AOL Small Business:
Having your cake and eating it, too, used to be the hallmark of success, but as Jessica Cervantes has learned, it’s even better if you just sell it instead.
Cervantes, 19, didn’t plan on becoming an entrepreneur; she wanted to be a doctor. But she was enrolled in a business academy at John A. Ferguson High School in her Miami, Florida, where they had an entrepreneurship project.
She was required to create a business, and one thing led to another, and next thing she knew, she had entered a business plan in the annual Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE)’s National Business Plan Competition. She won $10,000 to go toward getting her business off the ground.
That business is Popsy Cakes, which is also the name of her product. It’s a cupcake attached to a cookie stick. “At first, I just wanted to bake cupcakes,” says Cervantes, “but there are a lot of cupcake bakeries out there and realized the competition would be immense.
So I thought if I could bring some new twist to cupcakes, and better the product and make it more convenient, then I would be all set.”
Photo by Popsy Cakes.
