So, I wanna be a baker/cake designer when I grow up.

Not a strange goal, particularly in present company, right? The problem is that I'm kind of already grown up. Not in the too-old-to-start-something-new kind of way. More in the I-have-a-decently-successful-career kind of way. I don't make great money, but I earn a decent living and I have REALLY good benefits. I can't wrap my head around making enough money with cake to justify quitting my job. I'm also in the catch-22 that I've advanced fairly quickly and as I get more responsibility (albeit with more money), I have less time and brain power for baking. I've actually joked with my spouse that my higher ups keep giving me just enough in raises that I'll never be able to quit .

Anyway, no actual problem to solve, just rambling. I'll save money and practice and bide my time. It's just hard to be patient when you've found your passion! Thanks for "listening" and being such an awesome place to come when I'm avoiding the massive piles on my desk and 43 unanswered emails!

Funny- I just posted a message about going back to the day job after being self-employed with another business for 2 1/2 years. My prior FT job was a lot like yours- they kept me on board with better titles & money for years. But eventually I got completely frustrated with it and took the leap of faith to quit and live on less to do what I love. Now that I've found this new passion, it's back to a steady paycheck for a while until I can afford to do this business the way I want.

If you are still happy with your job, then that's awesome!

Yup. That's it. Patience and persistence. When the opportunity presents itself, you'll be ready!

I hear ya sister. I have been in the same boat for sometime now. I have been at my job for 8 years now and all I think about when I am there is cake. It is a great job and it's what I wanted to do, but heart is just not in it anymore. We are getting ready to move into a new house that just happens to have a second kitchen in the basement. Woohoo, maybe this will make it easier for me to really pursue my dream.

I am right there with all of you...what is it about cake decorating that takes over your every thought and totally consumes you? I am so addicted to cake decorating (and CC) that I can hardly think of anything else! My dream would be to give up my day job and just make cakes In the meantime, I will just fatten up my co-workers with my weekly cake creations!

Schooch on over there, girls...I'm in the same boat with you!

I'm a lawyer, 42, making enough money with a publishing company to pay my rent BUT certainly not enough to quit. I also do a lot of volunteer work and take pro bono cases on the side.

I've always been the family dessert baker along with the person who settled disputes. I went to law school because it was fun, might make me enough money to support my kid, etc. However, after 13 years of clients, lawyers, and judges (oh, my!), I've learned one thing for sure: most people in that business are just mean, unhappy, and unethical. We won't even mention the amount of school loans that resulted

Now I just wanna make cookies and cake and see people smile Can't we all just get along and eat dessert? Can I trade cookies for student loan payments? Please?

Last November I started night classes, toward a Pastry Chef degree, and I love it! This is clearly my passion and the plan for phase II of my life (1-40 years = phase I; and 40 - 80 years = phase II).

To date, I've made three paid cakes and I tell everyone that "I'm available...here's a brouchure!" Someday I'm gonna take that big leap, but I'm waiting for that special (terrifying) moment.

Wish me luck

Well, can't say I'm in the same boat on the job thing-I am a housewife right now, but have been trying to find a job somewhere. It has always been hard for me to get a job for some reason. I would like to have my own cake business, too, but I am still an amateur and have only had one paid order-the rest I have done voluntarily for church get-togethers or my sister's kids. There is a huge lot here in town that is being prepped for
(from what I've heard) a shopping center. They have a sign up saying "Lots for sale" call so-and-so number. My husband teased with me saying he was going to call and get me a lot to set up my cake shop
I would like to, but I sure wouldn't have the money to even begin anything. Oh well, maybe the day will come. I am hoping to win Publisher's Clearing House sweepstakes one day LOL

I understand what everyone before me has said. I work in the mental health field, but everyday I am here on Cake Central for HOURS at work. I think about cake all of the time. I know one day God will bless me with my own commercial spot, as I have dreamed, it's just the meantime that's a killer. I know what it's like to know your passion (cake) and be stuck doing something else. But I'm going to hold on until...
To everyone, let's keep caking and dreaming, and one day our dreams will come true!

It seems that here recently, I have been thinking about quiting my job as well. I want to be closer to home so that I can see my husband more often. Since he works and nights and I work days, it is hard for us to see each other. So, I came up with the idea of just baking cakes. Only thing is that I don't know many people in our neighborhood, nor outside of our friends and family. Don't get me wrong I like my job and all, but it is the distance that is getting me. I have to drive an hour and a half to work and then back home.

So I can understand where you are coming from. If there was any way that I could leave my job I would, only thing is that I am the only one there outside of my boss (very small Law Office). If I could work closer to home then that would be great, cause with school and working, I feel that I am not able to do much of anything else. *Lord please send me a sign*

Guess this will only be a dream for me! One that will be long awaited for!

