Lily Ernst may be the blogger behind the website Little Sweet Baker, but don’t let the title fool you. While she may only stand 5 feet tall and she may love to bake up all the sweet things, this is one Canadian woman who has a sharp eye for the business side of running your own creative entrepreneurial endeavor.

We sit down this week to talk about how this former bio-chemist from Ontario got her start as a blogger and how she turned her love of baking into a full time business while being a mom to two very young children. And, she also shares her latest project with us - a brand new ebook that profiles 20 creative bloggers and entrepreneurs in the hopes of inspiring other potential entrepreneurs to take the leap into the world of self-employment. And the best part is, all the proceeds go to two very worthy causes!

Have a listen to find out more!

(if you’re just here for the show notes, scroll down to the bottom of the article)

Listen To the Episode

Here’s a direct link to Episode 37 - or you can listen via the players below:

Lily is another creative Canadian who did not identify as a creative kid. As she describes it, she came from a strict Asian household where creativity wasn’t exactly encouraged! But despite that, growing up as the much younger sibling of two older brothers, she often felt a bit like an only child and spent her time voraciously reading, playing with her dolls and drawing, colouring and dreaming about becoming a fashion designer to satisfy those “girlie glam” feelings!

In high school she did well in math and science and headed off to university to study bio-chemistry with the original goal of going into medical research. But after graduation, she decided to go into pharmaceutical sales but couldn’t find the right opportunity - and that led her to chemical sales. From there she moved into marketing and advertising and it wasn’t until going on her second mat leave that she discovered the world of food blogging!

Turning a Love of Baking Into a Food Blog

While she was still in grade school, she bought a cookie recipe book from the school book fair as a gift (and a hint!) for her mom. But when her mom didn’t jump on the hint, Lily realized she was going to have to take matters into her own hands and learn how to bake - and she loved it! The reward of taking a bite out of something she made with her own hands and then getting to share it with those around her and seeing how happy it made them really resonated with her and she was on her way!

It wasn’t until she was on her second maternity leave with a very colicky baby and a toddler that was acting out for the first time that she discovered food blogging. One night, as her newborn was crying it out, she laid him down next to her and started surfing on her ipad only to stumble on a handful of food blogs. She fell in love with the photography, the way the recipes were written… it was a cookbook come to life!

While browsing Sally’s Baking Addiction, Lily came across an article Sally had written on how to start a blog and she thought “I can do this… it seems easy… I like to bake…” And shortly after, Little Sweet Baker came to life and the rest is history. (It wasn’t quite as easy as it looked though!)

Photo courtesy of Lily Ernst. Click here for the recipe: Cranberry Orange Baklava

From Hobby to Jobby to full time business

The blog stayed a hobby initially and Lily went back to work at the end of her mat leave but the universe had other plans for her. Shortly after heading back to work, her company downsized and she found herself let go with a package. While initially Lily took it hard, she started to realize this might just be the best thing that could have happened.

The severance package gave her some room to think about her options, spend some time with her kids and see what she could do with Little Sweet Baker. After discussing it with her husband, the two decided she would stay home until their youngest started school and in the meantime, she’d see what she could do with the blog. If needed, she could go back to work when the youngest was in school.

But, with a little luck and an awful lot of hard work (it is a lot harder than it looks), Little Sweet Baker was bringing in more than Lily’s old full time salary before her youngest was in kindergarten. And while it is hard work, Lily has found a flexibility when it comes to her time, and a greater work/family/life balance that she didn’t have when she worked for somebody else. The mom guilt and work guilt that go hand in hand for so many women has become much easier to manage now that she controls the schedule!

Getting help and delegating

Once the blog was generating enough revenue, Lily hired a VA (Virtual Assistant) to help take some of the day to day tasks off her plate, like social media management. She also hired technical support when she was able to. Doing these things has freed up her time to do the things that she loves the most - creating the recipes and doing the photography. These also happen to be the things she does well and that generate the greatest source of revenue for her business.

