This is a picture of me on my first day at the Western Fair Farmers' Market. I am bright and happy and cheery because it is the first day of following my dreams of becoming an entrepreneur in chocolates. It's hard to believe but I am almost a professional chocolatier.

I am currently enrolled in Ecole Chocolat, an online distance course based in Vancouver, BC. How could I be professional in chocolates in an online course? Let me tell you, the course is intense. Of course, I am not in any culinary institute and I don't have the time to spend years in that craft. I certainly admired the likes of Jacques Torres and Jacques Pepin, but I definitely want my focus to be mainly on chocolate and eventually desserts based on chocolate.

In the meantime, taking this course while running my own business is certainly a learning experience. First of all, I've taken two business courses in high school--entrepreneurship and economics. So, I sort of know the idea of supply and demand. So I try to apply what I know in the farmers' market. In my chocolate course, I have to learn how to make my own signature line of chocolates, not to mention a marketing plan and operations plan. In order to succeed in business, I need to learn not only how to make chocolates, but to sell them.

Western Fair Farmers' Market is fairly new. It opened about two years ago but has recently been bought by new management. So, there are changes, which is a good thing since I became part of that change.

One thing that people (vendors) told me is that it takes about four weeks for regulars to get to know me. A lot of people noticed that I was new. I introduced myself, introduced my chocolates, and hoped they like them and me. I really only had a few products available: three types of chocolate (lavender-vanilla, Earl Grey, and Classic truffles), chocolate barks, and brownies. The new flavours of truffles were unusual and people liked them. I knew it was a start.

My mom just said that as long as I could pay my rent, I was fine. I did okay on my first day. I was proud with what I accomplished. It was a long day. I forgot to take a break and even eat my lunch. I think when you are your own boss, you also have to take it easy on yourself. But at least I could reward myself with chocolate.