The COVID-19 pandemic has turned our world upside down, with small businesses being hit especially hard. This is a pivotal time for SMBs, and the way they respond to the pressure will determine how their business runs for years to come. Many companies are taking this difficult situation and turning it into an opportunity. In our Positive Pivots series, we’re diving deeper into what these innovative businesses have done, and what lies beneath the surface to produce this kind of creativity and resilience.

This week we spoke with Jermaine Perry, Co-founder and CEO of Sydney’s Sweets, a bakery based in West Hempstead, New York.

What is Sydney’s Sweets?

Sydney’s Sweets is a modern bakery; we make customized cakes for special occasions. Our tagline is “Cakes that taste even better than they look.” It started as a hobby for my wife Sydney, who had a natural talent for cake decorating. Her “day job” was accounting, and I was an engineer. As the orders for cakes started coming in, we decided to take the leap and start a real business from her parents’ kitchen in 2006. We continued to grow and in 2013, we opened up a storefront.

How did COVID-19 impact your operations?

March is typically a month where we prepare for our busy season of weddings and graduations. When events started getting cancelled, we were forced to pause and deal with uncertainty like so many other small businesses. We were basically frozen in place for a few weeks! While we were on pause, it gave us time to step away from day-to-day operations and explore other ideas. We knew cupcakes were popular but did not ship that well, so the idea of the “cake jar” was born. We acted quickly and developed the product, listed it on our website, and worked out the logistics of national shipping by the end of March 2020.

How did you respond to those changes?

Like many small businesses, we were overworked and very reliant on our local market. The COVID-19 pandemic gave us a chance to lean in on digital. We had a good social media following, and that community really showed up for us when it came to getting the word out about the cake jars. Soon we were getting orders from California, Miami, Iowa — you name it. Having the cake jars also gave us a scalable new business. We didn’t need Sydney’s very unique talent to make them. It is something new we did that could eventually be spun off or sold.

What is the lasting impact those changes will have on your business?

We’ll continue to sell cake jars nationally, and our reliance on digital channels will likely continue to grow. Our retail store is open with curbside pick-up that can be ordered online. Our community will continue to give us feedback on what they want to see us make next.

Has there been a silver lining for your business throughout the COVID-19 pandemic?

COVID-19 showed that we can switch things up and that we have the flexibility to face challenges. Another bright spot has been our customers and community who really supported us through this and helped keep us going. We want to share this story and encourage everyone to support their local small businesses!