A career change of a millennium of technology to the cooking entrepreneur

Hali Mo begins to cook pastries before the sun rises.

She has already finished a large part of the preparation work, so a few hours after sunrise, her selection of goodies is “cooked, garnished, wrapped and labeled,” she said.

It’s time for Mo to stack boxes in a wagon and bring the metro to this day’s pop-up location.

“I have set up my stand and I will generally sell three to four hours, chatting with customers,” she said.

Mo, 30, has made a career pivot of the product manager to manage his own business. It was a big change of life and involved leaving California, a visit to Paris, and to move to New York. Mo said it was not a big plan and involved several stages, risks and costs.

While Mo loved the energy of the startup, she was pursuing a spark that was not there. Cooking has become an “obsession” outside of work, she therefore decided to leave her job in California to attend a pastry program in Ferrandi Paris, a culinary and hotel school. Mo has also tried an internship in a hotel in Paris before moving to New York, where she made croissants and other micro-bak treats in her apartment to sell in pop-ups in cafes or other companies, as well as catering, event orders and microphones.

Mo is satisfied with his career change and feels more energetic. Now she discovers how to cook sustainable work. She does not have a physical store where she sells her items and does not know if she will do so in the future, given the high rents in New York.

Mo finds the management of his business, Hali Home Bakes and works for herself enriching.

She said that her past work meant living for the weekend and that she felt exhausted. This is another story now. Even if she is not a morning in the morning, she is delighted to wake up and make pastries before dawn.

“I think it was the kind of energy I spent my whole career looking for, and I didn’t find it before I started to cook full time,” said Mo.

Hunt your passion and change its definition of success

Mo decided to study in Paris because she wanted to live abroad and because “no one has food and pastry like the French”. She liked to be surrounded by passionate bakers, enjoy the chopsticks and be in the country during the Olympic Games.

“When I look back at that time, it looks like this beautiful dream,” said Mo.

Participating in the pastries program and starting a business has changed its definition of what it means to succeed. She said that she was aiming for the “company of the company” of success – having stable work, obtaining promotions and earning a good salary. Mo said that if financial stability is still important, it doesn’t care as much as people think about her work.

“Before, if I enter a party in Silicon Valley and said a micro-bak out of my apartment, I would be worried about being tried or perceived in a way,” said Mo.

Start a business and manage costs as an independent baker

Mo had to browse several logistics and operational challenges to become independent and manage a small business, such as how to do a lot of pastries in a small apartment and how to bring them to customers.

“I love working for myself and assuming the responsibility of all business, both successes and failures,” said Mo. “I have the impression of learning much faster, and it’s great to see the business develop as a result of my work.”

The independent work also meant to take what would generally be several positions in a company. Mo said that she liked to assume these different responsibilities but must make sure that she does not go out.

“I am the baker, but I am also the photographer of my products,” she said. “I have to do social media. I have to do business development to find new opportunities and talk to coffee owners.”

Then there are also the costs of creating a cooking company. Mo said that even if she was trying to continue spending, she made some major purchases, which increased to more than $ 2,000. It bought a stainless steel counter on which work, a rack to contain trays, a counter convection oven and a laminator or a paste of dough. The cost of the ingredients is also added. She said she spends a lot on butter and chocolate.

Mo said she is trying to sell items in a pop-up once every a few weeks, where she likes to meet people and see customers enjoy her food.

“Sometimes it’s really just the little joys, like a delicious pastry, which can be the light point at someone’s time,” she said.

Discovering pop-ups was difficult. His first pop-up weekend was at Artists & Feas Williamsburg the same weekend as the New York Marathon. She took the metro to Williamsburg but had to take a Uber tour to move to the marathon.

She said she would have broken even if it was not for the cost of travel. She said that she had sold about 150 pastries in total. His Uber was around $ 30, and a place at Artists & Fleas was $ 370.

“You have to sell a lot of pastries to recover this money,” she said.

With some adjustments, she has since been more successful in pop-ups. She has teamed up with cafes because she said that coffee and pastries have meaning together. Mo has also invested his time in the publication of his business and his skills in cooking on social networks. She said during her last pop-up, she sold about 250 pastries over two days.

Mo is happy that she has taken this career change in the stages, but she thinks that if people are ready to make a change in a big step, they should go ahead.

“If you feel frightened, maybe just instead of a big leap, find a small step that you can take in this direction which seems manageable,” said Mo.

Do you have a story to share on career pivots? Contact this journalist at mhoff@businessinsider.com.