What a time to be alive. You can use your cellphone to adjust your thermostat, self-driving cars are becoming a reality and — in Indianapolis — you can have a fresh-baked pie delivered right to your doorstep.

Mr. Muhammad’s Pie Shop and Bakery, owned and operated by George Muhammad, takes pie orders by phone and will deliver as late as 10 p.m. Monday through Saturday to homes and businesses. Each pie has been out of the oven for fewer than 24 hours.

The bakery’s signature creation is its bean pie, which is the top seller along with the lemon cheesecake pie. Other available pies include: Butter almond pie, caramel apple pie, peach cobbler pie and other varieties of the cheesecake pie (blueberry, cherry, chocolate and strawberry). If something sounds good, but you’re not sold, Muhammad also delivers free samples.

Muhammad said the delivery business keeps him busy — to the point where he’s only getting three to four hours of sleep each day — but he’s looking to expand his business’ footprint and offerings.

In mid-January, he plans to open a retail storefront in Washington Square Mall. At that time, the baked goods offerings will be expanded beyond pie to include cupcakes, cookies and other pastries, which will also be available for delivery.

Muhammad said he’s not particularly passionate about baking or pies.

“It was never something I thought, that one day I’d just be baking. It was more about trying to build a business around something I knew,” he said. “(But) I did find out I was good at it.”

He came to know the bakery business beginning in the mid ’90s, when he worked at Roselyn Bakery. During that time, Muhammad also sold pies on the side that he bought from another manufacturer. Eventually, he left Roselyn to sell pies full-time.

When his supplying bakery went under, he had to make a change.

“Of course that put me in a position where I had to do it for myself, because I had already started selling them,” he said. “I started baking pies inside my house, and I was selling pies just out on the street and everywhere I could.”

Muhammad said he thinks a big part of his success was that he was out on the street peddling his pies.

“I believe that a lot of the purchases were for convenience. I was there while (the customers) were there,” he said. It’s the same philosophy he carries over into his delivery service — being where the customers are.

As demand grew, Muhammad partnered with other business owners to open New World Cafe. “That partnership ultimately dissolved, which put me back almost to square one. Yet I still had a clientele base for the pies,” he said. In addition to selling pies to individuals, Muhammad sells wholesale across the Midwest to other distributors.

Muhammad then worked as a manager at a major bakery manufacturer for about a year and a half, before deciding in 2014 to pursue his true passion and go full-scale retail.

“This is always where I was at as far as passion and purpose — entrepreneurship,” he said. “Even when I went to manage at the baking manufacturer, it was never something I was doing as a career; I was in a transition.”

That’s how Muhammad ended up where he is today — delivering “all day, every day” and preparing to open a new retail store.

And even though his passion lies with entrepreneurship over baking, the business side of things is still a means to a greater end.

“The main motives of why I do what I do are to be a source of inspiration and to qualify myself to be able to teach and develop others in entrepreneurship,” he said.

Muhammad said for people who know him as “that guy who sells the pies,” he can inspire them with his progress.

“I was selling pies on the streets. I just took it upon myself to do something,” he said. “A lot of people know me from the street, ‘Oh, that’s the guy who sells pies.’ So when they see, now he’s got this business over here, that’s an inspiration.”

For the Black community in particular, Muhammad hopes to set a good example.

“When you identify with someone, and they have accomplished a certain level, it’s inspiring,” he said. “So my goal is to be an inspiration to those who may not think it’s possible.”

Further down the line, Muhammad said he hopes to learn enough about entrepreneurship to qualify him to share his expertise.

“I would like to be able to have that business success be a catalyst for teaching entrepreneurship. That’s the goal. I’m doing it so I can qualify myself (to teach) through the experience,” he said.

Muhammad wasn’t formally taught his business skills, but he said his spiritual guidance has given him all he needs to learn and apply his knowledge.

“(What) makes me successful are my spiritual base and the teachings that I follow — the teaching of the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad. And that’s what I attribute everything else to.”

Visit our business directory to view other black owned businesses in Indiana.

Source: 

http://www.indianapolisrecorder.com/business/article_66a4b7f0-a4de-11e5-be80-6f7613c5f894.html