The Cupcake Girls Build A Sustainable Nonprofit

ABOUT THE CUPCAKE GIRLS

Since 2010, The Cupcake Girls has provided confidential support to people involved in the adult entertainment industry, as well as those affected by domestic human trafficking through holistic resources, case management and aftercare. Based in Las Vegas and Portland, Oregon, they empower their clients through respect, resources and relationships.

THE SITUATION

Four years after founding The Cupcake Girls, Joy Hoover was burning out. Determined to serve everyone in need of her nonprofit organization’s services, she was working herself to exhaustion and landing in the hospital on a regular basis. She could see that the work she loved was taking a toll on her health and her time with her family, and she knew something needed to change. She had to find a way to balance her passions and build a more sustainable organization.

ACTIONS

Joy was matched with an executive coach for Small Business Coaching. Joy wrote a Life Plan and Business Plan to identify her top priorities in work and life. Working with her coach, she realized that to be the leader she wanted to be for her organization, she needed to put her health, faith, marriage and children first.

Her coach helped Joy follow through on her commitments and pursue holistic balance in her life and work.

To provide direction and identify long-term goals for The Cupcake Girls, Joy worked with her coach to draft a Business Vision. She then eliminated projects and tasks that fell outside of her Vision and streamlined the organization’s processes so that she and her team could focus on high-impact work. Her coach helped Joy maintain disciplines and the momentum as she and her team worked toward their goals.

IMPACT

The Cupcake Girls are achieving a long-term goal of opening a 6,500-square-foot holistic resource center in Las Vegas where women can receive care, access resources and learn new skills.

Holistic balance is now one of The Cupcake Girls’ key values, and the organization has seen employee retention grow as a result. Employees take at least one full day off each week and are encouraged to go to counseling to combat the emotional challenges of their work.

Joy enjoys more time with her husband and children and prioritizes her physical, emotional and spiritual health so that she can lead herself and her organization well.

“Now I realize that it’s okay for me to put my health, my faith, my marriage, my kids first.”
– Joy Hoover, Founder and President, The Cupcake Girls