The CEO Baker

Shavone Lave spent years building a following at her Sugar Hut Bakery in the Maili Marketplace. Her bakery became so successful she decided to close it permanently.

Lave lives in Nanakuli with her husband and two sons. As a bakery owner you may assume she has a culinary background. Not so, Lave’s education and career is rooted in social work and criminal justice. She spent years working in Hawaii and Oregon in suicide prevention and counseling victims of sexual abuse and trauma.

After returning to Hawaii, Lave wanted more time with her family and decided to transition into a teaching role at St. Michael School in Waialua. While teaching provided better home life balance, the commute between Nanakuli and Waialua was long. Lave wondered if her baking hobby turned passion might be a solution. She enjoyed baking for family and friends, and much to her surprise, she regularly got requests to buy batches of her treats. At the urging of her husband, Lave set out to create a baking business.  Selling baked goods at farmers markets and other venues, her baking business, The Sugar Hut began to take shape.

Although product sold-out at weekend markets, Lave felt unprepared to run a small business, after all her education was in psychology. She turned to another passion, learning. Lave immersed herself in learning anything about operating a business. She spent months researching and reading books, she took online courses and grew her understanding of running a business. Not afraid of trial and error, Lave honed her craft as a baker and developed business skills. Her personal growth propelled the success of her business, and she achieved the goal of every baker – opening a bakery. The Sugar Hut transitioned from a pop-up business to a legit walk-up retail bakery.

Opening the retail bakery was a major accomplishment, and with employees to help her the business grew. Lave’s team took on the baking and daily operations tasks so she could focus on strategy and marketing. Lave and her team tackled each pandemic obstacle and evolved with their customers in mind – to the point that the pandemic period proved to be financially successful for The Sugar Hut and personally transformational for Lave.

With her success, Lave felt a yearning to help other entrepreneur bakers. She began working on a concept that could help start-up bakers succeed. The concept became reality in the form of a new business, The CEO Baker. Lave’s vision was to operate both the new venture and her Sugar Hut bakery. However, as she prepared for a launch of The CEO Baker it became clear, she could not give 100% to both businesses. Lave decided to close her successful Sugar Hut bakery and return to her roots, counseling, and coaching others.

Combining her life’s work, Lave is applying her knowledge as a counselor, teacher, baker and entrepreneur in the creation of her new business The CEO Baker. Lave’s goal is to coach other entrepreneur bakers to success. She has developed a curriculum and implementation plans that provide structure and resources to transform a passion into a small business.

Lave embraces and promotes technology in her pivot to entrepreneur and business coach, allowing her to reach clients across the islands but also anywhere in the world. Additionally, Lave has launched a free podcast to work in tandem with her coaching program. The CEO Baker podcast is self-recorded and produced from her home in Nanakuli.

The founding clients of The CEO Baker program are midway through their term, with 90% of the class residing in Hawaii. In addition to the detailed content and plans, Lave’s program includes assistance with brand development and one-on-one coaching sessions. Clients purchase an annual or quarterly membership to participate in the CEO Baker program. Although the content and teachings are designed for a baker, the concepts can be applied to any entrepreneur or small business. The monthly cost of The CEO Baker mentoring program is a modest investment to make you and your business successful. 

You can follow Shavone Lave and The CEO Baker on Instagram @theceobaker, and by downloading her CEO Baker podcast.

Email Shavone for enrollment information at hello@theceobaker.com