My Cake business story (cont’d)
Starting up at Savour Cakes and house of bakers was a calculated step. I had rented a workspace (because I was living with relatives) in Agege, Lagos, a pretty spacious one, (thanks to my wonderful parents). I also have had my business name registered (with their support and influence). I had built my industrial oven, bought a nice second-handed mixing machine, had a table and two trainee stools made for me, I had some basic decorating tools as well, all before resigning.
Wait….rewind to 3 months into my employment days…… I called up my uncle (I was working on customer base build-up), ‘won’t you patronize your niece? It’s not good o, Celebrate your wife’s birthday nau’, and he said ok. I charged him normal price, if not over sef, I told him ‘you are helping your niece’. That was how I got my first job in Lagos under my business name. I actually executed the job as manually as you can ever imagine, I was so without tools that my job looked like I have never made a Cake before, but I kept moving. I did a number of Cakes jobs after then, before I finally resigned.
So, back to start-up. My time in my first place of work made me discover the secret of running a Cake business, while my time in the second place of work made me discover my training skills (thanks to my able MD Sis. Kunmi as we call her). These discoveries influenced my vision and mission statement which can be summarized thus: I am a Cake maker for other Cake makers. I am going to keep making Cakes: to keep getting better and to also prove to others that they can and they will; and to be relevant to my future clients when I eventually meet them.
So, consultancy has been in the picture from inception, embedded in the bigger picture of the House of bakers concept (Watch out for details on that). I went into Cake making fully, printing fliers, posting on Social media, enjoying few referrals…..I have had a fair share of good and bad moments, profitable and non-profitable jobs, nice and cantankerous customers….I have even had to re-do jobs. Good thing is I saw all of these processes as part of my story (which is even not complete yet). I went also into training – yeah! Those were more fulfilling moments. I’ve had part-time and full-time trainees; divinely gifted and determined trainees. The greatest fulfillment comes from those that went to set-up their Cake businesses either full-time or part-time. I have also tried my hands on consultancy…..
Watch out for the concluding part of my Cake business story…….soonest.
What has been of interest to you in my story so far? Leave a comment…..
