A Taste of Entrepreneurship

Selling is not my forte. I somehow stay away from choosing jobs that require me to sell because I hate the feeling of being pressured to meet the quota. Secondly, if something is not of interest to me, it'll be harder for me to sell it. With all the things happening to me lately, I'm rethinking how my selling skills fare because this time around, I'd like to sell my own products.

Some people are inclined to strike it out on their own at an earlier age. I've seen friends who have successfully established their business in their early 20s. Some of them are now millionaires. As for me, the entrepreneurial bug just bit me lately. Maybe I'm a late bloomer.

I've luckily had the experience of setting up businesses and I'm using this knowledge to professionalize and expand my mom's pastry business. My sister and I are adding product concepts that are our own. Lately, I've been spending more and more time planning and this requires long hours of research and being hands on as well. The internet has so much information!

Last weekend, my parents and I went to check a new packaging supplier. It was fun as I had so many choices of boxes and designs. Sheilla, the chef consultant has been spending more time with Ma and I. I was able to meet her last week and we're meeting up again this coming Saturday to test different recipes. This is really getting me excited. We're also scheduled to check out the wedding expos this Sunday and in the coming months. Starting a business is all about networking and this is where my selling skills come into play.

I don't have an idea how long my planning and researching will take but I'm enjoying this to bits. I'm taking in so much from this experience. What I love about it is the fact that I'm very much hands on in learning how to run the business. I have mentally drawn up a list of things I need to learn and the people I need to meet. The road ahead is still long but I'm willing to enjoy the sights as I walk through this entrepreneurial path.

I like the freedom that owning a business gives. The time is so much flexible. Decision making is easier. The emotional rewards are far better and I don't have to deal with office politics. Shaping things is possible as it depends on how much effort is put in. I want to try something else in my life and I want it to be something I am passionate about. I'm glad my parents paved the way and being an entrepreneur takes on a different meaning as I have a great family and supportive friends to cheer me on.

A Perfect Snack: Homemade Ensaymadas

I spent the whole day of Friday in the kitchen. Ma and I baked 2 batches of ensaymada as we had orders. We're officially selling ensaymadas and we're including this in our product list. Each one costs Php 45 and it comes with a box. It's soft to the bite and fluffy. The dough has cheese bits and it's generously topped with sugar and finely grated queso de bola. Minimum order of 6 pieces. For orders, please call 2448790 or 95 two to three days in advance.

The packaging of our home made ensaymadas.

Each one is individually wrapped. This picture is making me hungry.

Soon to be available are the ensaymada pops. It's the smaller one on the left. These are bite size pieces that are good for snacking. The regular size is the one on the right.

Ensaymada pops up close.

Icing Flora

Here a thumbnails of the flowers I made last Thursday. It was only during the class that I got acquainted with different kinds of flowers. I'm familiar with daisies and I love them but the rest are quite alien to me. I only had yellow and light peach colored icings so these are what I used.

Pansy

Mum

Daffodil

Primrose

Daisy

Apple Blossom

If you're wondering how the roses in birthday cakes are made, they start out as these "buds". After these are hardened, it is covered with layers and layers of petals. I did show pictures of the roses I made in my previous blog.

Sweet Dreams

Nocturnal creature. This is how I describe myself the past few weeks. I only go to bed around 1 in the morning and it takes sometime for me to slow down and call it a day. Hyper. That's also my current state of mind. It's past midnight and I just have to write this blog as the topic has been floating in my head the past two days. The habit of writing a blog has form part of my daily routine and something is just amiss if I don't have an entry. I wasn't able to blog for a couple of days as I met with a food consultant last Wednesday and yesterday, I was in class the whole day.

Things are falling into places and I'm gaining momentum in terms of how I'm co-managing the pastry business with Ma. For a start, the ensaymadas we tried baking are now available. Fortunately, this week alone, we have received orders and we also got inquiries from prospective clients. Thank you! 0:-) I'll separately write a blog for this product and will show you as well how the packaging looks like and how painstakingly it was prepared and baked to achieve it's soft texture and sweet cheesy taste.

Last Wednesday, I spent the afternoon with Sheilla, a food consultant. (Thanks Wins and Robs for referring her to me!) She has been helping Ma and I to get the business off the ground and she's been giving a lot of valuable inputs. She taught me how to do food costing and we discussed marketing and product concepts. I already found a product that I want to introduce in the market and I haven't seen this kind in the Philippines so far. It's a fresh concept and approach and I'll make sure my vision turns into a reality. I'll be meeting Sheilla again on Monday and we'll be baking cookies and trying different recipes.

