After year five, I knew the statistics about going out of business dropped dramatically. I never felt like “I made it!” so to say, and although things are easier, I have not lost the fire in my belly to succeed.
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I have spent a lot of time reflecting on the past decade of The Queen's Cups, about being in business and the experiences coming along with it. I remember desperately wanting to get through our first year, and then after that, it was year three and year five. After year five, I knew the statistics about going out of business dropped dramatically. I never felt like “I made it!” so to say, and although things are easier, I have not lost the fire in my belly to succeed.
What could I have known as a 23 year old, fresh out of college, about opening a business in an industry I had no experience in? I knew what people told me: It was going to be hard, I was crazy, my parents would always be there, and owning a business was a lot to ask of myself. All these things turned out to be true, but having been in business for 10 years now, I can say nothing was harder than that first year. It was like training for a marathon. A lot of blood, sweat, and tears. A couple burns from the commercial oven, too. But that first year was telling. It showed me who I was as a person. I was determined to make it. Not every day was great, but I still woke up every day and went to work.
The years after when we started to grow and I had to employ people were learning experiences. I can work all day. I can write myself a list and won’t leave until everything gets done. But employing people? That is a completely different part of business that is so amazing but can also be so disheartening. I have employed a lot of people with their first jobs, part-time jobs, and full-time jobs, and everyone has been different. Looking back, some employees are extremely memorable to me. There are the ones who started off with TQC, and a few I still talk to and will always have a connection with because they knew what the beginning was like. There are others who did not end on a good note or were not there long enough to be a part of our team morale. Then there are ones who I consider lifelong friends who I still talk to, still come in to visit, get the employee discount, and reach out for advice and letters of recommendations. I have learned from each employee: new techniques in the kitchen, new ways of running our social media and website, how to deal with different personality traits, how to be there during pregnancies and major life changes. Some experiences haven’t been great. Some moments I wish I could go back in time and change because I do not feel I left a great impression of who I was as a person. But owning a business and being an employer does not come with a manual. It can be extremely lonely and misunderstood.
After the employing people phase and midway through my career, I hated being in business, was unhappy in life, had the wrong priorities, and am lucky today to still have my family, my husband, and now a beautiful daughter. It can be easy in life to get lost. It can be even easier when you are a business owner who does not know how to prioritize her life and emotions. Luckily, I learned to have an appreciation for self-reflection, have started to work on my faults, and try to be more understanding of others. I’m not perfect, but I have done the work to be a better person, which has carried over into The Queen's Cups.
This new appreciation for life has brought me to now, which is my favorite time I have ever been in business. It’s not about the money; it’s not about the local fame; it’s about the people who are a part of my business I get to work with side by side each day, each week. It’s about the customers who have been around for the decade. It’s about the new customers who visit and say they have been waiting to do so for years. It’s about being able to give back to the community, for having the opportunity to purchase items for a stranger in need, donating to local charities, and helping customers who have helped us. A decade is a long time, yet it went by in a flash. I am not the same 23 year old. I am now a woman in business, a wife, a mom, an employer and so thankful for all of it.
Renee Diaz is the owner of Worcester bakery The Queen's Cups.
CORRECTION: In a previous version of this column, a headline (written by a WBJ editor) incorrectly stated The Queen's Cups has been in the Worcester's Canal District for a decade. The shop started in Millbury in 2012 and moved to Worcester in 2017.
