Nenette on her shift from the world of finance to that of chocolate.
Who'd have thought, twenty years after finding myself at the end of a life-changing 3 years at Lucy, I'd be making a living as a chocolatier.
And that is certainly not the direction I was heading in after completing my degree. As I tell people now (mainly to see what happens to their faces) ‘in real life, I’m a Chartered Accountant.’ At Lucy, I was an Economist following the careful guidance of Dr Jane Collier.
In 1992 I came to Lucy to start a degree in Economics. I'd been in retail banking for ten years having left school after my A levels and found, after a foray into academia thanks to the Open University, that I wanted more. Banking, at the end of the 1980s was an uncomfortable place to be – even though, by that stage, I was working for Lloyds Bank in a highly sought-after posting to Jersey where I’d now been for three years. The prospects of returning to something similar on the mainland were bleak.
But Cambridge though....!
I remember the day the letter confirming my place to study at Lucy arrived. This followed a clandestine flight from Jersey to Cambridge for the interviews and entrance exams. The hardest thing was trying not to tell anyone until the right time came along to resign. I thought I’d burst. And when I finally told my boss, you could have heard a pin drop. It was a wonderful moment. Followed by three years’ worth of wonderful moments building into an unforgettable experience studying in Cambridge and based with a magical family at Lucy Cavendish.
After a switch to management studies in my final year, I was ready to strike back out to the world with my new degree. As an accountant. I know.
Pricewaterhousecoopers equipped me well with the knowledge and skills to run a business and after leaving pwc I worked in all sorts of companies of differing shapes and sizes, gaining fabulous, hands-on experience as Financial Controller and Finance Director. But after ten years of adding up figures for other people, it was time for me to focus on something for myself and Nenette Chocolates was born.
As light relief from an FD position with a pension provider, I'd taken myself off to learn how to make chocolates at Slatteries in Manchester. Four heady days later, I was buzzing! This was a fabulous subject in which every day was likely to be a school day. I came home and made chocolates for friends, family and anyone who couldn't run away fast enough.
My final finance role, twelve months covering the maternity leave for the UK Financial Controller at Avon Cosmetics, ended in October 2016 and for the year prior to this, I'd been balancing finance with chocolate and you can imagine how messy that could get! Now was the time to take the plunge and make a living from chocolate.
And when I look back at those early days, I realise how far I have come just since the start. I know how to run a business from a financial perspective thanks to my training and experience. But actually doing it for real. For yourself. When you are responsible for absolutely everything from making chocolates, managing the stocks, talking to customers, finding new customers, sorting out the website, exposing new routes to markets, making deliveries, packaging, selling at endless weekend markets and fairs (where extraordinary conversations about new business can take place: ‘Nenette, you’re brilliant and I’d like you to come and teach chocolate at my cookery school’ per some random, French celebrity chef) and now, finding premises such that my cottage can be reclaimed as a home. It’s all down to me and occasionally, I get some sleep too.
And sometimes, I have time to add up my own figures!
My handmade, luxury chocolates are sold online, can be found at farm shops and delicatessens in the Midlands and they are served as petits fours and special treats not only at local hotels and restaurants but also at Lucy Cavendish College. The teas and coffees served at formal halls, for example, are accompanied by chocolates decorated with the Lucy coat of arms all lovingly made by my own fair hand.
Well, if nothing else, it just shows that you never really know what's around the corner and that it's important to grab opportunities and follow your heart. But then, as members of the Lucy family, you already know to do this.
Never say ‘no’ to new things – say ‘yes’ and work out ‘how’ later!
Nenette Chocolates can be found at www.nenettechocolates.co.uk
By Nenette Scrivener. Economics, 2010
The opinions expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the view of Lucy Cavendish College or the Lucy Cavendish College Alumnae Association.