Cake Decorating Supplies

Archive for the ‘Cake Decorating Business’ Category

Of course you don’t want to fail or to invest too much time and money into the business until you are sure it will show some return. So here are a few tips for you to follow.

Firstly, it is important for you to be passionate about what you want to do before you consider starting a home based cake decorating business. If you are in a business that you are not wholeheartedly in love with, it will never go well as you just won’t have the drive and enthusiasm required.

Things to think about include considering whether you are going to form a limited company (I’d try it without first), will you need any premises, an accountant, a business bank account? If you call yourself ‘Luscious Cakes’ people might be weary if you ask for cheques to be made out to ‘Jane Smith’.

Make sure you have enough equipment to make all those cakes and that you have sourced a good place to get your cake decorating supplies quickly and cheaply.

It’s very important to work out your costs for all the different types and sizes of cakes you could be making in your cake decorating business. This is one of the most difficult things you will have to do but will be the key to your success. Assuming you are going to start your cake decorating business up locally, are you going to deliver the cakes and what would be your radius and delivery costs for this.

Decide on your advertising/marketing structure and a budget and stick with it. You may wish to start small and only work by referrals from family and friends, in which case you won’t need a large budget but do try and get some flyers done so people can give these out locally for you. Some decent flyers and a few business cards are an absolute must for any new business if you want to look professional and you will find them  useful anyway.

Word of mouth is by far the best way to get repeat business and this will blossom over time as word gets around! Get yourself networking; tell people what you are doing as they are unlikely to guess! If you are outgoing, try the business networking groups in your local area.  Basically, these are groups of local businesses that meet regularly for breakfast to exchange ideas and business referrals. It’s a bit like having a free sales force working for you. You will need to be committed to attend regularly and to keeping your ears open for work for other members but that’s not hard and it’s an excellent place to drum up business.

Do not forget the Internet as a marketing tool. You may not sell from it, but you can put pictures of all your wonderful cakes and contact details on there, in fact, a portfolio of work is a very good idea. That way, instead of having to post out expensive glossy brochures, you can just point people to the site. The pages need not be wonderful as long as they do the job, but do choose your key words carefully.

Lastly, try and get some written testimonials from happy customers and include extracts on your web pages and in your flyers. This gives people confidence that you can do what it says on the tin. So, have fun and plan your new cake decorating business carefully. remember, it’s not a hobby now, it’s a business and you should expect to make a profit.