Hi all

I've been really into cake decorating for a few years now. I have a part-time "normal" job but for the past few months or so I've been thinking about starting a business to follow my passion (I'm realistic and know the work is hard/long hours/stressful but I at least want to give it a good go). I've made a lot of cakes for friends and family but I'm ready to step it up. I've done a lot of research on the legal side and pricing etc, so I suppose I'm not asking for the usual advice on those issues.

My problem is confidence. I'm a shy and reserved person and I'm finding it really difficult to think of ways to get myself out there. I don't even know if I'm good enough to do this. If anybody would take a look at my portfolio and give me some feedback I would really appreciate it. I don't even believe in myself enough to be able to come up with a name.... I feel silly in case it never takes off. I'm not sure how to get past this mindset. Any words of wisdom?

Thanks for reading.

Hi rebecca!  I looked at your photos and only saw 4 cakes, so hopefully you've made WAAAAAAAAY more cakes than that if you are considering going into business.  Your cookies are cute and so are your cake balls.  The birthday cake that you have posted has nice flowers on it. Did you make those?  Your frosting on that cake is not smooth, but I assume that you do know the basics of smoothing buttercream. From your pics, I can't tell if you have the experience and skills to start actually charging people for cakes, but you do have a good foundation to build on. Never stop learning and practicing! And good luck! 

The actual product is a small part of any business. If you lack confidence but love to make cakes, you will learn to hate doing what you love by taking money for it. You will be crushed 100 ways on any given day.

The way it will hurt the most is when you want someone to love the cake you made, so you price it too low just so they will buy it. They got a bargain cake and will not value it, you will be torn to pieces because they didn't pay what it was worth and they didn't fall in love at first bite.

Once you have the confidence enough to know you can make a great cake with your eyes closed, you don't mind turning away anyone who wants a bargain cake, and you can separate business from personal, THAT is the time to look into opening a business.

Edit - wow, typos

Your cakes are cute( I like the duck in the bath).

As anyone here will tell you the business of caking is oversaturated and cut throat with every housewife in the world it seems turning on ovens to make neighbourhood cakes.

Why spoil a nice hobby you enjoy by getting into all that, especially if you are shy?

Caking could be your downtime from the job you have without the stress and potential hurt from dealing with folk who want a cheap cake.

You need to trawl the gallery on cc to look at the professional competition out there to put the idea of quitting the day job into perspective....just type "Lambeth piping" into the search engine and see what comes up in the gallery and look at the tiered wedding cakes.

Good luck with whatever you decide to do. 

AWhat's the local scene like? Are there already a bunch of other decorators already in business in town? Is there a local buy/sell/trade Facebook page that they advertise on?

I don't know any of the other decorators personally. I live in Hertfordshire, UK... have found some pages of decorators in the area, but the only Herts cake group is pretty much inactive.

Of course, I could just be rubbish at searching on facebook.

Hertfordshire is lovely and if the cake group is a bit quiet you could make some brochures with professional photo's and use dummies to get some real showstopping cakes on them.

Using dummies is a great idea I'd never really considered. Nobody ever asks me for big elaborate cakes so I don't get to practice. Cheers for that.

A business and marketing class would be a good start as well.

All the best to you, and the beauty of dummies is you can re use them and build a super portfolio.