I have had a blogging break. There is good reason for this, in April 2014 I decided to put my baking passion to good cause and start baking as a business. Some of you might have come to the blog through my post about my experience on The Great British Bake Off , the experience made me ill. Really ill. I came down with a nasty bout of Shingles, it was a real wake up call about how the stress of the experience had affected me. I decided there and then I still wanted to follow the path of eggs and butter - but in my own way. While I was off for many weeks, bored (my over active mind never settles even when my body doesn't allow me to get off the sofa), I hatched my plan and it worked. The success of my business Lil's Parlour in less than a year has blown my mind. It has been hard work and a real learning curve. Most of all it has been satisfying and 9 months on I thought I would share my "top 5 pieces of advice" for anyone thinking of starting their own baking business. My little nuggets of advice are from my own experiences in the last 9 months and hope they help you.
1) Make sure you are legal.
I cannot stress this ENOUGH, this is why it is number 1 .. when you are producing food for people you need to cover yourself and your customers. No ifs, no buts. "I only bake for friends of friends" is not a good enough excuse in court. You need to register with your local authority 28 days in advance of a single eclair coming out of your kitchen. You also need to get a copy of Safer Food Better Business and start filling it in. Be prepared to totally re-haul your kitchen, Monday nights dinner cannot be stored alongside Tuesdays cake in the fridge. All your dry goods will need to be stored in Tupperware and date dotted. You will need to think about allergens very carefully, if you have a passion of peanut butter it needs to be stored FAR away from your baking ingredients. I also suggest getting yourself a food hygiene qualification. I completed the Level 3 in 6 weeks online, it was not only enjoyable but a real eye opener. Level 3 is probably excessive for most peoples tastes but here is a great link to the Level 2.
When you bake for other people it's not like when you cook for your friends and family. There are rules and paperwork. Lots of paperwork - can you be bothered with this? Think about it carefully before you commit. It's not an optional commitment. Have high standards from day 1. If you plan to take your goodies out on the road and sell at food festivals or other outdoor events you will need liability insurance. Finally don't forget the tax man .. you have to register as a business (I am a Sole Trader) and read up on tax returns and accounting.
2) Have a vision and stick to it ..
During my first few months trading I tried to be jack of all trades to all people. Bread? Sure! .. patisserie? No problem! It turned out to be a very time consuming operation where I was skipping from one thing to the next, basically I was trying to please people, not myself. I sat down and wrote a vision for what I wanted to produce, what did I enjoy doing the most? For me it was my own recipes done in tray bake and loaf form. From then on I wrote up a menu and stuck to it. I designed a logo and a colour scheme and stuck to it. Cafes are far more enthusiastic about having you on board when you have a clear vision and a clear brand. Also think carefully about your market. Who do you want to buy your cakes? Where do you want to sell them? Do you want to go high end or somewhere in the middle - these are all things you need to write down before you think about trading.
3) Go play up your own end!
Or in other words do NOT copy other people. This is your business and it needs to be your vision. You need to develop your own unique style and recipes and trailing pintrest and facebook pages stealing other peoples ideas is not unique (but shockingly common). Obviously there are lots of things in the baking world that are going to be a copy - a Victoria Sponge for example, 4 ingredients make a sponge .. but how can you make yours slightly different? I use a higher fat content butter to make a lighter, moister sponge and home made vanilla infused sugar. Develop your own unique style of frosting flourishes or flavour combinations .. do something. Just don't stick to the same old same old. You need to stick out in the crowd.
4) Price realistically and learn to say "no".
Remember, you want to run a business. In layman's terms this means you want to make profit. It's a dog eat dog world out there but I have learnt that quality speaks for itself and customers will pay for quality. Do not undersell your talent and your TIME. TIME do you hear? It's not free - it needs to be added in, oh and how about that gas you use from your oven? The sanitizer, the shopping trips, petrol, cake boxes? ... These do not come for free. If you are working out your prices from ingredients alone your profit will be poor, in fact why bother? I am just speaking in real terms here. I think baking is one of the only arts (because it is an art - don't underestimate your talent) that people will offer you £20 for 2 days work. You may be tempted to take it - a sale is a sale after all but I really implore you to say no from day 1 to offers like that. Be realistic about how long something is going to take you and charge accordingly. Also be realistic about how much you can take on, I would now much rather say no than produce a substandard product because I am pushed for time or rushing.
Remind snotty customers that Asda (other supermarket ranges available) does a great range of celebration cakes - they come with free preservatives and e-numbers. If you value yourself and your talent your customers will value you. If someone claims they can get the same thing in Poundland let them go to Poundland. Really.
5) Get ready for the heat ..
As in if you can't take the heat get out of the kitchen. Running your own business is HARD WORK. HARD, HARD work, it is all consuming. It's nice to have a vision of standing the kitchen in a pinny singing along to Doris Day but in reality you will be wearing a white coat, hair net and probably cursing your oven. You will probably become obsessed with finding a really good "allowed" hand cream and the washing up bottle will make you feel a bit queasy. Be prepared to live your business 24/7 to succeed. The cake making will probably be the easy bit, the marketing, social networking, accounting, paperwork, cleaning (oh so much cleaning). Be prepared to be getting up at 5am to finish something off when you didn't get to bed until 1. Be prepared for customers to be contacting you on a Sunday, holiday, 3 in the morning (true story), be prepared for "emergency orders" and last minute changes. In a nutshell it's quite stressful - I say that in a positive way as I get a buzz off stress. I think that's probably one of the reasons I have been successful so far. Also another thing I have discovered is your customers really start to depend on you. It's a great feeling but also a pressure - can you live with this pressure?
Finally .... a bonus tip ...
6) Don't be a stranger.
One of the LOVELIEST things to come out of Lil's Parlour is the amazing array of people I have met also running their own enterprises. When you go to events do talk to people as these people will probably become your support network. Customers become friends and sometimes so can the competition! By surrounding yourself with a network of people in the same boat you can not only exchange ideas but you can support each other when the going gets tough, it leads to repeat business and new customers. It is true to good news travels fast (but bad news travels faster - see tip 1) I have popped a few links to some of their businesses (mostly Facebook pages) below.