I have a sweet dream and I'm pursuing it. Finally, I have a vision of how my future will be. Clearly, I see it. I have seen what I'll be doing for the rest of my life and I'm certain, it will happen. I'll be going back to the corporate world soon (as I already got the call from the HR department :-( ) but I will never lose sight of where I'm heading to. I'd like to save up so I can go back to school. It's not for a MBA as I never really see myself taking post graduate studies. My sights are in taking a baking / pastry course maybe outside of the country. I have heard of these schools and I want to learn more. (I can be a geek.)

While I'm crazy about my dream, I have several reminders for myself to keep me sane:
1. My dream doesn't happen overnight. Well, I wanted to be a genius at what I want to do in a month's time but it just ain't going to happen that way. It'll take years of practice before I can be an expert at this.
2. Have patience my dear. Success is a conspiracy of time and circumstances.
3. Along the way, I will make mistakes and I should never be disheartened. You know how perfectionist I am. I want to get it right the first time.
4. Aim for excellence but not perfection. I want to be the best at what I do but I have to keep in mind that perfection does not exist. Case in point are my icing that sometimes doesn't seem to hold well and I have to remedy it to stiffen. The icing flowers "wilt" when initially they held up perfectly only to fall apart after a day.
5. It pays to let go of unnecessary details. While it's good to be detailed, it is best that I learn to prioritize on what I think is important.
6. Share what you learn. Pay it forward. To reach my destination, people are helping me now to achieve my goal and I should do the same for others.
7. I am not a Superwoman. I cannot do everything in a day. I have to be kind to myself. I might overwork myself (again) thinking that there are more than 24 hours in a day.
8. Most importantly, God is a giving and kind God. Ask and we shall receive. He gives me strength and guidance in how I should run my life. 0:-) Things have been really good since I started praying daily.

Find your passion and never give up on your dreams. It's a different high. Night!

P.S. For tomorrow, I'll be posting pictures of the different flowers I put together for last Thursday's class.

More Piping and Fun Flowers

Today was day 2 of my cake decorating class. The lesson was more complicated and I was able to try more techniques. For a change, I chose the color peach for my icing. I love shades of red, yellow, orange and anything around those hues would definitely be to my liking. My right wrist is still aching from squeezing the piping bag the whole day. I did a lot of twisting and hand control. It was fun nevertheless. As I said, the whole exercise felt like second nature to me so I'm not the least bit complaining.

I'm posting pictures of the techniques I mastered. My favorite is the rose. For a first timer, I did this relatively with ease. As the days pass, all the more I can confirm that I found what I truly love to do.

These are just a few of the roses I did. It all starts with the bud and I work my way outward. The basic rose has a bud, 3 petals for the second layer and 5 petals for the outermost layer.

My peach roses up close. I had to insert these in the styrofoam to let it dry. These are made of sugar icing.

These are different tip techniques. The topmost is string work followed by rosettes then zig zag, loops and more zig zags using different hand pressures.

This is a combination of C technique (as it looks like the letter C) and lattice. I start doing the lines first and once I'm finished, I change the tip of my piping bag and do the C for the borders.

This is the fleur de liz. Formerly a symbol of the royal coat of arms of France, this impressive decoration is now generally synonymous with anything French according to the Wilton website.

Revisiting the Past

My long weekend was spent reliving memories as far as ten years back. Sunday afternoon, I was at the mall with E, my college friend. Notwithstanding the fact that it was raining outside and the weather was a bit cold, we both settled for Razon's halo halo. We chatted for an hour or so discussing her matters of the heart. I should very well understand her as I myself experienced the very same thing she is going through now many many years ago. It was a case of E being a Chinese and E's boyfriend a Filipino. Nothing wrong with that not until you take into consideration the opinions of the family - dad, mom, brothers and sisters. Her heartaches reminded me of my very own circumstances when I was in my late teens to early twenties. To this day, I do not completely comprehend how interracial relationships can be such a daunting task to be openly discussed and accepted in the family and how tradition dictates so much how matters of the heart are to be managed. Admittedly, I think differently and by standards, I'm not as conservative as the others are. Definitely, the question of interracial relationships does not end with my generation and I am hoping that I do not restrict my own children as well when the time comes. Should you ask me if I'll consider marrying someone of a different race / culture, I would. As long as we can happily grow old together without pulling each other's hair, I'm fine with it.

