Parenting On Your Own: And, A Business Was Born

First an foremost I apologize for writing such a long post... I shall try really hard to start making my post shorter!

I did state last week that my next post would be about my new business that will allow me to continue with this blog and with growing a positive community for one parent families in order for them to now feel like they are Parenting on their own!

So when my kids were small I was able to get my mom to come and watch my kids after school till I got home from work. I worked for a non-profit for ten years and they were always having pot-lucks and of course everyone was always trying to out do each other with what they brought. My mom knew I liked to bake and cook so she said I should come up with my own recipe for something since I was always changing recipes. I came across a recipe for cheesecake and since I truly didn’t care for cheesecake I thought why not create one that I would like. I began playing with flavors and ingredients once I came up with one I liked I took I took it to the very next pot-luck and wow did it get rave reviews! So much so that they asked me to make another with a different flavor and of course once again playing with flavors and ingredients that weekend till I came up with a recipe I liked. As soon as the next pot-luck came around I took it with me. Well of course it was a huge hit and it was at this point that my boss who knew I needed to raise money for my daughter’s 8^th grade trip, suggested that I sell the cheesecakes to help raise the money needed.

To my surprise I did so with great success. I continued to sell my cheesecakes as a means to raising money not just for my daughter’s 8^th grade trip but for both of their activities. I did this trough their elementary and middle school periods which helped us out so very much. Here is a picture of one of the cakes

I use to do this cute one for Valentine’s Day.

However, after ten years of working with the non-profit I was downsized due to the non-profit losing their funding for the program I over saw it was a scary time for me. The interesting thing is eleven months prior to be downsized I was promoted to the director of a program which was running a gourmet cookie and brownie store! Wow, I never knew that many, many years later what I learned and experienced would help me out. I was told that there was no way I could make this little business support myself and my children so I focused on creating a moderate, “safe” career path for myself in the insurance industry. I built my clientele and my insurance business in order to provide for my family and was able to create residual income as well. Of course this meant I had to relinquish my cheesecake business though most of my family and friends were not any happier that I went into the insurance field since I was a 10099 employee. For me it gave me the feel that I was somehow working for myself. I was also busy trying to figure out how I could create a community for one-parent families as well so I was very busy and all the while keeping my children close by. Again always using my community to help me be assured they were in good hands they attended summer camps and after school care as well as having my mom their when I was not.

However, after fourteen years in the insurance field when I realized it was time to leave the field and I found myself trying to figure out what I would do next! I did get busy figuring out once again how I could create this one-parent family into a business that would create revenue that I could live off of. I was lucky enough in 2011 to get connected with Count Me In, for women’s economic independence via the National Latina Business Women’s Association - Los Angeles Chapter (NLBWA-LA). They are an organization that was created and launched in July 2003 to meet the needs of the growing ranks of Latina Entrepreneurs, Executives and Professionals from L.A. (as FYI you do not have to be a Latina to become a member or to gain support from this awesome organization). I was attending the NLBWA-LA’s Emerging Latina in Business course when a special program was coming to town and they suggested that if we could attend we should. It was a program that was being put on with some top women in business and Coca-Cola and I thought why not. That one day program introduced me to Count Me In’s Founder & President Nell Merlino who is leading the national not-for-profit provider of resources for women to grow their micro businesses into million dollar enterprises. I was totally amazed by what she was informing all of us in the audience regarding women in business. I was also moved by the other amazing women such as Nely Galan, an independent producer and a former President of Entertainment for Telemundo and founder of the Adelante Movement. Who gave us all information that kept us at the edge of our seats and reminding us all to not waste our money but to grow it and push forward in business. There were others as well such as Isisara Bey, Vice President of Programs & Education for Count Me In, and “journey agent” for Make Mine a Million $ Business competitions and workshops across the country. Another amazing speaker was Sandra Cisneros, an American writer and poet who’s novel “The House on Mango Street” about young Latina women coming of age in Chicago, sold more than two million copies. Her story of how she became an author was so inspiring! The list of these powerful women was enough to really inspire me to move forward and to figure out how to get my single parent program on the move.

