Zorica Selakovic, owner of Dessert cake&cookie workshop - It's never too late for new beginning

(Zorica Selakovic)

The house she grew up in was always full of cookies. Her mother baked tons of them. Although she inherited the same gift, she did not like to see her hands kneading dough. But ever since she started a private business of making cakes and cookies at the age of 30, after working in the catering industry for more than ten years, not a single day has passed without her remembering her mother`s words: "You will bake and ask for more."

With the persistence and strength of a "dragon woman", Zorica Selakovic, owner of the cake and cookie workshop Dessert, has grown from an insecure 15-year-old provincial girl who was afraid of living in the capital city to an ambassador of female entrepreneurship and a laureate of the prestigious award Start Up, which has been presented to her in Brussels.

This pioneer of the confectionery business in Serbia learned early in her life that life is a struggle, that persistence and hard work are the best recipe for success, and that "there is nothing a cunning and clever women cannot achieve."

Creative confectioner

Her dream as a child to become a fashion designer was impossible to fullfill because of her fears. The girl from the provinces was afraid of big Belgrade where she enrolled in a high school of design. She remembers her going on foot from Sumice to Medak several times because she was afraid of taking a bus. After few months, having failed to get used to living in the capital city, she returned to her hometown - Cacak, and enrolled in the Catering School. She later worked in Makarska and at Morava restaurant in Cacak.

- I was doing all the jobs I could. My primary job was waiting, but I was also willing to do any other job.

Zorica Selakovic today expresses her creativity by making cakes of various shapes and colors at her workshop Dessert.

First struggle

She got married in her early twenties and formed a family. She lost both her parents until the age of 30 and had to take care of everything they had left behind.

- That made me stronger. Aside from going to work, I needed to take care of two small kids and the village farm I inherited from my parents. My sister and I depended on each other at that time. It is a period when you face reality, start struggling with your life and have nobody to ask for advice or complain to. You make your own decisions and mistakes and praise and encourage yourself when you do something right.

It was then that she decided to start a private business. Even though the 1990`s were marked by an embargo, inflation and shortages, she took a six-month unpaid leave from her job at Morava and made the first step.

Mother as role model

It can be said that she entered the sweet world of cakes and cookies by accident. With an air of nostalgia, she remembers the smell of cookies baked by her mother.

- My mother was so good at making cakes and cookies. She did not need recipes. Once she got sick and spent some time at a hospital. She was supposed to come out for a weekend, to celebrate Slava, so she told me to bake some cookies. The four big cakes I made were not enough for her. She said: "How can a house do without cookies?" I really hated baking cookies. Cakes were ok, but cookies were not. On the day of Slava, the room was full of cookies. She was baking them all night and did not want to call me to help her, so I asked her why, and she said: "You would have baked them if you had wanted to. But you will bake and ask for more." Those were the last angry words she said to me.

Her mother set high goals, and Zorica has become the best student of her role model. At that time she realized that people always need somebody to make them sweets for all the happy and sad moments in the life.

The cake and cookie worshop Dessert was formed in 1990. Zorica says that Dessert has had its ups and downs, but that the results have always been satisfying. In the first year of the third millennium, she also opened a pastry cafe in the center of Cacak, which is still very popular among sweet tooths in that town.

Second struggle and new beginning

At the New Year`s Eve 2007, after she divorced her husband, she had to leave the space where she had been working for years - Dessert.

- I was left in the street without equipment and tools and with raw materials only. I asked my old company to give me some equipment, tables, stoves, refrigerators, so I could settle down. Whoever had something to give me did that to keep me going. That winter I found a suitable space, took a loan to buy and equip it, and moved to that space in May 2007.

Facing a dilemma: to start again from scratch or to give up, she was encouraged by the decision of most of her workers at Dessert to follow her.

She still maintains an honest and fair relationship with her associates. They help her, she helps them, and the most important thing is that "customers are satisfied." Dessert has become a big family aimed at making other`s day sweet. And it has been happening for over 20 years.

Dragon woman

This woman`s hard work, persistence, strength and will were recognized by the Association of Business Women of Serbia that presented her with the award Flower of Success for Dragon Woman in 2010. This year she also won the title of one of the top ten ambassadors of female entrepreneurship, and she was also presented with the award Start Up in Brussels, at the European SME Week.

- This award is the second chance, and it is related to my new beginning in 2007. It is flattering because someone has recognized as important everything I`ve been doing during these 35 years of work. The people I trained are now independent entrepreneurs because I gave them support to start their own business.

She was also declared the Business Woman of the Year 2009 by the Kraljevo Chamber of Commerce, and the quality of confectioners from her Cacak-based workshop have so far won more than 30 awards.

I.B.