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By Tanya Hayles
 

Sweet dreams are made of ice cream. At least that is the case of entrepreneur Nadia Dragusanu, founder of Cafe Du Monde Crêperie, the delectable dessert food company based in the Kitchener-Waterloo region. In 2012, the company was first launched as a food truck at the widely popular St. Jacob’s Farmers Market in Niagara. Being a business on wheels meant being able to take their show on the road throughout wine country which proved to be a rapid success doing events and catering in and around Niagara-on-the-Lake.

Travelers at heart, Nadia and her husband Sebastian used their worldly pursuits to build their business. They wanted to bring the tastes of their travels back home, in the sweetest way possible - desserts. Along with seeing the world, Nadia wanted to make sure the business incorporated her values: community, natural and unprocessed foods, and making sure that whatever she served her customers, she could be proud of enjoying herself.

The business was growing, that they wanted to transition off the road and into a brick-and-mortar shop, which had its grand opening on the leap day of 2020, February 29th. Less than a month later, COVID-19 struck in full force. Events were gone. At the time, there was no online shop for their business. In the year and a half since COVID first ravaged small businesses, there were on again/off again openings, but for a new business that wasn’t able to get immediately the momentum needed - things were looking bleak.

But never count out the power of the pivot, hard work, and consumer’s sweet tooth. The pandemic also allowed Nadia to focus on the purpose of her business and open up creatively to new ways of bringing in revenue. Through the Digital Main Street program, which assists in-person businesses to pivot into e-commerce, they moved up their timeline to have online orders. The business was able to sustain itself by having more grab-and-go frozen treats, like pizzas and danishes, available online than they would in their food truck or store. They also used the new rules of social distancing to bring people to their shop, by hosting their food truck in their own parking lot, and allow guests to reserve the entire cafe online when public health rules allowed for dine-in options.

Nadia decided to register for the WEC Grow My Business Accelerator program because even with the pivot to online, there was still a brand awareness problem. The biggest challenge, as with most small businesses, was how to market and establish her target audience - and not just anyone who enjoys desserts. Prior to the program, Nadia wanted to focus their social media on the product and business alone, but along the way learned that it’s the personalization that will connect people to a business. From behind-the-scenes videos to putting a face to the brand, not only did the reach of the business grow - so too did her confidence to put herself out there. Literally. Nadia recalls that her favorite part of the program was networking with other women entrepreneurs. She says: “A lot of the time in business even when you're in the same field or you're doing the same things, there's a lot of competition. But with the program, there was a lot of focus on solidarity. Women working together. Women building up each other. Supporting each other. And I really liked that”.

By taking all the lessons learned, in class and out over the past 2 years, Nadia is ready to leap into a new sphere with the business by launching their own frozen pizza line this year. With all these new facets ready to go, Nadia is showing the proof is definitely in the pudding.

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Tanya Hayles is an award-winning event planner, public speaker, and freelance writer authentically telling stories and creating change. Located in Toronto and can be found tweeting her free time away at twitter.com/tanyahayles or at tanyahayles.com

The Women Entrepreneurship Centre (WEC), as part of the Lazaridis School of Business and Economics at Wilfrid Laurier University, is dedicated to empowering women entrepreneurs of every age, stage and culture to achieve their business dreams. We believe in fostering leadership. We believe that everyone deserves an equal shot at success. We believe in connecting you with the right people, skills and support to make it happen.