In this series, we talk to people who turned their passion for food and baking into a business idea. We talk to home bakers who are constantly experimenting and innovating and navigating through these difficult times to bring the sweet and the savoury to our doorsteps. Brownies.lk is a home-based small business located on Thalawathugoda Road, Kotte. Brownies.lk kicked off during the Covid-19 lockdowns back in June 2020. “Our brand is quite unique from the name itself. The meaning of our name has two perspectives; local and global. In the local context, ‘Brownies.lk’ means it’s the go-to place if you are craving brownies in Sri Lanka and in the global context, anyone would know that we are a Sri Lankan brand and that we carry the Sri Lankan warmth in our service”.

What do you offer?
We offer a wide range of products, from our signature brownies, birthday cakes, cupcakes, cookies, chocolate biscuit pudding and the ultimate brownie shake which is the crowd favourite from our beverage menu.  It could even be a wedding, an engagement party, a corporate event or even to satisfy your weekend cravings, Brownies.lk is your definite go-to place for quality brownies at an affordable price. 
Our best seller is KitKat brownies and we are fond of making ‘Brownie desire’ - a mouth-watering combo of warm brownies, vanilla ice cream, chocolate ganache and roasted cashew nuts. 

What would you say is your signature style of baking?
We do have a secret style of baking which is adding a spoonful of love and attention to each and every batch of brownies we make. 

What started Brownies.lk and what was the most challenging part of getting your business to take off?
The idea of selling brownies came up once we made brownies for a birthday and saw how everyone loved them. We identified this as a potential business opportunity. The most challenging part of taking off the business was spreading the word but thanks to the amazing set of friends we have, we were able to get the word out about the brand and recently we were able to reach 1K followers on Instagram, which was quite a big milestone for us. 

What makes your brand stand out? 
We have received lots of positive feedback on our packaging which is a 6-piece box decorated with a ribbon. The speciality of our packaging is that this box and the bag are also homemade hence adding uniqueness to the overall product. This gift box is something that makes our brand stand out from the rest.  Not only that, but we are also well known for the taste, look and feel of our classic fudge brownie that comes with a cracked, glossy top loaded with chunks of dark chocolate.  We are mostly based on pre-orders but we do have our store on Uber Eats as well. We always ensure that we use good-quality baking products and even amidst the economic crisis in the country, we have made sure not to compromise the quality of the ingredients we use. 

What do you enjoy about baking and operating your own home baking business?
The best thing about having our own home-based baking business is the dynamic nature of the people we get to interact with starting from our customers, vendors, delivery partners and the list goes on. Another very enjoyable aspect of owning this business is the opportunity to think creatively out of the box, trying different products, twisting them and seeing how our audience reacts to them. So far, the journey has been quite memorable and interesting. 

How can home bakers navigate these difficult times in an economic crisis? 
Small businesses are heavily affected due to the economic crisis in the country and this has been the case for us as well. The biggest challenge we have been facing is the price fluctuation in the market. The first damage control we did was cutting down the unnecessary costs we had those days by analyzing the entire process end to end and identifying areas we could reduce the costs. This strategy helped us to maintain the profit margin we had earlier. 

Any advice to anyone who wants to start their own business?
The best advice we have would be to have patience and to be consistent in whatever you do.