LEARNING CURVE | CBD baked goods store a brave new venture

A leap of faith — that is how Baked CBD owners Celeste Potgieter and her partner William Smith describe venturing into running their own business.

The two look set to soar with their smart new venture in Newton Park.

We chatted to Potgieter about the business and where it all started for them. 

Please share some background on yourself and how the business began?

We have spoken about opening up a CBD [cannabidiol] shop for more than a year, but waited until we could raise enough capital to realistically open our own store.

Before this, we knew nothing about running our own business or even about renting premises to do so.

After selling one of our vehicles to assist with financing our dream, we took a leap of faith and went for it.

What is the name of your business?

Our business name is Baked CBD.

How old is the business?

We opened on November 1 2021.

What is your core service?

Our core service is to provide CBD-infused baked goods, and CBD daily essentials and lifestyle necessities.

What makes your business unique?

What makes our business unique is that we get creative with CBD and provide our customers with gourmet baked goods with added health benefits.

What are some of the biggest inhibitors your business faced before getting off the ground?

Some of the biggest inhibitors we faced were cash flow, business knowledge and resources.

Do you have any tips for budding entrepreneurs or new business owners?

Advice we would give to anyone starting a new business is to plan ahead.

When you are doing your financial planning, double the cost of everything in order to avoid any unforeseen costs or circumstances.

Don’t let a property agent rush you into renting a property you aren’t certain of.

Take your time, be patient and be confident in your decision.

What are some of your biggest challenges in day-to-day business operations and your particular industry?

Day to day challenges would include finances — making sure there is enough cash flow to cover all expenses.

And staying on top of our game — we have to be consistent, creative and constantly come up with new ideas.

What kind of advertising do you do?

The best advertising would be word of mouth and second, social media.

We are on Facebook and you could also follow us on Instagram @bake_dcbd

At the moment we try to advertise as much as we can on our Facebook and Instagram page.

Word of mouth is also a great source of advertising, and getting into contact with well-known companies such as The Herald.

What is the best advice anyone gave you on success?

The best advice we’ve received is that “there are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work and learning from failure”.

What is your company’s vision?

Our vision for the future is to grow from strength to strength. We hope to expand Baked CBD in the future and reach more customers.

We strive to provide our customers with quality products that work — quality over quantity.

What is your target market?

Our target market is not confined to a specific age group.

We have a diverse clientele base, from young adults to older adults.

Many of our clients use CBD on a daily basis for various health benefits and to treat mild to severe health conditions.

What have some of the highlights been in running your business?

One of the biggest highlights since opening Baked CBD would be our customer feedback.

It is such a good feeling when we get returning customers, with good reviews.

This shows us that our customers are satisfied with our products.

We strive to help our customers by giving them the opportunity to better their health.

For example, we have one customer who underwent a brain operation and ever since she was battling severely with her stomach.

After trying numerous products on the market with no success, she couldn’t believe the positive change in her body after taking our CBD infused gummies.

Helping someone to enjoy a more comfortable lifestyle is very important to us.

How important is social media and an online presence for your business?

We post on our social media pages on a daily basis.

It is very important to keep our followers up to date with what is happening in-store, to provide the public with information on CBD and our product range, and to promote new products that we are working on.

How many people do you employ?

We have so far only employed one sales assistant who manages the shop for us throughout the week.

Our customers love her and always compliment us on her friendly service.

She has such a positive influence on our shop and we are grateful to have her as part of our team.

What is the biggest lesson you’ve learnt from your business journey so far?

The biggest lesson we’ve learnt is that preparing is key.

Procrastination is a big problem, especially when being your own “boss”.

Plan ahead, as things take time.

Adaptability, persistence and hard work are important traits when running a small business.

Important traits to look for in a successful employer would definitely be work ethic, honesty and integrity.

You also need to be able to depend on your employer.

They are there to help you, not to make your life more difficult.

What  do you wish people knew about our industry?

The main thing we would wish for is that people don’t have this misconception about CBD.

We wish that people would have more interest and therefore more knowledge about CBD and its many health benefits, and that it does not produce any euphoric or psychoactive effects.

But this is why we are here — to educate our customers.

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