Good Neighbor Podcast: Delco
Bringing Together Local Businesses and Neighbors of Delaware County, PA (Delco"") and the surrounding Philadelphia Metro Region.
Good Neighbor Podcast: Delco
Kim Wright's Nothing Bundt Cakes: Baking up a Five-Store Sensation with Sweet Community Connections
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Kim Wright's Nothing Bundt Cakes: Baking up a Five-Store Sensation with Sweet Community Connections
Ever bitten into a dessert so divine you just had to share the experience? That's the kind of joy Kim Wright, the entrepreneurial spirit behind Nothing Bundt Cakes in Springfield, Delaware County, Pennsylvania, delivers daily. In this episode of the Good Neighbor Podcast with host Bob Blaisse, Kim Wright shares her scrumptious journey from a single Wynwood, PA to now a five-store success as a franchisee of Nothing Bundt Cakes in just five years. You'll get the inside scoop on how Kim's 'first bite stories' create an indelible connection between her cakes and her customers, and the navigation required during the tricky tides of a pandemic that put a temporary halt to the beloved tradition of in-store sampling.
As this episode switches gears to the heartwarming side of Kim's woman-owned business, Bob explores what it means to be a Good Neighbor Business in the bustling community of Springfield, Delaware County, PA and beyond Delco into Montgomery County, PA, and Chester County PA. And it's not just about cakes; it's about connections. Listen to how business entrepreneur Kim Wright has baked her way into the hearts of her community as a testament to the power of local businesses fostering camaraderie and lasting bonds. You're about to be served up a taste of entrepreneurial spirit. don’t pass on this opportunity to celebrate the local businesses that make our neighborhoods sweeter.
Website: NothingBundtCakes.com
--- About The Show--- Good Neighbor Podcast is a spotlight on local businesses in and around Delaware County, PA (“Delco” ) and Beyond... The executive producer and host, Bob Blaisse, is a community sponsorship advocate, business branding specialist, and publisher of several hometown magazines, including: Newtown Square Friends & Neighbors, Marple Friends & Neighbors and Newtown Edgmont Friends & Neighbors, mailed monthly to more than 12,000 homes in Western Delaware County, PA, and also available for reading online.
Nothing Bundt Cakes Franchise Success
Speaker 1Hello, delco. This is Michael Barkan, welcoming you to the Good Neighbor Podcast, where fans of local businesses and their neighbors come together. It's my pleasure once again to introduce my friend and neighbor, our host Bob Lacey.
Speaker 2Thank you, michael Barkan. It's been a great week here. We've had a number of podcast episodes that recorded and all set to be put up on our website, which is gnpdelcocom. My name is Bob Blasey and I'm your host today for another episode of the Good Neighbor Podcast, coming to you from Delaware County, pennsylvania, outside of Philadelphia, in the Southeast corner of Pennsylvania. This podcast program is meant to showcase good neighbor businesses and today we have one. We have an owner-operator of a franchise that I think a lot of you are going to know. I became wind of it, I guess, several years ago by stopping into a bakery called Nothing Bunt Cakes. It was an interesting name, right? Nothing Bunt Cakes B-U-N-D. Play on nothing but cakes, and I have to tell you I had kind of my first mini Buntcake and I could see why the franchise was so successful. So let me bring on the franchise owner of that very store that I stopped into years ago. This is Kim Wright. Let me bring Kim to the stage here. Kim hello, welcome to the program, welcome to the Good Neighbor Podcast.
Speaker 3Thanks for having me, Bob. I appreciate it.
Speaker 2Kim, I mentioned that I've been in your store many years ago. I can't remember, it was at least several years ago, but what year would that store have opened up? That I think?
Speaker 3I stopped in to see what it was all about. If it was the Springfield location, it would have been in 2020 or after. That was when that location opened. It would have been in 2020 or after.
Speaker 2That was when that location opened and, kim, am I recalling that it's a surprise to most people who had never been in there before they walked in and there's a little bit of a let me get this. You're selling cakes and they're bundt cakes. They're like small, little, personal size or larger size, and you're giving away samples or whatever, and, like me, as soon as I had a sample, I had to walk out with a personal size Bundt cake. Is that the experience you see every day?
Speaker 3Bob, I love that story and we call those first bite stories and they're so significant and we never get tired of hearing about them. Unfortunately, due to COVID, your experience is definitely had every day, still minus the part about the samples. Unfortunately, COVID put a timeout on that and we're hoping to rebuild that into our system because we do know how impactful it is.
