Half-baked idea? How Ken Rodrigueza built a bakery you can bank on

With its seemingly endless collection of boutique breweries and hole-in-the-wall banh mi spots, it’s no surprise that Sydney’s Marrickville neighbourhood has been repeatedly recognised as one of the world’s coolest. ^{Superscript: 1 Superscript: 2}

It’s important to remember though that the individual businesses making up Marrickville’s chic main street didn’t emerge fully formed – they started, like any other business, with a little passion and a lot of hard work.

This is the story of how Ken Rodrigueza and his sister Karen Rodrigueza-Labuni built one of  Marrickville’s most beloved bakeries from the break room of his corporate day job.

Watch Ken's story

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At the time of writing, House of Papi’s loud green exterior will be an unfamiliar sight to many Marrickville locals, having only replaced Ken’s previous business, the bright-pink Donut Papi, in the past few months. 

House of Papi represents a change in direction for the business – branching out from focusing exclusively on donuts to provide customers with a broader selection of traditional Filipino baked goods.

“We’re focusing on ‘meryenda’ – afternoon snacks. It’s a modern take on this meal,” Ken said.

Rebranding an already successful business and changing its line-up of products may seem like an ambitious step, but it’s one that should help the business reach new clients and grow further.  

“I think it's important for you to change,” Ken said, “because it's for your own growth as well – if you're getting bored with something, I think changing just helps to freshen everything up for you, and for the business as well.”

From break rooms to big breaks

Prior to 2015, Ken was working full time as a retail assistant earning a safe, respectable salary – but his enthusiasm for baking was evident even then.

Ken began making donuts at home and bringing them to work  to share with his colleagues at lunch. The snacks were a hit, and soon enough he was receiving paid orders for the treats.

Curious to see if he could make something more of his talent for cooking, he decided to open a stall at some local markets on his days off.

Soon, he was slinging cinnamon-laced desserts to the good people of Bondi beach, an experience that taught him a couple of important lessons:

• that Sydney has a market for boutique baked goods, and
• that that market is not in the overly health-conscious borders of Bondi.

The stall was not a raging success, but Ken quickly realised that the issue wasn’t with his product, but the demographics his business was reaching. This prompted him to do more research, so he could understand where he was likely to find the highest demand for his donuts.

Eventually, Ken chose to start a small shop in Redfern, and Donut Papi opened its first brick-and-mortar store.

Donut Papi’s reputation grew rapidly, and Ken decided to capitalise on this success by moving to a larger location in Marrickville, where the business continued to win the hearts and stomachs of Sydneysiders (having already impressed the one-and-only Nigella Lawson ^{Superscript: 3}).

Making dough from doughnuts: tips for starting a business

While there’s no one-size-fits-all approach to starting a new business, Ken shared a few of the things he did that helped him grow his business into its current shape.

Don't be afraid to start small

When Ken first started taking paid orders for his donuts in the break room of his employer’s offices, he realised that if he wanted to make a business from his baking, he had two options:

• Go all in and put his money into starting a donut shop.

Or...

• Start small, test the waters, and build momentum over time.

He chose the latter and encourages others to do the same.

“Starting small lets you test your ideas a little bit and actually prove to yourself that you can make income from what you’re doing, and at the same time you’re limiting your risk,” he said.

“It’s also a great way to observe what everyone’s doing, to chat to other business owners and find out how they started and how they’re doing.”

When the time came to open a physical shop, Ken had already proven his concept and felt he had the experience necessary to build his business. 

Know your customer

Donut Papi’s early market appearances were successful, but didn’t perform as well as Ken had hoped. Part of this problem was that he didn’t know who his customers were and launched in a neighbourhood where demand for his product was low.

Thankfully, by starting with a market stall, he wasn’t committed to this neighbourhood. Instead, he began trialling his stall in other neighbourhoods, and with different products, to figure out what worked.

For Ken, knowing your customer was all about finding his demographic and catering to them in a way that resonates.

Ken notes that his customers enjoy the authenticity and passion he puts into each of his baked goods.

They’re not just coming for a donut, they’re coming for a Donut Papi donut.

As a business owner, Ken tries to follow trends in food and culture and incorporate them into his products – he even takes on feedback from customers and may make changes accordingly – but he’ll still only sell products that he approves of, and which represent his vision for what the bakery should sell.

“You want to please your customers, but you don’t want to please everyone,” he said.

“If you try to please everyone, you’re going to become blank.”

Put yourself into your brand

If you Google ‘House of Papi’ or its donut-themed namesake, you’ll quickly be greeted to interviews with Ken sat alongside photos of his own smiling face.

His brand is deeply intertwined with himself as a person, and that’s no mistake.

“People relate more to your business when there’s a face to the brand,” he said.

“Your personality can help you connect to your audience more, and that's how you create a community from your audience and your customers.”

This approach also proved quite useful when Ken launched another business, restaurant Tita Carinderia, alongside his sister, Karen Rodrigueza.

“Whatever I do now, whatever I’m involved in, my customers know what they're getting,” he said.

Final tip: don't freak out about finance

Underneath the excitement of exotic baked goods and trendy locales, House of Papi is still a business – and that means managing accounts and balancing books to keep the wheels of commerce rolling in the right direction.

For many, this can seem like a daunting prospect – for example, does anyone really want to do an additional set of taxes each year? Would you even know how?

Fortunately, Ken explained, this isn’t the burden that many think it is. His advice? Firstly, to open a separate business banking account so your personal and professional finances don’t get mixed up.

“Having a business account is very important,” he said. 

“Basically, you want to be able to see how the business is doing, and your personal spending is a separate thing from business spending.”

“It's important to keep those separate to make things easy for accountants, for tax purposes, and just for yourself as well!”

Additionally, Ken noted that while it helps to have a firm grasp of your business’ financial basics, many business owners work alongside specialist bankers, accountants and bookkeepers to manage their money.

These partnerships help them continue to grow, generate revenue, and manage their tax and cash flow so the business owner can focus on what they do best.