Media feature: The Taste of Sweet Success

The Taste of Sweet Success
By Zeny Tong as told to Excel V. Dyquianco
MoneySense Magazine, November / December 2011

It was an accident and a hobby that eventually turned into a lucrative business. During that time, my second daughter needed a project to sell for a marketing subject back in college in October of 1998. I had made a variation of the chocolate chip cookies and we came up with the chocolate meringue bars. It did well and decided to continue selling them since Christmas was approaching back then.

Since we're selling sweets and we want this business to grow and succeed, we thought that "Sweet Success" would be a good name for the business.

The first December when we started, the business came off easy in the sense that our chocolate meringue bars were easily liked by friends. Therefore, it was easy to market. It was also difficult in a way because I started doing everything alone - from procurement of supplies and ingredients to baking and packaging. The only help I had back then were three house helpers and we only had 3 to 5 hours sleep most nights. As the business grew, we had to find more people. This became a challenge for me since finding the right people was quite tricky. Others have always been challenging in a way so we needed people with a positive attitude towards work. After searching and searching for the right ones, we ended up with what we think to be people who care about their attitude, the business, and the quality of their work.

Interestingly, it was my eldest daughter Melissa who interested with cake designs. My other and youngest daughter Marjorie, on the other hand, appreciate arts and has always been amazed whenever she sees decorated cakes but she never even thought of becoming a cake artist. Put two and two together and they helped each other out. Melissa influenced Marjorie to take a basic fondant decorating class. It was a two-week class and she enjoyed it. Marjorie finally knew that she has found the right art medium for her.

After the class, we three Tong girls decided to venture into celebration cakes. Eventually, we opened our virtual store at Multiply and from there we started to get cake orders.



DESIGNING CELEBRATION CAKES

I and my daughters saw the business potential that it can still grow and expand. There were a lot of possibilities that we can do. If you are only putting in half of your commitment to a kind of work, then the return will be half as well. You have to know what your priority is. This realization made me labor at it with all of my heart and my daughter Marjorie work at it by deciding to leave the corporate world to go full time, as she used to be an Events Coordinator at Edsa Shangri-La and thus, handled social functions and administrative work.

So it was quite easy since she already had a list of clients - as she manages the decorating and administrative side of the business. She usually starts her day early. Half of the her day is dedicated to administrative work like answering inquiries, sending proposals and contracts, designing and updating our website. During the afternoon, that's where she decorates although she has an assistant who helps her out. She just supervises her. I, meanwhile, handle the baking and operations.

Sometimes, work becomes stressful when I'm running short of time in finishing a project, especially when I'm under staffed. I prepare the things that I need ahead as to avoid stress. Practice time management, so to speak. Because of this, I have learned that cake designing is indeed an art. It requires a lot of creativity, time, and patience to make one. It is a challenge on how you'll be able to transform your ideas to an actual cake design. Added to that, there are decors which are labor intensive, particularly the 3D figure molding. It takes hours of sometimes days to make one.

But take in mind that in this business, we have also learned to laugh at our mistakes. One unforgettable moment was when a client requested for an edible 3D molding of a superhero cartoon character to be placed on the cake. Since Marjorie was just starting on 3D figure molding that time, the molding that she did was fatter compared to the original. During the event, she overheard one of the classmates of the celebrant mention to his friend, "Why is Ben so fat?" From then on, she made sure to follow the right proportion, size, and shape.

A CELEBRATION OF LIFE

Designing cakes is indeed fun and enjoyable because as my daughter Marjorie says, she has found her passion - that of doing something she definitely loves. In fact, she doesn't even feel like she is working. She loves the idea that you are part of their celebration. It may be just a cake but somehow that cake made someone happy.

Therefore, we make sure that each cake we have made has a personal touch. It reflects our design style and personality. The cakes we have created show our quality of work, the time, and effort we put in each creation. We make sure that each cake that comes out from our kitchen is unique and personalized. The character of the celebration is seen on the cake. It is a combination of ideas from my end also from the client. We draw inspiration based on their interests, personality, and party theme.

Marjorie even has a thought on what cake she wants on her wedding day. She wants it to be a representation of her and her partner. It should be something that guests would say "It's so us." The design concept will be something elegant but with a modern touch.

In this business, we have also learned that there should be no compromise for quality and we always aim for customer satisfaction.

As for our future plans, we hope to make the business grow and be able to maintain the quality of our products and services.

CASH IN ON YOUR PASSION

For Zeny Tong and her daughters Melissa and Marjorie, turning a hobby into a lucrative business seemed like such a breeze. Here are the tips on how to really cash in on your passion.

1. BE READY TO WORK LONG HOURS. Once you start doing your hobby as a business, it is no longer a hobby. It is work.

2. KEEP IN MIND THAT YOU ARE NO LONGER DOING IT FOR YOURSELF BUT FOR YOUR CLIENTS. But remember to maintain the quality of your work - the same quality that makes you satisfied and happy.

3. PLAN AND ORGANIZE IN TERMS OF TIME, WORK, AND MONEY. They make you more efficient to manage the business.