Shealy Dixon has always had a passion for cooking, baking and especially, feeding people. When a family friend taught her to mill grains to make nutritious homemade bread, she began making and selling it to her parents’ friends.

After commuting all week to teach English, Shealy baked bread after church on Sundays, leaving the loaves in ice chests in her parents’ carport for customer pick-up. Excited about her little business venture, they shared the bread with others. Eventually, Dixon bought a house and her father put a fridge on the porch for her customers.

“As my customer base grew, my father saw how happy I was baking for people,” she said. “He offered to help me open a bakery.”

Instructors in a UGA Extension canning class suggested she go the UGA Small Business Development Center in Albany to broaden her business knowledge. There she began working with SBDC Faculty Member Rob Martin.

“It was a no-brainer to contact the UGA SBDC. It’s free, and Rob is an expert and fabulous resource. He’s always ready to help and has great suggestions. He told me to take Dr. Mohan’s class on starting a new food business in Georgia, and it was one of the first things I did.”

“When Shealy started, she just didn’t know what she didn’t know,” said Martin. “Her intake form simply stated, ‘Bread Business – No Name.’ What she did know was that people loved what she was producing, and they were willing to pay for it.”

Dixon opened Sweetly, Shealy: Camilla’s Bake Shoppe in 2017, the fifth generation in her family to own a downtown Camilla business. Over the next five years, she worked with Martin on cost controls and watching profit margins, on human resources and pandemic funding opportunities. Dixon also attended the UGA SBDC’s Accelerate Your Marketing course, using tactics she learned to grow her outreach and marketing efforts.

“As Shealy grew, UGA got her plugged into Worksource Georgia,” Martin said. “It helps companies find staff and then pays a percentage of their salary the first six months.”

Dixon opened her bakery with one employee and has grown to eight. Her sales are in the black, growing year-to-year. In 2019, Explore Georgia recognized her blueberry lemon cinnamon rolls as one of the 100 Plates Locals Love.

“The UGA SBDC is an amazing resource,” she said. “They are at your disposal, ready and willing to help you. And they’re free! Why wouldn’t you tap into that?”