Business Case Study

Saint Cupcake
Entrepreneurship

Near the heart of the thriving ‘Pearl District’ in downtown Portland sits a completely unassuming retail bakery. Unassuming, that is, until one smells the delicious baking scents in the air and sees the sign ‘Saint Cupcake,’ and at once, visitors are reverted back to days of childhood when cupcakes were the biggest thing since the invention of bicycles. Saint Cupcake has had great success as a specialized bakery since they opened in November, 2005. The bakery sees a growing number of walk-in customers every day and has a thriving catering business for weddings and events. The business has been so successful that the married owners, Jami and Matthew Curl, want to expand their operation to other parts of the city where they can reach an even bigger audience for cupcake lovers. Company Background When Jami Curl was 27, she was working as a marketing specialist for the state bar association and began a master’s degree program at the local state university. In her free time, she also started a one-woman baking operation making pies, cakes, and cupcakes. Jami had fond memories of baking with her mother and grandmother and had many great recipes she used that were learned from those days baking at grandma’s house. Just before Jami turned 30, she and her husband, Matt, decided that they wanted to go into business themselves and open a bakery. By raising money from family and taking out a home equity loan, Jami and Matt gathered enough capital to start their little entrepreneurial venture. Jami knew how to bake a good pie and cake, but she didn’t know much about business. She took a local workshop on small business ownership where she met and enlisted the help of an experienced business promoter. With the professional consulting help, Jami decided upon the name, “Saint Cupcake” as the name for the business, her