Check Out Tia Jones’ Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to Tia Jones.

Hi Tia, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I earned my bachelor’s and master’s degrees from NAU and was an elementary school teacher for 13 years. I had done cookies on the side for family and friends for years, but it began really taking off. I was in a good place in my teaching career to take a break so I decided to give cookie decorating full time a try. As the business grew, I began training my friend, Jodi, to help with cookies. She is a pediatric nurse and now, in addition to nursing, also helps with cookies nearly full time as well. The two of us have slowly built T. and Cookies up to a thriving small business over the last three and a half years.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
The greatest challenge in any home-based business is managing time in my opinion. It’s difficult not to work from the moment you wake up until late at night. Carving out a livable schedule is still very tricky for me. The pandemic has been difficult, but we have adapted and are staying afloat. We haven’t been able to offer our decorating classes for almost a year now. We also lost a huge piece of our business with cookies for large events. We are getting by on small orders, which are usually more difficult and take more time than bulk orders. This means a lot more work for less money, but we are grateful for them and we are getting by. We have also added at-home decorating kits with tutorials to replace our classes.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
T. and Cookies specializes in custom cookies. We modify our royal icing a little so that it doesn’t dry rock hard like many other decorated cookies. We are proud to say that our most common feedback is that people are so happy that our cookies taste as good as they look. Whether it’s replicating a cute set, someone fell in love with online or coming up with something completely unique. We are best known for our wedding and baby sets, pet portraits, and “Favorite Things” sets, which make incredibly special gifts. One of the unique and highly requested sets we offer is our Team Cookies. Customers send in pictures of all of the members their dance team or sports team and we make customized little cookie versions of each person, replicating their uniforms, numbers, and team logos. They are great for end-of-season parties and we always get feedback that none of the kids can bear to eat them!

Do you have recommendations for books, apps, blogs, etc?
We use a lot of general google apps to manage our schedule and holiday sales. Page Manager is our main app the lets us post and communicate with customers across Facebook and Instagram. Podcasts and Audible get us through the day! Jodi and I both love true crime, so we listen to a lot of Dateline, My Favorite Murder, Crime Writer’s On, and Last Podcast on the Left. Listening to grisly tales while making adorable baby cookies may seem weird, but it works for us!

Pricing:

• Our custom cookies start at $35 per dozen and go from there depending on the design.
• Favorite Things sets of 12 different designs of your choosing start at $40 per dozen.
• Team Cookie Sets start at $4 per person.
• Classes (when offered) are $35 per person.

Contact Info:

• Email: tandcookies4@gmail.com
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/t._and_cookies/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TandCookies/

Image Credits
Tia Jones and Jodi Gustafson