Pleasure in Talicia’s businesses

THE WORD INDULGE conjures images of something delightful, something that gives you immense pleasure – whether it is food or something else.

When Talicia Lewis was looking for a name for nail salon she thought about what she wanted people, especially women, to do.

“As women we like to indulge and really and truly a salon experience is for you, it is your time away from family, time away from kids, it is a moment to do you, so indulge yourself,” the owner of Indulge Yourself Nail and Body Salon told BARBADOS BUSINESS AUTHORITY.

A lot has happened since April 2009 when she started. She has grown from a scared woman who was hesitant to start on her own, to one who started another business – Bake You Happy. Though different in their scope, both businesses bring her much pleasure and satisfy her when she sees the looks on her customers’ faces.

The Green Hill, St. Michael business woman recalled that it was at a friend’s urging that she made the first step.

“I was working at C.O. Williams Construction and I had a friend who was pushing me. he was saying that, to him, I would make a good entrepreneur but I couldn’t see it. He said ‘you’d be really good at business’, but I said ‘I can’t do it’.

“Then I was talking to a girlfriend and we had started a business called Life’s Simple Pleasures and we were going to sell Bath & Body Works [products] and do just manicures and pedicures. That didn’t work out so I went and did the nail course on my own and I registered the business before I even finished the nail course,” Lewis said.

After training she was still reluctant to set up shop, although she would work on her friends’ nails. She was still working at the company until another friend stepped in.

“He asked ‘why are you wasting your talent? You’re good at what you’re doing, start the business’. I told him that I liked it but I was scared because the fear of failing was there. He said, ‘I have a friend and she wants her nails done and I’m going to send her to you’. I said ‘all right’, and that’s basically where it started,” she recalled.

She started posting the pictures of her handiwork on Facebook and that one client recommended another and today she has scores of women who she can count as clients.

Gone is her lack of confidence in her ability and through the years she has not stopped learning new techniques. She believes in continuous learning and participates in seminars, webinars and attends workshops when she can.

So when did she decide she would start baking?

“Cupcake Wars. I actually hated baking. My mother left here three years ago and left me all of her baking pans, [and] icing tubes and I asked her ‘why are you giving me these? I don’t care for this’. Then I started watching Cupcake Wars. I couldn’t believe you could do all of that with a cupcake.”

“I went to the kitchen and started trying out some stuff and the cake was coming out and it was tasting good but it wasn’t fluffy, it was just dense. I spoke to me mum and she was trying to explain the process to me, which I still didn’t understand,” she said.

To improve her skills she enrolled in basic and advanced classes with Hazel Jordan last year. She posted the phones on Facebook, and she was soon contacted by someone who ordered cupcakes.

This time, though, she was more confident in her ability to deliver the goods and agreed. She also remembered that Jordan told her not to say no if someone wanted something done.

“I was scared. The first set of cupcakes I did were black forest and [the customer] was very impressed. From there a young lady contacted me to do some baby shower cupcakes, I did those then wanted her son’s birthday cake [done] which was the first official cake I did by myself. The cupcakes were fine because you really can’t mess up a cupcake,” Lewis stated.

As she continues to grow in both businesses, she has no intention of slowing down. Her goal is to have a bakery to sell her cakes and provide employment for others and to continue to make women’s nails pretty.

For her, baking is her escape, her “moment of peace” and for as long as she can she would be making her customers happy. (Green Bananas Media)