By Corinna J. Moebius

“In a world where there are so so so many problems,” says Alysia Bryant, 30, “there are also so, so, so many smaller solutions–little things that we can do.” As a child growing up in Springfield, Massachusetts, Bryant dreamed of becoming a doctor because she wanted to help people. Now she crafts medicine for the soul in the form of dainty cupcakes, made and sold at her bakery in North Amherst.

“Baking makes me incredibly happy,” Bryant told me when I interviewed her at her shop, Carefree Cakery, in the Mill District. We were sitting at a cafe table in her airy, light-filled space, in front of a collage of paintings with smiling Black girls and women dancing, bicycling … and baking.

“If I get to spend every single day being this very happy person,” she continued, “I’m going to use this opportunity to give back.”

Bryant demonstrates her care for others throughout every aspect of her small business. Opened back in August of 2023, it continues to thrive. Throughout the day, a steady stream of customers enters the shop to pick up custom orders while others stare dreamily at the display case filled with dainty, decorated cupcakes with flavors like maple, lemon, chocolate, carrot and raspberry.

Although she didn’t attend culinary school, Bryant began baking and testing her recipes and techniques in high school, selling her famous cheesecake brownies to fellow students (which she still sells at Carefree Cakery). She now sources her ingredients from fair trade vendors and offers nut-free and soy-free alternatives such as a faux “almond” cake safe for those with tree nut allergies. She has a separate kitchen designated for preparing gluten-free treats.

Most noticeable about Bryant, however, is the warmth and sincerity with which she interacts with customers. On the days I have visited the bakery, I observed her greet everyone with a smile and listen attentively to every request.

Navigating the Journey Towards Entrepreneurship

In 2020, Bryant was making a comfortable living as a manager of a chain paint store, but COVID-19 and the civil unrest surrounding George Floyd had her reconsider her career choices. She said that as a Black woman, she had a nagging fear that she was “completely expendable in this world” and that big corporations “really didn’t care.”

“I was alone during this pandemic,” she explained, “feeling very small, feeling very acutely aware of being what it is to be a Black person in America and just kind of heartbroken in a very broken world.” 

Her despair became a catalyst for her to take the leap into entrepreneurship. 

“It was either do something about it or crumble underneath the weight of it,” she explained. Bryant decided to heal through food.

She quit her job, began working in the bakery department at Stop & Shop, and pursued business development opportunities. Bryant is effusive in her praise for the Pioneer Valley’s EforAll business accelerator program, based in Holyoke, which helped her grasp entrepreneurship in ways she had not learned in college. She liked that the program assigned her mentors with people outside her field who shared expertise on topics like how to apply for loans and how to choose business insurance. 

Bryant also raves about Common Capital, the non-profit community loan fund and SBA microlender that gave her a business loan, because it also offers support services, such as a financial analyst who helps her with her accounting needs.

Location, Location, Location and a “Culture of Support”

Bryant says she’s very glad she chose to open her cake shop in North Amherst’s Mill District. 

When she first considered the district for her storefront location, most of its commercial spaces were vacant. For Bryant, this offered her the flexibility to customize the space to fit her needs. Other selling points included the accessibility of parking, the affordable rent, and the many events that help promote Mill District businesses–like October’s pumpkin decorating contest, which her bakery won.

Yet what Bryant appreciates most about the Mill District is what she describes as a “culture of support” and symbiosis. Cinda Jones–President of W.D. Cowls, Inc., which owns the property, has been “incredibly passionate” about Bryant’s business and supportive of her as a new business owner, says Bryant. Jones is “willing to do what it takes to make things move forward in a way that I find incredibly admirable,” she added.

But Bryant soon discovered that many of the other tenants in the district shared a collaborative spirit. When she opened, the coffeehouse next door– Futura coffee–offered not to sell muffins in order not to compete, but now they sell her muffins–and she recommends their coffee. The district’s wine store Provisions invites Carefree Cakery to participate in wine pairing events. 

Advice for Aspiring Entrepreneurs

She has found it invaluable to learn from her mistakes, to learn from “things that do not seem directly related to what you’re doing,” and to learn from others’ mistakes. 

“Every single delicious treat in this place is the result of 10,000 mistakes that largely got eaten in college,” she explained. “Everything is an opportunity to learn and grow.”

As a young entrepreneur–and as a woman of color–she said what has helped her the most is to “understand who you are and what you want and stay true to those things.” She has dealt with being underestimated, especially by others who pitch themselves as older, wiser, bigger, and stronger and who assumed she didn’t know what she was doing. She turned down the offers by others who tried to muscle in on her business, and has never regretted her choice.

Corinna Moebius, Ph.D., founder of TerraViva Journeys, is a consultant/coach who connects people to place and to each other through transformative experiences. Raised in Amherst, she earned her BDIC at UMass.