Who doesn’t LOVE sprinkles? Let’s face it, we all become kids again when sprinkles are involved. They are the fairy dust of the baking world, spreading their colorful and magical happiness on all manner of sweet treats, guaranteed to delight even the grumpiest of personalities.

 

I’m insanely jealous of today’s guest because she gets to spend her entire working life surrounded by sprinkles. What could be better than that? Elizabeth (LIz) Butts owns Sprinkle Pop, a sprinkle mix company located in Texas. Liz creates unique and trendy custom confetti shapes and sprinkle mixes that are custom-dyed to perfection. Though her business is just over one year old, she and her “devoted team of sprinkle fairies” now occupy a warehouse to create their colorful concoctions, having recently moved out of Liz’s house where they began. Sprinkle Pop serves baking supply stores, professional cake/cookie decorators, and baked-good enthusiasts around the world. Visit the Sprinkle Pop website to see their amazing sprinkle combinations!

 

Show Highlights:

 

• The story of Sprinkle Pop
• How Liz, a cake decorator since high school, needed a specific color combination for a wedding cake in January 2017---but she couldn’t find what she needed
• As she hand-dyed sprinkles to get just what she needed, her “Aha” moment struck
• In March 2017, she launched her website and Sprinkle Pop was born----(Liz did $1000 worth of business in her FIRST month!)
• The unexpected success comes with the average sale being about $24, which is two 4 oz. bottles
• The hardest part for Liz is keeping up with social media as a one-woman show
• A quick business tip is to use a VA to do social media work, as they are very reasonable in price
• The easiest part for Liz is creating the unique sprinkle mixes; she finds it fun, easy, and natural
• Why Liz hand-dyes many of her sprinkles to keep her products very custom-made and to protect the “uniqueness factor” of Sprinkle Pop
• The best seller: Unicorn Sprinkle Mix, which is a year-round top-seller and very labor intensive
• Making business decisions about what is scalable
• The learning experience for Liz in dealing with wholesalers and buying in bulk
• The transition of moving out of her house and into a warehouse and dealing with the massive growth of her business
• Why Liz likes to focus on the taste of the sprinkles  
• The common sprinkle philosophy: “Less is more”
• Liz’s favorite fun sprinkle fact: Silver bar sprinkles are actually made from uncooked spaghetti!
• The two-fold purpose of Liz’s blog with genius ideas about how to use the sprinkle mixes (Each post =instant sales)
• There is competition in the sprinkle business, even though it’s not as cutthroat as other businesses. “It’s hard not to notice others and what they’re doing.”
• What Liz says when people say sprinkles are “just a fad”
• Why sprinkles are great: You always need sprinkles, they’ve been around for along time, they have multiple applications, and are perfect for any holiday or special occasion!
• What’s next for Sprinkle Pop? Liz wants to expand product lines and grow on a larger scale into large retail stores
• Why every entrepreneur is “figuring it out every day and hoping we’re doing it right” (Hint: No one is really an established expert)
• If Liz weren’t running Sprinkle Pop, she would still be at her corporate job in finance for the oil/gas industry. She says, “One of the happiest days in recent years was when I could quit that job.”
• For Liz, Sprinkle Pop is the perfect marriage of her cake-decorating talent and running her own creative business
• Stay tuned in the coming weeks to learn of a huge collaboration project in the form of a giveaway complete with Sprinkle Pop goodness!
• Liz’s parting thought for other entrepreneurs: “Surround yourself with people that support you. Move forward and don’t look back.”

Resources:

 

www.sprinklepop.shop

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