Monica is originally from Colombia with a degree in Business – specialization in International Business. Originally, her role was bookkeeping and taking orders at a bakery when she moved to Miami. When working at a bakery, she found a passion for baking. She realized she wanted a place that had healthy baked goods, and four years ago decided to open her own bakery.

She specializes in artisan breads and pastries, and practices old traditions in baking from Europe and Latin America. She uses natural and non-gmo products with no preservatives or artificial flavors.

The pandemic has brought both positive and negative outcomes. A portion of her business was based on delivering to restaurants and Farmers Markets. When this part of her business shut down, she lost around 20 – 40% of her sales. Distribution has also been much harder. Although she hasn’t had to lay off employees yet, she anticipated that she would have had to without the loan, and she already had a lack of capacity with the workers she has.

Since the pandemic, her clients have nearly tripled (100 to 321) because she always used delivery. She used her loan to start a membership service, expand her business, and buy new kitchen supplies. She also is helping 2 working mothers move to the next step in their small business, by helping them with renting an industrial kitchen space.

She does not see her sales increasing again in the restaurant and Farmers Market sphere, and wants to focus on the delivery and direct sales side of her business. She said the hardest part was changing her company’s procedures overnight to adapt to the pandemic. She originally wanted to grow her business slowly, but once the pandemic hit she realized she had to work with the situations around her and make the most of opportunities.