Young entrepreneur finds Cebuanos’ ‘zoet’ tooth
Baking cakes and pastries was never a favorite past time for 24-year-old Erica Neal.
But her creative and practical side made her embrace the chore and resulted in her creating her own brand called Zoet Cakes and Pastries.
Neal first took up a business course at the Univesity of San Carlos.
She stopped in her second year to shift to a culinary course because her interest was into cooking.
“I studied crash courses at the International Culinary Arts Academy of Cebu (ICAAC) and all of my instructors really knew I never liked doing cakes and pastries. So they were shocked when they learned this is what I’m doing now,” said Neal.
Sweet
Zoet Cakes and Pastries officially started in July of 2009.
Neal started off with Belgian Chocolates for her products with an initial investment of P15,000.
“The ‘zoet’ word actually means ‘sweet’ in Dutch so I named my business as such,” said Neal.
From a family engaged in the fashion accessories export business, Neal is naturally attracted to something creative. Doing cakes and pastries is a good outlet for her creativity into designing her products.
Doing it as a business is also like second nature to her. In her younger years, Neal said she used to bake and sell her products every summer just to earn money.
“Every summer we don’t have allowance because our parents don’t give us any so what I do is bake and sell them so that I can earn my allowance,” said Neal.
From Belgian Chocolates, Neal slowly started offering other pastry and cake products to her friends and some referrals from friends.
Neal offers all types of cakes for events and celebrations, specifically specialty cakes and pastries designed with pretty colors and shapes.
“My products rate ranges from P700 to as much as the typical prices of wedding cakes that will depend on the design and the size of the cakes,” said Neal.
Growing volume
October to February are her busiest months with a lot of orders everyday.
“This is the time when people have a lot of parties from weddings to the Christmas parties by companies then comes the New Year and Valentines Day,” said Neal.
Neal does all her baking in their home in Capitol Site, Cebu City. With the growing volume of orders, she trained her two helpers to also do baking.
“They’ve been with us for a long time helping us at home and every time I bake, they also assist me so overtime they learned how to do it. They sometimes do the baking and I do the decorating which is the more complicated part,” said Neal.
According to Neal, she thinks the business has already grown and she’s looking at opening a shop where she could formally put a display of her products with her brand sign.
“Supposedly I planned to do the shop last year but I have to leave for Australia because I’m taking a lot of crash courses in baking,” said Neal.
For Neal, it is important to be updated with what’s the latest in the baking industry from ingredients to processes and equipment.
“I think being updated with what’s the latest will give you that advantage especially that there is a lot of competition in the market. The courses I took and traveling in other places will give me that advantage,” said Neal.
plans
For her shop, Neal said that she plans to do it by 2013 just in front of their home in Capitol where there is space and gives high visibility for potential customers.
Only in her early 20s Neal said she has a lot of plans for her brand which she plans to build on quality, affordable products.
With more and more people in Cebu now prefer ordering their food for parties, Neal said she hopes to be among the most preferred brand when it comes to the cakes and pastry products here in Cebu.
“I will do a lot of learning from enrolling in crash courses that will help me, learn about the trends around the world and keep my customers satisfied with my products. Because at the end of the day, it’s always what they think of my products that will help me grow the business,” said Neal.
