Mother, daughter create business offering cheesecakes made from scratch

Describe your business.

We are a family-run business specializing in homemade cheesecakes and other baked goods. We serve over 50 cheesecake flavors, and that continues to grow as customers ask us to create different ones for them.

Catering services are also available for almost any function.

We encourage our customers to feel at home in the shop — they are always welcome to come in and watch television, surf the Internet or just have a cup of tea or coffee and relax. We have a little reading area and a growing “lending library” if our customers want to come in and grab a book.

Where are your recipes from?

The original recipe for cheesecakes came from my grandmother, Helen Steel. For over 60 years, she baked cheesecakes in her kitchen and sold them to some of the best restaurants in Michigan. She was an amazing baker, and I was fortunate enough to have her teach me how to bake the cheesecakes. As I got older, she allowed me the opportunity to play around with her original recipes, and we came up with some of the newer flavors together. When my mother and I opened the shop, it was really a way for us to live out her dream of having her own bakery.

All of the other goodies we offer are from my mom’s recipes.

What makes your business unique?

I think it is the atmosphere and the level of service we provide. It is crucial to us that when a customer comes in, they don’t feel like a customer — we want them to feel like family. Family is so important to us and is the center of our lives. We want our customers to feel that they are part of our lives, as they are so important to us.

What is your business philosophy?

Budgets for a lot of people are tight in today’s economy. If they are going to visit our shop, we need to make sure they get the best products for their money. Even more important than that is they get great service and leave with a smile.

What is the hardest part about doing business in Las Vegas?

There isn’t a great network or learning center for small businesses to access. Most of what we learned to get started is from asking questions of friends who have been in business. It can be discouraging and somewhat frustrating to find answers to simple questions.

How can Nevada improve its business climate?

Setting up a resource center for small businesses would be a great start. It is already a scary experience to open a business, and outside of the government’s SBA website, there isn’t a lot of information out there.

What have you learned from the recession?

The recession is a big part of the reason we both relocated to Las Vegas, albeit at different times. We both had positions that were eliminated in cost-saving measures by large corporations. It taught us that you never take anything for granted — your whole life can change in an instant.