-Damn.
-Right?
-Mhm.
Okay, what's in this?
-It's a whole lot of bad to make it good.
[Laughter]
-First, I came here
and I talked to the manager.
I said 'I make cheesecakes,
I wanna open a business.'
He says,
'Well, what does a black woman know
about making cheesecakes?'
And I said, 'You'd be surprised,
I can make anything anyone else
can make if I put my mind to it.'
[MUSIC]
-I'm Harriet from Harriet's Cheesecakes.
I've been in this same location since 1983,
welcome.
-I started making cheesecakes
when my sister, who was in New York
going to school, asked me to try the recipe
and when she came home
for vacation she wanted me to
have one ready.
-I looked at the recipe
and it had all these different--
a food processor and a mixer,
which I did not have,
so I decided to make one on my own
and that's how I started.
I started to open up the cheesecake shop
because at the point when I started
I had six children to support,
and I'd just recently divorced.
And I had come from
a remission from a challenging
health problem.
I picked the location
because it was close to my home.
It's about six or seven blocks.
I didn't know that much about Inglewood
but I always passed to go to the store
and then I saw this place was for rent,
and I said 'Oh, there's the place!'
I wasn't ready, I had no money,
and no idea of how to start a business
we just kept going one place to another,
we had to do the logo,
we had to do everything,
and all of the sudden, we started.
I opened on May 3rd, 1983.
I'd see a cake, or a pie,
or something like that
and I'd say, 'Oh, I bet that'd make
a great cheesecake.'
And that's the way I started,
I'd practice and keep making mistakes.
My favorite is apple & spice.
But my most popular one is the praline.
When I first started
up until a couple of years ago,
it was sweet potato,
and the french vanilla,
and strawberry,
now, cookies and cream is very popular.
And then about, oh
about seven years ago,
I started banana pudding
and that's very popular.
I start baking about 4 or 4:30.
And then, on a normal day,
they're all ready
by the time we open at 11.
I bake about 20 flavors a day.
I think I've been successful because
I haven't changed,
everything's the same,
and every time someone comes in,
and they offer, you know,
a substantial amount of money
but they want--
they go, well, where are the machines,
we'll get mixers, we'll do this and we'll do that,
and I said, 'No, I don't wanna do that.'
My advice to anyone
opening any kind of business,
you really have to decide that you wanna do it.
Because there's going to be a lot of ups and downs.
I mean, I have ups and downs now.
Be prepared to spend a lot of time and
not lose friends,
but not to be able to spend a lot of time with them,
because you're busy,
and if you're not busy, you're tired.
And then if you have children,
then you're even more--
you have to take them to the soccer games,
the baseball games,
figure out a way to do all of the different things.
So it's a lot of work, it's not easy.
You just really have to decide
that you wanna do it and don't let
the little things that happen--
or even the large things happen.
You know, and I believe in God,
and I pray,
and I think he answers me
and I think some of the problems
he sends me is for my own benefit.
That I gain from them and I learn things from them.
Something that I didn't know before happens and
I feel very blessed.