“The Solution Was for Me to Go into Business”

In 2016, when Luciana Rovira Chaves was eight years old, she decided that she would start her own business around the end of the school term. “It was almost the holidays, and I wanted to do a lot of things: go to the amusement park, the movie theater,” Luci said, “but there was not enough money. So, the solution was for me to go into business.”

Luci considered what type of business she wanted to start. Her mother, Gabriela Chaves, asked her Facebook friends for some ideas, and she received many suggestions, including making bows and cards or opening a cake or chocolate shop.

Luci struggled to decide which idea was best. She did not have any experience making desserts, but creating bows and cards did not seem ambitious enough for her. Things became clearer when she went with Gabriela, a paramedic, to assist one of her patients.

“Mom went to cover a case[,] and a family member of this person was the one who taught me how to make chocolate products. The first thing I learned was how to do lollipops,” Luci said. She began to plan how she could start a chocolate lollipop business while keeping other options open.

In December, she rented out a room in her house to parents who wanted to hide presents from their eager children. When December ended, Gabriela thought Luci would move on.

“This month, she made all the messes in the world, and I thought that everything was finished here in December and that, like all children, the excitement for that had passed, but no,” Gabriela said. “In January of 2017, she told me that now we had to think about what we were going to do for Valentine’s Day.”

Luci’s persistence paid off. She started her company, Chunchiticos Luci, and three years later her business was prospering, with more than 100 clients requesting chocolate- and cake-themed desserts and decorations. In 2019, she was invited to participate in the International Summit of Childhood and Youth Entrepreneurship in Colombia.

Luci sought to encourage other children to accomplish their goals. “What I wanted to achieve with my business is that if children want to do something, they can succeed.” she said. She also saved a portion of her profits to give back to social causes in her community. “I do some social activity because I think that sharing what one has, although it may be a little, brings back little changes like blessings and more sales; another part of earnings is investment.”