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‘Jewel’s Goodies Box’, the tasty dessert business based in Port Kaituma
“I had always loved baking. I came from a family of bakers my grandmother used to bake bread, buns and cakes and sell back in her days. My mom on the other hand used to bake everything for us except she never sold.”
By Allyiah Allicock
(Kaieteur News) – Growing up in a family of bakers, first her grandmother then her mother, 29-year-old Jewel Chan is continuing a generational legacy and tradition through her very own small business, ‘Jewel’s Goodies Box’.
Based in Port Kaituma, Region One, the young entrepreneur told The Waterfalls ‘Jewel’s Goodies Box’ started in May 2020, after her friends and family encouraged her to turn this pastime into a business.
Young Entrepreneur, Jewel Chan
Sharing how it all started, Chan explained that “I had always loved baking. I came from a family of bakers my grandmother used to bake bread, buns and cakes and sell back in her days. My mom on the other used to bake everything for us except she never sold.”
Being exposed to the baking environment from a young age, Chan began to develop the necessary skills and passion for it which saw her baking her own treats from time to time.
“My friend Sassy encouraged me to sell after a day I made brownie with cream cheese swirl inside, after eating one she was like ‘Jew why don’t you make boxes with these to sell.’ I actually laughed when she said that I was like ‘you think people would buy?’ She was like ‘Girl people does have to wait till they go to Georgetown to get lil fancy dessert and you right here and can make for us,” Chan recalled.
Some sweet treats you can order from Jewel’s Goodies Box.
Feeling a bit hesitant at first, Chan said that her friend continue to encourage her and offered to carry some of the baked treats to her workplace and sell on her behalf.
“After that day that was the birth of Jewel’s Goodies Box,” she recalled. The name, Jewel’s Goodies Box, she said inspired the fact that she only made boxes with different desserts, mostly cookies, chocolate cupcakes and cheesecakes.
Chan said she initially started with 12 boxes, then it went to 18 and customers kept coming and even encouraged her to start doing decorated cakes.
“Which I told them I’ll be working on it, I started to watch a lot of YouTube videos on how to stack a cake, how to decorate a cake, how to make butter cream, oh my it was such a challenge but I was determine to learn so I can satisfy my customers,” she explained.
From there on out, the business started to grow.
Reminiscing on her entrepreneurial journey, the young woman said that her biggest challenge was establishing the right prices for the cakes and dessert boxes at the time. “I was undercharging my work. Most of my ingredients I have to source from Georgetown so I wasn’t thinking about how much money I was really spending just to get the ingredients alone. I’m located in Port Kaituma Region One,” she said.
She continued, “I started by calculating my cost for the ingredients right down to the overhead cost, and making sure to add in labour cost. I never did that before and I think that’s the most common mistake most first time bakers does.”
Having watched videos on how to price cakes, with the design and everything else, Chan stated that now everything is in place.
Variety of beautifully decorated cakes Jewel’s Goodies Box has to offer.
Looking ahead, the talented baker disclosed that her long term goal is to open her own cafe in Port Kaituma, “that’s my ultimate dream goal for Jewel’s Goodies.”
“I want to have a place where persons would walk in and feel their stress fall off from their shoulders just by walking into my little café,” she elaborated.
Working to achieve these goals, our featured entrepreneur expressed that while she appreciate what the government is doing to recognize small businesses by giving out start-up capital and implementing training programs.
She suggests that there needs to be follow up by authorities that persons are indeed benefitting from these initiatives.
For persons looking to take a bite out of these tasty treats, feel free to contract Jewel Chan via Tik Tok @jewel goodies and on Facebook at Jewel Goodies Box.
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