Erin Brown

Today we’d like to introduce you to Erin Brown.

Hi Erin, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
I’ve been at home in the kitchen baking and experimenting since I was seven. I love working with favorite family recipes. Usually, I adapt them here and there, but recreating these special recipes brings me a sense of comfort and joy. I gained professional baking experience working in restaurants, a high-end retail bakery, and for caterers. I learned so many valuable lessons and ways of doing things, but I was ready to do things my way.

I opened Dolce Bakery in November of 2007. I chose the space between Starbucks and the Village Flower Company. It was the perfect spot to begin Dolce’s story. It’s funny to look back now because very few things have gone as I thought they would. My tiny team of a few quickly outgrew our 1200 square foot bakeshop in just a couple of years. In our 6th year of business, we moved across the shopping center to a much larger space… and quickly grew into it as well. My team has grown to just over 30 members. We are constantly learning, growing, and adapting our offerings to leverage the incredible talents and gifts that my team brings with them, as well as to meet the requests and demands of our beloved customers. As we head into year 15 in business, I feel like we are just getting started!

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Nurturing Dolce into the successful business that we are today has been a hard road. One of our struggles has been rapid growth. We are really focusing on our systems, processes and training the team this year. We are strengthening our people and processes so that our product remains consistent, high quality and delicious! We strive to make the best cinnamon rolls, chocolate chunk cookies, layer cakes (wedding and celebration!), etc… in town while we build a healthy and profitable company. Baking from scratch requires expensive raw ingredients and is a labor of love for sure. Growth presents new complexities often, but I am so grateful to be solving the problems that growth incites.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
We bake from scratch – with the highest quality ingredients – every day. We love being a part of our customer’s celebrations and traditions. One of my favorite things is the lifelong relationships we develop… baking their engagement cakes, then their wedding cake, then their gender reveal cakes, holiday treats, and beyond. I love hearing the stories about how our treats bring joy to so many.

Are there any important lessons you’ve learned that you can share with us?
One of the most important lessons I have learned along my journey is to bring order where there is chaos. As we scale the business, orderly processes allow us to grow.

Contact Info:

• Email: info@dolcebakes.com
• Website: Dolcebakes.com
• Instagram: @dolcebakery
• Facebook: @DolceBakery