Meet Camila Lopez | Co-Owner of Guiltless Treats

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

Hi Camila, what is the most important factor behind your success?
By far, the most important factor behind our success has been our customers and followers on Instagram. We are a small ran operation with no brick & mortar, no mailing list, no marketing budget, no long list of pop ups for exposure. We have been able to grow the way we have thus far on only the word of mouth of our amazing customers. When they order, they tell friends and family about us or share their sweets with them! Our followers are also great with taking pictures of the sweets they order & tagging us on Instagram. There’s a point where in our local area “Guiltless Treats” is known simply because its seen so much on Instagram stories. It has caused a buzz and also a trust where strangers are following us & ordering just because they know so many people that have.

Alright, so for those in our community who might not be familiar with your business, can you tell us more?
Guiltless Treats is really a business built on a whim and hard work. My mom baked her first vegan muffin because she had a client who she sold a different product to, that mentioned he really needed a sweet in his restaurant, but wanted it to be vegan. My mom said she could do it and got home and started baking. When I tried that vegan banana muffin, I told my mom that it had all the potential to make a whole business out of this.

Some people say they’re running their dream business, truthfully that’s not our case. We saw an opportunity in the market and ran with it.

It wasn’t until months later that we took things seriously & focused our efforts into growing & developing Guiltless Treats. Through constant posting on Instagram, more people began to hear about us. As more orders came in we learned how to be efficient through the volume. What we quickly noticed was that our product was loved in both the vegan and non-vegan community. Our sweets were something you didn’t have to be vegan to enjoy. We had really mastered making vegan sweets that you can’t even tell are vegan.

I think the beautiful thing about Guiltless Treats is we can serve almost everyone. So many people have made the personal choice to be vegan or have dairy/egg intolerances; we even developed a gluten free line of items. We wanted those that feel like its difficult to find something for them, to genuinely be able to enjoy sweets again. But, it has also been very cool seeing that our sweets are often times the first vegan thing a non-vegan customer has ever eaten. We’ve been able to really live in this middle space of no stigma and just enjoyment. In our case, food really did bring everyone together.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
The more we grew our small business, the more we wanted to support other small businesses. Here is a round up of our favorite/go to’s that are non chain spots near the Pembroke Pines area:

– Mayor’s Cafe : Breakfast Spot
– Lyfe Athletics : Gym
– Broccolini Cafe : Italian Food
– Vista View Park : Picnics

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
My special shoutout definitely goes to my mom, Maria Perez, the other Co-Owner of Guiltless Treats. She is the one that bakes every single sweet, but she has been behind the scenes encouraging me, supporting & giving me the greenlight to all of my ideas for our business. She has put her full trust in allowing me to do what I think we need to do to make this business grow.

Instagram: guiltlesstreats_

Image Credits
Jasmin Guerra Photography