College student Layla Wallace has secured a grant for her bakery business.
Wallace started her Michigan-based business, Layla’s Cool Pops, when she was just 10 years old after being inspired by her fourth grade economics project in 2015, MLive reports. At the time, she did not have any proper knowledge of what it would take to run a business and be successful, but she is only becoming wiser in light of her steps in higher learning as a business student at Western Michigan University.
“When I started the business, I didn’t know anything,” Wallace told the outlet. “I’m taking courses that are helping me develop my business, teaching me the fundamentals of how to function, develop, and grow.”
In the meantime, Wallace continues to run Layla’s Cool Pops in Kalamazoo, MI. She sells cupcakes in flavors such as confetti, pink lemonade, red velvet, and lemon, among others, as well as cookie pops, cake pops, brownies, and pies.
Orders are currently being fulfilled from her home, and the business is also supported by her mother, Luchara, and interns between the ages of 13 and 21 years old.
The business has been hiring since 2018, which aligns with its mission to provide better outcomes in the local community. This is also displayed through Wallace’s nonprofit arm, Sweets4Homeless, which has helped to fund a four-unit apartment in the Vine neighborhood to help underserved families and individuals. Additionally, the teenager wants to provide other small businesses with kitchen space.
“Our commitment has always been to reach back and pull people forward,” her mother said, according to MLive. “We know how fortunate that we’ve always been, and so we want to be able to do that for other businesses.”
The business applied for the grant when the city reached out with the opportunity.
“The City of Kalamazoo chose Layla’s Cool Pops for the Match on Main program because it exemplifies our mission of fostering economic development, community engagement and youth empowerment,” the city said in its application, per the outlet.
With the grant, the business will be able to upgrade a commercial kitchen space at 4213 S. Westnedge Ave., which will allow for part-time employees to join its team.
Layla’s Cool Pops is also making a personal investment of $35,450 in the renovation, a process that is expected to be completed by the end of September 2024.
“Right now, we can’t accept or even advertise a lot of our orders because we don’t have the capacity to receive all of that new traffic,” Luchara explained. “Completing this renovation will allow us to be able to expand our capacity.”
