#94 You CAN Have it All: Business, Family and Time - Lisa Nguyen, HeyDayPDX by Meaningful Marketplace Podcast published on 2021-10-20T17:50:23Z Lisa Nguyen got interested in baking in the Bay Area, California after the birth of her first child (she now has three) and went the traditional route with all the schooling and a degree and was set to enter the bakery world. The family moved overseas and she could not work, so plans got put on hold. At that point, she thought the dreams of a career were over but when the family moved to Portland, Oregon, she got that entrepreneurial “flash”. In the summer of 2019, just before COVID hit, she was sitting with her Mom eating some of the fabulous donuts they had just made. Donuts were a family tradition in Lisa’s life. Her Mom and Dad and the whole family always celebrated happy moments baking, creating and enjoying their unusual donuts. While sitting at the kitchen table, Lisa’s Mom remarked they could make the donuts even better, then Lisa’s husband called at that exact moment. Lisa playfully remarked they could do donuts bigger and better – and her husband remarked, “Let’s do it!”. And the journey of HeyDeyPDX began. (For those not of the area, PDX is the airport symbol for Portland and is used for short hand in a lot of communication) They planned to launch in March, 2020 then all the COVID restrictions hit. At first, Lisa thought it was a sign that this venture was not to be, but they had invested so much time and money into the business that they decided to give it a couple more months. Good decision. They launched in May of that year and haven’t looked back yet. They’ve dealt with COVID by selling through pop-ups in what they call a partnership arrangement. Coffee shops, tea shops, restaurants and bakeries all have a scheduled day where HeyDayPDX Donuts are offered. From a business standpoint, they sell about 500 donuts at each pop-up. And they do that sometimes in 15-30 minutes! They originally thought they would sell their donuts at farmers’ markets. But with Lisa being the entire production staff, they realized they could never have enough product to stay open for three or four hours at a market booth. Lisa has no plans to do the usual production ramp up and sell more donuts. Sure, they realize demand is huge and they could work longer and harder and probably make more money. However, they have a very comfortable life/balance right now. Lisa can pursue her passion, have a profitable business and be a Mom and wife. Life is good. "Masoni and Marshall the meaningful Marketplace" with your hosts Sarah Masoni and Sarah Marshall We record the "the Meaningful Marketplace" inside NedSpace in the Bigfoot Podcast Studio in beautiful downtown Portland. Audio engineer, mixer and podcast editor is Allon Beausoleil Show logo was designed by Anton Kimball of Kimball Design Website was designed by Cameron Grimes Production assistant is Chelsea Lancaster 10% of gross revenue at Startup Radio Network goes to support women entrepreneurs in developing countries thru kiva.org/lender/markgrimes Genre Business