The Cookiepreneur: Lessons Learned at a Manassas Home Bakery

Editor's Note: Aymee Van Dyke writes the Patch blog, "Cookiepreneurship."

Aymee Van Dyke said she’s always been a self-made woman. 

So it was of no surprise when she started The Wacky Cookie Company out of her Manassas-area townhome and grew it into a lucrative business in less than five years.

“It took off. It was incredible the way that it took off; I’ve had enormous success with my cookie business,” she said.

Wacky Cookies were being shipped to customers all over the U.S. who found her through Etsy.com, an online market place of sorts designed specifically for small businesses to showcase goods.

Then about two months ago, almost overnight, everything changed and her business came grinding to a halt. Van Dyke is now using what she learned as a small business owner to begin yet another endeavor, offering consulting services to aspiring small business owners, particularly women or minorities.

Etsy deactivated her account for making Sanrio "Hello Kitty" and Lego "Ninjago" inspired cookies, Van Dyke said.Though she never used the actual names of the characters, she didn’t immediately realize that expressed permission from the owner is needed to sell a depiction of trademarked logos.

In a matter of hours, one of her main sources of income was wiped out, she said. 

“I went from baking six days a week to just two days a week,” Van Dyke said.

Even using icing to make an image in the characters’ likeness and selling it is technically illegal,  said Van Dyke, adding that she takes responsibility for her actions.

For example, people who bake and sell “Barbie” and “Batman” birthday cakes are in the wrong unless they are licensed by Mattel or DC Comics to do it, she said.

“What small business can afford to buy a license? And those (characters) are popular; lots of kids want a Barbie cake,” she said. According to Van Dyke, there are many bakers, including those on Etsy, who use license characters without permission, but they just haven't been caught.

“I will tell you this off the bat—Etsy is a wonderful medium for artisans, small business people (and) crafty people to get their goods out there. But Etsy giveth and Etsy taketh it away,” Van Dyke said.

She still has her local customers and orders through her website to keep her going, but it hasn’t been easy.

“I cried and I said, ‘Lord illuminate me,’” she said. “I believe that was a good lesson for me … You’re always going to have chinks in your armor; I think that Hello Kitty was the chink in my armor, but I believe everything happens to grow you; to take you to another level."

She hopes that the next level is the new business, which she's been wanting to do for awhile. 

"For the past year, it has been gnawing at me. It’s like, ‘Aymee the cookie business is great, it’s good, but you were born for more than this.'”

Before starting Wacky Cookies, Van Dyke said she had a personal development business and she loved it because she loved helping people see their own potential, then showing them how to use it.

“Fear is the biggest paralyzer of entrepreneurs; you have to learn how to make friends with fear,” she said.

There are many talented people like her out there who could have their own small businesses in their home, but they just don’t know how to mobilize, she added.That’s where her consulting comes in.

“I don’t feel like you can movtivate people, but you can inspire them,” she said. “I don't believe in going around and giving canned talks.”

She's already starting her consulting through a blog called, "Cookiepreneurship" which can be found on Patch. Plans are in the works for webinars and local workshops, she said.

As for The Wacky Cookie Company, Van Dyke says her cookie business lives on. She will continue to bake.