Today's Guest

Remember TV’s Cake Boss? Well now meet Chick Boss Cake, Rebecca Hamilton. Rebecca runs Chick Boss Cake, the million-dollar bakery & dessert chain that has locals in Toronto’s suburbs obsessed. Chick Boss Cake has a massive following of loyal fans. Rebecca hosts a blog and podcast called Scrap the Sweet Talk, where she focuses on sharing her best business and life tips centered around creating the life of your dreams. Rebecca shared how her no-excuses approach has helped her succeed and the value technology plays in creating a great customer experience.

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Episode Summary

I started Chick Boss Cake as a hobby at first and ran it out of my tiny apartment kitchen. Eventually, word spread and I realized I loved both making and eating desserts. Part of what makes us unique ties into our slogan “it’s not about the cake”. While many of our customers will say we have the best cake in town, for us it’s about the community we have and the opportunity to bring people together. The cake and desserts are just the way we create experiences that bring people together.

I’m not formally trained in baking or business. I dropped out of high school at 16 and have self-educated along the way. It’s been a lot of trial and error. But I have always infused a lot of my personality into the brand which gives us an authenticity that I believe has helped us attract the best customers and staff. That makes it easy for me to show up every day and be myself and attract like-minded people.

Technology plays a huge role in the success of our business. We automate tasks, keep things organized, and make the customer experience as seamless as possible. No matter what business you are in, you should be leveraging technology. You don’t have to be a tech expert either, you just have to start somewhere and grow from there. I’m a hands-on learner so I dove in and built our website myself on Shopify and added a little popup that shows when someone buys something because social proof is so important. Our use of technology is what saved our business during COVID.

We have 3 stores today in the suburbs around Toronto and we’re working on our 4^th location. Our overall revenue is $1.3 million which I’m proud of because that is a lot of cake. The approach we use when opening new stores is we want to create fans in that market before we even open a location. We do that through our online store and delivery model so that by the time we open a store, we have long lines – because customers in the area have already been able to order online. That approach I believe has helped us be successful once we do open a new location.

While I never had a formal education, I love learning. I read a lot of books, listen to tons of podcasts, go to business conferences, watch YouTube videos, and do anything I can to put myself in a position to learn from others. I emphasized doing what I love and then I go find the information on how to do it. If I can figure it out, anyone can do it – which is why on my podcast I will call people out when they start making excuses. Excuses aren’t going to get you anywhere. If you find yourself getting stuck it's probably because you’re making excuses. 

Resources Shared

• Chick Boss Cake
• Rebecca Hamilton Co.
• Shopify
• Mailchimp
• The Million Dollar Bakery by Rebecca Hamilton
• Scrap The Sweet Talk Podcast
• Thryv
  

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