It was also yesterday that I had a late afternoon coffee with my former boss who was in town visiting. The last time I saw him was five months ago and we spent 3 hours catching up at M Cafe. We said our hellos and we were both happy to see each other. Despite the distance, we kept each other posted by email but I waited for this moment to thoroughly discuss the recent events in my life. I discussed in detail the reasons why I changed careers and he listened intently and gave me his two cents worth about the turn of events. My wounds have somehow healed but it did sting while I recounted what were said and done. He said his opinion from a third person's point of view and after we called it a night, I thought about our conversation. On my way home, my mind took me back to my last moments at my previous job and I felt that whatever opinions there are, it doesn't really matter anymore. I know that I never shortchanged anyone and I spoke the truth until the end. What mattered was I spoke my mind and I dared to give my dreams a chance and live my life the way I want it. The experience of sitting across my former boss felt very surreal as the circumstances have changed and so did our relationship. I truly appreciate that we have evolved from a mentor-subordinate relationship to that of being good friends. I used to initially abhor working with him given his work demands but I survived it all and I thanked him that night for training me well.

The last of my visit to the past was this afternoon. Together with my college friend E, I visited my college professor in religion. I previously blogged about him and finally, I was able to see him after ten years. It was a happy reunion and though he suffered a heart attack and stroke a couple of years back, his memory was still clear and he still spoke of his apostolate work and how he wanted to continue helping the less fortunate. He didn't speak as much as he had some difficulty expressing himself but I was delighted to reminisce my college days. His home was very near La Salle and E even asked me while we were crossing Taft Avenue if I did miss crossing that very street. I didn't. In as much as I was glad to go back to the past, I don't miss the past as much. Not a bit of nostalgia. Maybe because I know that I enjoyed everything while it lasted. When it's time to move on, I let go though initially with hesitation. Surprisingly, I noticed that it has been quite fast for me to open new chapters in my life. The past is nice to revisit but it's not where I can live. My long weekend all the more reiterates that all I ever have is today.

This poem / prayer below was forwarded to me and it brings me peace and I truly feel loved. You know how I am lately, I'm one with the world. Have a nice week ahead. Life is meant to be lived forward. :-)

That today you find peace inside you

that you can confide in your highest power because you are exactly where you are supposed to be

but do not forget the infinite possibilities that are born from the faith

that you may use the gifts that you have received and transfer the love that has been given to you

to make you feel satisfied that you are a child of God.

Allow his presence in your bones and give your soul the liberty to sing, dance and be warmed by the sun

that is there for everyone and each one of us.

Hand Work

Colors are my fascination and it very well translates to my interests be it the arts, fashion, beauty and lately, cake decorating. It was my first day of class last Thursday and we were only five students in class. It gave the instructor ample time for each one. Perfect! The whole experience felt like home to me and I know, I have found my passion in life. Envisioning how I see myself in the future was a problem before till I took a few steps back to see the bigger picture otherwise known as my life. I tried my hand in different things to feel how it was like to cook, bake and basically to create things. Cake decorating has been of interest to me lately and I want to do this as a business. As a craft, it thrills me and encourages me to think of more colors and designs.

Lesson #1 was an introduction to making icing and the different tips needed. I also had several hands on exercises on making dots, lattice, string work and basketweave. These are all tip techniques that I have to master. Doing the exercises brought me back to the time when I was in kindergarten learning how to write my ABCs. On a parchment paper, I slid a guide paper at the bottom where I had to follow the strokes shown on the paper and practice the different hand angles and pressure of squeezing the piping bag. For the final project, I chose an intricately designed one layer cake adorned with flowers. Well I plan to make it two-tiered to make it more challenging. This should be my masterpiece at the end of the course.

I'm happy to find what I truly love to do and I wouldn't mind "working" on this as my business. It'll all be fun and it'll never feel as if I have to work a single day in my life.

The top and bottom are the lattice techniques while the middle rows are purely dots. The dots are used for designs when you want it to look like pearls. Don't ask why I chose pink colored icing. I love the color pink!

These are the string works. It can be one, two or three layers. These are usually placed on the sides of cakes.

This is the basketweave. It's called such because it looks like a basket right? I had to make this really precise and spaced evenly. Cake decorating very well fits my OC personality and my keen attention to details.

Loops and more loops. I love how I twist my right hand to form the loops.
My masterpiece. For now, this is just a photo of what I'll be copying at the end of the course. I chose this design because of the flowers and I love the color pink. I love the small designs on the icing and this will test my attention to details. Also, I think if I do practice this design, I think the concept is sellable. I plan to sell wedding cakes in the future.