Photo: Abbi Nichols of Abbikadabbi’s Baking Co. LLC at the building site for her store on Snowden Lane in Southaven. The Small Business Administration has named Nichols the Young Entrepreneur of the Year for Mississippi. (Bob Bakken/desotocountynews.com)
Aug 4, 2024 – Abbi Nichols has been doing pretty well baking her tasty cookies by using her mother’s oven the past few years and building a business from their home. Abbikadabbi’s Baking Co. LLC has attracted a good following, even going back to the days when Abbi was as young as 12 and baking sugar cookies for her family and friends.
But Abbi is finding the business has outgrown the Nichols home and the oven is getting a lot more use as more orders are coming in.
With that, two things have happened. Abbi has decided to set up shop with a storefront location across from the Snowden Grove Soccer Complex at 6227 Snowden Lane in Southaven. Abbikadabbi’s Baking Co. will share space at one of the buildings of the Top of the ‘Sipp development. She expects to be in the store late this year.
Abbi Nichols explains how her storefront location will be set up during a recent visit. (Bob Bakken/desotocountynews.com)
Her business success has gained an attraction outside of DeSoto County, leading to recognition as the Small Business Administration’s Young Entrepreneur of the Year for Mississippi.
At age 23 and just one year out of college, Nichols said to win a state award like this was pretty amazing.
Rick Snyder with the Small Business Development Center encouraged Nichols to apply for the award and when the Small Business Administration followed up with a question about an item missed in the original application Nichols said they were actually encouraged by inquiry.
“Rick was like, ‘I think this is really good,’” Nichols said. “We filled out the other question, and then we heard back the first of March, and that I had won the award.”
Nichols learned she had become the Entrepreneur of the Year for Mississippi in March and received the award in June.
“It was really just a great honor just being to go to Jackson and get that award,” Nichols said.
Abbi is a 2019 graduate of Lewisburg High School who then graduated from Ole Miss in 2023.
“While I was in college, I was really involved with the Omega Center for Innovation Entrepreneurship, and entered about four competitions,” Nichols said. “In two of the competitions I got in the top six.”
Competition success provided grants and she also was awarded $4,000 for presenting for the Rebel Student Venture Fund, helping to support her entry into the business world, an entry she actually made in 2019.
Nichols said she’s always enjoyed baking and has been doing so since at least age 12.
“I always loved to bake with my grandparents when I was younger,” she said. “ Our whole thing was the taste of everything. My goal when I first started was to create a cookie that not only tasted good but looked good at the same time. That’s what everybody raves about when they pick up their cookies, how good they are.”
Baking became a business as people started telling Nichols that she needed to start selling the tasty sugar cookies that also looked good, too.
“At the time there weren’t many people that made decorated sugar cookies,” she explained. “I just made a Facebook and Instagram page. It’s just been word of mouth because I haven’t made a single dime in advertising.”
The move to a store location came about when the demand for cookies…demanded it. The Nichols home is not large and Abbi works with the lone oven in the kitchen with the dining room her base of business.
The Southaven location came about through connections with Scott Gill with SMJ Enterprise, the company behind the Top of the ‘Sipp development currently under construction. The location has great potential with its location adjacent to Snowden Grove Park and the soccer complex.
“I mean, those little kids coming back from their soccer games are gonna say, ‘Mom, I want a cookie,’” Nichols said. “So when I will stay open a little lighter on certain occasions like that so they can get their cookie after their game.”
Right now, Abbi and her mother run the business with the hopes of adding employees to address the larger demand during the holiday season once they settle into the new location.
To learn more about Abbikadabbi’s Baking Co., LLC, visit the Facebook and Instagram pages. There’s also a website where you can use a customer order form and they will then contact you by email at www.abbikadabbisbakingco.com/.
“My goal is to be the Cookie Person of the Southeast,” Nichols said. “This might be our first location, we might have another location. When we’re in the storefront we’ll be able to ship nationwide and that’ll be exciting because I do have customers in Texas and people in California that I met in school.”
