Starting a Home Baking Business in 2020/21! My TOP 10 Fears
hey guys welcome back to another video today we are going to be talking about starting a business and my 10 fears that i had when starting my business so this is relevant to 2020 2021 i started my business in 2020 for those of you that don't know i signed it in may 2020 so right in the middle of covid and i'm going to be giving you all of my fears because there's quite a lot of things that stop people from starting a business and i just want to give you my insight and kind of like my advice on each of those subjects and how you can kind of overcome them because it does get better and you just gotta push through any issues that you have and just try and think of positives because a lot of the time these fears are just you being too scared to take the plunge and start a business because it is quite a big deal so i've got my 10 things written down here grab yourself a drink i've got a cup of tea and we're going to get right into it so if you haven't already please like and subscribe make sure you hit the bell if you want to hear about all my new baking videos i upload three times a week so there's quite a lot of content coming out and i have lots planned i have a big long list of videos that i need to film because people keep requesting various things so there is a lot more coming up so we're going to get in to these fears so number one is probably the thing that most people are going to be thinking of and that is money loss so depending on what your situation is whether you aren't employed or whether you already have a job that can differ in terms of this fear so basically when i started my business i was in a secure job and it was well paid in accounting and but i wasn't enjoying it because i've covered and i decided that i was gonna quit and start my own business i didn't know whether this was gonna go very well it could have completely flopped and been a waste of money for one and a waste of time and obviously once you quit your job there isn't necessarily any opportunity to go back so that can be quite a big fear for people so i would recommend getting in some practice before to make sure that it is definitely something you want to do and also preparing yourself like i didn't really prepare myself in terms of monetary um commitments i had my bills that i pay every month and i just i made sure that i did enough notice to be paid and then i started the business two weeks before so that i was getting orders prior to leaving um but i guess for me i just winged it if i'm honest but i would recommend if you are thinking about doing it especially with covid at the moment because it has been going on for quite a while i definitely recommend getting yourself in a financially viable situation so that maybe you do your job part-time you try and reduce your hours if you're thinking of starting your own business or you get a separate part-time job which i did in october because i wanted to get a bit of extra money and covered was still going on um so i got a part-time job but now i've quit that and i'm doing baking full-time so i definitely recommend doing that even if it's just for the first few months until your orders pick up and you know you're getting noticed by people and then your business will then pick up and you might not need the part-time job but yeah just think about your options in terms of money whether you can afford to not have that income because if you have a partner i don't but if you have a partner they might be able to like subsidize the money that you're losing or the money that you don't have so yeah you have to think about the money that you might lose work out your bills all that kind of thing to make sure how much you need to earn before you then start this business so the next one is your skill set so obviously a lot of people worry that once they've made a few orders if they aren't going to get any better are they going to progress are they going to be good enough to get lots of orders in a month rather than a few um and i think i mean i've heard this a lot from like either comments or just people messaging me saying you know i haven't got any orders is it my fault um is it my skill set and it usually isn't i mean there it's such a saturated market at the moment especially because everyone is starting businesses baking businesses in lockdown it is such a popular thing at the moment so because it is so saturated you're gonna have little lulls where you don't have as many orders and with covid and the restrictions changing constantly you can't necessarily blame that on yourself because at the moment people can't have gatherings so they're probably not going to be ordering big cakes so that would be why your cake orders are going down highly likely and it might also be your skill set but if you think that your skill set isn't good enough then i would just recommend getting more practice in i mean i thought that i was good when i started and then in the past month i've really seen an improvement in my cakes and that isn't me being like big headed but i can really see a difference and it's because i'm putting more like quality time into them um and there's a lot more enjoyment there i think which has grown with it um i absolutely love it now so i just love putting in that effort and spending time on cakes and the skill comes with that and the more cakes you make the better you're going to get so yeah i would just definitely recommend just learning as much as possible watching youtube videos just building your skills to a point where you have learned quite a few different things and then you can apply that to when you're making cakes and when you're making cupcakes brownies and test out different recipes just perfect things to a point where you're happy with them um so the next thing is business and paperwork so this is to do with not knowing what you're doing in terms of paperwork is basically this fear so i was in this position and now i seem to be the complete flip where i'm making videos about having all my paperwork sorted for my inspection getting five stars i sell business um like spreadsheets and stuff on etsy now and it's like i went from worrying that i did not have the paperwork skills and like they weren't up to scratch and that my inspection was going to go badly whereas now i'm on the opposite side where people are asking me to sell my spreadsheets and to sell my um kind of knowledge on paperwork because