Fame Is No Match for a Sweet Tooth

Welcome to Trading Places, a small-business series which takes a look at entrepreneurs who have successfully transitioned from working in the corporate world to founding their own business. If you have such a story you'd like to share, please email me.

At 25, Amy Berman found herself sitting in on creative meetings with seasoned writers for NBC's hit show Will & Grace, traveling to New York to help out on shoots and mingling with celebrities and screenwriters in a world run by big brands like Time Warner(TWX).

At the end of the day, she wasn't taken by Tinseltown.

"I know how many hours it takes to survive in the industry and I wasn't passionate enough to devote my whole life to it," Berman says.

Instead, she left it all for a lifelong love: Baking.

In 2004, Berman quit her job and joined culinary school. Three years later, she still works crazy hours but loves every minute of her new life as the owner of a Santa Monica pastry shop.

Previous job: Writer's assistant

Now: Founder and owner of Vanilla Bake Shop

The transition: Berman, now 30, went from sitting at an office desk for eight hours a day to never sitting still. During the opening week of her shop, she was only getting one or two hours of sleep a night.

"Getting our systems into place was the hardest part," she says. "As much as you research you just don't know what you're getting yourself into ... or how you're going to make cakes."