In this episode, I’m chatting with the remarkably creative Debbie Holland. Debbie is the owner and founder of Little Bikkie Sugar Craft, a small business that has evolved and grown rapidly since its humble beginnings in Debbie’s home kitchen in 2019.

Have you ever wondered if you can make a business out of your hobby? 

Debbie loved cookie decorating as a hobby and since taking the plunge to create Little Bikkie has managed to turn her pastime into an incredible success. Her business grew unbelievably quickly to reach more than a quarter of a million dollars in revenue by the end of its first full financial year! 

Debbie made the leap to scale her business by creating online classes, recipes and even became one of Australia’s top stockists for cookie decorating products – even with a fear of technology! 

We’re exploring Debbie’s origin story with Little Bikkie, her decision to move into the online educational space, her biggest challenges, the lessons she learned from Scalable, and her first amazing launch. 

Debbie Holland’s story is truly inspirational and will speak to everyone who is weighing up whether their ‘hobby’ is worth pursuing into a business.

Topics we discussed:

[1:00]: Snippet from Debbie’s email. 

[2:02]: Debbie shares how her baking business started. 

[3:40]: Debbie started off local and then started posting Australia-wide but decided to keep it local sales due to potential damage to her cookies in the post. 

[4:45]: Debbie kept getting questions from other bakers about products and recipes. Her next step was to start selling decorating products to bakers.

[8:10]: Debbie’s biggest audience was other bakers. She launched her website and within half an hour most of her stock was sold out! 

[9:30]: The success of her website led her to make the decision to stop baking and focus on her webshop. 

[10:58]: The online class idea came from her interactions with other bakers asking her for advice. 

[12:43]: The first online class she created was all about the recipes. 

[14:14]: Technology was Debbie’s biggest challenge when creating online classes. 

[15:16]: Scalable helped Debbie get her online classes on the internet step by step. 

[17:37]: Debbie describes the process she went through to collect email addresses. She had approximately 500 people on her email list and at the end of her launch week, the class had sold 300 times. 

[20:24]: The most enjoyable part of Debbie’s business is having students in her class. 

[22:04]: Debbie would like to phase out stocking other brands’ products. She wants to create her own moulds and become her own brand. 

[23:49]: Online classes have changed Debbie’s business in an amazing way. 

[24:59]: Transitioning from a stay at home mum to running her own business from home was a big change for Debbie and her children. She learned to put in boundaries to have a good family and work balance. 

[27:06]: Debbie spends the first half hour of her day reading a book with her coffee and rescheduled answering her DMs on Instagram to 9:30 so she can feel rested and her children don’t see her on screens all of the time. 

[28:52]: Where to find Debbie. 

LINKS:

Connect with Debbie: 

• Website: https://www.littlebikkie.com.au/ 
• Instagram: @little_bikkie
• Email: info@littlebikkie.com.au