I’m Athanasia, and proof that entrepreneurship is not built in offices. It’s built through resilience, long nights, sacrifice, and belief in your trade. This is my story. 

I come from Liggiades, the mountain village overlooking Lake Pamvotis, and today our bakery on the outskirts of Ioannina has become far more than a business. It represents local pride, female determination, and the power of real-world skills. 

Life’s Twists and Turns

I originally studied IT (how many people know this about me, I wonder?), and while I never worked in IT, I also never imagined I would one day be running my own business. But growing up as the only girl among four brothers taught me early how to stand my ground. By the age of 19, I was already working in catering, making coffees, sandwiches, folding crepes, learning customer service, communication, and the round the clock commitment of hospitality. Looking back now, those years became my unofficial business school.

Together with my husband, who is the baker and creative mind behind our recipes, we opened our first bakery in 2019 and a second during the uncertainty of Covid in 2020. It was tough and unpredictable but we did it anyway. He works behind the scenes producing, while I’m the face of the business: promoting, selling, training staff, and building relationships with customers through genuine kindness and consistency.

Skills over Titles

The learning though never stops. Workshops, seminars, staff training, and hands-on experience are all essential to our growth. For me, skills matter more than titles alone, and this is something we need to pass on to our youth. Young people need adaptability, discipline, communication skills, and practical competence. Even making a morning coffee is art when done with care and passion. To all the parents out there: send your young people to me, and in one month I’ll teach them what they’ll never learn behind a desk. 

Ioannina: Our City

I believe in our city, in our traditions, and in our local products. Can we do more? Can we, its residents, take better care of her? Of course we can. And we must. Walk more, drive less. More green, less concrete. More sustainable ways of living, less short-term thinking. And above all, more authenticity and staying true to our roots instead of imitating others because we feel that Europeans do it better. 

I also believe us women are incredibly resilient because we balance business, family, responsibility, and personal strength all at once.

And my message to every woman is simple: We can do it. Often, we are capable of far more than we ever imagine.