A decade ago, Heather White and Lori Joyce were working at Ground Zero in New York City, a desolate ghost town in the aftermath of the 9-11 terrorist attacks.
But in the midst of the chaos and destruction, was a bakery, filled with laughter, friendship and cupcakes.
Knowing they wanted to go into business for themselves, the duo sensed there was something that might translate to their native Vancouver, so they uprooted themselves again, went home and opened a cupcake store.
Ten years later they operate two corporate bakeries and six Cupcakes franchises, and are collectively known as the Cupcake Girls, the name of their hit Oprah Winfrey Network show. Finding success wasn’t easy, said White, the keynote speaker at Tuesday’s inaugural Enterprising Women 2011 Awards, which will see 10 Northern Ontario women honoured by the Paro Centre for Women’s Enterprise for their commitment to both their business and community.
“We love what we do and all we want to do is encourage women to succeed and follow in their dreams,” said White, who was joined by her partner via Skype later at a luncheon later in the day, where they shared their success story.
“Basically we’re here just to give and share our message with other women entrepreneurs who are thinking about starting their own business or are in their own business; because there are a lot of trials and tribulations to get you there from the beginning.”
White was quick to point out she and her partner leaned heavily on a networking group similar to PARO when they were first starting out and trying to find their way in the business world.
“There was mentorship in every angle of business that we needed at that point. Being a start-up, we had the Internet, and that’s a great place to go for resources, anything that you need,” White said.
“But having someone to talk to and having someone who’s gone through the same pains is the best part. And also, at that point, the networking with people that we met that were in business, had been in business or were starting up had so much to give us. Not only were we mentoring people, but people were mentoring us.”
Rosalind Lockyer is PARO’s executive director, and said the idea behind the awards is to encourage women to be enterprising in order to start and grow businesses of their own.
“You have to be courageous, you have to have a dream and you have to be passionate about that dream. And you have to do a little bit more than that. You have to go out into the community. You have to be a part of that community, you have to be able to give back and you have to be able to share your successes with others – your knowledge, your truths and your challenges.
“I think that’s the path to success, and I think this is what this whole event is about.”
Winners will be announced on Tuesday night.
