Seattle Bakery Gets Creative
 Piroshky Piroshky has offered hand-crafted Russian pastries to tourists and locals since 1992, starting with their flagship bakery in the historic Pike Place Market. For the first 15 years of operation, it remained a small local bakery and employed five people.
Olga Sagan, a Russian immigrant, arrived in the United States at 16 years old and started to learn English. In 2006 she came on as partial owner of the bakery. In 2015 she sought guidance from the SBA on how to grow the business strategically and was encouraged to apply for the SBA Seattle Emerging Leaders course.
Using knowledge and resources gained from the SBA Emerging Leaders course, Sagan developed the expertise and found the courage to become the sole owner of the bakery in 2017.
Under Sagan’s leadership, the bakery has expanded from one to four locations and a mobile food truck and now employs dozens of staff. In 2020 Sagan was named SBA Washington Small Business Person of the Year.
“Winning the SBA Award as a Russian immigrant shows me how incredible this country is,” Sagan said. “I am so proud to be a small business owner in Seattle.”
Staying Open and Helping Others
Sagan is still making the news about her work to keep her business open and help other community food businesses during this pandemic. She recently launched Catch22Delivery,* a no-cost service for food businesses to list their websites with delivery and takeout options, cutting out third-party delivery costs and consolidating a list of small food businesses open for business.
This is one example of the inspiring stories we’re hearing from local small businesses.
* SBA's links to non-government services is not an endorsement of any product, service, or entity.
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