Small Business Owner Jessi Walter of Taste Buds

Grown-Up Gigs Kids Cooking Class Teacher/Small Business Owner Jessi Walter of Taste Buds I met Jessi Walter at the CRAVE NYC launch party, and loved the concept around her business, Taste Buds (cooking classes for kids)! Once I went to the site and read about her transition from Bear Stearns Vice President (and Harvard!) to Taste Buds owner and teacher, I knew I had to corner her for this series. Such goodness ahead! 1. What did you wanna be when you grew up? An astronaut! After the movie Space Camp, it was all I could think about for a few years. That is until I actually went to Space Camp in Alabama and got nauseous on the simulators ?? 2. Youre a Harvard graduate and a Bearn Stearns alum. Was it difficult to leave that behind to give Cupcake Kids (the original name of Taste Buds) a go, career-wise? It was definitely a hard decision to leave behind a good-paying steading job where I was the employee and not the employer. But at the end of the day, it was the time to do it so I went for it! There wasnt an ah ha moment for me, I just decided that if I really wanted to make Taste Buds  a real business, I had to give it my 100% undivided attention. So my choice was to stay in a corporate job or really go for it and try out my idea. For me, I was 26, didnt own a home and didnt have a family so it was the perfect time for me to take a leap of faith and go for it. The worst that could happen was that it didnt work.but Im thankful that it did! 3. I talk a lot about what I like to call Vampires the voices in our own head/coming from other people that suck the good stuff right out of us. Did you meet any Vampires along your journey to being a full-time entrepreneur? Actually, no! Ive been overwhelmed by the support and encouragement Ive received from friends, family and even people I just meet. People are really drawn to Taste Buds mission and it resonates with them. Everyone loves a little girl power too! ?? 4. I work with a lot of clients who are concerned about whether or not they should pursue a certain interest/hobby as a career. How did you know that working with kids/baking/cooking/entrepreur-ing was it for you? Great question! Many hobbies should never be businesses. You have to have a lot of passion and a ton of energy. I love learning something new every day and figuring things out as I go. Its a constant adventure.  As far as making a hobby into a successful business, at the end of the day, I think you have to want to work on your business and not as much in you business in the long term to really make it work. Meaning, if I had just wanted to teach kids to cook all day, then I shouldnt have started Taste Buds. As a business owner, you are responsible for everything.some days Im the janitor, others tech support, marking, pr, accounting and the list goes on I still teach classes and events and I absolutely love it every time. But, I teach far less than I did at first. It was to o hard to try and do everything myself and I think a business owner needs to take a step back to really look at their business and find ways to grow it. If I were teaching all of the time, I wouldnt have time to do this. 5. If you can have your present self give your pre-Taste Buds self one piece of advice, what would it be? Keep moving forward! Things will break, go wrong and everything in between but just keep working on it and try again. Lifes too short to sweat the small stuff and to take too long to make decisions. ____________________________________________________ Please vote for my SXSW proposal (with Molly Mahar of Stratejoy Tara Gentile of Scoutie Girl!), Screw the Job Market: Young + Passionate ? Broke. I swear its really quick will be super appreciated!