Speaker 2Well, I can tell you, as someone who had that experience, how delicious that cake was, and it made me instantly realize why a whole store could be kind of operating around Bundt cakes. And yet, kim, you mentioned that there's other stores that you are the franchise operator, owner of how many?
Speaker 3So currently I have five locations. The location in Wynwood was my first location. We were able to open that in 2018. Springfield, the one that you visited, was our second location in 2020. And since then, I have acquired three additional locations from the original owners and I'm lucky enough to continue to build on the success that they started. I'm lucky enough to continue to build on the success that they started.
Speaker 2It sounds like the success that you're helping them have someone with the five franchise locations all around the Philadelphia area. Now, that store that I visited in Springfield, in Delaware County, pennsylvania, I can speak very highly of because, well, it's got a delicious product. It's a bakery. As I understand it, you'd have to call it a bakery, and, kim, besides Bundt Cakes, is it more Bundt Cakes only, and then all kinds of different sizes and types and flavors, or is it anything else? Bundt Butt Cakes?
Speaker 3So, just as the name implies nothing Bundt Cakes All we do are Bundt Cakes, so we only do Bundt cakes. We do them in four sizes and 11 different flavors, each one more delicious than the next. We are lucky enough to also provide a gluten-free option, and if you are a loyal guest and fan, you may have already experienced our testing of an additional gluten-free flavor earlier this year, and we'll have another one later in the year as well.
Speaker 2Awesome. Tell me about a little bit, Kim. When women come in to see you and they're buying these cakes, they must look at this and say how wonderful it is for you to have a business that fits interests that you had say in baking cakes. But I have to think this is way more than that. Now, for women of business, you must be rather proud to be kind of a woman in business in a field that might've seemed like this is a kind of a franchise for a woman, or now, is it equally split between men and women? Who are the franchisees?
Speaker 3When I began with this brand in 2017, the statistic was that we were 90% female owned, and that certainly was a big piece of interest for me when I was looking around for an opportunity. I happen to love baking, but I didn't go out looking for an opportunity in that industry. When I began to research different franchise systems and models, nothing but Cakes was really interesting to me because I already knew the product and I loved it. But when I learned more about the originators and the fact that it was 90% female owned, it really did speak to me. And now, having been in the community for five plus years, I can tell you that when you're in a franchise system, it's really nice because there are other people who live your life every day, so it's a natural network. But then to have an added piece of it where the majority of those people that you are connecting with and that you're learning from learning with are also women, it is unlike any other experience, I'm sure, in any other industry and in really in most other brands.
Speaker 2I think, because of the popularity of Nothing but Cakes, the stores that are out there in very nice retail environments, and then the national presence, the brand getting so well known, even nationally, it's got to be more than just the fact that the cakes are so tasty. It's got to be that the company is leading well with its franchisees and that the franchisees themselves are talented persons that come in to the franchise system and contribute to their fellow franchisees. I have to think that perhaps, Kim, the fact that it is heavy with a lot of women franchisees, a lot of women sometimes. Typically, you know, they've taken a break from the workforce to raise children or something, and maybe they're heading back to the workforce this time now as their own business owner operator. Was that your story, Kim? Are you a mom or were you in the corporate world before this?
Speaker 3So I am a mom. I'm a mom of four sons, very proud mom. My boys range in ages from seven to 15. I was not in the corporate world prior to this. My husband and I were already small business owners. So we wanted to diversify our income and look for another avenue of that.
Speaker 3And any small business owner knows that small business ownership is really hard.
Speaker 3You know you don't get a day off and you wear a lot of hats and you have a lot. You have to have a lot of areas of expertise and it can be really hard. You don't get a day off and you wear a lot of hats and you have to have a lot of areas of expertise and it can be really exhausting. So when we thought about how we might want to look at another opportunity, the franchise world and systems were attractive because there's a format, there's a program and as long as you do your research and you choose one that you believe in and that fits you and your lifestyle and your personality and that of course, has a good business model, then there's a little bit less weight. No small business is passive income ever, and that's certainly true for the franchise system but certainly it has its benefits in terms of having departments, for if you follow the directives, if you take the training and let's face it, delicious tasting cakes that somebody can't resist really does help.
