LONG BEACH, Calif. — Emerald Austin is known to those around her as the cookie lady.
After all, she can be found for hours on end baking cookies in her kitchen, many days beginning at 5:30 in the morning. At this point, she even dreams of cookies.
RELATED | Fun Is Serious Business for Game Night in a Can Creators
“I really do," she said with a laugh. "The cookie called 'Oatmeal Marry Me,' I dreamed about that for two or three months."
While bad for her sleep patterns, Austin's love for baking cookies is what inspired her to create her own small business, Royal Gourmet Cookies.
The baker launched the company in March. While she's always wanted her own brick and mortar cookie shop, there have been a lot of what-if's involved.
"The biggest fear is you open a place, it’s the wrong place, wrong area," she explained. "Just so many things can go wrong and then you’re stuck in a huge lease, you’re stuck with employees.”
Fortunately, Austin was able to get a taste of owning her own space — free of charge — thanks to the City of Long Beach's Corner Pop Up program.
Through a partnership with Pacific Gateway and LINC Housing, small business owners like Austin will get to test out their concepts rent free.
"They wanted to feature small businesses that don’t have their shop yet and give them an opportunity to learn, to experiment, to learn what works and what doesn’t work," Austin said. "I call it the training wheels of business.”
Over a four-week period, Austin got the chance to test out having her own space. On December 23, Austin closed up shop, leaving with so much new experience under her belt.
“I do want a Royal Gourmet cookie shop some day, so [it's been] a great thing for me to learn how to do," she said. "I have foot traffic, car traffic, social media. I’m able to expand my cookie shop and people are able to taste the cookies, see what we have to offer.”
For now, she'll continue to bake from home and sell online, but with the Corner Pop Up on her resume, she feels even more ready to build her business.