"When I bake a cake, I enjoy it - it's not only my hobby but also my remedy to relieve stress," says Melbourne-based mompreneur Prathiti Shah.
"And when I make a cake for someone else, mostly it's on some excellent occasion like a baby shower, housewarming, birthday etc. So I feel happy and blessed that I can be the person who can contribute to making them happier."
Prathiti liked to bake cakes when she lived in India. She used to make eggless cakes, learning techniques by watching YouTube videos.
But still, whenever she baked them, she was not satisfied with the results. The cakes were not soft and fluffy enough.
She wanted to learn how to bake an eggless cake perfectly.
She grabbed that opportunity during her maternity leave.
"As my son was a premature baby born at 26 weeks I took two years off from work to take care of him," says Prathiti.
Business opportunity
"During that time I visited India for three months. And having extra family support with my son there I got some time to myself and invested a bit of time to learn few tips of eggless baking and decorating cakes at Vadodara."
Prathiti's mother is a pure vegetarian; she has many friends who do not consume egg or any products with egg content. She used to bake the eggless cakes for them on different occasions. Gradually, Prathiti realised that there was a small opportunity to start a small venture to make the perfect eggless cake.
Prathiti's sister encouraged her to convert her hobby of cake baking into a small business; her sister created a Facebook page for her cake business, Cake Smash Victoria, and her husband, a marketing professional, helped spread the word.
Prathiti is a mother of a three-year-old boy, Pransh, and she agrees that it's a challenging job to keep balance.
"There is the challenge, I am a full-time working woman. I have to be very careful that I do not decorate any cake when my son is around. He would make a mess! But I am happy that my son likes to bake now, he knows different varieties of cake and all the measurements needed to make a cake."
Prathiti migrated to Australia in 2007 as a student, beginning her journey in the field of community welfare. Now she is a consultant, a freelance teacher and an entrepreneur.
Image Prathiti’s tips for small-business beginners:
Use online tools: "I learnt baking cakes on YouTube. And I used Facebook for marketing. The Internet has played a massive role in my success."
Get the basics sorted: "Everything I do is from scratch. I have my basics correct. I got trained to learn the technical parts."
Build your community: "Know others who are into the same business. Yes, they are competition, but if you can build a relationship with them, they can be of great help."
