There appears to be no end to the number of Guyanese women who, belatedly in many instances, are taking purposeful strides down entrepreneurial roads. Some of them are fashioning realities out of nostalgic hankerings which they have embraced for much of their lives. Others are freeing themselves of what had been stifling ‘careers’ as homemakers, actualising long-held and long-stifled ambitions. They have come to see the merit as much as the material gain in realising the satisfaction of putting their talents to work for them.
In an increasing number of instances the modest businesses that they have built for themselves represent the attainment of life-long dreams. The more pleased they have been with what they have achieved, the more determined they have become to get to what we in Guyana loosely call, ‘the next level’.
Cupcake ‘experts’ will tell you that these cute creations (which according to Wikipedia originated in the US) have grown in popularity primarily because they can be fashioned into anything imaginable and can be made to be part of any occasion. And Malika Lynch agrees wholeheartedly.
Malika, the proprietor of Cupcakes and Things, possesses what she calls an “old fashioned” love for cooking and baking. She never bothered to be tutored as she simply taught herself, the outcome being, she believes, that she has developed a “knack” for the pursuit. Still, she has far from surrendered the idea of, one of these days, enrolling in formal classes at the Carnegie School of Home Economics.
There had been a price to pay for the honing of her culinary skills. The family looked to her whenever the occasion warranted and she never really wanted what she regarded as a skill that she had hoped to acquire, to come to be regarded as drudgery.
Insofar as cupcakes are concerned she ‘started small,’ mindful of the fact that there was plenty in this niche that could be exploited. She embraced the fact that the pursuit strongly embraced a delicate craft and a sense of creative imagination that could be, first admired, then eaten.
Malika remembers that her first ‘proper’ job required her to provide cupcakes for a picnic. She recalls too that it went well. “It always reassuring when these things go well,” she says.
The enterprise, she said, took off, albeit in a modest way, almost immediately. Orders for cupcakes for a wide assortment of functions were secured a few times every month. Appreciation of her handiwork emboldened her and she began to create modest Facebook ads and to distribute calling cards in her neighbourhood. It got her the attention she wanted and she didn’t mind.
Over time Malika has added additional creative ‘tweaks’ to her craft and these, coupled with the positive comments and repeat orders that she has received from her customers has resulted in her taking her skills and the possibilities that they hold, quite seriously. It is as if her creative gift has served to enhance the personality of a woman who seems by nature, sedate, even introverted.
She has, too, developed an enhanced sense of entrepreneurship from being a part of Women in Business, a varied group of women whose separate business enterprises benefit collectively from ‘membership’ of a group created by local fashion personality Sonia Noel. The women who are members of this group run enterprises which, though vastly different in their pursuits, benefit from the common experience of product promotion opportunities that afford them access to sections of the market which they otherwise, may not have been able to access easily.
Over time, Malika has come to take herself and her cupcake pursuits increasingly seriously. Market acceptance has been the tool that has fashioned her confidence. She has become passionate about having become versed in a skill that allows her to experiment with shapes and images that lend themselves to depicting all sorts of occasions and which, she says, involves none of the “mess” which, all too often, goes with “being in the kitchen.” For the consumer, Malika says, cupcakes are all about “eat and go. They are as tidy an arrangement as you can get.”
These days, she has become preoccupied with challenging herself to further refine her skills, to raise the bar in a pursuit that is as much about creativity as it is about culinary endeavour. Some of her most treasured moments have come in pursuit of her experiments with images and flavours. These allow her to apply both creative imagination and the fusion of the myriad flavours which she says are to be found in the variety of local fruit that can be pressed into service in the making of her cupcakes.
As much as she looks forward to the forthcoming Women in Business Expo and the further opportunity it affords her to parade her skills before an extended market, Malika’s focus is even more firmly fixed on ‘the next level’. She admits to having become increasingly “fired up,” of wanting entrepreneurship to become an increasingly central part of her life and of seeking to push the boundaries of what can be achieved.
There is, she says, far more in cupcakes than simply making and marketing them. There is as well, what frequently is the stimulating interaction located in discussions with potential customers over concepts and images. “People come with all sorts of what one might call ideas and it is always stimulating to work through those ideas with them,” she says. Creating some of the popular character cakes that have now become synonymous with cupcake-making has, Malika declared, imbued in her a creative spirit that is now an integral part of her personality. “It can be a challenge and it is time-consuming but it pays off.”
If there is still a considerable distance to go, Malika admits that she is prepared for the journey. She refuses to allow her modesty to conceal her ambition. She wants to push the frontiers of a culinary pursuit that continues to grow in popularity and eventually, to come to be recognised as one of the best in the business.
