The real day-to-day life of bakery entrepreneurs
In this Meet an Entrepreneur video, Mayline Roux, co-founder of “Au pain de Mary” she shares how she balances personal and professional life. Between passion and concessions, her testimony is full of sincerity and realism:
- The beginnings
- Starting a business at 50
- Staggered hours
- Starting a business as a couple
- Managing a business together
Mayline Roux is the co-founder of “Au pain de Mary”. Learn more about her on aupaindemary.lu.
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Transcription de l'intervention de Maryline Roux
It’s a life you have to love because it comes with a lot of give and take.
The real day-to-day life of bakery entrepreneurs
Maryline Roux, co-founder of AU PAIN DE MARY since 2013
The beginnings
It’s true that we started out with the store as it was. We couldn’t afford to do major work… The little work there was to do, we did ourselves. We bought what we needed to start out, the necessities, and after that, it was a little bit at a time. Because you do need quite a bit of material. At first, on Sundays, it was just the two of us. So we’d get there very, very early, and he’d cook everything himself: the pastries, the bread, the pies… And I had to help him, the two of us did everything, and my son would come help us some with the sales part.
Starting a business at 50
As little Frenchmen, settling here, starting a bakery… plus when Manu and I opened the bakery, I was 48 and Many was 49. So we weren’t really starting young.
Staggered hours
It’s very, very early in the morning, because our alarm clock goes off at 1:15am. In the evenings, now, we usually try to leave… it’s been about a year because, before, it was more complicated, we try to leave between 6:00 and 6:30pm. It’s a life you have to love because it comes with a lot of give and take.
Starting a business as a couple
The good thing, you could say, is that we don’t live on-site. We don’t live far, we live in Bertrange, but we step out of the bakery setting. So we can still disconnect, even if sometimes we argue a bit about the bakery. When you work as a couple, it’s not always easy. So sure, maybe we have a little fight, but it’s for the bakery. It’s not about our relationship on the side. When we get home, it’s forgotten. It was for the bakery. Perhaps it has something to do with us not being that young. Maybe it’s more complicated for young people at 25 or 30 years old.
Managing a business together
What’s important is for the two of us to really be on the same line. And as I always say or as he always says, to the staff for example… I always say, if Manu says no, there’s no point coming to see me, I won’t say yes. And if he says no, there’s no point coming to me, I won’t say yes.