Two Best Friends, One Bakery — and the Team That Helped Us Save It

We’re Maya L. and Claire B., co-owners of a small bakery in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. We met in culinary school over a shared love of croissants and cold brew, and after years of dreaming and planning, we finally opened our own shop.

Our bakery was everything we imagined:  pastel walls, the smell of fresh pastries every morning, and customers who felt like family.

But running a small business isn’t always as sweet as it looks on Instagram.

When ingredient costs spiked and equipment repairs hit all at once, our cash flow took a serious hit. We wanted to keep our team paid and our ovens running, so when someone suggested a merchant cash advance (MCA), it seemed like a quick solution. We got approved fast, money hit our account in a day, and we thought we were in the clear.

Except we weren’t.

The daily withdrawals started almost immediately. Even on slow days, the lender pulled money from our account — no breaks, no flexibility. It didn’t take long before we our entire cash flow was going towards our MCA. We were waking up every morning dreading what our bank balance would look like.

We stopped paying ourselves, started baking overnight to save on labor costs, and still couldn’t catch up. One night, sitting in the kitchen surrounded by trays of unsold cupcakes, Maya said, “I think we’re losing the bakery.” It broke both our hearts.

That’s when Claire found Eastern Financial Partners online. She saw an social media post about MCA debt relief and said, “What if we just call? What’s one more phone call?” Honestly, it was the best decision we ever made.

From the very first conversation, the team at Eastern Financial Partners treated us with kindness and respect. They didn’t make us feel like failures. They listened to our story, looked at our contracts, and explained — in plain English — how merchant cash advances really work and why so many small business owners fall into the same trap.

They built a custom plan to restructure our MCA debt. Within weeks, they were in direct contact with our lenders, negotiating lower payments and getting the daily withdrawals stopped. For the first time in months, we actually had money left in our account at the end of the week.

We can’t even describe the relief we felt. We could finally focus on our customers again instead of obsessing over our bank statements. Payroll was on time, our suppliers got paid, and we started smiling in the kitchen again.

Now, the bakery is thriving. We’re expanding our wholesale orders and even hosting weekend pop-ups. None of it would’ve been possible without Eastern Financial Partners.

They didn’t just save our business, they saved our friendship. Because when your dream feels like it’s crumbling, stress can pull even the closest partners apart. EFP gave us the breathing room to rebuild, together.

If you’re a small business owner drowning under daily MCA payments, please call them. We promise, they’re different. They’ll treat your business like it matters...because it does.

Thanks to Eastern Financial Partners, our ovens are warm, our team is happy, and our dreams are still rising — just like our bread!

- Maya & Claire., Bakery*