Sojourner’s Truth Staff
“I just want to bake,” Laveda Wright told Olivia Holden, executive director of Assets Toledo upon their first meeting some years ago. As a fledgling entrepreneur and proprietor of a bakery business, Wright informed Holden that she really didn’t want to get involved with “all that other stuff” that business owners had to trouble with – marketing, accounting and so forth.
“You need to know where you are going,” replied Holden, “so you don’t end up out of business and bankrupt.”
Convinced by those words of caution, Wright entered Assets Class 17 and opened a business doing what she has enjoyed doing for most of her life – baking.
“It started as a hobby to keep me from thinking about my son in Iraq,” says Wright of the inspiration that turned a passion into a fledgling enterprise.
And that passion is reflected in a line of decorative goodies that are as appealing to the eye as they are to the palate.
“I try to make it unique,” she says of her decorations and colorful designs. “I want to stand out, that’s why I have incorporated specialty colors – things you have never seen or heard of – in my recipes for German Chocolate Cheesecake or Lemon Meringue Cheesecake, for example.”
For Wright that uniqueness is not confined to the icing on the cake; her creativity with colors runs throughout the dessert – “different colors when you cut,” she says.
Wright has been operating out of home, catering to special events such as birthday parties and graduations, promoting the business on Facebook and Instagram, utilizing the ongoing advice and counsel that Holden offers.
“Miss Holden is totally awesome,” she says. “It’s unbelievable what I have seen her do with small businesses. She is a great mentor and really believes in what she does. She is still helping.”
And for Sweet and Elegant LLC, that help is paving the way for another successful small business. Laveda Wright and Sweet and Elegant can be reached at 419-509-0623.
