Katie: Welcome back to The BusinessMakers Overtime Show, heard here and online at theBusinessMakers.com. Esther and I are sitting in here and what you can't see right now is we're at the Dessert Gallery surrounded by purple walls, really cute little red framed photos and a lovely CEO name Ms. Sara Brook, perched on a purple chair kind of like a princess. [Laughter] Sara, welcome to The Overtime Show.

Sara: Thanks. It's good to be here.

Katie: Thank you for having us.

Esther: Thanks for opening up your shop for us this morning. This is fantastic. The smell in here, alone. I mean forget lunch.

Katie: Delicious. Yeah, delicious.

Esther: We'll be eating cupcakes for lunch.

Sara: Don't forget l- right.

Esther: I'm telling you now. I will be having a strawberry cupcake for lunch. I just -

Katie: Exactly. [Laughter]

Esther: It's gonna happen.

Sara: You're a safe woman.

Katie: You're such a good influence. So Sara, tell us about the Dessert Gallery.

Sara: We are all about chocolate and dessert and warm and fuzzy and happy and all that good stuff.

Katie: [Laughter] You're experts at feeding people's bellies and no doubt making people leave with a smile but how, how many stores do you actually have open now?

Sara: We have two stores.

Katie: Okay.

Sara: And we also have a commissary. That's where we bake everything. Everything is made fresh every day, including all of our, like, spreads and dressings and salads. Like our chicken salad and tuna salad. Everything's made with really good ingredients.

Katie: So it's not just all about desserts?

Sara: Well you know, it is but some people do want -

Katie: [Laughter]

Sara: - sandwiches, wraps, salads, soups. So -

Katie: Okay. Okay. So -

Sara: We let them in, too.

Katie: - in order to be a dessert, you know you wanna give 'em a little lunch so they can feel better about it. Okay, I understand.

Sara: Yeah, actually -

Esther: Balance it out, you know.

Katie: [Laughter]

Sara: [Laughter] Our menu says before dessert and then dessert.

Esther: Nice.

Sara: Before dessert is one page. Dessert is like five pages.

Katie: Awesome. This is so my kinda place. [Laughter] So tell us a little bit about the history of how Dessert Gallery came to be. 'Cause you're not a new player in this game by any means.

Sara: [Laughter] No, let's see. Dessert Gallery is 15 years old this year.

Esther: Wow. You're very ahead of the curve.

Katie: Wow. Yes.

Sara: [Laughter]

Katie: Congratulations.

Sara: And this is actually my 26th year in business. This is my third startup.

Katie: Okay.

Sara: And my favorite and the most purple. [Laughter] So 1995 I had sold my second company and I was done consulting with them and it was time to get back to work. I had a little one in nursery school and she found playmates her own age that she preferred.

[Laughter]

Katie: Aww.

Sara: So a sign for mommy -

Esther: As they do.

Sara: - to do something with herself. I actually decided it was time to get a job in the real world, which I went on interviews. I did all this stuff and I just thought, you know, I really miss my desserts. I miss my customers. I miss the creativity and it also allowed me to raise my daughter instead of having to put her into daycare. All of the things came together and I opened my first location in the back of a building on Kirby Drive.

Katie: Okay.

Sara: Right down the street from her elementary school.

Katie: Oh. [Laughter]

Sara: And a lot my employees have actually helped raise her because they've been with me the whole time.

Esther: She grew up in the store, I guess.

Sara: She did.

Esther: She even has a cake named after her, isn't that right?

Katie: Aww.

Sara: She does. It's Jennifer's Birthday Cake. She turned five the week we opened and so that was her fifth birthday cake.

Katie: How special. [Laughter]

Esther: Very nice.

Sara: In fact, she's gonna turn 21 this year and so we're gonna sort of update Jennifer's Birthday Cake - or give her another birthday cake maybe with a little liqueur or something now 'cause she's gonna be 21.

Katie: Oh, well done. What a good momma.

Esther: I just say what really blows me away about the Dessert Gallery is that you're not just touting cupcakes. You're not just trying to sell some desserts. I mean this is a very legitimate business that's had a lot of success in a market that is extremely oversaturated at this point. So tell our audience and tell us how you make that happen because I know that a lot of work goes into making this business run the way it does.

Sara: Yeah, you know, it's actually interesting when I first opened, it was just desserts and quickly realized by all the people coming in for dessert but they also wanted lunch but we didn't have lunch so they would leave and so I quickly realized that you know, we need to be serving lunch here.

Katie: Exactly. There's a need.

