By Sally Thelen
NKyTribune correspondent
Ft. Mitchell bakery owner Elizabeth Hughes is headed to a national entrepreneur competition in May as part of a popular reality TV show that airs on Prime Video.
Last September, Hughes submitted a video entry for Little Flour Baked Goods and learned after Christmas she was chosen, beating out thousands of applicants.
She will be competing in the 13th season of “The Blox” which helps entrepreneurs sharpen their skills and business acumen, while vying for prize money and additional exposure of their business.
Elizabeth Hughes’ Little Flour Baked Goods is on her way to a national entrepreneur competition. (Photo by Sally Thelen/NKyTribune)
The participants compete in a week-long intensive bootcamp designed to take their companies to the next level. Their scores from each round accumulate daily, culminating in someone being named as the Best Startup On the Blox.
“It appealed to me because I really don’t have a business background at all. I graduated with a Communications degree from University of Kentucky, and my father owned a business, I worked for him, which is where I learned so much,” said Hughes.
Once her father sold his original business, Beckfield College, Hughes knew it was time for her to pivot and make a career change. Always a passionate baker, she enrolled at Cincinnati State’s Culinary Institute at the age of 47 to refine her skills. It was there that the idea of opening her own business began to percolate. After graduation she opted to begin her business out of her home first.
“I started with cookies, we put a commercial kitchen in our house and then within a year it was way too big for me to handle out of my house. I was staying up all night finishing
orders.”
At that point it was time to move to a brick-and-mortar location. She chose the small business district in Ft. Mitchell on Dixie Highway, next to Camporosso, to bring Little Flour to the neighborhood.
The site was formerly a yogurt shop that had recently closed so she seized on the opportunity and location. Hughes says she started with cookies and cupcakes and advanced to include unique cakes and macarons.
Hughes is scheduled to travel to Tulsa, Oklahoma for taping at the end of May for a week.
The program does not have a scheduled air date yet, but it is likely late summer on Prime Video.
Follow Little Flour on Facebook and Instagram @LittleFlourBakedGoods.