The added benefit of hiring help within her business? She’s bought back her time and given herself more time to spend with her family while her business still ticks along. It also becomes a support system that’s so critical to small creative businesses in any field. Hiring help gives you the opportunity to focus on what you’re good at and helps you drive your business forward.

Image courtesy of Lily Ernst. Find the recipe here: Lemon Meringue Pie

Looking to the Future

Little Sweet Baker has reached a point where Lily is happy with how its performing and proud of what she’s accomplished (and so is her non-baking mom!). Now she’s looking to build on the blog with new projects, the first of which is her first Ebook project, Blogging for Passion and Profit: A Collection of Inspirational Stories of Success and Advice From Self-Made Bloggers and Entrepreneurs.

The Book: Blogging For Passion and Profit

After getting asked over and over by family, friends, and even acquaintances how exactly she made money from blogging and how they could start a blog, Lily thought it was time to tell her story. But she also wanted to find a way to give back after finding so much success with her own blog.

With the world in the middle of a pandemic and increasing food insecurity in North America as a whole, Lily thought that telling her story, along with the stories of other entrepreneurs, in a book where the proceeds went to support food banks in Canada and the US might just be something that could help. Not only that, the inspiring stories from other entrepreneurs might just provide the spark that others who may have lost their jobs or found themselves looking for other options need to take the leap into starting their own businesses.

Blogging For Passion and Profit was the result! It shares the stories of 20 creative bloggers and entrepreneurs (mostly women) including Lily’s own story. (Full disclosure, she also shares my story along with the stories of frequent co-hosts Heather Travis and Ayngelina Brogan). Each small business owner profiled shares how they got started, some of the most important lessons they’ve learned on their entrepreneurial journey, and some of their best tips for business owners just starting out.

Blogging For Passion and Profit.jpg — Blogging For Passion & Profit

A collection of inspirational stories of success and advice from self-made bloggers and entrepreneurs.

Putting a Book Together

Writing a book is no easy task. Putting a book together with 20 contributors is even more herculean! All the stories are written by the entrepreneurs themselves and Lily’s job, once she decided how she wanted to the book to come together and what she wanted to include, was to manage the process (and tell her own story).

The first task was securing all her contributors and expressing to them what she needed them to bring to the project (and then keep them all on track with deliverables!). Once the content started to arrive, Lily got help with the pieces she didn’t know how to tackle. She used Allison Adelman, one of her long time contractors, to do the copy editing. Maria Platusic, who Lily found through a local momprenuer group on Facebook, was brought on to design the book and bring it to life.

Now that the book is published, Lily is moving on to the marketing portion of putting a new product out into the world, using her network and other bloggers to help promote the book. Her hope is to be able to make a sizable donation to her two charities of choice this holiday season: Food Banks Canada and Feeding America.

A Collection of Inspiring Journeys to Self-Employment

The book is an inspiring collection of stories that really highlights so many different paths to entrepreneurship from people with very different backgrounds and personal situations.

Each of us who participated was asked to share 2 of our biggest business tips or lessons that we’ve learned along the way as well as our own stories of how we got started. There’s sure to be a story that clicks for each of us as you read through all the different ways to find success as an entrepreneur. Besides the chapters on Lily herself, Heather, Ayngelina and myself, here’s just a few of the inspiring entrepreneurs you’ll hear from:

Julie Cole, the founder of Mabel’s Labels (Chapter 1: Business, Babies and Blogging - Tips and Tricks from a Mom of Six)
Jeff Hawley of Hashtag Jeff (Chapter 3: The Road to Success if Paved with Passion
Rachel Beach of Craving Some Creativity (Chapter 8: The Perfectly Imperfect Path to Making Your Own Way)
Iva Ursano of Amazing Movement (Chapter 16: Reinventing Myself in My 50s)
Kris Bordessa of Attainable Sustainable (Chapter 20: Blogging From the Ground Up)

If you’re thinking of starting your own business or, you have your own business but you could use a little motivation or inspiration, check out Blogging For Passion or Profit. It embodies everything we talk about here at And She Looked Up: making a living from doing what you love. It’s bound to give you some ideas and push you forward - and the proceeds go to support two very worthy causes!

GET YOUR COPY NOW!