Sin Bakery Turns SBA Loan Into Confectionery Delights

PROVIDENCE, RI - May 15, 2018, was recognized as “National Chocolate Chip day”, a day to appreciate those savory little morsels of cocoa deliciousness. For me, no chocolate chip is home without being lodged somewhere in a cookie. The two are synonymous and go together like, well, “chocolate chip” and “cookie”.

On that particular Tuesday, I ventured down to Sin Bakery in Providence to get my chocolate chip treat. Sin Bakery and its owner, Jennifer Luxmoore, are coming up on the one year anniversary of their current location at 1413 Westminster Street. This modern coffee/dessert/custom cake shop offers a wide selection of confectionery delights, as well as a full bar in the evenings. Indeed, this spacious storefront property is a bright and growing retail shop in the area, but it wasn’t always this way.

In 2007, Jennifer opened Sin’s first store at 200 Allens Avenue, in Providence. The small shop allowed Jennifer to build a customer base a reputation for her intricate cakes, but hindered her from debuting Sin’s current iteration of café and bar. In 2014, realizing the limitations of her location, Jennifer began researching potential landing spots for a new Sin storefront.

After an exhaustive search and having a few potential sites fall through, Jennifer settled on 1413 Westminster for Sin’s new location. Her next course of action was to gain the capital needed to purchase the building. Jennifer investigated many capital sources, including crowd funding, before approaching Greenwood Credit Union about an SBA loan. Greenwood Credit Union matched Jennifer with a U.S. Small Business Administration 7(a) working capital loan, which would give her the funds she needed while allowing an extended maturity date to secure manageable monthly payments.

“Without the SBA loan we wouldn’t have had enough money to buy the building. That allowed us to move out of someplace that was rented to our own place.” said Luxmoore. “It allowed us to move on from just what we were doing with custom cakes to more of a regular bakery with coffee, and daily treats, the bar, and plated desserts, and it really allowed us to expand our focus and what we were doing,” she stated.

While the loan helped secure the new space, it also had ancillary benefits due to the elimination of production limitation. Since opening on June 15, 2017, Jennifer has seen a 136% rise in revenue and has hired 13 new employees (a 260% rise in employment).

Her location and community have also had a impact on Sin’s success, “I think one of the best things about being able to move over here is the community and the neighborhood. We didn’t have that before, we were in more of an industrial district and just having that everyday customer that you recognize and you know their drink is one of the great benefits of being able to do this,” Luxmoore concluded.

“The 7(a) loan program is the flagship program of the SBA, it allows borrowers to use the funds for working capital, finance receivables, refinance existing debt, expand and renovate facilities, or in this case purchase of a building,” ” said SBA District Director, Mark S. Hayward. “Ms. Luxmoore and Sin Bakery are the exact reason that these loan programs exist, making sure those small business owners looking to start, grow, or expand their business can do so,” he added.

For more information about SBA loan programs visit www.sba.gov/funding-programs/loans or contact Lender Relations Specialist, Daniel Horowitz at Daniel.Horowitz@sba.gov or 401-528-4576.