CEL practicum leads to sweet success for local baker

When Evann De-Bose took up creating tasty vegan cookies as a pandemic hobby, it soon expanded into a full-blown business—selling not just vegan treats but allergen-friendly cookies of all kinds.

The enthusiastic response to her business, The Sweet Evannlution, has been gratifying, but De-Bose knew there were areas of her business where she could use some help.

WashU Olin’s Center for Experiential Learning connected De-Bose with a team of students who jumped at the challenge. Team Lead Danni Cornick, a sophomore BSBA student, said the team worked with De-Bose to address The Sweet Evannlution’s struggle to maintain consistent revenue.

“Through weekly meetings and constant communication with our client, we were able to identify underlying problems and deduce two solutions to her problems: a strong rebranding campaign and improvement of internal business practices,” Cornick said.

Based on their analysis, they created a plan to help De-Bose in both those areas.  

From De-Bose’s perspective, the most important assist from her CEL team was helping her keep track of the changing cost of her ingredients and how it affected the profitability of her various products.

“I was doing it by hand, and I was trying to figure out a better way to keep up with it,” she said. “They created an Excel sheet with the formulas all set up. They helped me figure out which cookies are the most lucrative, how much things cost and whether I should increase my prices.”  

Another important recommendation: Changing the name of her business to CopyCat Cookie Co. “I have a fantastic product and great customer service, but the name is hard for people to say.” She'll be rolling out that new name soon.

De-Bose said her experience with the CEL team was “fabulous.”

“I wasn’t expecting how much they did for me, and how well they did everything,” she said. “They were really very dedicated and serious about it.”

Cornick said the consulting program offered a mutually beneficial partnership between the student team and their client.

I looked forward to this class each week because I knew that what I was doing had a real impact on my client’s life. In the weeks following our final presentation, Evann has begun implementing our recommendations. It is an incredible, unique and exciting feeling to see your ideas come to fruition in the business world.  

—Danni Cornick