Overview of the company
Cliché Patisserie is a French inspired Chinese bakery, that has recently opened its doors in the Iowa city. Located on the South Linn street, the bakery cum tea shop offers an exclusive range of bakery products, desserts, milk tea, loose tea and homemade sodas. Their only location at 341 S. Linn St. is sparse and the interiors are well designed with high ceilings and huge French windows allowing a profusion of natural light. They are open from 9.30 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Saturday. The company is privately owned by two Chinese students – Leo Jiang and Weiija Huang of which Jiang is a recent art graduate. In a relatively short span of time, the company has made its place in the hearts of people and is well-known for offering an array of traditional Chinese and French desserts. With Chinese bakery roots, Cliché brings a French cuisine flair to the table.
Why did they start their own business?
Making desserts has long been a dream of the owners and they have been working since months before the launch to convert their interest to a mode of living. As recent graduates, they did not want to struggle to find themselves a job, and unlike other new graduates, found working for themselves a better option than working for someone else. Moreover, when they tasted baked food in the city, they found it a little too sweet and felt the need to introduce their bakery products to the market. They wanted to introduce something which was relatively new for Americans.
What has been the toughest challenge associated with starting and running the business?
Looking for shop front and the kitchen: Finding a physical place to open has been a tough nut to crack for Cliché Patisserie. Previously, they had almost finalized a shop front and just before signing the contract, the owner of the shop front ditched and he didn’t want to rent the place to them anymore. So, they had to start their search all over again, and it wasted them a lot of their crucial time.
Time management: The kitchen area where most of the treats are made, is in a remote location in North Liberty. Moving to and fro from between the shop and the kitchen every day is time consuming and with the growing customer base at the shop, this is going to be unmanageable in the near future.
Running on budget crunch: To reduce the initial cost of investment, the company hired just a few people in the beginning. However, with increase in their product demand, they will need to hire more people.
Promotion: Promoting their business to the local market for the first time was a big challenge for the owners and they had to put in a lot of time and efforts. On the second week of their opening, the shop was reported by two local newspapers, which helped them a lot.
Sales are under expectation: Initially, the sales were not as expected and they had to toil hard to make ends meet.
Flavors: Introducing a moderately new taste for local people was very risk taking for Jiang and his co-owner and hence, satisfying the interests of a majority of customers was initially tough. Some of them liked their desserts and some of them did not. It was hard to make every single customer happy.
What has been most rewarding in staring or running the business?
Every business is intended to please its customers and when a customer looks back for more, its rewarding for the business owners. According to Jiang, it was the positive customer reviews and lots of returning customers that boosted their self-confidence and kick started their business like never before. Surprisingly, a huge chunk (almost 90% of them) of customers were local people who found the Chinese desserts new to their menu and liked the taste as well.
How does the entrepreneur price their product/service?
As Jiang puts it across – “The price of the desserts and drinks is acceptable to most consumers”, it has been ensured that a reasonable price is quoted for each product. Depending on the size and customized requirements, the price is bound to increase. For example, specially designed cakes would be expensive and generally range between 60-100 US dollars.
Others
So far, the business has been running good. However, the company is constantly working on promoting new products, introducing new flavors, and localizing products to meet consumer needs. “Although, the overall services are great, we still need to work on making our waiters more professional”- says Jiang. He also said that they will soon be offering an English-style high tea. Jiang hoped to see the bakery a hangout place for students and young couples till late night for sweets and drinks. With their plans to launch a rotating menu with special section for house favorites, Cliché Patisserie will strive to be the No.1 dessert shop in the city to go.
What did you learn from doing this paper?
Interviewing an entrepreneur is in itself a great learning experience. Here are some of the takeaways from this interview:
Stay focused to your goals
Brand your product outside the organization even before launching
Ensure proper time management
Channel customer loyalty wisely
Keep on evolving as you grow
Adapt quickly and Think Big
No matter whichever business I would like to come up with in future, these learnings when coupled with sheer hard work and dedication can pave way for a successful organization. I can also apply most of these learnings to achieve other goals in my life such as looking for a desired job, excelling in a job etc.
