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Angie and Rous Robles bake the business of their dreams in Milford and Seaford with the help of programs like Excite Sussex. l PHOTO BY JUSTIN HEYES OF
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SEAFORD — Rous and Angie Robles say it’s still My Sister’s Fault in Milford, but they don’t mind and now they have a new helping hand to blame - the Excite Sussex Fund.
The sister duo’s thriving eatery started in 2017 and it continues to grow seven years later thanks to supportive business programming across the state and a community with an insatiable appetite for empanadas and sweets.
“We are often told that we're an inspiration for others. That makes us very very proud and glad. I'm glad we're an inspiration for many aspiring business owners and we hope to continue to do so. It's harder than it seems, very hard,” Rous Robles told the Delaware Business Times.
She focuses her efforts on the bakery side of the business, sifting out new recipes along with their now timeless, popular ones to keep cakes and sweets on the shelves at both their original Milford location and a new spot in Seaford which opened earlier this year.
“We’re excited about that location, but we also know we have to take our time growing. We can’t go too fast,” Robles said.
According to Angie Robles, who creates the savory dishes offered at the Puerto-Rican inspired local favorite, their humble beginnings were instrumental in hand-crafting a successful business and knowing when to partner with other organizations like Sussex County Economic Development to make it happen.
“It took a lot of work to get here, we couldn’t do it alone. We are so blessed to have started in Delaware where we could find the help we need to get going,” she said. “We weren’t planning on a second location when we got the [Excite Sussex] loan. It went toward a better kitchen for the Milford store. Without that, we’d have a [Seaford] store, but no sweets.”
The loan, offered through a partnership between Discover Bank and the Grow America Fund, affords smaller businesses in the lower county like My Sister’s Fault the opportunity to borrow funds for machinery and equipment needs, real estate and/or renovation or tenant improvements.
Businesses must have been in operation for at least two full years, have 10 to 500 full-time employees to qualify and operate within one of the three opportunity zones designated by Sussex County, among other requirements.
Changing course
My Sister’s Fault was granted the loan in 2022 in the midst of both personal and professional expansions.
“Before we got this loan, we were looking for regular traditional banks to build a bakery at our empty lot near our Milford store. But everytime we got an estimate for construction, the prices kept going up because of COVID-19,” Robles told DBT. “They were asking for project injection money, a down-payment, but the prices kept changing.”
The sisters knew they wanted to grow their brand further, but barriers kept them from succeeding. Until Bill Pfaff introduced them to the Excite Sussex loan, however.
“Everytime we went back again, something was different. There seemed to be no way we could get this done. But then the building we could purchase came up for sale. We had a decision to make,” she explained.
The building in question was the same one they had rented for the business since 2017. Aged at more than 100 years old, it was in desperate need of repairs and renovations in order for My Sister’s Fault to continue its growth in Milford.
That decision was initially made easier after they spoke with Bill Pfaff from Sussex County Economic Development.
“He knew we were looking to do something, either new construction or buy the building. He said, ‘You know, your bakery is the perfect model for what we’re doing. If you can show you've been having a profitable business for the past 4 years, we can convince the bank to get a loan.’ It sounded too good to be true, but we figured let's look at it,” Robles told DBT.
Meanwhile, this wasn’t the only expansion project up for debate in the Robles’ families. While the sisters worked on expanding their business, Angie found herself faced with the opportunity of a lifetime - becoming a homeowner after living in the United States for 14 years and her dream home was right next door to her sister.
“We have worked so hard to get here and when this house came up, too, I had to do it. I couldn’t let it go. So, I told Bill, we’re not going to buy the 100-year-old building because I’m going to buy my dream home. He said, ‘No, no, no. . . wait,” she recalled.
Growth opportunities
Angie and Rous Robles moved to Delaware from Puerto Rico, working at Perdue’s Milford facility to get their start locally. Pfaff told DBT that the sisters worked their ways up to management roles and used the skills and knowledge they learned on the job in their own new venture - My Sister’s Fault.
