Nicole Borota, A Mom Who Does It All with Sweetness
Lovely Interview and Story Written By Susan Loughmiller, An Awesome Mom...
What started off as the return of a favor turned into financial returns instead for a woman who loves cookies.
Nicole Borota had her hair done by the mother of her son’s friend. The friend wouldn’t take any money for the hair appointment, so for the son’s birthday party Nicole brought cookies. By the end of the party, she had five paid orders for her intricately decorated cookie creations – and a new business was born.
Jersey Cookie Girl LLC is now 10 years old and has survived being a new business, a move to a commercial kitchen, a pandemic, and a sea change in the mode of delivery of the product over the last year. On top of all that, Nicole has been active in giving back to her community by training female youths about running a small business and marketing their ideas for money from a young age.
A Passion for Design
Nicole worked as an architect for 15 years as well as being a mother of three children, one of whom is high functioning with autism. She was looking for something that allowed her more time at home with her children when the opportunity presented itself clearly.
“My son was a gift and I got to re-create myself,” she says now. “Growing up, I was the baker in the house. I only baked sweets – my mother baked the bread.”
With some background in fine art and a lot of experience in rendering architectural drawings, Nicole parlayed her design skill into confectionery creations that are stunningly imaginative and colorful. She usually draws her specific inspiration for each batch of cookies from the customers themselves – most have a theme or bring her a picture, color swatch or other starting point for their celebrations or gifts.
“The business was slow at the start but grew through word of mouth,” Nicole says. “As long as you stay receptive, things usually work out. I’m honored every day to become part of people’s families and their celebrations.”
Bringing Purpose + Play into the Community
In partnership with the staffing agency Recruiting for Good as sponsor, Nicole has been able to expand her long-term practice of mentoring local youth with celebrations of good teachers, Women’s Day, Mother’s Day and other local milestones. She works with female athletes to learn about empowerment, motivation and time management, and she has given classes for young Girl Scouts on how to make their annual cookie sales more profitable, a key precept since Girl Scouts are required to be self-sufficient and raise their own funds for all philanthropic projects and travel.
One of the Jersey Cookie Girl/Recruiting for Good campaigns (Girls Design Tomorrow), “The Sweetness of Success,” involved mentoring a girl in motivating others, bringing business partners together, and starting at a young age to identify your passion, take the creativity it inspires, and turn it into something tangible as they mature.
“It’s one thing in starting a business to be motivated,” Nicole says, “but to say the right thing - when someone calls you, reached out to you, you have to be responsive – and we try to keep this all in a positive light to keep someone young motivated. How can I market myself and my idea to earn money later in life?”
The cookies are packaged usually in a 3 by 7 inch box. The girls are asked to consider, in a small format that requires self-editing, “Which of your three cookie designs are the ones that scream your point?”
During the days of COVID, Nicole has felt grateful to be able to keep the business not just going but thriving by staying flexible. “If you’re flexible, it works out well,” she says. “Most of the business is online. I was able to stay open because my food’s packaged. And we could do curbside pickup here in New Jersey. We did the graduations. We did the hospital donations for medical workers. As much as we could do, we did.” Luckily local business regulations reflected what many of us feel … that sweets are “essential.”
Building Beautiful Relationships
With Employees + Community
Her business has grown to a circle of eight or so trusted employees at any one time. Nicole said she tries to focus on having a positive, no-guilt work environment, good communication, and letting everyone who works with her bring creative ideas to the table.
“I LOVE what I do. I truly value my clients and I really let my heart carry me. Sometimes with anything you’re going to meet people who are a little hard, and you cry and you get back up and you just move on!
“I am really always amazed that everything I put in, it comes back to me. I had a 10-year celebration last weekend and I had people from 20 years ago who remembered something I had made for them - to give me that kind of praise … I haven’t cried like that since my wedding day! To know that I make a difference in people’s lives, that makes all the difference in the world. And I get to share my day with people who are amazing and who fill my heart. They are on an adventure with me.”
Nicole Borota's story is written by Susan Love Loughmiller, a longtime activist who lives on the Westside of Los Angeles in Marina del Rey. Susan is a former journalist who has worked for numerous non-profits. Susan also worked with Carlos Cymerman at Our Moms Work, a personal community service for moms. www.OurMomsWork.org