Here is my second magazine article:

About the Business

Oh My Cupcakes was founded in 2009 by Melissa Johnson, a former radio DJ who had a love for baking cupcakes. Since then, she has opened two locations in Sioux Falls, where her team bakes all their confectionary delights daily. Melissa has expanded her cupcake business to include custom flower arrangements, sweet smelling candles, and features her books in store.

Oh My Cupcakes recently finished a rebrand. Melissa explained her vision to a local graphic design team and worked closely with them for weeks to create a cohesive look across all her businesses, wanting all her brands to have the same look and feel, so that they all appeared to belong together.

About McKenna

McKenna Skovly, the current Kitchen Manager at Oh My Cupcakes, has been with the company for just over two years, having started in the industry as a server at eighteen years old. She originally began her career at the School of Mines, South Dakota as a biomedical engineer, however, she transferred to culinary school after her first year at School of Mines. “I just kind of fell in love with being a server,” she says. “[Biomedical engineering] just was not what I wanted to do.”

What They Do

Oh My Cupcakes features fresh cakes, cupcakes, parfaits, and original pancake mixes, as well as a signature Munchie Mix, which is like their version of Chex Mix. They pride themselves in being an efficient team, working together seamlessly, as one unit, while serving freshly baked cupcakes every day. From catering birthday parties to weddings, sometimes their daily quota of cupcakes can number in the thousands.

“There’s probably four or five of us working at a time. I am very picky on who I bring to the team,” McKenna says, “because we all must work extremely well to pump out thousands of cupcakes every day.”

One of the most difficult things about running any business is knowing what their clients and the public are going to want in terms of products. With the developing technology in recent years, McKenna says they have seen an increase in online shopping, and a significant decrease in in-store traffic.

“We are trying to find ways to get our in-store traffic back up,” she says. “We have tried many different things that we thought were going to be big hits, and they didn’t sell well at all. We are constantly evolving the products we’re creating.”

The newly featured Magical Munchie Mix, a savory, crunchy snack available in a variety of flavors, has been a huge hit among loyal customers and has gained popularity among new customers as well. Oh My Cupcakes’ infamous cupcakes for dogs have slowly decreased in popularity, and so they are “slowly moving those out of what we sell,” McKenna says, “which is a big deal for us as we’ve had those for a long time. We have found that the time it takes us to make them, and the cost of the product, is not worth it.” They have also introduced a weekly lunch option in store, with the hopes that it will catch on and bring them more in-store purchases.

Community Connections

Staying active in the community has always been something that Melissa has pushed for as a company, working closely with organizations like Bread Break, an organization dedicated to conserving food that would otherwise be wasted, and distributing it to the local community.

“We are constantly donating,” says McKenna. “We have a donation budget every month for organizations that reach out to us.”

The second Friday of the month, they host an event called Little Sprinkles Day. It is a special event for kids, where a story will be read to them, and they receive special discounts on in-store purchases. It is a way to give back to the community while driving their in-store traffic.

“We are trying to bring people together and bring them to our store,” she says.

Holidays are always a big excitement for the staff at Oh My Cupcakes. Holiday themed cupcakes are some of their favorites to create. This year, they will be featuring a Pie Package for Thanksgiving, either being pie flavor inspired cupcakes or cupcakes that appear like little pies. National Doughnut Day is a favorite, where they put mini doughnuts on top of cupcakes, which is always a big hit. McKenna says that any reason they can find to celebrate anything, and add some variety to their products, they take it.

Small businesses must fight for popularity. It is a constant evolution of products to cater to their clientele while staying true to their brand.