A thriving business on the verge of expanding

SHE was fresh out of high school and with no work experience. She had difficulty finding a job and after some time of doing absolutely nothing at home, she decided to become self-employed.

Stacy Thomas over the years has gained experience in the field of cake-making and now manages a family-oriented business from the lower flat of her Lot 8 Dawson Street, Mocha Arcadia Village, East Bank Demerara.

This entrepreneur has in her employ four persons and has established a pick-up location at Peter’s Hall on the East Bank Demerara corridor which caters for customers to easily collect their cakes in a hassle-free way.

This 45-year-old woman is enthusiastic about life and cake making in which she specialises in novelty, birthday, wedding, character among other customised cakes made to order.

How it started
“I was out of school and I wanted to work but after applying I was stuck because the employers wanted people with experience and I had none so it was hard getting a job,” she said.

At that point, Thomas decided that she will not sit at home and wait around for something to happen and started attending cake-making classes in her village. She stated that back then they had life-skill training in Mocha/Arcadia and she utilised the opportunity to make herself marketable.

After a few classes she graduated with a certificate and began practising cake-making at home then she started to make cakes as a gift for some relatives and friends for their birthdays. These persons fully supported her and she was encouraged to continue in that stride and after practising some more, Thomas began taking orders when she thought she was good enough to please others.

The journey
It has been eight years now since Thomas embarked on her journey in cake-making and today her small business is evolving and she admitted that she might need a bigger place to accommodate orders.

Now that she has her own business the prospect of working for people is not on her agenda and will work assiduously to perfect cake-making. “I am working for myself and in the confines of my own home but work is work and I know I have to get up early and put in hours. Making cakes is not an easy task but over time I became accustomed to long hours of making cakes to please my customers because I want my business to prosper,” Thomas said.

Even though she did not attend a recognised institution such as the Carnegie School of Home Economics she was willing to learn and is still learning today and credits her success to being humble and disciple.

She said, “Anything can be achieved with the right mindset and determination. I was hopeful when I was unemployed, and I made a start by attending cake-making classes and that paved the way for me in establishing my own business.”

From a few cakes to many cakes
After making a few cakes then, today she can make almost any cake from scratch with the assistance from her employees, who would mix the batter and so on but she would personally ice the cakes. Thomas’ cake business is called Elegant Creations and takes orders two days in advance with a down payment.

She explained that she was forced to implement this mechanism because some persons would call and order cakes and when it is time for them to collect same they would not answer her calls or would cancel the order.

Thomas would then be left with cakes on her hands causing her to operate at a loss because some cakes are customised and cannot be re-sold. She said that even if a customer doesn’t collect their cake she has the down payment in hand to offset expenses incurred and at least that covers the cost of the ingredients purchased.

Thomas disclosed that cake-making is an art in which practice makes perfect and it entails long hours and hard work but it is all in a day’s work. A typical day for Thomas starts at 04:00hrs and ends way into the night with the aim of customer satisfaction.