Everybody loves cake.
Except you’re avoiding the tasty treat for
health or religious reasons, you’re almost certainly a freak. How can any
living, breathing human not love cake?
We gift and expect cakes to celebrate
birthdays, weddings, anniversaries, graduation, promotion, retirement and
dozens of other special moments. In fact, cakes almost always show up whenever
there’s a reason to celebrate.
With the rise of Africa’s middle class and
the growing influence of Western tastes and culture on the continent, the
baking industry in Africa is expected to experience significant growth to meet
the rising consumption and demand.
It’s no surprise the baking industry is
attracting hundreds of young entrepreneurs who are looking to learn the
science, art and skills of baking so they can start their own business, build a
brand, and earn a fulfilling income.
Maria Makanjuola is a pioneer who has built a
thriving baking school on the internet. Yes, on the internet!
Unlike the traditional face-to-face style of
tutoring, she has created an online baking school that allows her to share her
talent and skills with thousands of aspiring baking entrepreneurs within
Africa, and across the world.
The value of the global e-learning market is
estimated to reach $243.8 billion by 2022. Using the omnipresence of the
internet, online learning is significantly disrupting the education industry
such that anybody can learn anything, wherever they are, as long as they have
access to the internet – via their mobile phone, laptop or TV.
In this interesting interview, Maria shares
the inside story about how she stumbled on this business idea, her successes,
challenges, and aspirations in building a truly African global brand for cake
bakers across the world.
Let’s meet her:
Tell me about yourself. How
did you end up in the cake business?
My name is Maria Makanjuola and I live in
London with my family. Often I say that I am British-born, but Nigerian-made!
My background is in the life sciences,
engineering and food science. My journey into cakes started 8 years ago when I
needed a birthday cake for my first son who has multiple food allergies and
intolerances which includes eggs and dairy.
I needed a birthday cake for him and there
was no local baker that could make the type of cake I needed for him so I
decided to research about alternative ingredients and give it a go myself.
I enjoyed the creative process so much that I
carried on baking and experimenting with all sorts of recipes and techniques
and I would take my tempting creations to church with me on Sundays and other
members started to request that I make cakes for them. Both traditional cakes,
with eggs and dairy, as well as allergy-free cakes. Gradually, the orders
started to come in and I started a cake business.
What exactly do you do at
Sweet Cake TV School, and how did you come up with the name?
Sweet Cake TV School is a baking and business
school. It is an online learning platform where students, also referred to as
“sweet cakers”, log in to access video courses on professional baking and cake
decorating, and also cake business management-focused courses that are
delivered via video, podcasts, e-books and worksheets.
In the school, we also have a chat community
and a Facebook group where members interact with and help each other with
their baking or cake decorating problems on a daily basis.
As part of joining the school, sweet cakers
have access to on-demand business mentoring/coaching to help aid their business
growth. We do not only teach how to make professional cakes for all types of
occasions, we also teach sweet cakers about business management, marketing,
customer service, social media marketing, food safety and hygiene, digital
marketing, financial management and bookkeeping and ways to diversify their
business so they can generate passive income streams.
It may sound surprising, but I saw the
name ‘Sweet Cake’ in a dream and I saw myself being called out to teach
a cake decorating class full of people. I guess you can call it my calling, but
more than that I am very passionate about helping other women succeed, I am
business-minded and I like the creativity I express when I decorate cakes so
it’s a perfect marriage of my interests, passions and skills.
How did you move from
‘idea’ to ‘action’ with the business?
I started a Facebook group, called Cake
Business Club, in April 2015 which quickly turned into a community of 25,000
members within a year. I knew that I wanted to help cake decorators in Africa
and also in the diaspora to be more skilled and also more business-minded and
strategic in how they run their cake businesses.
Cake decorators are notorious for
undercharging for their services and skills. Most do not make enough money to
foster any kind of personal financial freedom because many fall into running a
cake business accidentally without prior preparation or knowledge of how to run
a cake business. As a result, many do not see much profitability in running
their business, which leads to a lot of frustration and disappointment.
