It all started with a plastic bag full of cookies.
Becca Padilla grew up in a small town called Palatine, Illinois. After a teacher at her high school requested a batch of brownies for their homeroom class, she realized that there might just be a way to make some money off her hobby. So, naturally, Padilla started competing with the school cafeteria. The school’s cookies were cheap, yet people would buy them, so Padilla decided to walk around lunch selling her own (much better) cookies for a similar price.
“It was a funny competition thing, with me and the school,” Padilla told Spoon University in an interview, “but it was mostly just for me.”
Little did she know a budding baking business was just on the horizon: Becker’s Bakery LLC. Today, Becker’s offers a variety of baked goods including cookies, cakes, banana breads, and cinnamon rolls, and there are even options for customers with dietary restrictions.
After her feud with the cafeteria, Padilla met a few caring community members who were willing to help her break into the culinary world. At 18, her brother introduced her to an older man who founded his own catering company. He would later become Padilla’s mentor and show her the ropes of starting and running a successful business.
Padilla also happened to meet a business woman named Lauren Brynjelsen who rented out her kitchen to professional chefs. The only problem: she charged a whopping $200 an hour, according to Padilla.
“It was an insane price to ask of someone who’s 18 years old,” she said.
So Padilla decided it was best to be resourceful and tried to strike a deal. She explained to Brynjelsen that she was a young student and that Becker’s was a passion project — and it worked. All she had to do was clean when she was finished, and the kitchen was hers to use, free of charge.
From then on, business really started to boom. Padilla made her website, started taking custom orders, and even shipped her treats as far as Texas and Florida.
“Running my own business is just so cool because it’s just like me,” she said. “It represents who I am. Being so young when I started, you could definitely see me grow through what I produced or what I posted on social media. I think it’s really cool to have something that’s just so you.”
As sweet as owning a bakery may sound, it wasn’t without its challenges. On top of all of the office work that came with owning a small business, Padilla often spent between 15 and 18 hours in the kitchen working on orders. And she was doing it all while being a fulltime student. Eventually, Padilla set her sights on bigger things, especially once she transferred from her local community college to the University of Illinois. At 19, she interned with her mentor and realized that large-scale manufacturing is also a route in the baking world. Mass catering companies often service clients like school districts, hospitals, and offices.
“For some reason, it just didn’t click in my head that I could have a bakery business where I didn’t have to be in the kitchen,” Padilla said. “I could actually have people make it for me.”
In the future, Padilla hopes to pursue Becker’s Bakery on a larger scale. She tried her hand at pitching to investors and even tried to get a position at her mentor’s baking manufacturing company, and, although some of the opportunities didn’t work out, Padilla said the problem-solving is just making her a better business owner.
Now, Padilla is 21 and a student in the Gies Business College at University of Illinois. She recently relaunched the Becker’s Bakery website and is currently accepting orders. And things seem like they’re still going up for Becker’s. In fact, Padilla doesn’t think that Becker’s has hit its make-or-break moment yet.
“It’s definitely coming, things are going to change,” she said. “I’ve met a lot of people who will probably play a role in my future career, but I just don’t think I’ve had that moment yet.”