She earns from what she loves doing in her spare time.

She earns from what she loves doing in her spare time.

Suzette Mayol of Guizo Mandaue City enrolled in a six-month baking course in Abellana National School in 2007.

With only P450 tuition fee for the night-class course, she learned the basics of baking.

“Every day after work, I attended the class to learn to bake. Making it a business, however, did not come to mind then because I only love cooking and baking,” said Mayol.

Right after her baking course, Mayol received an order for a wedding cake.

Because she used to bake only for their own consumption during special occasions, Mayol said the first time she baked for a fee was a challenge.

Mayol said she only spent less than P1,000 for the four-layered chiffon cake with icing decorations that her customer specified for his wedding.

“I only asked P1,500 for that cake because I did not include my labor fee in the pricing. That turned out wrong according to a Kapamilya Negosyo Na business seminar I attended. Our resource speaker told us that we’ll lose in the business if we don’t account for all the investments, including our labor, when pricing our products,” said Mayol.

After her first wedding cake, said Mayol, orders came pouring in from neighbors and friends who also referred costumers to her.

“They also think my prices are affordable,” she said.

Working full-time in the accounting department of a manufacturing company in Cebu, she said she requests for advance bookings for orders and bakes cakes in the evenings.

She offers chiffon cakes in orange, chocolate and mocha, which she sells at P250 and P450 for the bigger size with an additional layer.

She also bakes ube cake, sliced chocolate mousse, rocky road and moist chocolate at P90 per box of eight slices.

“I accept orders for weddings, birthdays and other special occasions. I usually ask my customers to specify what theme and color they wanted for the cake so I can also prepare the ingredients ahead,” Mayol said.

Single and still living with her parents, Mayol said most of her earnings is invested in her business for ingredients and packaging of Sweet n More.

Mayol is one of the top 10 winners of the Kapamilya Negosyo Na Season 6 organized by the University of San Carlos-College of Commerce Alumni Association in partnership with ABS-CBN.

“I got a cash assistance of P10,000 from that, which I used to buy more ingredients, especially flour, because I have many orders coming in already and I don’t want to run out of ingredients.”

Mayol also bought more utensils and equipment for baking her cakes.

Mayol said she is happy at how her customers increased in number over the past few months and thinks of focusing in the business in the future.

“Of course, we always want to have a stable source of income and I realized that baking is something that I can use to set up a stable business in the future even when I stop working,” said Mayol.

She said she wanted to learn more recipes for pastry products that she could offer her customers.

“I’m still contemplating on learning about fondant but it’s expensive and most of my products are priced to cater to the mid-market so I’m still not sure of that. I want to learn more, though, so that I can have wider variation of products,” said Mayol.

Mayol said that she expects more orders for Valentine’s Day.

“I’m already preparing everything so that I can cater to all the orders,” she said.

Mayol will be displaying her products at J Center Mall in AS Fortuna, Banilad, Mandaue City, starting tomorrow until Feb. 18 along with other Season 6 winners of Kapamilya Negosyo Na.

“I will be displaying most of my bestsellers like the moist chocolates, rocky road and chocolate mousse so that people will know my brand and order from me for their occasions at home,” said Mayol.

A business should be something you enjoy doing. For Mayol, her love for baking has provided that opportunity and all she needs to do is persevere and work harder to achieve her goal of setting up her own baked and pastry brand someday.