they think that it is to a skill where it's good so i would definitely just do your research do your research on what you need so give yourself a list of everything that you need to have ready for your inspection and everything that you need to keep records of on a daily basis and just try and make it as easy for you as possible because you're the one that has to fill out all this paperwork every day you're the one that has to maintain it no one else does so if you make a spreadsheet and it makes your life 100 times easier or whether you have a paper version and no digital documents and you find that paper version of your paperwork is much better then do that so i personally like to have both so i have spreadsheets and then i also have written paperwork i just like to have two logs i don't know why i'm just very organized and i like to have a they're slightly different so like my spreadsheet log is for the whole year so it will have just indefinitely all my orders and then i have paperwork logs which are like monthly items and like my temperature check are all printed out um and i just write them in just because i find that i'm not going to go and type in a temperature into a spreadsheet when i check the fridge i'm going to write it down because that paper is going to be near the fridge so it's just making sure that things are in the easiest place for you to keep maintaining them um i also have all my paperwork in terms of recipes i have them all printed out and i rewrote them because certain ones i tweaked so i've got all my recipes written out so that whenever i make a cake or a brownie box i can just take that recipe out of my folder and it's right next to where i'm actually baking so it's a lot easier for me to locate i'm not having to go on my computer or get my phone out i can literally just get out the folder easily enough so the next one is money loss in terms of supplies so the first one was money loss in terms of changing job so this one is more so about buying equipment so a lot of people think that you have to have the fanciest item possible and i mean i thought this originally i wanted a kitchenaid since forever um but i felt like i had to have it the first week i started my business i didn't get it until about two months later and the only reason i did that is because i had a hand mixer and it used to get really hot whenever i was mixing because i was doing it for too long it wasn't built for that kind of thing um it was meant it was like a five pound hand mixer so it wasn't built for big batches of cake and brownies so i decided that i was gonna go for a more expensive mixer and that's just because i am in accounting so i kind of worked it all out and i worked out that i would rather buy the kitchenaid that i know i'm going to buy even if there are cheaper options out there i wanted to buy that whether it's in a year or whether it's now because i like the way that all the appliances work and i can have it in my house in a couple of years and i can interchange attachments and stuff like that but i wanted it anyway and i thought well if i'm going to spend 100 or 200 pounds on a different machine then that's 100 or 200 that i could put towards the kitchenaid in a year so i might as well buy now that was my thinking but if you don't need it for the appliances so if you don't if you're not bothered about all the attachments so when i move out i'd quite like the pasta maker and the blender that attaches onto it but if you're not bothered then i would definitely recommend like the k-mix or even some of the cheaper options because if you're only looking for it to be a mixer then you definitely don't necessarily need a kitchenaid despite how much i love it it is the more expensive version so i wouldn't like tell you that you need it because you definitely don't there are so many cheaper options which work just as well but i just wanted it for the baking and the kitchen kind of style of it not just for my work also for like personal stuff so i that's the reason i got that one but i definitely wouldn't recommend going crazy on supplies because a lot of people worry that they're going to spend loads of money on stuff to start their business and then they're actually not going to make enough money back and unfortunately when you start any business there's going to be some outgoings before you make any money that's the way that it works you have to put money into the business in order for it to start actually producing money back and getting that interest and then getting orders so i definitely think you need to consider how much money you have to put into the business prior to starting it and then you can decide what things you can buy what's most important so say you already have a hand mixer then you might do what i did where i thought it was more important to buy things like boxes and like cake boards and then i waited until i had the money to buy the mixer because i waited two months where i knew that i had had more orders so i was able to commit to it because i felt like the business was going well whereas again you don't want to spend 500 pounds on a mix so that it's only for your business and then you decide in a month that you don't like baking and you're not going to have your own business anymore so you want to make sure that it is a permanent decision because when you're spending that much money um this goes for anything um even like redoing your kitchen some people redo their whole kitchen which i would definitely recommend maybe a few months down the line but if you're not sure then i'd recommend going for all the basics because things like turntables spatulas a lot of them and even scrapers you can get the cheaper version and they are just as good but i just like some of the branded items for their special touch that they have um and like certain nozzles things like that but i definitely don't think you need branded everything it's not essential and it's surprising how much you can do with the appliances that you have and a lot of people think they need a separate fridge and you don't you just have to have separate shelves so again that saves you money because you don't need to be spending money on separate fridges and freezers and all of that another one is your hygiene rating a lot of people worry about this i get so many messages especially since i did that video on my hygiene rating where people say like i don't know whether i'm gonna pass is this okay is this okay i've had