Meet Jennifer Mebane | Owner, Cornerstone Bakery

We had the good fortune of connecting with Jennifer Mebane and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Jennifer, what do you attribute your success to?
What immediately comes to mind when thinking about the most important factor behind our success, is Adaptability. Starting up this business took a lot of hard work, dedication, and being able to understand the demand of the customer base, but the biggest part of our success over the past 3 years has been being able to adapt in the face of change. Going in to this business, we relied on past experiences to lead us in what we thought was the right direction, We quickly realized that we needed to be the trailblazers instead, creating a new way of thinking and adapting to the ever changing challenges that were thrown our way. Within the first 15 months of opening our doors, COVID threw a wrench in our seemingly comfortable operation, which made our way of thinking and our business model completely change. We learned to adapt to the ever changing needs of the community, our clients, and our accounts, by offering goods and services that were new to us and them. Our business has traditionally been about celebrations, but as weddings and celebrations essentially went non-existent, the ability to survive was dependent on our ability to adapt and change. Weekends full of large tiered wedding cake orders, turned to weekdays filled with many smaller celebrations, individually wrapped goodies with custom made tags, “Thank-you” orders for our health-care workers in the community, closing baskets for a booming housing market, and shifting focus from cupcakes and cakes to pastries and even bread to keep our accounts on their feet as well. Being able to adapt to the ever changing needs of our community has certainly been the key to our success.

Alright, so for those in our community who might not be familiar with your business, can you tell us more?
Owning a bakery business is seemingly straight forward from the outside looking in – mix up some flour and sugar, throw it in the oven and viola! However, there is SO much more to the business than that! From Day 1, I wanted to create a place that people knew they could come and get not only great quality product, but also know that it was made with love from a family owned business that treats each and every one of our customers like family. When customers need something from us (whether its a customer ordering a cake, a business client ordering closing baskets or an account ordering pastries for their shop), we strive to deliver quality, consistency, and service above all. Our service sets us apart from our competitors, as we always take care of our customers in a timely and efficient manner. Over the past few years, there have been many times where things happen that cause a huge disruption in a seemingly smooth planned production week – an 8am call for 600 cookies with a production deadline of noon, from a big account that always takes care of us. We make it happen! Our customers and clients know they can count on us to pull out all the stops to fulfill orders, and they appreciate our efforts in doing so! We recently got a call from a big medical account that needed over 1400 full size pumpkin pies on a very tight deadline. We put our heads together, created a production plan, and we pulled it off! I am so proud of this accomplishment, our biggest one to date!

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
I would definitely take them for Coffee to Cloud 9 Coffee Co, lunch at Luigis, dinner at any and all of the Basque restaraunts in town, drinks at Wine Me Up! and desserts at Dewars Ice cream!

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
There are so many! But I would have to say Cloud 9 Coffee Co, and Morgan Bonn have been the biggest supporters, encouragers, and hype team! Going into this business, our product was primarily sweets – cakes, cookies, brownies, cupcakes. When Morgan hit me up about doing pastries for Cloud 9, it was a challenge I was open and willing to try, and she has pushed me and encouraged me to try new things, go out of my comfort zone, and create new items that have been a success for both her business and mine!

Website: cornerstonebakerybakersfield.com

Instagram: cornerstonebakery19

Facebook: Cornerstone Bakery

Yelp: Cornerstone Bakery

Image Credits
Lindsey Mebane – family photo