I started the Facebook group to help educate
other bakers about the business side of the industry and how to maximise their
skills for maximum monetary gain. I shared information within the group, every
single day, through articles for several months for free and the community grew
organically, members referring their friends to the group so they can
learn together.
There are hundreds of
people in the baking business. How did you know the market would be receptive
to Sweet Cake TV School?
It was the time I spent interacting with the
members of the Cake Business Club that helped me to get a great level of
understanding of the cake industry in Nigeria, Kenya and other countries in
Africa.
By conducting weekly group Q&A sessions
whereby members can ask me questions and get answers to their most pressing
problems, I learned about the challenges in the industry and thought of ways to
provide solutions to those problems.
One of the major problems is access to
world-class tuition which I knew I could solve by creating an online school (www.sweetcaketvschool.com)
where they can easily access baking and business development/management
courses. I knew they’d be receptive because they requested that I teach them
formally and they stipulated that they would be receptive to online learning
because of the convenience and lower cost of getting excellent quality
education.
What were the main
challenges you faced (or are facing) with operating and growing the business?
The main challenge that I am facing is
inadequate awareness about the nature of online learning. Many people still
think that higher-cost live classes are better. And that’s because they do not
understand the convenience and cost-effectiveness of learning online from your
phone, tablet or laptop from anywhere in the world.
Another challenge, from the customers
perspective, is high internet data charges. However, when they calculate the
cost of joining an excellence-minded school and internet usage charges and
compare it to the cost of undertaking sub-standard training locally
which is at a higher cost, they soon see the advantages.
Furthermore, the added bonus of business
mentoring, which no other school in the whole world offers within the cake industry,
is invaluable.
What are the top 3 things
customers are saying about your product/service?
The sweet cakers are saying that the courses
are comprehensive and fully loaded. They are saying that they appreciate that I
do not withhold valuable information from them and I give my knowledge freely.
Lastly, they say that they like the international perspective that I bring to
the table.
Where do you see yourself
and Sweet Cake TV School in the next 10 years?
I see myself at the helm of a global brand
that originated out of Africa, which is not a common occurrence!
Sweet Cake TV School as a brand is already
extending this year into Sweet Cake TV (a free-view online channel for
cake hobbyists and mums who want to see how to make quick healthier meals and
treats for their kids which will also be featuring allergy free food
preparation), Sweet Cake Magazine ( a bi-annual digital dessert, cakes
and pastries magazine fusing both African and world culinary influences), and Sweet
Cake Publishing which will be focused on getting more African cake
decorators and chefs to publish their work to a global audience and bring much
needed authentic African influences to world cuisine.
It’s common belief that
entrepreneurs are restless people. Tell us about the next big idea in your
pipeline.
Yes, I am restless! Still within the same
cake industry, I am working on launching the African Cake Artists Network (www.africancakeartistsnetwork.com)
which will be an association/network for all African cake decorators/artists to
learn, grow and also promote their skills and talents to the world. It will
also exist to set high standards of excellence in the African cake industry.
We launched with the largest cake
collaboration between African cake decorators on this year’s Africa day on
the 25 May 2017. This was a virtual collaboration where pictures and live
videos of artists and their cakes were shared across social media. It’s the
third collaboration that Sweet Cake TV School has sponsored since inception,
but it was the largest.
What’s your single most
important advice to entrepreneurs who want to start a business?
Research your market and target audience
thoroughly before investing significant funds into any business. Get inside the
mind of your target customers. Discover their problems, then conjure up
solutions and think how to monetize those solutions.
Lastly, be passionate about what you do. You
will need it to help you get through the long days, sleepless nights and
more.
How can prospective
customers and partners reach you?
You can reach me through the Sweet Cake TV School (www.sweetcaketvschool.com)
or email me at hello@sweetcaketv.com.
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