Building an online business
Mentee
Leah Bodnar-McLeod
Mentor
Sam Fleshman-Carlick
Project Concept:
Mentorship style:
Leah Bodnar-McLeod
Leah Bodnar-McLeod is First Nations from Inuvik, NWT. She has a daughter named Haven, the inspiration behind the name of her new business: Havenly Sweets. Leah is a self-taught baker who completed her Red Seal in 2020. She is the owner of Havely Sweets (formerly Leah’s Little House of Cupcakes) and has taught cupcake decorating workshops with the Great Northern Arts Festival. Leah also currently studies social work remotely at the University of Calgary, and works part time at Inuvik Community Wellness and Support Services. She has overcome personal challenges that have driven her to grow and develop an understanding of intergenerational trauma affecting social aspects of the north. Her knowledge and educational background enables her to bring awareness to reduce the impact of addiction in the north and to improve health and wellness in her community, as well as create the life she wants for her daughter.
Sam Fleshman-Carlick
My name is Sam Fleshman-Carlick and I am the entrepreneur, creator, crafter and teacher behind Simply Significants.
I started my beading journey in 2009. The first thing I made was a pair of mitts for my oldest son. Since then, I have made earrings, wristlets, moccasins, fur hats, vests, mukluks, hair clips, patches and wrap arounds.
I made my first pair of moccasins in 2012 for my wedding. I wanted them to be special, made just for me. It was difficult to find the materials and someone to guide me on that first pair of moccasins. I found a pattern online and made them without any direction (oh my you should see the heel), I also made each of my bridesmaids a pair of their own.
My mission is to strengthen the appreciation for traditional skills. Through hand-on workshops and storytelling. By fostering a fun learning environment. Welcoming to all, my students complete their projects. Building both confidence in their skills and themselves. I am proud of the work that I do because I see the change in celebrating traditions from generations now and future.
Why this project?
"Part of me always missed that side of baking because that was my first initial career. Like, I always did it, I’ve loved it. It’s kind of like a healing era for me. Instead of coming back as 'Leah's Little House of Cupcakes' I knew I wanted to relaunch. I wanted to change my name and everything because so much has changed since I started back then.
I had my original name, which is 'Leah's Little House of Cupcakes' and my rebrand name is...tada... I changed my name to 'Havenly Sweets' because 'Haven' is actually my daughter's name and I wanted to incorporate 'Sweets' because I want to expand into doing more than just cupcakes.
I get my inspiration from my family and from having kids like my nephews around all the time it's like, 'Would they like doing this certain kind of thing?' And then I can imagine who else would like doing it."
Core skills
- Making a business plan and rebranding
- Designing the launch of the new brand on Facebook Marketplace
Why this project?
PROJECT EXCERPT
Learning Pathway
- Leah spent significant time creating a vision for the changes she wanted to make to her business including a new name, logo, and changes to her menu.
- She created an Excel spreadsheet to organize her new business plan (Google Sheets are another option). She created a tab for each of these elements: pricing, menu, target audience, competition. Using Excel she calculated the following:
- The pricing of her raw ingredients to make her product
- How many batches she would have to make, and charge, to make a profit
- She also determined:
- When she have products available (ie. holidays and weekends)
- The products she would feature in her new menu
- Aspects that made her business unique such as catering to families and offering products like ‘cookies in a jar’ that families can make together
- Who she planned to sell to, and what other businesses in the area were offering to potential clients
- Leah designed a new logo with her new business name using Canva. She also used Canva to design a pdf of her menu to share on social media.
- Leah made a Facebook page for her business (rather than a FB group) to take orders and share products on Facebook Marketplace and her local Buy and Sell.
- To generate visibility online she created a ‘Grow the Page Giveaway’ draw for her page’s launch; anyone who ‘likes’ or ‘shares’ the link to her page is entered into a draw featuring her new product.
What’s the most important thing you learned?
Leah: It was basically like just hearing a story from another artist, like Sam, for example, and learning how she went about starting her business and how she got from point A to B. And basically like, how to help me get there as well, like supporting me to get there, and just letting me know the ideas she did. And yeah, basically sharing stories on how to be successful. Like, women empowering women kind of thing.
Sam: That's exactly it, like being able to sit there and work together and work through things is really helpful.
Leah: How to make it work for me in my community because every community is different, and every community reaches their audience a different way.
And I think, simply, just do it. Honestly.
Sam: Right? That's literally what I was going to say - just do it! Learn from your mistakes, like, don't make any too big mistakes, don't put your foot in your mouth, but just do it.
What’s next?
"Finishing up the last semester of my Social Work BA at the University of Calgary and launching Havenly Sweets!" - Leah
Tips, tricks and advice
- Just do it! You can learn as you go.
- Use the platform that suits you and your community: A lot of people in Inuvik like using Facebook Marketplace and the local Buy and Sell - it’s simple to use and it cuts down on the administration I need to do. Why make a website until you need to?
- Start small so you can make adjustments to your products, pricing and hours etc until you find something that best suits you and your business.
Resources used
- Yukonstruct’s business planning resources (via Sam‘s mentorship) including information from their Pathfinding Services, and Tourism and Culture Startup Bootcamp
- Excel (Google Sheets is a free alternative) to make a business plan
- Canva for brand elements
Sponsored By
Sponsored by the Yukon Film Society
Login or register to join the conversation.
Join the discussion
0 comments