I gave up a job as head wedding cake decorator for a large catering company to go to nursing school, something I'd been wanting to do since high school. (After four years and two student loans, I figured that Business Administration wasn't my bag.)
Now that I'm an RN, I make great money, but the stress is incredible! And 12 hour shifts beat the sometimes 16 hour days we used to pull in the bakery!
Now that I have a great career, I feel the need to go back to school. I'd love to get my Master's, but DH gets to go to school, first, since he's retiring from the Navy in 7 years and has to pick a grown-up job. Meanwhile, I've been looking into local community college programs for Pastry Chef and Catering services and Cooking.
In a perfect world, I could retire from nursing, my goal is to retire as an instructor, and move to Florida and work at the Grand Floridian Bakery as a Pastry Chef in Walt Disney World!! When the grandkids are asked, which grandma do you want to visit...well, the one that works for Mickey Mouse, of course!!!
I wanna do it all!

Ok, let me preface this by saying that I've only recently found my passion in cake decorating and haven't made the leap to doing it to make a living, but, I have had a hand in kicking my loved ones in the rear to follow their passions.

My DP had a job in a desired field, but in an ugly environment. I pushed to follow the true passion and to do find a way to do the job in a way that was morally acceptable. Short story - quit job, started own business and 6 years later I've given up my FT job to help build the company.

My daughter (SAHM of 3) was considering going back to work recently to add to the family's income. Her DH is in the Navy and is NOT paid nearly enough for the area they are currently stationed. I encouraged her to follow her passion and talent for taking incredible photographs. She started as a professional only 2 months ago and has already booked more than 12 shoots! Over half held and ordered, many more on the schedule coming up! She has no family in MD (where they're currently stationed) and had made no friends when she started. She just grabbed onto her faith and made the leap!

I really believe that God wants us to be happy in our work - only then can we truly touch those we come in contact with! Don't doubt yourself or get bound up in fear - trust and take the leap of faith!

As I sit here on CC for the last 4 hours wasting away my night when I could be sleeping, I think the exact same thing!! I dream of the day to open my own cake shop. I was in the corporate world for a few years, and one day I tried to express my feelings on a co-worker abusing drugs and they told me to sweep it under the rug!! So I just quit that day!!! I then became a nanny... which I love to do but I still long for my own shop...Simply Sweet in my little tiny town of 2000 people!! I absolutly long for it. So until that day ladies I toast to you a this: may we be prosperous in our minds as we wait for the opportune time do make the leap!!

I am on Mat Leave and due to go back to work in a month (I live in Canada and get 1 year off). I feel like my office job just lacks the creativity that I need and really want to sell cakes. I need the money to keep the family afloat - but am afraid to take the leap from a steady paycheck! Right now its just my part time job that I don't make much money (just enough to support my hobby)! I would have to sink more money into it to make it work! I feel all your pain - I am really unhappy and feel now is the time to make a change. I'm waiting for the tea house to go up for sale a couple blocks from my house, if it does I am all over it!!!

It would actually be very easy for me to leave my day job. I too am in a "catch-22" whereas I've advanced rather rapidly in my career, however...in the non-prime mortgage industry. Don't hate me. My job is to scruitinize applicants to make sure they truely qualify or NOT and if they don't, then we don't give them money. OR, if it's a bad loan for them, we decline it based off of the Borrower being put into a bad loan. Not standard practice "back in the day" for most companies, but every company I've worked for has practiced "fair lending" my whole career. The problem is that I've risen to a position with an "officer" title, but the higher I go in this industry, the LESS money I make. And add to the fact that companies are laying off people by the hundreds every month, I'll be lucky if I have a job at the end of the week!! I am holding on to my day job as long as I can, but if it leaves ME, then I will be in this cake business full time trying to scrape out a living as best I can. I started doing cakes "full 'part' time" as I call it, 5 months ago when my last company shut down and layed everyone off. Every day is potentially my last in the mortgage industry. As we speak I'm printing up new cards and flyers to post at my "referral source's" shops! Thank God for them...they send me steady business from their overflow!! But I need to step up the advertising if I'm going to do the 20 cakes a week I need to do in order to cover my bills once I get my walking papers from my day job!!

Best of luck to EVERYONE out there right now!

WOW - this thread is REALLY eye opening. For whatever reason I thought I was the only one on here who wished, every now and then, that she could quit her day job (I work outside of the home) and just play with cake, frosting and sugar all day.

I have a full time job with a generous salary that makes it possible for my family to do/purchase alot of things that I am very grateful for (ex. purchasing cake decorating items that I tinker around with!) The job is stressful (over and above the constant threat of lay-offs, which is a thread in itself) and can be very rewarding but doesn't provide the creative outlet that cake decorating/ sugar art/ baking does. For that reason I think it's my hobby of choice right now.

