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"Making a career change isn't easy for anyone; even harder is making that change at the same time as starting a business. Elisa Strauss, owner and designer of Confetti Cakes, managed to make the transition seem almost flawless."
"Confetti Cakes opened its doors on the Upper
West Side three years ago and is one of the
city's leaders in designing made-to-order
cakes. On average, the company designs up
to three cakes a week and boasts a roster
of famous clients that include Ralph Lauren;
Manolo Blahnik; cosmetics designer Bobbi Brown;
a wedding cake for Charlotte in Sex and
the City; and a replicated City hall
for Mayor Bloomberg."
"Once a designer for Ralph Lauren and Frederic Fekkai, Strauss has always been interested in baking, starting out with her grandmother baking cookies and cakes when she was younger and then for friends and family later. She then started attending culinary school on the side while freelancing in fashion."
"I've always been a really practical person, so to take a leap of faith was scary." Says Strauss 28. "Fashion wasn't a career for me and I wanted to have my own business and I thought of what I love to do. I always knew that if I had a passion for something, I could make it work." Her love for baking led to the opening of Confetti Cakes. But not everything came easy. Strauss found that she was ill equipped to handle the business side of things like payroll and pricing. For Strauss, "It's all a learning process."
"The question Strauss gets asked most often is: "When is the right time to open your own business?" She says there isn't going to be a time when you know and it's going to be scary. " If you have doubts about what you're selling, if you can't sell it, no one can." Despite the hard work and labor intensiveness of designing cakes, Strauss claims that she knew what she was getting into and the only thing she wishes she could change was her knowledge of the business side of things. But the cakes always comes first."
"People sometimes go to their favorite bakery and get the cake that they know tastes good because they are under the impression that cake designers' cakes aren't good. It's so sad! I like to think of it as a very high art form," says Strauss."
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