Sara: Exactly. Exactly.

Katie: Let's make it happen.

Sara: So we started doing lunch and that segment of the business grew. We do a big corporate catering business, box lunches and party trays.

Katie: Excellent.

Sara: And it's neat how every year just something seems to happen and there's another segment that comes to life, like the year that I started the gourmet graphics where we print the images on the cookies.

Katie: When you say images, like logos, and that kind of - ?

Sara: Like logos and photographs and -

Katie: Photographs, too, okay.

Sara: Yeah.

Katie: Very neat.

Sara: Yeah, in fact you know we actually predicted the 2008 presidential elections.

Katie: Did you?

[Laughter]

Sara: We were - bakeries across the country actually participated in this survey and we sold, you know, McCain and Obama cookies and the bakeries predicted correctly that Obama would win by a lot.

Esther: That is so funny.

Katie: Okay. That is impressive. Now, so -

Esther: Print the cookie. That's how we should do all of our elections.

Sara: [Laughter]

Katie: Exactly.

Esther: Buy a cookie with the candidate you like.

Sara: Exactly.

Esther: That's who you vote for.

Katie: Exactly. Now does this work for sports games as well? I mean like -

Sara: I think it does. [Laughter]

Katie: Oh my gosh! [Laughter] This is exciting.

Esther: That is hysterical.

Sara: It works for whatever -

Katie: : If Esther and I were betting women, we would totally be comin' in here and harassing you about this. [Laughter]

Esther: So how do you kind of stay ahead of the competition? With all these little cupcake trucks and startup bakeries coming onto the scene.

Sara: We do what we do 'cause we love it. We're not just dependent upon cupcakes. Eventually the cupcake thing is gonna come and go.

Katie: Exactly. Sad but true.

Sara: And then if that's all you sell -

Esther: The cupcake bubble, as Katie and I have actually talked about on the show.

Katie: Yes, yeah.

Esther: Several economic experts have predicted the explosion -

Sara: Yeah.

Esther: - of the cupcake bubble.

Sara: Yeah, I mean, God forbid but you know, it could happen.

Esther: Yeah.

Sara: And so it's hard to believe but there are more than just cupcake lovers in the world.

Katie: Yes.

Sara: I love desserts. I mean I'm always learning something new about desserts. It's so much fun to go to a trade show and see all the crazy things that people think of to do with desserts. In fact, last year when I went to a trade show, the hot topic was dog treats. [Laughter]

Katie: Oh!

Esther: Wow.

Katie: Okay.

Sara: It was, that was so crazy. And now all of a sudden I feel like I'm seeing them everywhere and we actually introduced dog treats at Christmas time.

Katie: Okay.

Sara: And they are doing great. We're introducing a whole line of them so -

Katie: Yeah.

Sara: - it's a whole new world. It's a new world every day.

Katie: Yes.

Esther: So what's in the future?

Sara: We have been working really hard on some breakfast menu items and some special diet desserts, like sugar-free and low-fat and flourless so that's coming up. I'm really excited that we're gonna be starting a custom cake department.

Esther: Oh.

Sara: Which is really fun.

Katie: Now when you say custom cakes, like people will come in saying, "I want something with chocolate coffee and raspberry, go!" You know is it that kinda thing or -?

Sara: Well, it's actually more like wedding cakes. We have a very basic wedding cake but we are getting together the tools and the talent so that we can be able to do like anything on a cake and I'm really excited about that.

Esther: Speaking of talent, what kind of people do you look for? Who would you have come work for you at Dessert Gallery?

Sara: You know what? I look for passion all day long over skill, experience, education, because if somebody's really passionate and excited about what they do, that's who I need to have around me to, you know, make a great company.

Esther: What is your most popular item here?

Sara: Our most popular item -

Esther: Yes.

Sara: - is our old-fashioned diner cake -

Esther: Which is my favorite.

Sara: [Laughter]

Esther: So good.

Sara: It's a yellow cake with chocolate frosting and it evokes such sweet, emotional responses from people.

Katie: Aww.

Sara: It's really sweet.

Esther: It's fantastic, oh my gosh.

Sara: And I - I love it that people are so - they're sentimental about their desserts.

Katie: Yep.

Sara: It's so nice to be a part of that. You know, it's not like a, you know, a doctor where I have to give 'em shots every time I seem 'em.

Katie: Exactly. It's sugar. It's love.

Sara: You it's like -

Katie: It's love on a plate. [Laughter]

Sara: That's right. [Laughter]

Katie: And given that you've been in business so long, I'm sure that you're seeing, I mean probably several generations, now, people coming in.

