Esther Jackson

I am very resilient and do not take “no” very seriously.

I brought the bakery to my house for 10 years when we had to close our doors in 2013 because we had orders prepaid such as wedding cakes. I did all those orders for free for over a year and a half while continuing to maintain the bakery orders. I delivered to three locations every single day during those ten years, seven days a week. I did not want our name forgotten because our store had to close. I was extremely dedicated to keeping our customer base thriving and growing.

I also attribute our success to our amazing customer base who shows up when I need them. I'm honest with them about what's happening each week on social medias and doing Live videos. Our loyal followers show up and show out each and every time! During hard times they remind me to give myself grace and to breathe or if my personal life takes over for a moment they remind me Family First because they know I have been putting my work first (for them) that I need to focus on my life for the moment. Our customers are our family and friends from our past. They have always taken care of us since 1954 by providing my family a business and Thornberry’s has always tried to provide for them and their families in return.

Take advice from everyone. Doesn’t mean you have to use it but take it. It’s free.

Don't undersell yourself. Make sure you're doing your cost analysis and get your money. Get with somebody to mentor you, somebody like me that has a name and can tell you these things and get your confidence up, but not so far up that you want to overprice yourself. You have to know your customer base.

The biggest challenge in the bakery industry right now is the decline in family size and changing demographics. My uncle warned me years ago that our customer base was shrinking because people aren't having children like they used to. When my grandfather was in business, Catholic families had 10 to 13 kids. My uncle's generation had families with 6 to 12 kids. Now people are gay, career-oriented, or have 1.5 kids per family, and he said it's going to die off. He was right. We also have too many commercial coffee houses taking over cookies and baked goods. People don't need whole pies anymore when there's only one or two people in their family. They don't want an 8-slice pie, but they also don't want to pay $5 for a 3-inch individual pie, even though that's what it costs us to make. Yet they'll go to a restaurant and pay $7 to $12 for a slice of cheesecake, which astounds me.

The most important values to me are family, honesty, and integrity. I will do anything for my husband, my son, my daughter, my grandchildren. When my son calls and asks me to take one of the kids to the doctor or pick them up from school, I drive 30 miles to go get whoever needs me. Family comes first, and my customer base understands that. When my brother was in the hospital dying, I told my customers straight out that I was going to see him, and they said family first. I'm also committed to honesty in my business. I don't lie to my customers. I tell them straight out what's happening, what's going on, what I've got today, what I don't have today, and if I can't do something. They appreciate that transparency and tell me to just breathe. I've also learned to have integrity in my pricing and not let people take advantage of me anymore. I'm done underselling myself and letting greedy people profit from my work while I do all the labor.