Making Cakes Means Giving Up Weekends Forever?
Business By parismom Updated 4 Mar 2007 , 8:18am by VACakelady
Unfortunately that is the price of owning your own business.It isn't 8-5 mon-fri....however well worth it to be your own boss!!!
Remember, you control your schedule.Block off some weekends. Block off vacations. You can be as busy as you want to be.
Remember, you control your schedule.Block off some weekends. Block off vacations. You can be as busy as you want to be.
True - I really needed to hear that. I was already feeling guilty about not being with my kids enough.
thanks
This is sooo true. Since I've been doing cakes my weekends have been extremely busy. Which I can say is kind of good for me. If not cakes then maybe I'd be out spending money rather than making money. My kids aren't the ones that complain about make cake baking/making weekends. It's my boyfriend 
.
I mostly do wedding cakes. They are finished by Sat. morning. So after delivery, I have the rest of the weekend off.
People ask me all the time why I don't start my own business what am I doing still working a desk job, and you have answered it- weekends!
It doesn't help that I am a single mom so I need the time with my kids and soccer games and camping with the scouts and spending the weekends with them is way more important to me than making sure a stranger has a nice cake. I still do them on occasion but only if the schedule permits. God willing I will still have this talent in 9 years when my youngest is in college and I will set the world on fire then but for now, being mom is number one priority.
Set your own schedule. Have a "pickup by" time on Saturday mornings. That way you are finished by that hour. I like my cakes to be picked up by 10:00am. You can always work around that if a customer has a specific need. The only exception is for wedding cakes and for those I block out certain weekends and weeks for vacations and special events. You'll find out what works best for you!
yeah I know what you mean (and I only do this for friends and family) but I have lots of b-day parties, baby showers etc on Sat and Sun......sort of reminds me that I used to think I wanted to be a Realtor, but then i realized, I would have to work when everyone else wasnt!
I am a secretary during the week but on my nights and weekends, I balance being a mom to 3, grandma to 1 (and soon 2!), and baking goodies for other people. When I want to plan a vacation, I block it out on my calendar and don't take any orders during that time. When my oldest daughter got married, I blocked out 3 weekends so that we could be ready. I ended up turning away probably over $3,000 in income in that time (Sept. '05 was a very busy wedding month here), but the satisfaction my daughter got from Mom not being stressed and harried because she was making everyone else happy was well worth it.
YOU set your own hours, and no one can tell you when you have to work or not work. Only you can. Make it your own. "If you bake it, they will come".
Odessa
It can definitely be a challenge. I teach 8th grade full time and in ordr to have my cakes ready to be picked-up./ delivered on Fridays and Saturdays, I fiond my self in the kitchen EACH night after work for 4-5 hours, and sometimes 8 hors. It really is time consuming but I realize it is a small price to pay so that I can build up my clientele and go full time in the next year or so!
That's why I don't want a bakery in town. If I did this as a business I would prefer to set up something at my home whether it's adding another room to my home or building something separate on my property. I would set it up by "appointements only". That way I'm not tied down the rest of my life.
You have to make time for yourself, you have to take off some time. I will be going on vacation Saturday and I won't be back till March 14. I still work full time and I have cakes pending in my book for when I return. I will deal with it when I get back. After busy holidays I take a week off to get myself back together. I had to learn to say no or have the customer choose another date.
I'm on the other side of it all. I've been working retail forever and the idea of being able to be done on a Sat. after deliveries is exciting, I usually work till 3 or 4pm on sat and sundays. Sundays off? That will be great for me, + being able to set my own weekends and such.
What I've learned to do is take a look at what seems to be my 2-3 most popular cakes and anytime I get a "free" day I make up extras and freeze them so that way when I get orders or last minute orders, I can just thaw them and decorate them. The problem is I don't seem to have many "free" days! 
Oh this is such a fun thread! My daugher (2
was going to be my partner in this deal. One day she told me "I dont' really want to work weekends." I looked at her and said, 'WE DO WEDDINGS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
Yes, my weekends are full. And since I do catering also, I dont' get to just drop the cake off and go home .... I'm there until the buffet is done! That just means hubby and I go to the movies on Tuesday night instead of Saturday night; it means my 14 year old daughter and I do our mommy-daughter time on Sunday afternoon instead of Saturday. But I'm my own boss and get to decide when I want to book. It's easy to block out Sept 22 as the day I'm going to my nieces wedding instead of leaving it open for a booking.
There are pros and cons to everything.
I keep saying i'm going to sit down and make extra fondant or RI flowers and embesslishments one day when i dont have a cake just to have extra's and save time when i do have orders. This has not happened yet but Geesh its a REALLY good idea! 
I got married on a Thursday...but then again, I did my own cake. 
If you have to pay overhead for a rental space, etc to have your business, I guess you have to sacrifice enough weekends to be able to pay your bills. I like the idea of an early pick up time though.
My SIL recently got married and her florist closed at 1pm on Saturday.
Yeah, the weekend thing is a bummer, but that's when the majority of business is.
I have come to the point where I am "closed" Sundays...no orders no deliveries. It's been great. It's one entire day of not thinking bout cakes.
You really do have to pick a day or 2 and make it a "day off".
pretty much. yep.
about giving up weekends
melody
I spread mine out...bake on thursday, assemble friday night, deliver sat. What are weekends? they still make movies???? we are entitled to days off?? hmmmmmmmm....i gotta check this out
My shop is closed on Sunday,Monday and Wedensday.(most of my business is fri-sat)So I work every Saturday.........but ya know what the best part is.... it NEVER bothers me!! Because its my thing...my passion....my love.And when I need off or if Im taking a vacation or what ever........I just close the shop.....I don't have to answer to anyone!! YEAH!!!
i haven't had a saturday off in 7 years....in this biz it's all about fri and saturday.
i do have sunday monday....and only work half a day tues, and wednesday.
i haven't had a saturday off in 7 years....in this biz it's all about fri and saturday.
i do have sunday monday....and only work half a day tues, and wednesday.
Hey sounds like you work the same hours as me! HaHaHa
one day I will really work only these hours and not one minute over!!
mpc
pretty much. yep.
about giving up weekends
melody
Word. 
Saturdays are wedding cake deliveries and Sundays are cake tasting appointments all day long... sometime I get Monday of though.
I work a full time night job with odd working days. I have to work every other weekend so I only get every other weekend "off". Sometimes I have to take time off of work to do wedding cakes, but my "off" weekends are completely consumed with cakes. I have recently started telling customers that I will not do anything on Sundays, that if they need a cake, it has to be picked up on Saturday. It's diffucult to have cakes to do on my work weekends. With my schedule, people have two options, pick up at 8:30-9am or at 5:30pm. I have to sleep during the day and go right back to work. So far I haven't had any major complaints about it.
I don't mind working the weekends, I'd much rather have weekdays off to do my things. Weekends are when everyone else is off and out doing their errands, things are just too crowded. Give me Walmart at 3am, I can't stand going out when everyone else is out there. I'm hoping to actually get a vacation this year, it's been almost 4 years now.
People keep asking me when I'm going to quit and open a shop, and there is NO WAY!! I make a very good living doing what I do, and I'd go nuts if I had to do cakes all day every day. Not to mention benefits... DH is self employed, so someone has to have the insurance.
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