After being in business for five years, Maya’s Cookies had become accustomed to a certain level of daily orders, a certain ebb and flow for seasons and I had supplies and production resources in place to support that. Then, in ONE DAY, everything changed.
With the horrific death of George Floyd, we all witnessed this awakening in America of people finally ready to take action to address racial inequality and injustice. There was this incredible surge of people wanting to do something to support black communities and specifically black owned businesses. As a black owned business, Maya’s Cookies was lucky enough to appear on several lists that were shared online and in various publications.
As a result of that media exposure, Maya’s Cookies experienced a 10,000% increase in our cookie sales throughout the first couple weeks of June. This completely unexpected growth was incredible, but also challenging. With COVID-19 impacting my supply chain and a sudden ramp up in production meant round the clock baking and shipping, it all felt so overwhelming at first. But there was one unexpected benefit, alongside the growth of my business, I learned more about the immensity of my own strength and about the support from people around me.
My go-to phrase, “Put my big girl pants on and get it done,” is exactly what I did. Each morning throughout the month of June, I would wake up at 4am on 4 hours of sleep to bake. With no air conditioning and 6ft-tall ovens constantly baking a foot away made the bakery sweltering. Unfortunately, I have a couple battle scars because of those ovens— who knew baking cookies could be so dangerous?
Despite the awful hand cramps from hand scooping thousands of cookies and sore aching feet from standing 14 hours straight, I knew I could get all the orders out. During those few weeks, with the help of my friends and family, we were able to package nearly 40,000 cookies and get out nearly 10,000 orders. My husband and my three boys were always there to listen each late evening I returned home. They were all ears in those fifteen minutes between when I got home and went to sleep, only pausing to eat an Amy’s Frozen Meal.
Yet, each evening, I found a sliver of time to see the supportive comments, DMs, and emails that were in my inbox or left on our social media pages. The support for me, my story, and my team was unlike anything I’ve ever seen before. Those comments got me through the hardest days— if so many people who had never even tried Maya’s Cookies before truly believed in me and my small business, then I had no reason to doubt myself either.
None of this would have been possible without the dedication and support of every single person who bought Maya’s Cookies. Every single order placed has helped my business get to where it is today. Each order has helped us hire on more team members (half a dozen full time employees), buy newer equipment (like our mixer that blends 100-pound batches of pure joy), and even double the size of our facility. But the most amazing and satisfying part is that you’ve enabled our ability to give back to our community and contribute to changing the lives of our partners, vendors, suppliers, and even some other local businesses. I truly believe that it’s never my success alone. It’s mine to share with others.
Always remember: You CAN make a difference. I pinch myself every day as I see my dreams coming true and it’s all because of you! You have taken the time to support us and we are dedicated to doing the same! Every order matters to us.
Always feel free to reach out, you are part of the Maya’s Cookies family now!!
Gourmet. Vegan. Love.
<3 Maya