Sara: You know what? It's so great. Not only in customers but also in employees.

Katie: That's true.

Sara: Like this summer and this Christmas we had children of employees that were coming to work and that was so cool.

Katie: Aww, how special.

Esther: They just love, love coming here.

Sara: Yeah.

Esther: Well I mean we can speak from experience. This is a fabulous, just place to hang out and be. What is your favorite thing that you have here?

Sara: Ooh. You know what, whatever is in front of me that day. [Laughter]

Katie: [Laughter] Fresh out of the oven. Really good.

Sara: You know, I mean really. I know you always hear, "Oh, I worked in an ice cream store when I was in high school and now I hate ice cream." So I was really banking on that that like by the time I got to be this long in business, that I would be sick of it already and unfortunately, I'm not. [Laughter]

Katie: Fortunately and unfortunately. [Laughter]

Sara: Yeah.

Esther: For better or worse.

Katie: Exactly.

Esther: Yep, I hear that from my dad all the time. Although he still eats a lotta ice cream so I don't know.

[Laughter]

Esther: Well, I'd like to ask you one last question. If you had some advice for somebody that was interested in getting into the world of - the crazy world of baking and desserts -

Katie: Pastry magic.

Esther: - just restaurants in general because really what this is a restaurant.

Sara: Right.

Esther: So what would you tell those people?

Sara: I feel like it's my moral obligation that the first thing I should tell them is don't do it.

[Laughter]

Sara: But then, if I can 't convince them of that, then you know it's a real, you know, love/hate kind of a thing 'cause it's hard. It's hard, physical work. I mean don't kid yourself, it is not glamorous and gorgeous but if you're passionate about it, then it's easy to get up every day and you know my daughter, who's a junior in college now, I mean I always tell her - you gotta find something that you love that you're gonna be excited to wake up about.

Katie: Yeah.

Sara: 'Cause that's what it's all about.

Esther: That's great advice. Thank you.

Katie: Thank you so much.

Sara: And they all lived happily ever after.

Esther: This has been -

[Laughter]

Esther: - it's been an absolute pleasure chatting with you today. Thank you for coming on The Overtime Show.

Sara: Thank you for inviting me.

Esther: Of course. That wraps up our chat with Sara Brook, CEO of Dessert Gallery.

Katie: Yay, Sara! [Laughter]

Esther: And now stay tuned for another Business Survival Tip with Carl Kleimann of Odyssey One Source.

Carl: Hello business owners this is Carl Kleimann from Odyssey One Source with another Business Survival Tip. Social networking websites like Facebook, Twitter and MySpace have become an integral part of American social life. Social interaction that was once reserved for evenings and weekends now takes place all day long on cell phones, PDAs and computers. While employers often see this as a threat to productivity and a drain on their network bandwidth, there are additional concerns that may not be as obvious.

Social networking poses a number of legal risks for employers. For example, an employee's posting of improper comments about co-workers on such sites could give rise to state or federal law claims of discrimination, harassment, or retaliation, as well as defamation, intentional infliction of emotional distress, or other state law torts. There have also been countless instances where an employer's financial or other confidential information has been shared among Facebook friends or Twitter followers. Imagine the consequences to your business if one of your employees posted strategic information or customer data that ended up in the hands of your competitors. And even after spending thousands of dollars in legal fees to stop this from happening, the horses are already "out of the barn" so to speak.

There are steps that you can take to reduce these risks. Many companies are adopting, and requiring their employees to sign and acknowledge, "Social networking policies" that restrict the time and manner in which employees can access such sites. Such a policy should also remind employees of their responsibility to comply with other company rules and policies, including confidentiality, privacy, anti-discrimination, and anti-harassment when using social networking sites or personal blogs. Clearly state your expectations regarding non-work related use of company time and property such as computers and company provided PDAs.

If you prefer a more aggressive approach, you can deploy relatively inexpensive technology such as a Web filter that allows you to block certain websites or limit your employees' access to certain times of the day. There are also tools available that allow you to monitor your employees' web activity. If you opt for these measures, you should apply them to all employees to avoid claims of discrimination and make certain that employees know that their web activity is subject to monitoring.

I am Carl Kleimann and this has been another Business Survival Tip by Odyssey One Source, ranked as the number one Professional Employer Organization three years running by the Black Book of Outsourcing. For more information on this and other issues affecting employers, please visit www.odysseyonesource.com.

Esther: You are listening to the BusinessMakers Show heard here and online at thebusinessmakers.com.