Turning a Life’s Passion Into a Dream Business With Amie Smith

Amie Smith is the Founder and Owner of AMIE Bakery, a Cape Cod-based bakery offering baked goods and a full breakfast, lunch, and bar menu. Her love for baking began as a child, making cookies with her father — also a baker. Amie enrolled at the Culinary Institute of Education in New York after working for over two decades as a corporate marketing writer. Among multiple awards and accolades, Pastry Arts Magazine, Cape Cod Home, NBC10, and the Growth Lab Podcast, among others, have recognized Amie and her bakery.

Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:

Amie Smith shares how her career trajectory led to owning a bakery
Designing a state-of-the-art baking facility
Operating in a seasonal location
What types of culinary classes does AMIE Bakery offer?
Amie’s strategy for retaining customers
The importance of continuous education
Business management systems and tools

In this episode…

Eateries are popular attractions in tourist locations. However, in regions where tourism is seasonal, this can hurt a small business’ bottom line. What can businesses do to stay afloat?

Entrepreneur Amie Smith recommends business owners always plan for slow months by reserving funds. Creating business opportunities to serve customers and the community, such as offering cooking classes, is also beneficial. Amie advocates providing quality food, such as cooking and baking from scratch, and having staple items and food specials on the menu to ensure customers return. She also proposes themed events like tapas nights and wine and bourbon tastings to create community. Additionally, Amie stresses the importance of continuous education for chefs. Take in-class and online cooking classes, research, and read to stay on top of trends.

In this episode of the Celebrity Gourmet Podcast with Odette D’Aniello, Amie Smith, Founder and Owner of AMIE Bakery, discusses successfully operating a small business. Amie shares her strategies for maintaining business in a seasonal tourist location, retaining customers, and the importance of continuous education.

Resources Mentioned in this episode

Sponsor for this episode…

Today’s episode is brought to you by Celebrity Cake Studio, a family-owned and operated cake boutique.

Celebrity Cake Studio has been baking joy into all of their artistically designed cakes and desserts for 21 years.

They are proud to work with a vibrant team of cake designers and bakers that help you celebrate the sweet moments in your lives.

They have received numerous awards, winning Best of Western Washington for many years in a row and various small business accolades.

To learn more about how you can celebrate yourselves or the ones you love, visit www.celebritycakestudio.com or email them at info@celebritycakestudio.com.

Episode Transcript:

Intro 0:03

Welcome to the Celebrity Gourmet Podcast, where we feature top bakery and specialty food entrepreneurs from around the world and share stories and tips on how to create a successful life in the baking world.

Odette D’Aniello 0:16

Hi, I’m Odette D’Aniello, the host of the Celebrity Gourmet Podcast, where I interview bakery owners, especially women, from around the world, to hear how they live their creative lives with financial freedom while running their businesses. I want to encourage you to go back and check out past episodes. I interviewed Olga Sagan, CEO of Seattle’s beloved Piroshky Piroshky, and learn about her brilliant pandemic pivot. I also recently interviewed Janice Jucker of Three Brothers Bakery in Houston, where she tells the story of the making of America’s favorite pecan pie set in the backdrop of a culture of resilience, shown through six generations starting from her Aunt Janie who survived the Holocaust. I have here Amie Smith of AMIE Bakery, Founder and Owner of the cutest and most popular bakery in Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Amie started off as a writer and decided to attend pastry class at the Institute of Culinary Education. From there, her passion for baking was born. Cape Cod was gifted with the most charming bakery where you and your loved ones can enjoy deliciously made-from-scratch savory and sweet bakery products. Today’s episode is brought to you by Celebrity Gourmet Ventures, Celebrity Cake Studio, and Dragonfly Cakes, my family-owned and operated specialty bakery in Tacoma, Washington, in the beautiful Pacific Northwest. At Celebrity Gourmet, we have been baking joy into all of your artistically designed cakes and desserts for over 25 years. We are proud to work with a vibrant team of cake designers and bakers who help you celebrate the sweet moments of your lives. To learn more about celebrating yourself or the ones you love, visit us at celebritycakesstudio.com, dragonflycakes.com, or email me at Odette@celebritygourmet.com. I wanted to give a shout-out to past interviews of mutual friends who have also been interviewed in this podcast, Patti Stobaugh of Patticakes in Arkansas, and Bronwen Weber of Bronwen Cakes in Dallas, Texas. They both introduced me to Amie, last. What was it? June, Amie? When we attended the International Dairy Deli Bakery show in Anaheim. How are you, Amie, thank you so much for being here.

Amie Smith 0:34

Great. So great. Thank you for having me.

Odette D’Aniello 3:15

So I wanted just to tell her listeners who can’t see the video, but Amie is standing in front of her bakery, virtually standing in front of her bakery. Super cute, adorable Cape Cod, cute bakery in white trim. And you know, so cute. Amie, can you tell us like the story of how you got started in the bakery industry? Sure.

Amie Smith 3:42

So I spent most of my career in high tech. And I was running my own marketing communications company. And usually, when there’s a downturn in the economy, people outsource to my company, which was wordsmithing. And in 2008, that had changed and I wasn’t getting any calls or projects. It was a very strange time. I had to do a layoff and was trying to think what I should do with my time is very frustrating, very depressing. And I hadn’t ever been in that position before because usually in a downturn, I would be much, much busier from the outsourcing. So I had taken some recreational classes at the Institute of Culinary Education in New York City where I was living. And they always had this professional pastry program in their newsletter. And I just always would go by it, you know, and go Oh, that would be so cool, but I never had any time. So now I had all the time in the world, so to speak, and I decided to enroll and I attended the classes and on Mostly it was just a revelation. It was like, I love this more than I ever thought I would, even though I had baked when I was younger, but it wasn’t something that was ever present for all the years that I, you know, went to college and then was working in high tech. You know, it was just sort of one of those things that people were reminding me about later, when I was in pastry school, they said, Oh, you are always baking something. And I was like, Oh, I guess I was. And my dad was a baker before I was born. And he quit because of the hours. And he used to make this batch of cookies, like a bigger size batch. Once a year, we would go to the supermarket and you know, buy tons of ingredients and make this giant batch and have a great photo of us making this giant batch of cookies. And he took me to his friend’s bakery one day, and I watched the production. And that has just been something that’s been indelible, on my brain. And when I look around in my bakery today, I still remember that day, when I go into other operations, and see people in the production room, I’m just, like, always taken back to that time. So in a very strange way, this has kind of always been part of my life. And I knew when I was in pastry school that I wanted to open a bakery, that was the end goal, I had to do this, I had to get it out of my system. I couldn’t just bake something and then be happy with that. And, you know, be like, well, who’s going to eat all this, I wanted to share that. And I wanted to share my passion for it. So it took me five years after I graduated from pastry school to find a location and I knew where I wanted to be, because I had a home in the town of Astrid Hill. And we have a cute and that is yes, so Osterville is a village on Cape Cod in the town of Barnstable. And I had a second home here, and I knew that we needed a bakery, and I knew that it would be the perfect fit here. And it just took a while to find a spot. And it finally opened.

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