Enterprising junior urges students to get baked

While riding out a shift as a Circuit City floor salesman his senior year of high school, Jared Schneider realized he'd like to be able to wear shorts to work if he felt so inclined.\nHe realized he wanted to work for himself.\nHe's not waiting on a bachelor's degree.\nBy late July, the 19-year-old junior plans to open Baked! of Bloomington, a downtown cookie delivery store. Schneider touts freshly baked cookies straight out of the oven as an alternative to yet another pizza or sub.\nTo be open until 3 a.m. weekends, the store offers as its signature special the "Hot Box:" a baker's dozen with a quart of milk for $11. Selling freshness, Schneider promises that dough won't touch tin until the order is completed.\nInspiration came in a flash. His friends lavished praise on a helping of his mother's trademark chocolate chip cookies, and it occurred to him that there was an untapped market in a college town for a taste of home.\n"It was too good and too easy an idea to wait on," he said. "I wanted to move in and corner the market."\nSchneider tried his hand at entrepreneurship before. In high school, he ran a summer car-detailing business that raked in a 2,500 percent return on investment. Still, as an 18-year-old with no credit established, he had a tough sell even with an innovative concept.\nHe ruled out banks altogether and pled his case to a venture capital fund out of his hometown, Chicago. He won their backing on the strength on his idea.\nSchneider envisions aggressive expansion for Baked! He eyes a franchise in every Big Ten college town -- as a start.\nPassing on preservatives and shortening, Baked! will whip up a fresh batch of cookie dough daily, Schneider said. Though the menu features a few staples like chocolate chip and oatmeal raisin, it focuses on customization from a set list of ingredients.\n"If you want to get into permutations, there are literally thousands of possibilities," Schneider said. "We will give you exactly what you want, to your exact specifications."\nThe customer also retains the option of having the cookies cooked gooey or crisp. Though it emphasizes delivery, Baked! will maintain a storefront with pre-baked cookies for walk-in traffic.\nThough Baked! prides itself on quality and uses only natural ingredients, Schneider shuns comparisons to established chain Mrs. Fields.\n"Everybody is gourmet these days," he said. "It's a word that gets thrown around a lot. I'd absolutely say we're gourmet, but we remind you of home."\nBusiness professor David Rubenstein, who's given Schneider feedback on his venture, heartily endorses his product, which he describes as "warm and plump and moist and rich."\n"The cookies are unique, special," he said. "They aren't little cardboard slats, stamped out on an assembly line."\nStill, Rubenstein qualifies his optimism about Schneider's aspiration toward a national chain.\n"The business plan looks solid, but it is no 'sure thing,'" he said. "Enterprises are like dramas, and beyond the business plan, success will depend on two factors -- the entrepreneur and the customers."\nIt's not every day that an undergraduate bootstraps a brick-and-mortar company up from the ground. But Schneider follows in the footsteps of two University of Texas juniors who opened Tiff's Treats in Austin, Texas in 1999. With the same concept of delivered homemade cookies, they're now thriving, with a strong customer base and a number of catering accounts with corporate clients. Residents voted its confections among "The Best of Austin" last year in the Austin Chronicle's annual survey.\nIt's proved such a hit that it's branching out to a Dallas location this summer.\nThough Baked! skews primarily to hungry students stranded in dorms and those looking for a quick, convenient snack after the bar crawl, Schneider also expects to cultivate a business clientele.\n"You can pick up some stale doughnuts at the supermarket," he said. "Or you can get the freshest possible cookies for your office party or reception area."\nSchneider looks to word-of-mouth as his marketing strategy. T-shirts have cropped up around campus declaring that the wearer "gets Baked! before class." Signage invites potential customers to "get Baked!"\n"We just need to grab people's attention," Schneider said. "I'm confident once people have sampled our cookies, they'll keep coming back."\nSchneider, enrolled in the honors program I-Core, plans to continue his studies while running a business with up to 25 employees. Though well ahead of fellow students who fret mostly over quizzes and weekend plans and who haven't formed their own limited liability corporations, Schneider is quick to give credit where it's due.\nHe's dubbed the chocolate cookie "Stacey" in honor of his mother.\nBaked! of Bloomington is located at 601 N. College Ave., on the ground floor of Smallwood Plaza, and can be reached at 336-2253 or BakedOfBloomington@gmail.com.