Today we’d like to introduce you to Hailey And Harley Cochran
Hi Hailey and Harley, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
We’re Hailey and Harley, the sister duo behind your next gluten-free bakery. Our humble beginnings started in October of 2021. We were just two sisters who were interested in earning a little side money through the Covid pandemic. With us both still in school, we searched ideas and began to pursue a baking hobby. Our first product was homemade frozen cookie dough & we sold to our friends and family. Slowly, we ventured out to offering small baked goods and setting up at our first events. Moving along, we began to grow slow and steady! We were amazed at our progress, seeing that we had no vision or expectation to start with.
Coming into May of the following year, we had an unexpected roadblock. Hailey, the eldest of the duo, having already been diagnosed with multiple auto immunities since May of 2020, had to make a big health decision. To help relieve her auto immunities, doctors suggested switching to a gluten-free diet. Our choices were either to shut our little bakery down or switch to gluten-free. So after much prayer, research, and lots of food trials, we started our new gluten-free bakery.
As you could expect, we were very worried about our change. We were back to square one, forced to build back everything we had started. What we hadn’t known, was that we weren’t alone in our journey of gluten-free. After a few months of promoting our gluten-free menu, we tried our first pop-up in October of 2022. And… WE SOLD OUT!! Selling out was incredible, but getting to know our community, was truly a blessing. We began to realize how much our community needed gluten-free.
We continued to make ourselves accessible to the community. Expanding our range of baked goods and offering fun events like cookie decorating classes! The interactions, conversations, encouragement, and kind gestures had shown us that switching to gluten free wasn’t a mistake, but a blessing. That’s when God began to set a vision in our hearts, for the future of our business.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Not at all! Some find baking hard as it is and transitioning to gluten-free was a challenge.
We love our sweets and wanted to make sure that our gluten-free baked goods were just as good as regular goods!
Something we quickly realized is that we gave up a normal 9-5 for a 24/7 job. A lot of late nights because of mishaps, over booking, and mistakes. Also figured out that we now weren’t only baking but also wearing many other hats. Like financial, social media, production, marketing, ect..
It took a lot of trial and error, but we finally came to perfect our menu and get in the swing of other things!
Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about H2Dough Cookies?
Our business is an all-ONLY gluten-free home bakery. Since we operated from our home bakery, for now, we offer our products through custom orders, monthly pre-orders, and local pop-ups. We specialize in decorated sugar cookies for all sorts of themes/events, our large flavored cookies, cakes, and pastries like Cruffins.
We not only offer just gluten-free baked goods, but also other allergen free products too! We understand the struggle of special diets and strive to offer products that accommodate for all walks of life.
Networking and finding a mentor can have such a positive impact on one’s life and career. Any advice?
Our advice would be to learn to distribute the work. Especially if you have those around you who are willing to or thrive in a certain area better than you.
We come from a family of entrepreneurs and learning to ask or give over some of the work has helped us to stay in the love we have for our baking!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://h2doughcookies.square.site/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/h2doughcookies
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/h2doughcookies/
Image Credits
Abby Herron ( Instagram – @abbyherronphoto)
