Ronke Daramola, a graduate of linguistics, began her entrepreneurship journey at a tender age, watching her family thrive in the catering business. After completing secondary school, Ronke took a bold step to establish her own catering business, inspired by her family’s success in the industry.
By Eberechi Obinagwam
Ronke Daramola, a graduate of linguistics, began her entrepreneurship journey at a tender age, watching her family thrive in the catering business. After completing secondary school, Ronke took a bold step to establish her own catering business, inspired by her family’s success in the industry. Today, she is a proud Chief Executive officer of Eight 11 Cakes, owner of a flourishing cake, bakery, and catering business.
How Daramola started
Daramola didn’t have to learn catering anywhere because it was a family business. “Catering is a family business, I grew up to meet my late mother and my aunty in the trade,” she said.
Being competent in the business, Daramola, after secondary school, created her own niche different from her family business. In 2013, she got her company registered to commence full business.
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Daramola said as a business that is capital intensive, she had to source for capital to get the ingredients and equipment needed before sales started coming. “I got a loan from financial institution,” she said.
Penetrating the market
Penetrating a saturated market such as cake business was challenging but Daramola found her way through referrals from friends and social media.
She said: “The cake business is saturated. We have a lot of bakers springing up daily. But it didn’t take long because I had friends who knew me from the days of little beginnings. Also, social media has been a big force in marketing our products.”
While trying to establish Eight 11 Cakes, Daramola said she struggled with the issue of electricity supply and getting equipment such as industrial oven and mixers
Staying strong
The CEO of Eight 11 Cakes said what has kept her strong in the business is the referrals she gets from people on a daily basis about her products. “Referrals I get from people about the uniqueness of my products and word of mouth advertising which is the sole of my business has given me enough breakthroughs to stay,” she said.
Business challenges
As a business owner in Nigeria, Daramola said she had to deal with pricing, inflation and electricity. She added: “In pricing, people always compare prices and hence tend to move with the cheaper option. Inflation is another factor affecting the business.” She stressed that electricity is a major challenge for business people in Nigeria, as most time they spend money in generating power by themselves through solar energy and generator.
Japa
Daramola said she has not left because of the fees involved. She said: “If given the opportunity freely and less expensive, 90% would have left. Most of us created jobs for ourselves but the taxes and vat, rent fees for shops is high. The profit on sales too would have gone towards production and transportation leaving you with nothing. “Why I haven’t left myself is because of the fees involved and also, I’m scared of starting all over again when in actual sense, I know my business is developing here in naija,” she said.
About Daramola
Daramola is the CEO, Eight 11 Cakes. She hails from Ile-Ife in Osun State but was born and bred in Lagos. She was once trained as a journalist in Lagos before she proceeded to Osun State University to study linguistics.
She worked in a health maintenance organization after graduating in 2012. While doing her 9-5 work, she was also doing her side hustle business. In 2023, Daramola resigned from her paid job to face her catering business squarely. She said she resigned because the business was sponsoring her lifestyle more than the office job.