However, I think if I quit my job to do this full time with the intention of paying my bills, it too would turn into a job. And then I'd have to fall in love with some other activity!

PS: I'd argue with anyone who thinks becoming a baker/cake decorator would be less stressful than a typical day job (OK, health care related positions, etc excluded perhaps). I don't know about you all but t's still stressful when decorating for someone other than your immediate family - I know I want whatever I'm working on to be perfect and exactly what I had in my head (which rarely happens *grin*)

Arrrrrghhhhh! I completely know how you feel!!!! I work for the government full-time and try to get as many cakes as I can on the weekends. Frankly, I am tired. But, alas...I live in a small mountain community, of which, cannot support a cake decorator, let alone, a bakery. Sooooooooo, I am stuck in a thankless job, all the while, dreaming of a bakery, some day, when I, too, grow up!! LOL!!!! By the way, I will be 44 in a few months.

When you find the answer to this dilemma, let me know will ya? Preferably BEFORE I TURN 50??!!!???!!???!!

Back when I took my first Wilton classes, in 1990, I began to make cakes for friends and co-workers and they would pay me for them - believe me, I never made any money though. I toyed with the idea of opening a business, but I was single, had a mortage and couldn't jump off into the unknown. I got married, my career took over and cake decorating took a backseat. I still made some cakes for birthdays, showers, etc., but it was for fun. I never felt like I had time to practice or learn new things.

Now, my love of cake decorating of back (thanks to food network and cake central) and once again, I have thought again of opening a shop. My husband just retired 3 weeks ago and I have our insurance so I can't quit yet, but now I'm afraid of the time it will take and actually have a business to run. My dad had his own business for 20 years and never took a vacation. I like to have my fun too, sooooo, I still have quite a lot of thinking to do. When I quit my day job, I'm thinking of trying to go to work as a decorator for a bakery to see how I REALLY enjoy it but I dive in.

I completely agree with you ladies. I have paperwork, books & articles that I've read & held onto for quite sometime now on How to Open your own Bakery/Catering/Event Planning business. Unfortunately, as a single mom I cannot afford to pick up & quit, boy would I love to say, "see ya!" I have been working full time & baking nights, weekends & very early mornings., but, it's not enough to support us w/out my dayjob. I do beleive that if I plan & save, THE dream of owning my own Bakeshop is possible. See I've recently been through a health scare & it opened my eyes to appreciating the briefness of life. Now my goal is research & preparation!!!

I know I shouldn't be grateful for others in angst, but wow, what a wonderful outpouring. As much as I'm sympathetic to the plight of the stay-at-home mom trying to bake with tots underfoot and the "professionals" with the obnoxious customers, it's good to know that us unfulfilled day-jobbers aren't alone! Maybe we should start a support group .

Anyway, thank you thank you thank you to all who listened and shared. I think there's hope for us!

Moptop--you couldn't be more right! I work in higher ed and often find myself lamenting the privileged, entitled students that sit in my office and tell me about what I should be doing for them. I have to keep reminding myself that, although being in business for myself and doing what I love will rock, I'll really just be trading one group of mostly wonderful, but soemtimes spoiled and whiney people for another

I sympathize with whoever it was that posted about commuting an hour and a half to work. I too commute and every day in my car I look around at the other people stuck in traffic with me, wondering if they have dreams like I do of getting rid of the commute and doing something I love. I guess now I know!

If there is ANYONE out there who has taken the leap of quitting the FT job with benefits, vacation, nice toys, etc...to pursue your dream...I WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU!! Has baking been everything you dreamed it would be?

Michelle

I agree. Is there anyone out there that will share their story of quitting their day job to pursue their dream? I also commute for about a hour and a half.

No commuting stories to share here, and I thank my lucky stars!

I do have alot to say about teleworking, however, which I do full time. It's a blessing and something I hope I never have to give up!

I get an get much more accomplished in terms of work, save a bunch of money, impact the environment a lot less than I normally would and have *much* more time to spend with my family.

Anyone else out there telework?

Yes, I have what they call a "remote office," which means I download my work from an Ohio company and complete it at home. Then I upload the final documents for publication. They are US Supreme Court Opinions that require immediate publication, so they don't care who or how they get written; as long as they get done.

It's both really great to be at home and really bad. First, no commute is absolute heaven, and working in my PJ's is quite a treat compared to the suits I wore on hot summer days in a courtroom! However, I have no boss to motivate me, which means I play around a lot and procrastinate!

I finally learned a good balance and I'm grateful to have a flexible schedule where I can do the lawyer/editor stuff to pay the rent but still have time to bake, take Pastry Chef courses toward my Culinary Arts degree, and volunteer.

I, too, would love to hear of a story where someone took that leap of faith and the results (good or bad).