The saying goes if life gives you lemons, make lemonade.
Or, in the case of Marlene Squires-Swanson, lemon crème rum cake.
Squires-Swanson turned a layoff into a new business, Marlene’s Premiere Desserts, available in Green Bay-area Festival Foods stores and at www.marlenespremieredesserts.com.
Squires-Swanson worked in advertising and marketing, with projects including rebuilding the Sears Automotive Group brand and expanding the AT&T brand.
“My executive advertising/marketing position was eliminated and after many attempts at trying to find a position, I wondered if there was something else I could be doing while looking for work,” she says. “Everyone had always told me that I should sell my rum cake, so I thought long and hard about it. I knew I couldn't just go to market with one cake flavor, so I developed the entire line in my head.”
Squires-Swanson’s neighbors tried her cake line — with lemon crème, key lime and orange crème rum and pomegranate, double chocolate fudge and vanilla crème liqueur variations to the original rum cake recipe — at parties.
The wife of a business colleague then ordered her cakes and gift certificates for a holiday benefit. “I had one month to get everything in place — the company name, logo, licenses, Web site, you name it,” says Squires-Swanson. “I did it in two weeks —including the Web site!”
Not surprisingly, taste leads Marlene’s product attributes. “We have a very moist, flavorful taste which is very pleasing to many,” she says. “Whether the cake is freshly baked or frozen the moistness and wonderful flavor hold firm. Secondly, we are a niche product — all rum or liqueur flavored cakes, something that many others may shy away from.”
Squires-Swanson is working to expand the desserts into stores in the Fox Cities, Milwaukee and Oshkosh markets. Besides her Web site, the cakes are available from Amazon.com and the Wisconsin Made Web site.
“There have been all sorts of learning opportunities through this business start-up,” she says. “Aside from funding, packaging has continued to be a challenge. Also, being able to manage the high-volume-demand time frames without hiring help. We know we will have to hire help in the near future to assist with the high volume time frames (summer, Christmas, etc.).”
Squires-Swanson has plans to expand her company’s product and market reaches.
“We have opportunities to sell overseas as there is a huge demand for American made products,” she says. “All along I have had plans for another line of desserts, but I want to get through a full year with the cakes before we go into the next line.”