Over the past few years, cakes have become a ubiquitous part of our celebratory moments. From farewells to welcomes to anniversaries to celebrating smaller milestones, and counting joys on special occasions such as mothers’ day, fathers’ day or even Tihar, there’s always a cake to cut and share. It’s interesting how cake has made itself the “go to” gift for any kind of celebration and the demand for this sweet deliciousness is on the rise. One of the newer “cake-o-preneurs” is Sambridhi Khanal who makes customized cakes with her venture “ChocoTipsy”.
“Although there are bigger players in the market like UG, Cakekoseli, Krishna Pauroti, I am not intimidated. I know people like my products and that is because I make no compromise when it comes to quality,” shares Sambridhi. She added that it didn’t really start out as a hobby when she started baking. She took a 3-month long training at Hotel Himalaya and by the end of it, she knew she loved doing it. She didn’t really think about making money out of baking but started purely out of passion. A series of events led her to the initiation of ChocoTipsy.
“I remember I made a cake for my friend as a gift and she loved it so much that a few weeks later she paid me to make one for her friend and that’s how it started,” says Sambridhi. After that, she started putting up pictures of her work on various social media platforms and people got interested. A powerful marketing tool, the #ChocoTipsy on Instagram, displays all that Samridhi has done. Although she doesn’t have a dedicated page for ChocoTipsy, Sambridhi says that a “hashtag” is the right tool to use at the moment because people get to look at all of her work and she doesn’t have to maintain a separate account for the business. It makes things lot more effective and efficient at this phase for her.
Entrepreneurship is often misunderstood because people think it has to be something very risky. The reality is that it can be as simple as baking a cake, as long as it is creating and adding value.“Taste, the right amount of ingredients, the freshness, effective pricing along with the convenience of ordering are what draw people towards my work,” mentions Sambridhi. The fact that ChocoTipsy is home-based and all the products are made after they’ve been ordered unlike the “big players” who stock up their bakeries, gives her products that competitive edge. Additonally, Sambridhi takes care to ensure that people feel comfortable making their requests and she makes sure that she fulfills their demand. Her home-based work also seems to create a sense of trust among her clients, lending an authenticity to the entire process. She makes sure to update every step of the process on the “stories” feature on various social media. It is via Instagram DM and Facebook messages that she gets her orders.
There are challenges, however. One of the biggest challenges is that she is a “one-man army”. Doing everything from scratch by herself, once orders come in, requires a lot of effort to be put into. Without the help of costly machines, she cannot match the fancier varieties that the bigger bakeries come up with. “I know I can get there but for now, I am taking baby steps,” says Sambridhi. “The competition that exists pushes me to work harder and to be more creative in my offerings. The feedback from everyone and the accolades I get after people have tasted the cakes I make, keeps me going.” In future, she wants to train people and make the business grow, and with time, she believes she will. When asked if she would like to say anything to people with passion who want to turn their hobbies or interests into businesses, she says, “Sometimes, it’s important to tone down the importance of immediate commercial success and just indulge in what you love doing. Success will follow.”