Entrepreneurship and marketing junior Andrew Blodgett (center) founded Smiles Bakery in 2016 before he started hosting pop-up events on campus in 2018. Photo by Anna Phengsakmueang | Mercury Staff.
A student combined his passions for
people and creation to start his own baking business. Since he introduced it to
his network at UTD, he has been growing its reach by collaborating with various
student organizations on campus.
Smiles Bakery is a pop-up bakery business started by entrepreneurship and
marketing junior Andrew Blodgett. Since establishing his business in the summer
of 2016, Blodgett has been selling fresh baked goods to customers from around
the metroplex, as well as UTD students.
Blodgett said
his mother inspired him to start his business. His family had a bread business
called Family Bread Basket, and he and his brother would help out by washing
dishes and delivering baked goods.
“We were always getting really good
food to eat and also getting really inspired by the process of how you can make
food,” Blodgett said. “When she kind of stopped doing the bread business thing,
I was like, ‘If I were to start a business, this would be a good way to get
into it.’”
Blodgett said another reason behind
his business was his love for building things.
“Growing up, I always had a passion
for making things, whether it’s building Legos or planting a garden or making
notebooks,” he said. “It’s cool to see something grow or be built.”
With his new business established, he
started selling at a local farmers market near White Rock Lake in Dallas.
“I remember very distinctly my first customer,
and when she bought my loaf of bread, I was
just feeling like, ‘Woah, I made this, and she is paying money that she
earned,’” Blodgett said. “And I also liked seeing people’s reactions after trying
out my samples.”
Blodgett said
that as he got more customers at the farmers market, he started adding more
variety to his baked goods.
“Every time I
would add a new product, I would learn a lot from the process of buying
ingredients and doing inventory, pricing packaging,” Blodgett said.
Blodgett said he
brought Smiles Bakery to UTD as a part of his Startup Launch I course in hopes
of further growing its reach.
“I was thinking
about stopping Smiles Bakery, because I thought it wasn’t getting anywhere
since I was selling at the same farmers market, because it’s pretty hard to
build a strong customer base there,” Blodgett said. “I started selling on
campus. I already knew a lot of people here, I was already an Orientation
Leader, I had played rugby my freshman year and I had connections through my
brothers as well because they both came here before me. ”
Blodgett said he
had some apprehension about bringing his business to campus and showing it to
those he knew.
“It was kind of
scary, being like, ‘What are people going to think? Is it going to be welcomed
here?’” he said. “But the amount of support that I was met with was so cool and
everyone was super excited about it and wanted to try and buy things.”
Smiles Bakery
collaborates with student organizations on campus to help them with fundraising
efforts.
“The best event
is when it’s win-win,” Blodgett said. “We can partner with another
organization, and they can grow their reach and bring their people, so it helps
us, and it also helps them.”
Although he
hasn’t sold his baked goods at farmers markets since last December, Blodgett
said he made the right decision because of the connections his business is
helping to form among students.
“Our vision
isn’t just selling baked goods,” Blodgett said. “It’s spreading positivity and
love through baked goods and a wholesome community of students coming
together.”