She Constructed a Multimillion-Greenback Enterprise After Getting Fired

Melissa Ben-Ishay’s “love language” has at all times been baking. So, when she was fired from her promoting job at age 24, following her ardour into enterprise appeared like an excellent alternative. Her brother Brian Bushell inspired her to grab it. “We wound up creating an unimaginable product that makes individuals blissful throughout good instances and unhealthy,” Ben-Ishay says.

^{Picture Credit score: Courtesy of Baked By Melissa. Co-founder and CEO Melissa Ben-Ishay.}

Ben-Ishay launched the bite-sized cupcake model with co-founders Brian Bushell, Matt Baer, Danny Omari and Ben Zion in 2008.

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The corporate, which simply celebrated its “Candy 16,” has grown rather a lot through the years, changing into a multimillion-dollar enterprise with nationwide delivery and 13 retail areas within the New York Metropolis space and Boston.

Baked By Melissa has bought greater than 350 million cupcakes, constructed a web-based neighborhood of three.8 million followers and expanded into new classes, partnering with main manufacturers resembling Oatly and Entenmann’s alongside the way in which.

Ben-Ishay has additionally advanced as an entrepreneur and chief up to now decade-plus. She stepped into the CEO function in 2019, simply earlier than the pandemic, and rose to viral TikTok fame in 2021 because of her Inexperienced Goddess Salad recipe. Her cookbook Come Hungry was printed earlier this 12 months and have become a New York Instances bestseller.

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The driving power behind her success, in keeping with Ben-Ishay? Her potential to grasp what she would not know — and to show to individuals who do.

“I like to be incorrect,” Ben-Ishay says. “I do not suppose I do know every little thing. The truth is, the older I get and the extra expertise I’ve below my belt, the much less I do know. And that’s one thing I do know with certainty. And I believe that’s an extremely vital mindset for a pacesetter and an entrepreneur.”

^{Picture Credit score: Courtesy of Baked By Melissa}

Ben-Ishay instructed Entrepreneur about a number of key situations when that mentality served Baked By Melissa properly on its highway to success.

Counting on human capital within the enterprise’s early days

At first, Ben-Ishay batched cupcakes in her New York Metropolis condo kitchen and delivered them by subway, cold-calling catering firms to assist unfold the phrase. By the next 12 months, she’d opened Baked By Melissa’s first retail location, a small pickup window in Manhattan’s Soho neighborhood.

In these early days, all of Baked By Melissa’s earnings went straight again into the enterprise. The corporate did not take any outdoors funding and stays privately owned at this time. Ben-Ishay’s co-founders every introduced a novel, complementary talent set to the desk and offered invaluable human capital, she says.

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In keeping with Ben-Ishay, her brother Bushell “is a born entrepreneur” who acknowledged Baked By Melissa’s potential even earlier than she did and served as the corporate’s CEO for eight years.

Baer created and designed all visible elements of the model in its early years, and Omari’s Cafe Bari housed Baked By Melissa’s first business kitchen and retail location on the nook of Spring Avenue and Broadway.

Moreover, Zion “is an unimaginable networker and was in a position to get our bite-size treats into each movie premiere, night time membership, crimson carpet occasion and superstar inexperienced room you would consider,” Ben-Ishay remembers.

Considerably reluctantly getting into the CEO function

Ben-Ishay did not assume the CEO place till December 2019, greater than a decade after Baked By Melissa’s launch. “I did not suppose I needed to be CEO,” she admits. “I did not plan to turn out to be CEO. There have been circumstances that led to my board appointing me CEO at a second’s discover.”

At first, Ben-Ishay was “terrified” to take the lead, particularly as the corporate headed towards its busy vacation season. Nevertheless, she additionally acknowledged the unimaginable alternative. Ben-Ishay rose to the problem — and it paid off.

“We went on to interrupt our vacation gross sales data that month,” Ben-Ishay remembers. “Two months later, we broke gross sales data once more with our busiest vacation, Valentine’s Day. Immediately following, I led our workforce by means of a worldwide pandemic (whereas working from house with two younger youngsters), and we got here out on the opposite facet stronger than ever.”

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The expertise taught Ben-Ishay the significance of advocating for your self and going after huge objectives.

“It’s possible you’ll suppose it is just a dream and never attainable — however I wager it’s attainable,” Ben-Ishay says. “I discovered that we have to do the issues that scare us probably the most. I’ve at all times believed in approaching each problem as a chance. The function of CEO felt up to now out of my consolation zone, however in the end, I discovered and grew a lot.”

^{Picture Credit score: Courtesy of Baked By Melissa}

Going viral on TikTok with the Inexperienced Goddess Salad

Simply a few years after Ben-Ishay turned the corporate’s CEO, she took on one other influential function: social media content material creator. “I like social media,” Ben-Ishay says. “I am very impressed by it, and I perceive the instrument it could possibly be for a enterprise.”

In keeping with Ben-Ishay, Baked By Melissa “missed the boat somewhat bit” when it got here to Instagram. The corporate launched earlier than the social media platform existed and did not instantly make the most of it. “It took a 12 months or so for me to grasp the chance,” Ben-Ishay explains, “and I made a silent promise to myself that the following time a social media channel emerges, I’ll study it and use it instantly.”

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In 2020, TikTok gave her an opportunity to just do that. Though Ben-Ishay acknowledged the platform’s potential, she discovered it difficult to supply Baked By Melissa’s artistic workforce members with actionable suggestions on the content material they produced. That is when Ben-Ishay started experimenting with TikTok herself — recording herself making desserts or dinner for her household.

“Someday on a whim, I posted a salad, and it went viral [with] tens of millions and tens of millions of views,” Ben-Ishay says. “And I understood the chance for my enterprise instantly, which was to construct a neighborhood of people who come to us for one thing. Even when it isn’t showcasing the product we promote instantly, that relationship and connection I may have with so many individuals is one thing cash cannot purchase.”

^{Picture Credit score: Courtesy of Baked By Melissa}

As she considers Baked By Melissa’s subsequent 16 years and past, Ben-Ishay is worked up to proceed main the corporate’s progress.

“We’ve a lot alternative,” she says. “We’ve a product that makes individuals blissful throughout good instances and unhealthy, and we are able to get it to you completely with the very best high quality, irrespective of the place you might be in america of America. I believe we’ve got a lot alternative to do this on a bigger scale.”

This text is a part of our ongoing Ladies Entrepreneur® sequence highlighting the tales, challenges and triumphs of working a enterprise as a lady.