43
Canfield business owner shares entrepreneurship insights
CANFIELD
When Kim Hoover graduated from Canfield High School in 1999, she wanted to become a nurse.
Little did she know that 18 years later, she would be back at her alma mater talking to students in her former teacher’s class about the bakery she runs. Hoover opened Kim’s Confections at 7 Lisbon St. a year ago.
After talking with students in business instructor Sherry Creighton’s creative entrepreneurship class Monday, Hoover wanted students to realize “that in high school, you might not know what you want to do. But you can look back and see how teachers and experiences have helped shape your life.”
She also wanted students to know that though opening a business requires a lot of hard work (Hoover
regularly clocks 80-hour workweeks), it’s also a rewarding experience.
“It never ends. I can literally never get away from what I’m doing,” she said. “You have to love what you do to be this invested in it.”
Hoover wasn’t always in the baking business. After graduating from Canfield, she worked in retail sales for 15 years.
She loved her job, she said, but was forced to reevaluate her future after the store at which she worked shuttered.
To fill time, Hoover began taking baking classes. Before long, she was giving away samples of her sweet concoctions to friends, family and neighbors.
“Then I started getting orders,” she said. “It quickly snowballed from something that was just a hobby ... to a job.”
When she heard about a Lisbon Street bakery closing, she decided to take a leap and purchase the business.
But, “I knew that I didn’t want to go to the bank and get a loan,” Hoover said.
Instead, she and her husband opted to invest some of their savings.
One of the first lessons she learned about being an entrepreneur is that it requires a whirlwind turnaround – otherwise you’re not making any money. For Kim’s Confections, that meant that Hoover had about three weeks from the time she purchased the business to opening her store.
“When you open the doors, you just hope people come in and like what you have. And they have,” Hoover said.
In the year since she’s opened Kim’s Confections, her business has grown “tremendously.” Her best-sellers are the sugar-bottom brownies that she makes based on a family recipe (“I eat at least one every day,” she says), cupcakes, wedding cakes and seasonal specialty items.
Hoover bakes everything herself, arriving at 5 a.m. each day to prepare all of the day’s sweet treats for the bakery’s 8 a.m. opening.
Hoover recently had the chance to expand Kim’s Confections, but ultimately decided to focus on the Lisbon Street location. For her, Canfield is home.
“I’m really passionate about the area. It’s a great community. I just want to do it great where I’m at,” she said.
“I’m just excited to be back at Canfield, and about being a part of Canfield and having my business here.”