That Takes the Cake!

My daughter informed me that she and her finance had changed their plans about getting married next year, due to financial and personal reasons, and decided to get married sooner.  They roughly gave me about a week to throw together a wedding at the magistrate's office and a small reception at a local restaurant.  Not exactly impossible but time was not on my side.  As I was taking care of details, I remembered I had forgotten about the wedding cake.  Can’t have a wedding without cake, right?

On Tuesday, the wedding being Friday, I went to my local supermarket to check out the cakes.  The girl behind the counter didn’t have a clue about wedding cakes.  She wasn’t even sure they did wedding cakes anymore and if they did, she had no idea of even a starting price.  Not exactly helpful, was she?  So in panic mode, I went back to my car, put my head on the steering wheel and thought, now what??  Then I remembered a little bakery attached to our local fresh produce market, did they do wedding cakes?  Off I went to find out.

I stepped into “Grandma’s Bakery”.  The smells were wafting through the air and my mouth started to water.  I asked the girl behind the counter if they did wedding cakes.  I was assured they did but I had to speak to the owner and could I wait for a few minutes till she was finished with the meringue?  At that point, I would’ve set up camp and waited until she was finished.  A very pleasant woman came out and asked me if she could help me.  I explained my predicament about needing a small two layer wedding cake by Friday.  I must have looked frazzled and desperate.  She patted me on the arm and said she had to make 80 dozen wedding cookies for Friday morning but she was sure she could squeeze in a small wedding cake.  She showed me some pictures and some displays she had.  We decided on a white cake, buttercream icing, two layers with little pink dots and a pink design around the top layer.  She said it would be ready Friday morning by 10:30 so I could deliver it to the restaurant by 11:00am.  When I went to pick up the cake on Friday morning, it was beautifully done and she actually carried it to the car for me.  She wished me luck; I thanked her profusely and gave her a big hug.

My point in all this is that is what a true entrepreneur is all about.  She went out of her way to help a desperate first time customer.  She could have refused since she was already jammed with work but she graciously took my order as if there wasn’t anything she would have loved to do more.  It was ready on time, beautifully decorated and included personalized service to the car.  She was pleasant, cheerful and professional.  Will I be going back for all my personal occasions and her very delicious apple dumplings?  You bet and I’ll be recommending her to everyone I can think of!

Have you ever had a small business owner help you out of a jam?