I had the pleasure of getting to talk to Kimberley, the owner and cookie maker behind Freckles and Fine! Kimberley creates the most amazing custom sugar cookies to suit every occasion (trust me, they taste as good as they look). From birthday snacks, baby showers, weddings and everything in between, she’s got you covered! 

Tell me a bit about you and who you are?

My name is Kimberley and I’m from Tauranga! Most of my spare time is spent going on adventures with my partner and my dog, Maple. Although I don’t think she realises she is a dog, she is so spoiled!!

I think quite a few of us can relate to you about spoiling our dogs!! How did you get the idea or concept for your business?

I’ve always been a baker ever since I was little. I’d help my mum every single time she would bake and take on her skills as I grew up. I’m also super addicted to Pinterest and have always seen such beautifully decorated cookies pop up on my feed which, id scroll for hours! This made me think that I absolutely needed to try them myself. I started simple with what I had, and they actually didn’t turn out so bad!

Along with this inspiration, I suffer from osteoarthritis (arthritis in my knee). Over the years, this had made it tough working my daily job as a hairdresser. So I made the decision that being self-employed would be much easier to care for my pain and myself. This in turn started the adventure of creating my small business dream come true.

What is your favourite product of yours? 

THEMES!!! I love all the theme requests that people come to me with. Especially when they have an idea in their mind, but also give me free range to make it extra special! Looking back to recent designs, the Ballerina Slippers, fruit and veggies or Space themes are my favourites. But it is always hard to pick the best, as they are all created with so much love for each individual customer.

I adore the ballerina slippers, so cute! Did you face any obstacles when starting up/running your business?

I think with every small business, the toughest part is getting your name out there initially for sure. Also as I began to launch my business, COVID struck and we all went into lockdown, which really put a hold on my business being food related and non-essential. Though this did give me time to practice skills, widen my creative knowledge and research being a more sustainable business with my packaging.

Positives and negatives of owning a small business? What do you enjoy most?

Will start with the negative because there are less of those fortunately! Definitely personal time is a struggle, especially being a one woman show that looks after every aspect of the business. Some weeks can be super full on and very long days. Sometimes my social life is very lacking either from being so flat out or exhausted. But it’s such a feeling of satisfaction looking back to where I started and where I am now. All of the positives really do make it all worth it! Being able to work from home and within my own time management schedule is a definite plus. The ability to change things within my business with ease and structure it to suit my needs and work flow is amazing. The best part is being able to create something very unique and put a smile on my customers face. I feel like I’ve built my business in a way that it is very personal, rather than a generic same-same type product being made. Adding special touches and ensuring each customer has full overlook to what they are ordering is really important to me. This ensures they know that I understand their requests clearly along with receiving what they dream of.

What is your proudest achievement?

To be honest each order that comes through really does make me feel totally proud of my work. It makes me realise that there’s someone out there who has discovered me and likes what I do. Though, my first proudest achievement was Mother’s Day 2020, this was my first fully booked out period! I was so overwhelmed with the support and felt like I was building something great for myself. Following this, being contacted by many amazing small businesses, to help them create wee treats for their clients is so heart warmer too. Being approached by well-known establishments to be involved in their events/launches is an amazing feeling. Growing a business isn’t easy, so all of those things make me feel like I’m doing something right.

I’m happy to be able to be one of those small businesses, all my customers loved the cookies (and me)! What are your goals? What’s the next move for Freckles and Fine?

We are in the midst of planning our kitchen renovations, which means more space and more booking openings! Also, a few ideas for our website, to help make specific pack options available to order quicker and easier.

If you had one piece of advice to someone just starting out, what would it be?

Everything starts with an idea! It may not seem like it’s going anywhere right away, but you will be surprised what passion, time and mind set can achieve. So don't give up after the first setback, because everyone experiences them at some point.

Thank you for taking the time to work with me on this, loved learning about Freckles and Fine!

Thanks so much for asking me to be a small part of your new venture!