Hi,
I was wondering if some of you ladies could give me your honest opinion please!
I am from a fairly small town in Scotland and started doing this cake thing for fun exactly a year ago. I have everything I have ever made in my photo gallery, so not a lot. Thing is, I have done a couple for friends for cash now and my home situation is at a point where I need to get a part time job or set this up as a business properly so I dont have to worry about getting reported. I have 2 small children, one of whom is disabled and I have to do a lot of school runs and hospital appointments so the idea of working from home on something I enjoy reall appeals to me! I have an excellent book about all the legalities involved and I dont see it being a problem - but -
As you all are professionals in this field could you please give me your opinion on whether the quality of my cakes would be worth it or if I should stick to doing it as a hobby.
Any advice much appreciated!
Thanks, Julie
You do extremely nice work, and I don't see why you couldn't do this as a business! Did you ever see that film on the BBC 'Ángel Cake'- if she could do such lovely work in the pit she lived in, then I should think you would have no problem at all (yes, i realise it was a programme, but heavens what a chaotic mess!)?! Good luck if you decide to go for it, just make sure you charge enough to make it as a business and not a glorified hobby!
Hi, I am not a professional but do have a couple of friends who are starting with their professional businesses, I have to say they are extremely good but as they used to say it's about practise, every cake you make, gets better and about the time/concentration you put into, and as I always see with my cakes, the little details you add, like handcut letters who are for example the Spiderman-logo-letters, make it look special and well-finished.
Your cakes look really nice, certainly good enough to sell, and also very nice finished, very neatly (don't know if that is the right word), and i think that is very important if you want to start selling them.
And from you home situation i think this would be ideal for you, so yeah go for it!! And after 20 cakes more you should see what you could do!!! 
Good luck!!
Lara
Dear Julie
You're thinking about whether to make the big step in terms of doing your hobby as a professional. I did this two years ago, whilst working as a teacher, which I still do. It's not that big a step - first register yourself with inland revenue and your local council - mine doesn't charge and no-one came to visit.
Start taking really good photos of your cakes - yours are obviously done with a good camera, but you need to sort the backgrounds - either use drapes or blank them out. Then get yourself a web-site made. I use dreamweaver and make my own - you can get a cheap copy of dreamweaver off ebay if you don't want the latest version, mine is from the 1990s and is fine (www.emmascakes.co.uk)
Get yourself some business cards - plenty of internet sites do them for free, I paid extra to have an image of my cake on them rather than a generic cake image.
From your gallery some of those cakes are perfectly good enough to sell - the one for your Nana's birthday for example. Only put images on your web-site that are perfect or pretty damned near and soon enough you'll build up enough to start linking people to it - about ten images? I have a link to my web-site on the bottom of all my emails.
Business will grow slowly so be patient and don't compromise opn the way. I decided early on that I was going to make few cakes but make ones I could charge a lot for - wedding cakes. Not interested in doingchildren's birthday cakes as I still work as a teacher so my spare time needs to be spent doing high value items.
I have to go as my darline dog is whining to go out. I know I've been blunt here - you did ask for it and I'm helping as we're both UK based and your work is good
Emma
Thanks everyone for your comments.
Emma, your cakes blow me away and thank you very much for the advice. If you don't mind I may PM you for some advice sometime. I know I need to get the backgrounds sorted out on the photos and be very critical when picking any to advertise my business. Its so interesting to chart my progress as I have posted every cake in the order that I made them so that gives me hope I can improve more. I start evening classes at college for a year in Cake Decorating come August.
I think I am going to go ahead with it. I had a look on my council website and inland revenue. I don't really have anything to lose. If it works out, great, if not at least I tried! I am not working just now and any extra income is a bonus and I love decorating as it relaxes me and makes me think about something other than the children!
Thanks again,
Julie (soon to be registered owner of Taylor Made Cakes!)
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