people sending me photos of the kitchen where they say like is this layout all right and i would definitely just say don't worry about it a lot of the time you have nothing to be worried about they are there to help you and a lot of their stuff is advisory obviously if you have a really dirty kitchen and you've got like pests running around then that's probably gonna fail you but if you have a clean kitchen you're organized you have all your paperwork in order all of your procedures then i can't see why they wouldn't pass you obviously don't hold me to that because i don't know what it takes to get a four but you will definitely be getting a reasonable score four or five if you have a reasonable kitchen you've got your paperwork in order i've all the people that have messaged me have always been fives so it seems like as long as you have all that stuff in order there is no reason why you wouldn't get a five so i would definitely just recommend not worrying yourself about it it's really easy to say because i've done it now but i knew how much i worried about it i literally cleaned my kitchen from head to toe literally scrubbing the floor because i was so worried that she was gonna look in like all the little cracks and little spaces and be like oh there's a bit of dirt there um which is just crazy they obviously wouldn't do that but that was just me panicking so i would definitely say try not to panic because it's a lot like calmer and less stressful than you can imagine so try not to worry about your hygiene rating it will be fine if you have any questions just let me know down below or feel free to message me on instagram because i'll just reply um i reply to lots of people so um yeah any questions let me know so the next one is impressing people family or customers and so a lot of people worry that their family are sort of like making fun of them i mean mine i wouldn't say made fun of me um because that is quite harsh i would hope that no one does that um but mine were sort of questioning whether it was gonna turn into anything they were completely supportive but like my dad said oh you know are you going to sell 20 customers this was when i was making loads of stuff for my family to try out and i was like yeah i'm going to like start this business and you know it was i just quit my job to do this like it was a complete switch so it wasn't like i'd been planning it for months i literally started the business two weeks before and then i went right i'm quitting my job i can't do this anymore um so it was quite a sharp decision but obviously now i make all my family cakes and they commission me to do it um and obviously i have a lot of orders and i have etsy i have my own website like it's quite established obviously it's not big i'm not sort of saying that but it's established in the first six months and i think they're quite surprised and i would definitely say don't worry um if they are taking the mick out of you then just prove them wrong like if anyone whether it's customers because i mean some people get funny about pricing and they might say oh that's that's not right um you know you're charging your customers too much don't believe what someone else says you are the business owner you make the decisions if you want to price something the way that you want to price it there will be someone that pays obviously if you're cheaper then you might get more people paying but then you sort of run yourself into the ground because you're overworking yourself and then if you're too overpriced you might get less orders but it's all a learning curve you will learn your pricing you will learn how to respond to people how to advertise all of that comes with having the business for a certain amount of time so i would definitely say just focus on yourself and the business don't worry about whatever people think obviously if you get criticism or feedback then try and take it constructively because obviously a lot of the time they don't know your trade so like a customer won't necessarily know what it takes to bake cake so there is a lot that goes into it um so yeah try and take things as constructive obviously if there is a negative bit of feedback we'll get on to that because i have got a subject on that but yeah just try and remain positive and put yourself in the business first so the next one is actually bad reviews so i would say it's gonna happen at some point you can't please everyone unfortunately um touchwood luckily for me it hasn't happened yet um but it will happen at some point it's inevitable when you're running a business and it won't necessarily be the worst thing in the world you might just get someone saying you know it was great but this if you could change would be great um you know it's not going to be that they completely hate it they might just have some tips and you just want to take that professionally and just accept that feedback and then just try and resolve it if it is an actual issue then i'm gonna actually do a video on that because that can be quite complicated um but if it is just feedback then just try and take it on the chin and learn from it and yeah don't let it get you down because i see so many things in cake forums where people are really kind of like let down by negative feedback and just try and take it positively because it is difficult and running your business is difficult there is so much that goes into it and i think some people don't get enough credit for the amount of hard work that they do and i know that bakers in general do a lot of hard work and the hourly wage might not necessarily be that great but you put everything into your work so just try and take it positively so the next one is pricing so if you haven't already i'm gonna put a ticket for my pricing video um because this is a big fear of people's because they worry that they're not pricing right that they're not gonna get any customers or they're worried because they're getting too many orders and they can't fulfill them or they can't um fit in the amount of people that want to order which is potentially because you're um you it can be one of two things you're either very skilled and you're in very high demand or sometimes if you're pricing too low then you will get a lot more orders but you might not necessarily be paying yourself the right hourly rate and like the right cost for your ingredients and just having a break um because you're kind of overworking yourself and i would just say do