Big City Cupcakes is struggling with legal issues currently but that does not make its success story any less phenomenal.

Source: Big City Cupcakes

QuickMBA’s criteria for entrepreneurship include amount of wealth creation, speed of wealth creation, risk of venture, and innovation.

Risk is evident. When the first Big City Cupcakes store opened in Kelowna in 2008 by Lisa Larue and partners, cupcakes were certainly not the most popular urban snacks. Larue, far more confident in her grandmother’s cupcakes than those from a Californian bakery praised by Oprah Winfrey, decided to test the waters of the Canadian market. In an interview with Entrepreneurial Women, Larue says that “[t]here are always doubts when you’re modelling [a business] after something you’ve seen in the United States… Canada is an entirely different market.”

Taking the risk paid off. Each Big City Cupcakes franchise averages $300,000 – $600,000 in annual revenue, and the company was self-financed and debt-free for several months. (Watters) Larue structured the business to minimize overhead costs of individual branches while still delivering freshness. Instead of opening 5 branches in the first year, the initial goal, 13 were opened.

In Watters’ article in Entrepreneurial Women, “Lisa attributes their rapid expansion to the support of their franchisees, corporate partners and cupcake fans.”

Source: Entrepreneurial Women