Meet RITA LEON | Rita owner of Sweet Hands

We had the good fortune of connecting with RITA LEON and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi RITA, can you walk us through the thought-process of starting your business?
At age 71 I have taken the risk of starting a new business mostly because I have always been an Entrepeneur at heart but never took the risk. After Covid with the work situation in Miami I felt I needed to do something to improve my income. I knew if I didn’t take the risk, I would never know. For many years I assisted importers in placing their products in the market by giving them guidance as to import and retailer guidelines. It was a constant taste testing to ensure the products being offered were exactly as presented. I always knew I wanted to have my own product; had a lot of ideas, but there was equally the same number of products to compete with. One day in a family conversation, someone said “why don’t you dedicate yourself to baking since you are so good at it”?
So, I took out my old recipe book and started to try out my recipes and finally after months of tweaking them, I came up with the recipes I am using today. These recipes are decades old but had the input of my 92-year-old mother who was the biggest critic of the product. So, I started the journey of trying out the recipes and sending them to everyone I could for their opinion. This was my way of confirming I still had it in me to bake as good as I knew I always did. So, the journey begins!! So, when we say that our product has a homemade taste and made with the sweet hands of a grandmother and that it is MADE IN THE USA, we are 100% sure of what we are saying.

We just recently launched our new business as Sweet Hands LLC and we have our website under sweethandsllc.com and we are also under Instagram as sweethandscakes. It has been a challenge to learn all the tricks of an online business, but we are moving forward, and people have been very receptive. In addition, we are focused on providing our cakes available to those that want to send a gift to our soldiers. Our cakes are vacuum sealed to preserve the freshness and lasts up to six months until you open it. I hope many of you out there can appreciate all the work and effort our soldiers make to protect us and can tell them “Thank you” with one of our cakes. We ship to anywhere in the USA and to any APO address.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I worked for the US Department of Agriculture overseas as a Regional Budget Specialist, this is how I got the know-how of how a product needs to have a proper label, nutritional facts, import guidelines and FDA regulations and Food Safety. It was a very rewarding job because I met so many people and as part of the team that assisted in the DR-CAFTA Agreement between the USA and the Caribbean islands. It was a challenge getting all the training programmed for all these countries, but the satisfaction in the end was well worth it. It wasn’t easy to get to the final position I had, but when you work with a good team you get things accomplished.

After leaving USDA, I have worked in the distribution business, and I manage most of Walmart’s compliance guidelines related to products shipped to their distribution centers. I am still working three days a week because I need to pay bills, but my goal is to dedicate myself 100% to this business in the coming months.

What I would like everyone to know about my brand is that they can rest assure I have taken all my experience and placed it under my business by ensuring the products quality and food safety. I truly hope people can be receptive to the business and give me their support. I want to be able to expand the business to a point where I can create new jobs for the area.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Unfortunately, in this area I am not very good because I take care of a 93-year-old mother and most of my free time is dedicated to her and her medical needs.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
My biggest supporter is my 93-year-old mother who has worked alongside with me to ensure recipes were perfect.

Website: www.sweethandsllc.com

Instagram: sweethandscakes

Facebook: Sweet Hands

Other: info@sweethandllc.com