Lusine Poghosyan: FIRST SHE CREATED IN HER OWN KITCHEN, THEN SHE DECIDED TO SHARE IT WITH THE WORLD…

Lusine Poghosyan, a linguist and specialist in foreign languages by profession, has succeeded in establishing a profitable business out of her greatest love and skill, creating and bringing her passion to life. We are talking about Vanilla Cake, a brand of pastries produced from high-quality raw materials. But before becoming a businesswoman, as a young girl and then a mother of two, she considered the kitchen her element—a place where she didn’t just work, but created. Lusine perceives working in the kitchen—cooking and baking—as a form of meditation, a place where she finds rest, and an occupation that activates and restores her inner energy. For Lusine, any food served, even if prepared only for herself, must be delicious, high-quality, and aesthetically pleasing. Her family members also love and enjoy the cakes and pastries she prepares, and since her husband is a businessman with a business mindset, he constantly repeated that Lusine could turn her potential into a business.

However, everything changed when Lusine—despite having a beautiful family, a loving husband, two wonderful children, a home, and the means to live—realized that something was still missing for her to be completely happy. That "something" was self-actualization, and she spoke with her husband about it. Her husband was unequivocally supportive, as he was convinced that his wife would succeed in everything. This is how Vanilla Cake was born (https://vanilla.am/), which, as Lusine would say, is not just a business for her, but a means of self-realization, implementing her thoughts, and experiencing relaxation. Now, her thoughts, ideas, and recipes are no longer just in her home or her head; they have become accessible to everyone who appreciates quality, taste, and beauty. The realization of this reality brings Lusine satisfaction and happiness.

Comparing her present self to the past, she understands that in her previous versions, she was accomplished in all her life roles—as a daughter, sister, wife, mother, and daughter-in-law—but as an individual, she was not fulfilled. In her current version, the feeling of being unfulfilled is gone. Now she has a place where she can give breath to her thoughts and bring her visions to life. Lusine is one of those people who is constantly self-educating, and she considers self-awareness to be the basis of success. Therefore, she is convinced that no matter how equal men and women are in many matters, business is more difficult for a woman because a woman has other roles and responsibilities, as created by nature. If the mission of motherhood is given to a woman, then raising the child, taking care of them, and many other related issues also fall on the mother, which already speaks of inequality. But it does not speak of impossibility. Lusine is convinced that nature has also given women double strength and energy, the ability to even quadruple their resources at the right moment—a fact utilized by those women who are aware of it and are not afraid to leave their comfort zone. She knows this, uses it, and calls it "not exhausting your resources and definitely engaging in work you love, because work you don't love consumes a great deal of energy."

However, love alone is not enough to have good sales. Lusine is one of those people who personally managed all matters in the initial stage of her business, and to do that, one must first have knowledge and an understanding of those fields. She studied marketing, accounting, and SMM, and most importantly, gained experience that helped her understand which model works for her business. Today, when she already has a large team and specialists responsible for all branches, she continues to keep her finger on the pulse of the business because she is convinced that no one can understand and recognize her goals and visions better than she can. If a new project is being written, she participates; if filming for an advertisement is taking place, she participates, because the person filming might not know where to place the emphasis or might not understand the advantage of a particular pastry—but she knows and guides them.

For Lusine, it is important that every employee is on the same wavelength as her. This means being skilled in choosing the right personnel, which, according to her, is one of the most difficult tasks. "Working with women is complicated; with female confectioners, even more so, because they are very romantic, and business does not like romanticism. And here, you must carry two women within you: the romantic and the cold-calculating one, so that your business does not suffer," says Lusine. She was also romantic at first, but her husband, who owns a business, helped and continues to help her replace romanticism with practicality at the right time. What can be considered "from the realm of romanticism" in the confectionery business? For example, if a cake requires seven days to prepare, and a customer asks to have it done in two days because they are in a hurry, because it is their child's birthday and the child dreams of exactly this cake—the romantic Lusine says they will do everything so the child does not suffer or feel sad; however, the business-oriented Lusine assures that it is impossible to do in two days because the quality would suffer, which in turn would damage the brand’s reputation.

In general, a business is a very temperamental organism; it does not like stagnation or standing still, otherwise, someone will come, trample it, and pass by. Lusine understands this very well and always moves in step with the times in her business. When there was a coronavirus pandemic in our country and people shifted massively to online shopping, they decided and very quickly created the www.vanilla.am website, and the business continued to flourish even during those difficult times. In her business, Lusine also widely utilizes the opportunities of social networks. Vanilla has pages on social platforms where it maintains active content and effective communication with customers. However, she gives more importance to the "word-of-mouth" (the Armenian equivalent of sarafannoe radio) version, when satisfied and grateful customers recommend their pastries to one another.

But for all this to be accomplished, one must first have an honest, hardworking, and peaceful collective. Everyone who has ever managed a staff or been a team leader knows what difficulties can arise in the form of conflicts. They know that a wrong approach by one team member can ruin the entire day's work, as well as the mood and productivity of other members. Therefore, having a harmonious team is important to Lusine, which is why she constantly develops her skills in understanding and preventing conflicts. She believes it is important to have internal laws and rules and to inform every employee about them. For Lusine, the type of person matters; she says a good specialist can be trained in even a month, but a good person is either just there or they are not, and there is nothing she can do about it. She uses the basic elements of conflict management: noticing symptoms, diagnosing, predicting, preventing, resolving, regulating, mitigating, and averting. She also applies methods of compromise and cooperation.