Meet Hailey Gutierrez of Sweets_By_Hailz

Today we’d like to introduce you to Hailey Gutierrez

Hi Hailey, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
I grew up baking my whole childhood with both of my aunts.We would always make cakes and cookies for holidays and birthdays.At one point we had stopped doing our traditional baking nights but my dream was always to have my own business.I never knew where to start or what I enjoyed doing.It was always a hard choice to make because I would ask myself if it will ever work out.My first choice was doing nails, I learned how to do nails for around 5 months. I enjoyed the feeling of making people happy but I realized I wasn’t enjoying it as much.It felt more like a chore and I didn’t fall in love with it. I slowly gave up on doing nails and took time off to think of other ideas. Then one day, I was sitting in my kitchen table scrolling through TikTok. I started craving something sweet.As I’m scrolling I saw cookies pop up on my “foryou page”. I then looked up the recipe on how to make the confetti cookies that were on my feed.I started making them and baking. I shared with friends and family and everyone seemed to like them.My family started to tell me , “You should start a business on baking”. I always told them no I wouldn’t want to do that, It was just a treat I wanted to make. Little did I know that it was going to turn into something I would love the most.I started selling cookies at school and the word started going around. I then created a Instagram , to see if I would get attention. A lot of people from school started to follow me and compliment my cookies.I explored many other recipes to expand learning. I started to slowly enjoy baking again and it didn’t feel like a chore. I enjoyed seeing peoples smiles when they would try my treats.I went through lots of ups and downs that made me doubt my work.I slowly started investing in stickers and making my logo. I realized how everything started falling into place and it felt just right. I was happy that I was starting something out of scratch. I then started learning how to make cakes and how to decorate them. I would stay up till 2am or 3am to finish baking on school nights to sell the next day. I continued in my studies and no matter what I kept good grades.My mom always told me that ” no matter what never ever give up on school”. My mom was my model on how I wanted to grow up as. She is a really hard working woman and she always supported me in my business. She told me to keep going even when I wanted to give up the most. I truly appreciate her because if it wasn’t for her , then I wouldn’t be the woman I am today. Everyday I tried doing everything to make my business grow. I did promos, pop ups, giveaways, and sales. I started getting customers and being peoples go to baker for birthday parties. I met lots of people throughout this journey and made friends. What I loved the most about my business was being able to interact with people. I made lots of connections that supported me from the start.Those people were like a reminder to keep going. But most importantly my family is the biggest support system of my business. I still continue to love what I do and will always.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
It wasnt always a smooth road and it did come with lots of challenges. At the end of the day I always took these obstacles as something to learn from and become better. The struggles I faced was receiving negativity. I had some people doubting me or telling me that my baking wasn’t a real “job” or it wasn’t going to take me anywhere. I even had personal life problems I had to deal with but I will always push them aside and take my mind off it with baking.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
My business offers lots of sweets to choose from! We do have a weekly rotation of cookies so that your able to try a different cookie flavor every week. This allows customers to have a favorite cookie and pre-order any packages.I bake cookies,cakes, cheesecakes,chocolate covered strawberries, etc. One of my most popular cookie flavors are marble, Dubai chocolate cookie,and cheesecake cookies.My most popular cakes are my heart shaped vintage cakes and MINI loaf pan cakes.We are known for our cookies and different weekly flavors.We offer caterings to your events if that’s a birthday,baby shower,wedding etc. What Im most proud of is how much my business has involved in 1 year and how much it has improved.

So maybe we end on discussing what matters most to you and why?
What matters to me most is customer satisfaction and their feedback.It matters to me because it helps me improve and to keep going.Customers reviews are helpful to let your viewers know more about your business.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sweets_by_hailz/
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@sweets_by_hailz