Nashville Business Journal - July 27th, 2007

http://nashville.bizjournals.com/nashville/stories/2007/07/30/smallb2.html

From Confederate legend to Tennessee T-cakes
Baker's business gets a big boost after her product is featured on Oprah Winfrey's television show
Nashville Business Journal - July 27, 2007
by Jim Stinson
Nashville Business Journal

Frances Barkley's bakery had been in business for almost 15 years, and even received thank-you notes from the White House.

But when former Nashville resident and talk-show host Oprah Winfrey sampled her goods on television in May 2006, things took off.

Barkley and her Tennessee T-cakes had already been on the Food Network. But she was surprised at the power of Winfrey's recommendation.

"Nothing's like Oprah," Barkley says.

Calls began to pour in, traffic on her Internet site was so heavy it crashed and lines formed outside her door along Hill Avenue, even though her factory is not a retail outlet. Buses even arrived with tourists.

"I signed autographs. It was fun. That was the biggest peak you can get," says Barkley. "It was like Mount Everest."

Sales have been maintained since then, she says, and Food Network came back, and airs the interview on repeats of "Roker on the Road." Barkley says she's grateful for the television coverage.

Made of simple ingredients, it's traced back to the Confederate War, when ingredients were in short supply in the battle-ravaged region. Barkley's Web site says when a Tennessee belle meant to make a dashing Confederate officer a birthday cake, she could only make little tea cakes.

Thus was born a legend and a recipe.

Although Barkley declined to give revenue numbers, Tennessee T-cakes sales are up to almost 1 million cakes per year, Barkley says. The main cake sale is a box of 12 original-flavored T-cakes, priced at $12.95.

The taste is hard to describe. Barkley says it reminds people of different treats and flavors.

Slightly more expensive flavors are key lime, luscious lemon, the truffle tea cake, injected with chocolate.

Barkley declines to mention which person first passed her the tea cake recipe. But it was in 1992, after she pawned some diamond earrings to get the start-up cash, that her business kicked off using the recipe.

Barkley had finalized an amicable divorce in 1993, and wanted to grow a business on her own. She had helped her husband run Lesco Copy of Nashville for two decades.

Barkley would pay off the pawn shop and get her earrings back.

She settled in the Nashville Business Incubation Center for her first few years.

But she would use her earrings as collateral a few times more before her business took off. She started baking herself, and now has more than 10 full-time employees.

Her devotion has won her friends in the business community.

"She is one of a kind," says Patsy Cannon, a Brentwood caterer. "She is one of the hardest workers I have ever seen."

Cannon uses the T-cake for her clients, and sends some overseas to friends.

Barkley says her sales, done through calls and the Internet, have reached all parts of the South, California (where sales are "big" she adds), even Australia.

Barkley plans to expand sales to hotels and other retailers, and to change her packaging.

| Lessons learned |

Toughest Business Decision: I think when I was starting in business, that was the toughest. I didn't have a clue. It was an unknown. Then you jump in there and you go for it.

Best Business Decision: Actually, the best business decision I made was being involved with SCORE (an organization of retired executives who provide counseling to small business owners). They are your mentors ... I needed to grow the business, and I did not know how to do it.

Greatest Business Challenge: Getting your product done correctly, so you don't have rejects.

Business Philosophy: No challenge is great enough. I don't put ceilings above myself. I want to keep striving for more.,

Greatest Frustration: The financial end of it -- being able to finance it and continue on a growth trajectory.

First Move with a Capital Windfall: Re-invest in the company to expand it even more. Contribute some to a group which aids women-owned business.

Five-year vision: Change packaging, expand into international markets, license the product. There are so many different areas the T-cakes could be in. Dessert stores, hotels. Maybe a television show featuring the product and maybe other people's products: "Tea Time Around the World?"

Most Daunting Issue: My vision not being realized, or tea cakes not being liked.

Best Way to Compete: Keeping people away from cupcakes and keeping T-cakes in people's minds. I put out the best product I can.

jstinson@bizjournals.com n 615-846-4254