Series highlighting entrepreneurs to feature Cakes Boutique

What it takes to be an entrepreneur in downtown Kalamazoo these days will be one of the things the co-founders of one of downtown Kalamazoo’s popular retail stores for women’s clothing discuss in a Western Michigan University speaker series.

Patti Reinholt and Susan Terranella-Hoffman, co-founders of Cakes Boutique, will speak at 8 a.m. Friday, Dec. 14, in 2150 Schneider Hall as part of the Haworth College of Business Entrepreneurship Forum.

The Cakes Boutique’s concept is to bring big city shopping to downtown Kalamazoo at affordable prices. The shop carries clothing as well as accessories, and also provides style concierge, personal shopping and private shopping event services. And since opening in 2010, the store has developed a relationship with WMU’s Department of Family and Consumer Sciences’ textile and apparel studies program.

Reinholt previously was the women’s wear buyer for the Kalamazoo Country Club for six years. She is currently also the women’s wear buyer for The Claymore Shop in Petoskey. She attended Michigan State University and studied fashion merchandising.

Terranella-Hoffman had served as the business development director of the Borgess Research Institute. She earned a bachelor’s in business administration from WMU in 2002 with a major in marketing and a minor in textile and apparel merchandising. She earned her master’s in accountancy from Davenport University.

“We’re going to talk about how we became entrepreneurs and what has led to our success so far,” says Reinholt.

The event is free and open to the public and begins with breakfast at 7:30 a.m. Reservations are required and can be made by contacting Kayla Hunt at 269-387-6059 or by email. Free parking is available in the nearby Fetzer Center parking lot.

Writer: Kathy Jennings, Second Wave Media
Sources: Patti Reinholt, Cakes Boutique; Mark Schwerin, WMU