Here Yvonne took business classes on How to Start a Business, Quickbooks and Marketing. She also gained access to a support network of specialists who encouraged her to keep moving forward with her plans and helped her fine tune her business plan. Crucial to the success of opening her business, a Bayview consultant advised her to hire a food photographer and develop a website, which once complete drew in vast numbers of new customers. Through her connection to the Bayview Center, she received a grant that financed this effort and also included the production of a new brochure and a marketing mailer. Still working out of her home, she knew about a commercial kitchen called Eclectic, where she became a client and began actively producing and packaging her array of authentic delicious desserts, including praline pecan candy, ol’ school butter cookies, sweet potato pies, pecan pies, peach cobblers, 7 up pound cakes and other tempting sweets. Yvonne was then referred to La Cocina, at the time a new commercial kitchen, where she has been a periodic client over the years and plans to utilize their market introduction specialists in order to bring her business to another level by selling her products in retail stores. In April 2006 Yvonne took her business one step further and found a retail space in San Francisco’s 3 rd Street corridor, an area being targeted by the City for revitalization. The space had been vacant for 20 years, is on the lightrail line, and is owned by the Officers of Justice who wanted a reliable tenant, so she jumped at the chance to move in, and has been an active part of the community of retailers ever since. And more importantly, she has been able to finance her business, support her child and contribute to the development of her growing community. Her success would not have been achieved without the help of microenterprise development organizations or their ability to refer her to each other’s programs for specific business assistance needs.

Pralines by Yvonne was awarded the 2007 Small Business Award by the California State Senate.