Small businesses trying to make it big in Anaheim

People walk on the terrace of Angel Stadium. Trevor Speetzen | Lariat

Creative Bake Market allows small businesses a chance to gain more consumers

The Creative Babe Market occurred on March 12 at Angel Stadium in Anaheim. Creative Babe is an expo for small businesses to come together to try and generate more business and increase their customers. Many small businesses came out to the expo and displayed their products on the terrace of Angel Stadium.

Creative Babe Market was created during the pandemic in order to help small businesses that were struggling during the pandemic. Businesses that range from candles to sneakers, all take advantage of this expo in order to generate more revenue. Many of the vendors spoke highly of the expo because of how it can expose their business.

“They do such a great job of promoting your business,” said JoJo Guzman, owner of Opening Day, a candle store. “I think it’s awesome that they are constantly in the community.”

Several local businesses, similar to Guzman, took part in the exhibition, wanting to increase their market in the candle industry. Participating in local expositions, like Creative Babe, is thought to be a great way to gain exposure.

“Creative Bake Market was actually one of the first pop ups I did about a year ago,” said Chevone Cloud, owner of a vegan candle business called Friday Night Vibe. “The ladies at Creative Babe have been very supportive of me.”

Even though candles seemed like the most dominant market at this expo, it wasn’t the only market available at this expo. All types of businesses with different products and backgrounds were able to display their work at Angel Stadium. 

Local business owners offering a diverse array of items such as sneakers, perfumes or even bowl pieces for medical marijuana smoking devices were able to make it to this event.

“Dinka is a women focused smoke shop that works to create really pretty, high quality pieces used for smoking,” said Lauren Hayes, owner of the smoke shop.

With the smoke shop business being a competitive market, it makes it much more difficult for owners like Hayes to generate revenue. Hayes went on to later state that expos like Creative Babe was her go-to gain exposure before going online during the pandemic.  

While small businesses attended this event to generate more exposure and revenue, non-profits were present as well. Non-profit businesses attended this event as well in order to create awareness for their cause. One non-profit used the Creative Babe platform to shed light on fostering children. 

“Creative Bake Market actually reached out to us,” said Lauren Shaffer, a representative of a non-profit organization Together We Rise. “They found us and they wanted to work with us to show off what we do.”

Creative Bake Market was established to help small businesses to gain traction and generate more revenue. It was created during the COVID-19 pandemic in order to help these businesses to stay afloat. The goal of this event was to keep these businesses thriving and give people a reason to get out of the house.

However, many of the vendors’ businesses were not negatively impacted by the pandemic. Many of the vendors claimed they were inspired to do something because of the lack of activity during the pandemic. Tired of sitting around and not doing anything, many of them used their interest to create a business.

“During the pandemic I was stuck at home, I was laid off from my previous job and I was figuring out where things should go,” said Emily Liu, owner of a perfume business called Iris of the Moon. “I turned to perfume because it was something that I was always interested in, but I never thought I could get into it.”

When asked about how Creative Bake Market has done to improve her business, Liu went on to state how the expo has done great things for her marketing and encourages people who just started their business to take advantage of expos like these to gain more exposure.

Whether they were impacted or inspired during the COVID-19 pandemic, many vendors during that time learned of their true passions of entrepreneurship and creating their own brand. Some vendors stated that the COVID-19 pandemic had nothing to do with how their business came about.

People who had difficulties discovering what they wanted, tough situations at home and didn’t like what they were currently doing out of the blue decided that they wanted to make their hobbies their professions. After having a hard time getting started, getting exposure at the Creative Babe Market was a step in the right direction.

“They’ve done an amazing job bringing in customers and building out my business,” says Sierra Johnston, owner of a paper company Dare to Ream.

Competitive markets like shoes, candles and even paper make it even harder for small businesses to create revenue. Expos like Creative Babe Market provide grateful businesses a chance to take advantage of these events to take their small company into a big, professional business.

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