Rising Stars: Meet Vanessa Rodriguez

Today we’d like to introduce you to Vanessa Rodriguez.

Hi Vanessa, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I have always loved to bake since I was a little girl with my easy bake oven. Then as I got older my dad taught me how to bake other sweets and was the one to give me any feedback. In 2017 I got pregnant with my fourth child. After working 1-2 jobs since I was 15, I quit working because having all my kids in day care, would have drained all of my income. Being home all day with my baby, I started baking again. I would send my husband to work with cupcakes and other desserts. Then, I started experimenting with decorating cakes and using fondant. My kid’s birthday cakes, sports celebrations, and other events were my first cakes. In October of 2018, I had my first paid request for a football birthday cake for one of my son’s teammates. After that, I started to get other requests from people that I knew until eventually I started getting others referred to me by people that I knew. After encouragement by my family, I came up with a name, BatterUpSweetness (batter for cake batter and batter for my kids playing baseball/softball at the time), and social media business pages and have slowly grown.

I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
It has definitely not been a smooth road. I started with just a couple of pans, and slowly ordered more with my first orders. My biggest investor AKA my dad, helped me get alot of the things I needed because he believed that I could grow. I tried hard to get orders and promote myself with discounts and sales. Then I would get a lot of orders, so I had to learn how to manage my time. I have had a lot of sleepless nights trying to get orders done while trying to be mom and wife during the day. I then started prepping early in the week so that all my business-related duties would get done during the day and so that I could sleep at night, because my toddler would not sleep without me even if he was tired. I am still growing and getting more orders but trying to work in orders around my kids’ crazy sports schedules, is difficult. I absolutely hate missing any of my kids’ events, but I also hate turning away clients’ orders, as I feel it’s bad service, but my kids mean the world to me. Trying to be a mom and run a business is very hard. The struggle I’m dealing with currently, is my kids have mentioned to me that I’m always busy with orders. Running my home business though, is what helps my husband pay for things they want to do like baseball and cheer. It has helped pay for their traveling.

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I bake and decorate custom cakes, cupcakes, and decorated cookies. I specialize more in cakes and cupcakes than I do cookies but took the recommendation of making decorated cookies who wanted to order both from one place. People come to me because they have tasted my cakes and liked the look and flavor of the cakes I have done. A favorite that I make are my strawberry cheesecake cupcakes. Those are always the first gone at events, or anywhere that I take them.

I am most proud of how far I come in decorating cakes. Yes, I have baked since I was little and now make my own cakes out of scratch, but I had never decorated cakes. Youtube and Facebook groups have helped me come a long way in decorating.

I think what sets me apart from others is I will try new things, flavor wise or decorating, but if it’s something I do not believe I can do in the time frame needed, I will let the client know instead of just trying to grab the sale. I will let them decide to keep looking for someone that can do what they want or give them options of what I can do.

Do you have any advice for those looking to network or find a mentor?
I do not have any advise on networking or finding a mentor, but what has worked for me is word of mouth. If your family, friends, or clients can share your social media business pages, your cards, or leave reviews on your page, it helps a lot.

Contact Info:

• Email: Vprdz90@gmail.com
• Instagram: @BatterUpSweetness
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/batterupsweetness