That dedication and attitude turned into success over the years, he said, and that’s what he wanted to encourage when he started the conversation with the pair about the Excite Sussex loan program.
“We want to see businesses grow. For the loan, we want to see job creation and retention. My Sister’s Fault does that,” Pfaff said. “Of course, they’re just one recipient business. We’ve grown the program over the years since I’ve been here. It’s really a great and unique thing that we get to offer.”
He explained that the county’s original loan program was capped at about $1 million and, of that money that was available to smaller businesses, about $700,000 was left in the fund after ten years.
“What I realized was that we needed to take a little bit of the application process out of it. And not only that, but we were not in the business to manage a loan portfolio. So we outsourced it to Grow America to manage,” Pfaff told DBT. “We can fund a minimum of $250,000 for businesses up to one million each, and really, we have the flexibility of going above that threshold if needed, we just have to take it to [Sussex County] Council.”
Because of the popularity of the loan program with small businesses in Sussex County, he said the program has grown from a cap of $1 million to $16 million in the revolving fund so more entities can benefit. According to the Small Business Administration, 98.6% of all businesses in Delaware in 2023 were small businesses with a majority in the southern regions.
“My Sister’s Fault is just one of the businesses we’ve helped. We’ve had numerous businesses use our loan program such as Tailbangers whose products can be found around the country, Peninsula Paving, Powersports in Seaford and there are others. It’s clear that without this loan program, there are some businesses in Sussex that simply would have too many barriers to growth,” Pfaff said.
Several key features to the Excite Sussex Loan program are particularly attractive for small business owners, he added.
“There’s no application fee, we base information off of tax returns and financials, the turnaround time can be quicker depending on the business and, I don’t want to understate this, the interest rate is fixed. It never changes and typically it’s less than what you get through a typical business funnel,” he explained.
For My Sister’s Fault, the Excite Loan process took about eight months from the time the sisters submitted their financial information to when the lender made its final decision for the small business - an approval.
Shortly after, My Sister’s Fault had an $800,000, no money down loan with very low interest for the purchase of the Milford location and needed renovations to the tune of more than $190,000.
“And I still got my dream home,” Robles cheerfully added. “I can’t say it’s going to benefit everybody in business. You have to make sure your banking, money and finances look healthy for the bank. But I can say it worked for us and we’re able to grow because of it.”
Their Excite Sussex Loan helped fund needed plumbing, electrical and structural upgrades to the building that used to house the Milford Chronicle in the early 1900s. Alarm systems and waste and recycling areas were also upgraded.
“You know, the fun stuff,” My Sister’s Fault stated in the social media announcement of their building purchase. “The best part is that we were able to add a separate kitchen area for sweet sister Rous and her team of bakers.”
Over the course of their seven years in business, the sisters have also received a $50,000 Encouraging Development, Growth and Expansion (EDGE) grant through Delaware’s Division of Small Business in 2022 to upgrade equipment so they could increase production.
“All of these things play a part in where we are today. We would not be as successful if it weren’t for these opportunities or our amazing customers. Because we have a bigger kitchen now, we can produce more and take it to Seaford and sell there,” Robles told DBT.
While the Milford location continues full-scale operations for My Sister’s Fault, the new location in Seaford, formerly Grace and Flavor bakery, sells only sweets which are baked in Milford.
Angie and Rous Robles promote teamwork and say giving each other leeway and grace helps get them through the day-to-day operations, along with a well-crafted operating agreement between the two.
“We don’t need the stress getting in between us. We do a good job at that. We have fun at what we do and we’re very grateful for the support we’ve gotten so far. It’s been a really great journey. We’re taking it one day at a time, but we’re excited to see where it goes. The end goal is never money, but at the end of the day, we’re very blessed that My Sister’s Fault is our life,” Angie Robles told DBT.