your research on pricing work out an hourly rate work out your costs just make sure that you're not plucking a number at a thin air just because someone else said that their cake costs 40 pounds it doesn't mean that that's how much yours should cost it all comes into ingredients and how much they charge per hour and this all differs from baker to baker um i mean mine vary from people in my area and i mean they're local so they're gonna vary from someone that's in birmingham or you know scotland so because that's far away from me so just try and focus on your own pricing and do the maths to work it out don't um you know just worry and take someone else's number as gospel um because again in like these cake forums people say what they charge they might put a cake on there and although it is very helpful um it gives you a bit of perspective into the different prices that people charge but it also gives you that difference so people will be commenting someone might say i would charge 50 i would charge 90 i would charge 70. and it just shows you that there is a difference between bakers and you want to charge based on your hourly rate and all of that but that is a whole separate video it's quite complicated but it is not anything to be worried about once you get your pricing sorted you will be away i have finally got mine sorted about two months ago and i'm getting customers based on those prices so i'm not worrying that people aren't ordering because i'm too expensive or anything like that and yeah it seems to have stuck so now i'm just gonna stick to those prices not change them um but yeah it can be worrying and you end up changing them loads of times because you're worried it's either too high or too low but yes make sure that you do all the workings out and then it should all fall into place um so the next one is not enough orders again this fits into the pricing worry usually um and just if you don't have enough orders just try and use your free time to educate yourself so trying new techniques i definitely recommend i've done this in previous videos where i've recommended this um but i would recommend cake dummies because you can practice on them all you're using is icing you don't have to use you're not making any cake and then it means you're not wasting too much money um on however many cake dummies you want to do um in your free time i probably do maybe one a month and obviously because you're just using buttercream is very inexpensive and a lot of the time people can't tell it's a dummy so it means that you're getting your skills out there by trying something new and a potential design that someone might order and it's also not costing you very much and the last thing is losing interest and motivation this is quite an important one because obviously if you don't like your job then i would recommend you don't do it um obviously stick something out if you aren't enjoying it on the first day then it's highly likely that you will enjoy it within you know a month but if you have been doing it for months and you're not enjoying it then you need to change something about it because it's not gonna change if it's been going on for a very long time so just make sure that you're doing everything you can to make it easy for you so like having a routine i find is really good i find baking in the morning is good because i'm very motivated in the morning i don't really want to be baking um in the afternoon but i always find that i quite like to decorate in the evening and that can sometimes be really late depending on when i got the order if it's a last minute one but i do like to get everything baked in terms of like in the oven in the morning so that that's all done and then i feel like i haven't got as much stress because i enjoy the decorating so much so i find that that isn't a hassle for me to do that whenever i'm free but baking i don't like to do in the afternoon so it just it's up to you like if you hate washing up then try and figure out something around that there will be tasks that people don't like i mean again on cake forums people say you know i hate washing up i hate baking i hate the decorating i hate making buttercream or i hate doing fondant there are things that people aren't going to like but you just need to get in a routine to the point where you have it set that you enjoy different tasks at different times of the day and you've got certain things done before you sort of lose motivation maybe after like midday you lose motivation to try and get all the rubbish tasks done in the morning but again like i say if it is just a case of you don't like your job then i would just recommend talking to someone and try and figure out a solution if you look for something else this isn't just for baking this is just in general no matter what job you're doing you shouldn't have to just work and not enjoy it i the fact that the reason i started baking and doing this job is because i didn't like my previous job and i was thinking i'm 21 and i don't enjoy my job how am i going to last another 30 years before i retire if i don't like it now that's what you need to think of so as long as you enjoy your job you'll be able to do it for a long time so yeah i'm rambling now but you know what i mean um but yeah i hope this was helpful and giving you an insight into my fears just showing you that not everything is perfect all the time people do worry about things these are things that i worried about when i started my business and now i don't worry about them at all because i have overcome them i've found solutions and yeah i hope that any of these fears if you guys have any of these then feel free to talk to me about it my messages are always open and i don't mind answering anyone's questions as usual so yeah i hope that this was kind of insightful and helpful to people so that is the end of the video if you did like then make sure you liked and subscribed and hit the bell if you want to see more of my baking videos if you have any requests then please put them in the comments down below because i have a list of videos that i want to do and that i need to do but i also have a list of ones that are requested which i try and prioritize over mine so that you guys aren't waiting too long to see something that you've requested so make sure to comment down below if there's anything that you want to see and i can try and get that done in the next few weeks so i'll see you in the next video bye
2021-01-11 13:16
