Edose Ohen, a Nigerian-American entrepreneur from Houston, Texas, has been shaking up the pastry industry ever since he opened Glazed The Doughnut Cafe - the area's first Black-owned 24 hour donut cafe. He started the business back in 2014, and now he has two locations in the city serving handmade glazed donuts, glazed sandwiches and gourmet coffee.

Why donuts?

Ohen says the idea came to him during a marketing course he was taking while earning his MBA at the University of Houston's Bauer College of Business. The program he was in focused on identifying and segmenting markets, and required students to put the learning into action by assessing the viability of a proposed business concept.

For his classroom assignment, Ohen created a survey to determine if people in Houston would be interested in a gourmet doughnut shop. He comments, “Once I realized that the market actually existed, I went through the process of making the business plan, which was good because everything I was doing while I was in school was applicable to the plan, and it all worked out.”

A family lesson learned

Ohen's business training started when he was just a young boy. While still in elementary school, his father fave him a programming book and told to study it. This later, sparked his interest in information technology, robotics, and entrepreneurship.

By the time he was 12 years old, Ohen was making money selling snacks and desserts to his classmates. Even while in college, he started a marketing company to help promote school and fraternity events on campus.

He recently told CNBC Africa, "My father has always been an entrepreneurial man and I believe the lessons he taught me earlier on in my life was my foundations for my entrepreneurial paths."

More than just donuts

Ohen says that his father taught him the concept of diversification. In another words, he learned early on that it's a smart idea to own a portfolio of different types of businesses.

So, he decided to pursue his first love - IT infrastructure and services. The IT company he started is called Alfa Dando, and the first brand he launched under that umbrella is Wireless NG. During the past three years, his biggest client has been the Nigerian Gas Pipeline and Transportation Company. But his goal is to expand the company further to other African countries and to the US.

But the donut business is still very strong, and Ohen has no plans of giving that up any time soon!

For more details about Glazed The Doughnut Cafe - located at 1333 Old Spanish Trail, Houston, TX and 13429 Briar Forest Drive, Houston, TX - visit www.eatglazed.com