Melissa Somers loves cupcakes.
“You can have so much fun with cupcakes,” said the 29-year-old Ottawa resident. “Whether it’s flavours, colours, decorations, different events you can do them for, it really is endless possibility.”
Last spring, Somers turned her passion for pastries into a cupcake store.
The Canadian Youth Business Foundation, said Somers, was instrumental in helping her make her dream happen.
The organization was invaluable in helping her with start-up loans and pairing her with a mentor, she said yesterday.
Rob Moore, secretary of state for small business, kicked off Global Entrepreneurship Week yesterday with a visit to The Flour Shoppe and a roundtable meeting with young businesspeople from the Canadian Youth Business Foundation.
“They’re out there moving our economy along, employing people and doing what they want to do, so it’s always a great day when I can meet with them,” he said.
Somers also identified another vital support system.
“I’m very well supported by family,” she said. “My brother-in-law and sister-in-law both work for me full-time as bakers, and my husband’s here on I guess a part-time volunteer basis, in addition to his full-time job.”