I ended up winning a spot as one of ten extremely lucky women to participate in a program put on my Count Me In by People Biz a remarkable coaching program for business and so much more. The program was an introduction to the Business Accelerator Course that would be one of the prizes when women participate with the 2012 Count Me In, Pitch Competition. Well needless to say I jumped on board with this and in 2012 without thought that I would end-up being one of the competition winners learned how to pitch my business.

As a winner of the 2012 Pitch Competition I was placed into a group of 12 other women to participate and be a student with the People Biz’s “Business Accelerator Course”. By the end of the course I was aware that though my single parenting program is a great idea it is far from being a business that will generate the income I need to leave the insurance field. I choose to make this blog become part of the community for single parent families along with a Meetup group. This is my way of giving back and helping other single parent families to find their way through the maze of parenting on their own.

OK, so this is all great and it is part of my philanthropic portion of my life but the fact remains that I needed to find a business I could be happy with. In early April I was meeting my cousin’s daughter (Acacia Mora) who had been helping me out administratively to tell her it did not look good and that I did not know what I was going to do next. She looked at me and said “I know go, it’s time for Plan B” I looked at her and asked wow, there is a Plan B? She said yes, you always talk about how you once sold cheesecakes and we did get to taste it and it’s pretty good. She continued to say she would even help me since she loves to bake and would also like to create a business around cooking/baking and health. She thought this would be a great way for her to learn how to do what she wants and asked if I wanted the help she would be there.

It took me three weeks to figure it out; I spoke to my amazing business coach from the Business Accelerator course Alicia Marie, founder and managing director of People Biz, Inc. I reviewed everything from the course and realized I had everything and the knowledge to make this happen. My next step was to rekindle my passion for baking, after all I had been in the insurance world for fourteen years. I then found myself thinking about how I could develop my signature cheesecakes into a thriving business, and more importantly feel like I was making a difference in different communities? I knew the cheesecakes would have to be the best around and different then the top seller (Cheesecake Factory). Further, I knew that I had to “give back” to communities. I needed to figure out how cheesecakes made with love, and are the best in town can also “pay it forward”! Well with the help of Alicia I was able to come up with how I can do all of this and more!

I had to come up with a name and do some tasting and conduct some tasting to assure my cheesecakes were still as great as they were. Three of them were held over a three week period and I was thrilled with the outcome – questioners were completed and from them I ended-up making some slight adjustments to the recipes with an outrageously delicious outcome! This how…

was born!

I wanted to make sure that the name some how the name would make someone think of family and of homemade quality goods. When I heard the name I said it over and over again aloud and all of a sudden I realized that Mama was the name we (cousins) called my grandmother on my mother’s side! I then said to myself well that is it!

Once I knew this was what I was going to do I got to work on my business plan in order to assure I truly had a great road map (so to speak) to follow. In fact at the National Latina Business Women Association, Los Angeles 10^th Annual Awards Ceremony I was awarded a $2,500 Grant for the 2013 Business Management Academy as a participant with their annual program which included perfecting my elevator speech, creating a business plan along with many other requirements.

Mama Cheesecakes currently has one wholesale account, many repeat customers and after a short time of creating my Facebook Business Page I was pleasantly surprised to have received quite a few followers. In fact click this link to go directly to my Mama Cheesecake page https://www.facebook.com/MamaCheesecake and help me reach 100 followers with in a two week period!

At the moment if you live in Los Angeles area or surrounding area you can order via, e-mail mlopez@mamacheesecake.com or by phone 707-704-3482 or by fax 323-837-4770. However, by the end of this month I will have our new website up and running which will bring in the side of this business which will allow me to “pay it forward”! Also I will be able to ship the cheesecakes all over the U.S. which I am working on right now! If you are currently living outside of the U.S., I can’t ship to you but I will work on this as well!!

This is all so very exciting and if it was not for all the marvelous people in my life over the years and for all the good and bad experiences I would not be embarking on this amazing and exciting journey it’s such a riot to be on this trip!

Well now you know the story of my other business which is giving me the affordability to keep this community growing and to make it as large as I can.

I have to give you the links to all of the amazing organizations I have been so thrilled and extremely grateful to be a part of - if you don't know who they are then I suggest you find out because it is all of them along with individuals and books I mentioned in my last blog post that got me here today! They are also part of why I have such amazing kids who are now all grown up and living their own exciting lives!!!

In no special order: