Sweet Success: A Simple Recipe to Turn Your Passion into Profit

by Candace Nelson

Overview

LEARN THE RECIPE FOR STARTING A SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS

For the first time ever, founder of Sprinkles cupcakes, Candace Nelson, is sharing the recipe for success in her new book, Sweet Success. She will walk you through the steps she took to build a globally beloved brand, so you can do it too. Although she deals in frosting, there’s no sugarcoating here. Candace pushes back the kitchen door to reveal mistakes, misses, and lessons learned the hard way. Readers will learn how to:

• Obtain the key ingredients to any successful business
• Craft the mindset of an entrepreneur
• Learn the secret recipe for packaging a product for profit
• Turn kitchen experiments into top selling products
• Cultivate a community of brand evangelists
• Step into a personal brand to amplify the business
• Know where to put marketing dollars most effectively
• And much more.

In a time of unprecedented disruption and innovation, people are rethinking career and professional purpose. It’s never been a better time to start a business. Sweet Success dispels the myth that entrepreneurship is reserved for an elite few and is a must-read for anyone with a passion needing a place to start or a push along the way.

At a career crossroads, instead of going to business school like her peers, Candace Nelson reflected on what she really wanted to do—and did what nobody, including Candace herself, would have expected. She poured her passion and life savings into creating the world’s first cupcake bakery. Today, Sprinkles Cupcakes and its Cupcake ATMs have become a globally recognized brand, celebration mainstay and inspiration for entrepreneurs everywhere.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781400231508
Publisher:	HarperCollins Leadership
Publication date:	11/08/2022
Pages:	240
Sales rank:	195,536
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.10(h) x 3.00(d)

About the Author

Candace Nelson is a serial entrepreneur, New York Times bestselling author, Wall Street Journal contributor and an expert in turning one’s passion into a profitable business. Candace revolutionized the baking industry when she left a career in finance to start Sprinkles, the world's first cupcake bakery and Cupcake ATM. She followed with the launch of Pizzana, a growing chain of award-winning pizzerias leading the third wave of pizza in the US. Candace continues to expand her portfolio of investments with CN2 Ventures and lives in Los Angeles with her husband, two sons, and Norwich terrier, Willy.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Preheat Your Idea ix

Part 1 Dream It! How to be a Founder

Step 1 Gather the Essentials 3

Step 2 Prep Your Mindset 13

Step 3 Add Your Secret Ingredient 23

Step 4 Make the Recipe Your Own 31

Step 5 Test the Appetite 39

Step 6 Stir In Resolve 47

Step 7 Get Cooking! 55

Part 2 Package It! Embrace Your Inner Marketer

Step 8 Find Your Space in the Display Case 67

Step 9 Inject with Filling 75

Step 10 Get Ready to Decorate 85

Step 11 Put Out Your Sandwich Board 95

Step 12 Take Off the Apron 107

Part 3 Built It! Channel Your Multitasking Operator

Step 13 Price Out the Menu 121

Step 14 Stock Your Pantry 131

Step 15 Find Your Coexecutive Chef 143

Step 16 Continuously Whisk In Culture 155

Step 17 Keep the Oven Lights On 165

Part 4 Project It! Be Prepared to Lead, Defend, and Plan for the Future

Step 18 Turn Up the Heat on the Competition 185

Step 19 Never Stop Experimenting in the Kitchen 195

Step 20 Keep Your Counter Spotless 207

Step 21 Save Room for the Next Course 217

Conclusion: Serve It! 225

Acknowledgments 231

Index 235

About the Author 243

Editorial Reviews

'Sweet Success is a must-read for anyone who has ever dreamed of being an entrepreneur. With humility and humor, Candace shares her secret roadmap to building a beloved brand and national chain from her tiny Los Angeles apartment. If you have ever tasted the magic of a Sprinkles cupcake, you know you're in for a treat with this life changing book!'

Whitney Wolfe Herd

'If you are curious about starting a business that will break through all the noise, Sweet Success is where you should begin. Learning from Candace is like taking a crash course in creativity, innovation and hard work. As a world class female founder, Candace shares her most valuable wisdom to guide readers on the path from idea to exit. A must-read manual for any aspiring entrepreneur!'

Founder Hello Sunshine Reese Witherspoon

Candace disrupted a legacy industry by focusing on one simple thing—the cupcake—and created a celebrity, Oprah-endorsed craze that changed her life forever. From cultivating an entrepreneurial mindset to pinpointing and testing the idea, establishing an authentic brand, and keeping the innovative spirit going, Candace shares the secrets to her success and proves that great things can happen when you set an intention and go after your dreams.

Nyakio Grieco

Who opens a temple to carbs at the height of the low-carb craze? Nobody—except Candace, who had the audacity to start Sprinkles in 2005, sparking a cupcake bakery revolution that has inspired a generation of female entrepreneurs. This book brings that bravado to readers ready to take the next step in pivoting toward a much sweeter career and life. Through the eyes of an innovator, she gives you the strength and belief in yourself to defy expectations with any creation.

Denise Woodard

Candace turns up the heat to melt the barriers to entrepreneurship and invites everyone to the table by providing her simple recipe for success. This book is a flurry of practical advice from Candace and fellow female business owners: smart, funny, and straightforward. You'll immediately be inspired to get the burners going on your business idea by reading Sweet Success.

New York Times Bestselling Author and Host of The Jenna Kutcher

'In Sweet Success, Candace provides a clear roadmap for building a successful business. With powerful personal stories and practical advice, this book will inspire future entrepreneurs to push past doubts and go for it.'

Founder of Lean In and Option B Sheryl Sandberg

09/12/2022

Sprinkles cupcakes founder Nelson (The Sprinkles Baking Book) serves up saccharine business advice in this trite outing. She shares her own career story, writing of how she learned to bake out of homesickness when her father’s job required the family to live abroad, went on to an unsatisfying career in finance, attended pastry school, and opened Sprinkles gourmet cupcake bakery in California in 2005. The generic advice that accompanies the biography is couched in baking metaphors: “Test the appetite: is the world hungry for your idea?”; “Inject with filling: build a beloved brand”; “Stock your pantry: streamline your operations and prepare to scale”; and “Remember that the convection fans of reality may blow your passion sideways as it rises. But as long as you keep your trays spinning, your dreams will bake to perfection, and you will reach your very own sweet success.” Personal questions to spur self-reflection (“food for thought”) end each chapter, but Nelson’s advice doesn’t go beyond the basics—“take a leap,” “trust your intuition”—and the baking references overwhelm. Sprinkles fans will do better with Nelson’s cookbooks. (Nov.)

Publishers Weekly