Speaker 2So I do think that you've fortunately gotten into something that feeds the soul and feeds the body. We're talking to Kim Wright, who is the founder and the owner of her own franchise, of the franchise system Nothing Bunt Cakes, and you can see this franchise system, you can see Kim's website, by going to the website nothingbuntcakescom and remember in the middle there it's B-U-N-D-T Bunt Cakes. Nothingbuntcakescom is the website. You'll be able to learn all about the cakes, the flavors. You'll be able to order cakes even for a particular store, kim's store in Springfield, delaware County, or perhaps her store in Collegeville or one of the other five. You'll find that or four or three others that Kim has.
Speaker 2But more importantly, you'll also be able to learn about the corporate franchise of Nothing but Cakes. And maybe it's in your future too, kim. You must be called on by the franchise system to be able to help people who are trying to consider if this is for them, because obviously you're a success and it was a success for you. Tell me about that. Do you ever get a chance to talk to prospective franchisees?
Speaker 3We actually do, all of us in the franchise system. We all, in order to be approved as a franchisee, we go through a validation process much like a lot of other brands, and the beauty that I love about this brand experience is, after you get to a certain point, they really do open the doors and they give you all the contact information of every franchisee in the United States, which right now is over 500 locations 500. 500, yes. They don't put any parameters around who you can contact or who you can't contact and they allow you to call anybody that you'd like and you can ask them many questions.
Speaker 3Of course, proprietary information there's some restrictions on that but overall, I have talked to many franchise potential franchisees. Some of them have chosen to join us and others it wasn't the right time for them, or maybe it wasn't a fit financially or whatever it happened to be. So I am lucky enough to not only talk to, uh, potential franchisees. I happen to also be a leader in this brand and I get to serve on the brand advisory council, so that means that I get to connect with my fellow franchisees regularly as well as work with the executive team at our corporate office and the whole support team that that helps us to decision make for our brand, innovate and make sure that we're trending and that we're making smart decisions. Uh, that affect all of the franchisees when it comes to the dollars and cents of our investments.
Speaker 2Well, if you've been Googling Nothing but Cakes and you've stumbled upon this podcast, there you have it. We have a franchisee with five locations, five franchise store locations of Nothing but Cake, and Kim Wright is our guest here today and she's accessible. She's just mentioned that it's not uncommon for her to talk to potential franchisees. And, kim, I'm imagining that I have your email address here. Okay, if I give it out.
Speaker 3Yes, of course, feel free.
Speaker 2You can reach Kim at kimwright and that's W-R-I-G-H-T at nothingbuntcakescom, and remember, it's B-U-N-D-T-S no, excuse me, b-u-n-t-cakes, plural with an S at the end nothingbuntcakescom. And you know it's a funny sounding franchise system, but boy, do you get it when you finally have one of those pancakes in your mouth and you're tasting it. And so if you've been looking at a franchise system and say you're a woman that likes to bake, even this is something you're going to want to investigate. Good news now is that you can contact Kim Wright directly if you care to. I would say also, if you're someone that likes to try different kinds of food items, or if you really want to get something special for Easter or for Super Bowl or for Christmas you know those kinds of holidays, even Mother's Day it's a great gift because it's so tasty and it's something that no one would say. Why did you buy this? Because they'll be protecting it so everybody doesn't eat it.
Good Neighbor Podcast Featuring Kim Wright
Speaker 2Kim, you really are a remarkable woman in the way that you've been able to raise four sons, have five other children really these franchise stores of nothing but cakes and, at the same time, share your insights and your leadership with potential women who might be looking to come into the business world with a proven success, perhaps becoming a future franchisee of Nothing but Cakes, and for that reason you definitely are a good business neighbor and we'd like to award you the Good Neighbor Business Award today. Thank you so much for being a guest on our program. Kim Wright of Nothing but Cakes, the franchise owner in Springfield and Collegeville and Wynwood, all around the Philadelphia area. Kim, thank you, you're a good neighbor business and we're very proud to have you on our episode today. Thank you for coming to the Good Neighbor Podcast.
Speaker 3Thank you, bob, I'm proud to be your neighbor.
Speaker 1Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast hosted by Bob Lacey. This is Michael Barkan inviting everyone to get on the good neighbor team. Nominate your favorite local business to be featured on an upcoming episode by going to gnpdelcocom or by calling Bob at 610-557-3745.