The Cupcake Collection: Delivered with love

Founded on $5 and a dream, Mignon Francois launched her successful bakery in 2008. “We were drowning in debt and…losing everything we had,” recalls Mignon when she heard auspicious piece of advice on the radio. “We could get out of debt by having a bake sale.”

A photo of The Cupcake Collection founder.

Although Mignon had no formal training, she began practicing her craft, relying on her neighborhood for taste testing when one day a neighbor asked her if she'd make them for her clients. “Even though I was...trying to save enough money to pay bills, I took the last $5 that was allotted for our dinner that week and took her up on the offer.” Mignon turned that $5 into $60 that night, then $600 by the end of the week. “Seventeen years later, we’re at over 5 million cupcakes sold.”

“[Our cupcakes] are made with butter, which we equate to love,” Mignon says of their delicious cupcakes, and FedEx has been instrumental in helping her business expand her market.

“With FedEx we learned how to ship butter successfully.” Beyond helping the The Cupcake Collection succeed with shipping perishables, FedEx has been a constant partner. “Our team can’t stop singing the praises of our FedEx representative, Doug,” says Mignon, “If we call, [Doug] answers. If he doesn’t have an answer, he will find out, and it has increased our shipping exponentially.” According to their Marketing and Communications Manager, Tonisha Brown, The Cupcake Collection has increased sales 200% to 300% in the past three years, fulfilling orders from both their Nashville and New Orleans locations for corporate events and weddings nationwide.

Beyond achieving steady growth, it is The Cupcake Collection’s express goal to be a leader in their community. Tonisha says, “Grants and opportunities like this will allow us to continue to be a debt-free business and continue to teach people in our community what it’s like to build success on financial freedom.” As a result, they’ve also been able to expand their mission far beyond providing people with joy-filled baked goods.

Mignon serves as an advisor to Lipscomb University‘s College of Business and the Nashville Entrepreneur Center, helping to lead Nashville toward being the premier place for others to start and grow a business. She is passionate about providing scholarships to students in need within her community, and giving to local organizations that serve causes like food insecurity and her work with Safe Haven, a shelter that works to keep families together in the face of homelessness. Together with other colleagues The Cupcake Collection helped raise more than a million dollars for the organization.

As a 2023 FedEx^® Small Business Grant program winner, The Cupcake Collection is looking forward to scaling up their business by investing in new equipment. “We’ll be able to purchase our own walk-in freezer,” says Tonisha, “in order to get more FedEx trucks pulling in and rolling out those cupcakes every day.”

Keep dreaming and doing. There’s more ahead.

The FedEx Small Business Grants Program helped entrepreneurs grow for 12 years. It’s retiring,
but our support for small businesses isn’t. Find other ways to compete and win.

The FedEx Small Business Grants Program helped entrepreneurs grow for 12 years. It’s retiring, but our support for small businesses isn’t. Find other ways to compete and win.