Meet Joanna
With a love for baking homemade desserts, Joanna took a risk and started her own dessert catering business out of our home in Oakland. Her entrepreneurial journey started in 2015 with her famous Mexican flan, which she offered first to friends and family in her community. Before starting her business, Joanna worked long hours as a cashier at a local grocery store and struggled to secure stable childcare for her four children. Joanna’s dream to balance work and her children inspired her to be her own boss.
“My kids are everything to me,” said Joanna. “I want them to see that their mother is a hard-working woman.”
A year into perfecting her recipes, Joanna joined Grameen America through the advice of a friend and received a first-time loan of $1,700. With new capital in hand, Joanna invested in expensive molds and pans to grow her offerings, a printer for packaging labels, and staple ingredients like milk and eggs. Now on her eleventh loan from Grameen America, Joanna has expanded her homemade offerings to include churros, pretzels, rice crispy treats, cheesecake, and her most popular item, Jell-O cakes and popsicles.
“Whatever you ask me for, I can do it.” said Joanna. “And every dessert is made with all my love.”
Today, Joanna continues to run her growing business from her home and focuses on creating personalized orders for parties and events in her community. She spends most of her time baking and decorating over 18 custom orders each week, which include birthday parties, quinceañeras, and weddings. When she is not baking, she works on engaging with her customers on social media. Her oldest daughter, now 18, even helps by photographing all of her creations.
“When I look back, I am so surprised that I can do this,” said Joanna. “Now I know I can handle any challenge ahead of me. You can achieve anything you want as long as you work hard.”
Joanna’s children, two sons ages 1 and 9 and two daughters ages 7 and 18, are the reason she is driven to build her business. Her success as an entrepreneur comes with the financial freedom to realize the joys of being a mom first and entrepreneur second. “Women can do it all,” said Joanna.
Joanna attributes Grameen America’s capital and support to the success of her growing business. Through Grameen America’s financial education she has also taken a new focus on building her savings account, which for the past few years she has grown by setting aside a portion of her earnings each month.
Joanna is optimistic about her future despite a dip in sales due to the impact COVID-19. Her popularity in the community has meant her customers keep returning even if there are not as many large parties and gatherings. Looking ahead, her goal is to one day open her own store selling her unique Jell-O cakes.
