Nursing graduate finds true calling: Baking cupcakes

FOR some even finishing a degree that will land them a job abroad is not good enough for them. They listen to their hearts’ true desires.

Phoebe Roxanne Ouano, 22, is one. Ouano, who finished a degree in nursing at the Cebu Doctors’ University in 2010, set up her own business called Phoebe’s CupCakery.

Ouano said her parents wanted her to be a nurse and work abroad, but she never saw herself working as a nurse.

She instead pursued her passion for baking.

She attributed her entrepreneur inclinations to her father and her interest in high school baking classes.

“My dad is a businessman and I think I took it from him to be more inclined to doing my own business than just be an employee of a company,” she said.

“My passion for baking, however, started as early as my high school years when my teacher encouraged me to take cooking for my specialization class that’s offered to third and fourth year students.”

She said that it took awhile for her to convince her parents to let her pursue her baking business.

“I thought I would just have to explain it to my parents because sending me to school for four years for nothing is something that might hurt their feelings.
Eventually they started seeing that I’m really serious with what I wanted to pursue,” she said.

Ouano started her small business in February this year in time for Valentine’s Day offering her specialty Red Velvet, which she now calls Scarlette.

She said that she planned to just offer it in February but the number of orders encouraged her to venture into the business.

“I invested only P6,000, which was from my own pocket, to buy the ingredients for the first batch of Red Velvets I was going to bake for my friends and relatives who were my first clients,” she said.

Her friends and classmates were also supportive of her new endeavor and helped promote her products to their friends as well.

She now offers three new flavors Cookie Monster, Mocha Loca, and Nuts for Nana aside from her signature Red Velvet cupcake.

A box of half-dozen cupcakes is sold at P240.

To increase her sales, Ouano opened a Facebook page for her business.

She said the results were encouraging since she opened the account in May.

Ouano said she planned to have a shop of her own where she could display her products.

She also would like to bake cakes in the future.

“That’s the reason I named it CupCakery with both ‘C’s’ capitalized because I did not discount the possibility that I might be getting into cakes in the future,” Ouano said.