Bianca's Simply Cakes Pandemic Assistence
Donation protected
Hey y'all! ♥️ Thanks for taking a moment to help support a black woman owned business of Durham, NC! I'm Bianca, the owner of Simply Cakes which has served the community for the last 20 years and I'm happy to say we've made it to 2021 with the support of amazing friends and family during the heat of the pandemic.
However, the business is now hitting another wall without PPP relief qualification, no stimulus, no grants and no loan availability. I'm once again reaching out to my amazing community for this month and the next few months. I want to be as transparent as I can so you have an idea of where we are at so it's a lengthy read and appreciate you taking the time. I've been running on barebones operations with just maintaining the domain/email, storage from being displaced to a much smaller kitchen space in the middle of the pandemic and bakery rent/insurance/etc, delivery vehicle, etc. It has hit me soo hard that I financially can not afford free cakes for styled shoots for advertising possibilities or bridal popup events which helps stage the next seasons income.
Since I do not use the expensive wedding aggregator sites any longer, I'm unable to gather wedding inquiries as much as I used to which had kept me afloat on past seasons. Weddings are still at a 10% load and I am at a place where $600 monthly rent is just becoming less of a possibility each month. My issue also revolves around not having enough small orders (had to reformat my offerings) to make up the difference that wedding cakes would cover and next month is not guaranteed for me. I'm hoping with any additional funds, I can also afford a cheap laptop which will allow me to get more advertising out and take more orders in a faster pace as well! Running a fully functional business on a 3"-6" screen is not ideal but I've been managing so far.
So in short I'm just trying to pay rent into May and possibly a work laptop and nothing more.
Please feel free to share with family, friends and vendors of the area if you can using the hash #SaveSimplyCakes . I would love to keep feeding my community for many more years to come!
Love,
Your friendly neighborhood caker ♥️
Bianca Johnson/Lady G
Organizer and beneficiary
Bianca Hunt
Organizer
Morrisville, NC
Bianca Hunt
Beneficiary