Student Entrepreneur: Starting A Business In School Makes One Responsible Early.

Victoria Oke Onyekachukwu is the creative mind behind the VickkyPearlCakes, a start-up that is focused on meeting Nigerians needs of delicious, decorative, fresh and affordable cakes of all kinds with in Lagos and its environs. At a time when many school leavers eventually settle down for self-employment only after years of futile job hunting, Victoria already has a fast growing business even while still studying for a degree in one of Nigeria’s top Universities of Technology. Victoria’s love for cakes and her passion for experimenting with beautiful, edgy cake decorations motivated her into becoming an entrepreneur; an exemplary one among other students and fellow student entrepreneurs.

We had a chat with the amazing Victoria, CEO VickkyPearlCakes recently, and interestingly, she opened up about what catches her fancy, her cake business, her studies and everything in-between.

How did VickkyPearlCakes all begin?

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I’ve seen a lot of Wilton cakes and the creativity behind them set fire to my bones and then I believed in my artistic creative mind. I believed I could make cakes as beautiful as those ones I saw and I could make exactly what others wanted or dreamed about for them.

Why did you have to go into cake making despite the fact that you are a student?

I like school but it wasn’t just enough for me as I was doing a lot of craft works while growing up (Beads, clay works, paintings, calligraphy etc.). Entrepreneurship for me is inborn. I think I got it from my mum (Igbo blood) as I never did it basically to augment my allowance.

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How do you juggle this cake thing with your studies?

A moderate wedding cake can be made in 1 day if and only if all the ingredients and equipment are ready and in good condition and when there’s someone to help with the work. So what that means is that I have to work at night most times when others are asleep from the day’s work. I have two people who work with me too so it makes everything easy.

What makes your cakes unique?

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I’m fascinated by beautiful things, so I work hard at creating and recreating awesome designs. Like I said, I love art and craft. I love designing, so I’ll say what makes our cakes unique is that they are fresh, affordable and decorative! That’s our word at VickkyPearl cakes. We don’t keep cakes for a week before sales. In fact, we bake, decorate and deliver as early as we finish final touches on the cake. I’ve had customers who say they don’t want to eat their cakes, they just want to see it every day in their houses. Funny though.

Which of the social media platforms do you find most effective for your business?

Yes, Instagram is a platform basically for sharing pictures so we use Instagram and thanks to the new Whatsapp status, we share our pictures there and make adverts and it’s very effective.

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What the most challenging part of your business?

As it is a consumer goods business, getting customers is the most challenging for now. But we are working on it; its’ always a continuous thing and trust me, the future is looking bright.

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What’s your take on student entrepreneurship?

I advise students around me to find something doing asides school. Not everyone can handle school and work together so I always make it clear to start when they feel they can handle the stress because it’s not easy. It makes one responsible early in life and it enlarges the horizon.

When we asked Victoria her greatest achievement with her business so far, she had this to say, “I don’t believe in having one greatest achievement .Training others is my achievement. Making designs that I haven’t tried before is my achievement. Also we got featured on business day news on the 25th of September 2017. And many more.