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About Us
A Message from the owner of The Greeting Cake Company
Welcome to The Greeting Cake Company. I am Bernadette
Soehner, Founder and Owner of this wonderful company. I would like to take
a moment to introduce you to myself and our company.
I am the proud mother of 5, yes 5, Boys! They range in age from 9-2. In May of
2004, when my twin boys were eight months old I ventured into business for
myself, never knowing where it would take me. Having been in business for myself
since I was twenty-years-old, starting a small business was easy! But what came
about in the months to follow I couldn’t have imagined. By the end of that same
month I had a phone call from a woman wanting to buy my business, she thought it
was so great. But I didn’t have anything to sell her. My plan was to enlist a
few distributors and see where that would take me. By June 2004 I had my first
two distributors. I suspected this would be it for the year. I was mistaken. By
the end of July I had eight distributors and by the end of August 2004 I had
over 330 distributors nationwide. And then I found out I was pregnant with baby
number five!
Needless to say the rest of 2004 was a whirlwind! I worked from 4 am until 2am
answering questions, selling product, signing up distributors, packing cakes,
orders and shipping. I was a mess! That’s when I enlisted my husband and he
became my partner in business as he is in life! Stan is now the Vice President
of my company and the head of our IT department. When he came home each night we
packed and shipped all the orders and he would hand-carry them to the post
office the next morning. Each weekend we would be at the bakery packing the dry
product for the next weeks orders. Needless to say family life was on hold, and
the kids weren’t too happy. So we enlisted more help!
To the rescue came my family! One of the main concepts behind the GCC is that
Family comes FIRST!!! And they put me first, and I will always be grateful! So
from the dining room table to the basement came my parents, my sister (who
finally became a distributor in May of 2006) and her husband working beside me
and my husband, all the while helping my kids with their homework and getting
them their baths!
By Christmas I was not much help, with the baby due in January. So behind a
computer I was sent and my friend, a fellow Pre-school mom, joined me in the
basement and began packing cakes while her son was in school. Soon she brought
her mother to help and a networking friend joined in! I called them my
“Pre-school Mommy Brigade”! But business continued to grow!
Baby Jack was born in January, and my company did not miss one order. However,
when he was five weeks old Jack stopped breathing at home and was rushed to the
hospital and placed on a ventilator for a week while he recovered from RSV. Had
it not been for the support of my husband and my “Pre-school Mommy Brigade” the
GCC would never have survived. In the months to follow Baby Jack had many set
backs and hospitalizations taking me away from my thriving basement business. My
friends could only do so much during the 2 ˝ hours of preschool. So I enlisted
some full time help.
By July of 2005 GCC had moved to its first location away from my basement. We
were ecstatic to receive morning TV news coverage, which introduced us to our
local community. Through the year we had many more TV opportunities and local
events, and nationwide our numbers continued to grow.
As we passed our third year in business we have signed over 2000 distributors to
our company and moved into our 3rd location. We have daily emails from those in
Canada wanting to be on a waiting list for when we distribute internationally
and we continue to grow our product line monthly.
My plans for the future are many. We are always working to make GCC an
even better company for those who invest their time. We look forward to
working with you, either as a distributor, wholesaler or a customer. Thank
you for visiting our site!
Sincerely,
Bernadette Soehner
Founder/Owner of The Greeting Cake Company
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