Black Aurora business woman, Tamara Turner will be hosting a Grand Opening on Wednesday, May 4, 2022 for Silver Spoon Desserts. The Grand Opening will be at 10:00 am at 3501 W. 48th Place #2W.

In May 2021, after working with a catering company providing food service for American Airlines, Turner then was asked to have her desserts served on the airlines’ domestic flights. Turner recently moved her business to a 16,000–square-foot building in Chicago, to accommodate the influx of orders for American Airlines. It was a new home for Silver Spoon Desserts, and another success story for Black women business owners.

Turner’s business coach, a Black woman from Aurora, Terrie Simmons, recalls Turner’s humble beginnings. Turner had approached several places, including Portillo’s restaurant, as a destination to sell her infamous Bundt cakes. However, during that time, Turner did not have an established business or a location, just her Bundt cakes for sale. She had the small cakes in all sizes and flavors, but her options for expanding her business as a Black woman were far and few.

“I began working with Tamara in 2017. And now, just five years later, Tamara’s business model has excelled,” said Simmons, Turner’s business coach and CEO of Strategic Exceptions, an Aurora-based organization that caters to the growth of small businesses. Simmons is an Illinois business trailblazer, formerly of ComEd and the Aurora Women’s Business Development Center.

“Black women in business often receive little to no support to help their small businesses thrive. I had grown tired of seeing Black women struggle to maintain the same businesses they worked so hard to build, from the ground up.”

Earlier this year, Turner told ABC 7, that she launched her Bundt cakes business, Silver Spoon Desserts, in 2017 because she “heard the voice of what I am going to call God, tell me to do the cakes first. I was told, ‘do the cakes first.’

“If you know the term, ‘born with a silver spoon in your mouth’ it makes you wonder why Tamara would name her business that,” said Simmons. “She, by no means, was born into privilege, or had an easy life. I often tell my clients that the thing about small business ventures is that they take a big heart. Tamara had that.”

Black business owners are traditionally underserved in Illinois, and across the country. According to estimates based on the Federal Reserve’s Survey of Consumer Finance, Black businesses have 1.3% of total U.S. sales and 1.7% of the nation’s employees. According to recent government data, the racial wealth gap is between $8 trillion and $10 trillion, with nearly 20 million white-owned businesses in the U.S. that obtains 88% of overall sales and controls nearly 90% of the nation’s employment.

“When [Tamara] first started her business, it started as an idea based off her love of baking. Strategic Exceptions worked with her on necessary skills to strengthen Silver Spoon Desserts, using her personal journey as a Black woman to help brand her business. The rest is history.”

To learn more about Silver Spoon Desserts, visit the website at www.silverspoondesserts.com

CONTACT:
Terrie Simmons, CEO, Strategic Exceptions
terrie@strategicexceptions.com