JIB Crafts: The Cakist

Be different, be unique and all things fabulous this year, my beloved readers. If you want it bad enough, reach out with both hands like the cakist has done.

Our entrepreneur today, is all forms of fabulous, in her passion to find purpose and make impact in

This week, we share the start up story of Ms Olaye, popularly known as "The Cakist".

Be inspired....and fabulous! 

*winks*

My Business and I?

I am Oritsetsolayemi Ereku, a 28 year old driven Nigerian cake artist based in Warri. My business is called The Cakist; and the word "cakist" is coined from two words "CAKe arTIST". At The Cakist, we create custom made cakes for all occasions making every event special.

The Birth of The Cakist?

I was in dental school when I discovered that I wanted to do business and not practice but wasn't sure of the specifics. I started making and selling jewelry and footwear, I sold clothing too. Later I transferred from dental school to study Microbiology and started searching my passions, I was good at a lot of things but had to narrow it down to one for a start. I grew up spending some of childhood looking at cookery books and food magazines and that kindled my interest in food. I made my first cake in 2000 (which turned out to be a disaster by the way). I started baking cakes just for my family and friends and later commercialized it in my third year in the University of Benin when friends started requesting for them. I had no formal training when I begun and started training by studying cake books and watching videos online. 

I was self trained until I was really good at working with butter cream frosting and different cake types. As time went on and the business progressed, I decided I needed to learn to decorate with fondant if I wanted to be taken seriously in the Cake industry. So I enrolled for fondant class with my personal savings and got trained. After that I started making cakes professionally for friends and my family members and The Cakist was born.

Balancing personal life with business and other challenges?

My family and friends understand the nature of my work and they are also busy people too, some days are busier than the others and we find ways to socialize at our free time. One of the major challenge we are faced with is customers wanting us to replicate other bakers' work exactly, we try to make put our personal touch and twist to it and we always attempt making them change their minds and we always find a middle ground. We are also faced with some customers under pricing our work especially for weddings and we have had to cut down prices in the past to get our work out there and sow seeds. We never compromise on excellence and our customers see that it is not cake as usual and are more appreciative than in the past.

Motivation, in spite of Challenges?

Our passion, vision, seeing how much we have grown keeps us going.  Then getting positive customer feedback and being able to satisfy our customers.

We offer trainings and we are looking forward to accepting interns soon.

Advice to aspiring entrepreneurs?

Just do it! There's never going to be a better time. Identify a problem in your immediate environment and solve it with your business. I know it's tough starting a business especially when you are not getting financial support from anywhere but you have what it takes to make it work. There is always a way if you are willing.

Contact Deets:
Telephone: 07010916929, 08066350195
BBM: 22C72E79
Twitter: @the_cakist
Instagram: @the_cakist_
Facebook: The Cakist

Photo Credits: The Cakist

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