I recently started my own at home cake business called Crown of Maine Cakes. The problem is I've only gotten a handful of customers so far. I think I've done a pretty good job on my website www.comcakes.com but no one has signed my guestbook. I do understand the mistakes in my previous cakes but I think I'm a decent decorator. I would really appreciate some opinions, suggestions and comments. I would love it if people could sign my guestbook.

Thanks for any help
Renee

I've added some cake examples.

I have visited your website, and it is very nice. According to your intro to your business, you have just opened in May. I would not be discouraged about not having lots of hits, or customers yet. These things take time. I have had my site up since Feb/Mar. I get lots of hits, but not many calls. Sometimes people are just browsing and don't get to the guestbook pages. Don't put too much into not having lots of signatures in your guest book. Keep up the good work, and keep decorating.

First, it takes a little time to get the word out. It will get there.

I like the slideshow on your site. I might suggest on future pics that you be aware of the background. There is some "clutter" in the background of some of the pics.

What kind of marketing/sales/advertising are you doing to get people to your website and shop?

I agree with both previous posts -

1) Don't get discouraged - - - 2 months is a very short time in a startup business.

2) Make your photos look a bit more professional - aim high with the look. Put all your cakes on a nice cake board or platform rather than a plastic cake carrier, and set up a "studio" for taking pictures. For me (when I remember to do it) it's a white sheet tacked to the wall and draped over a chair so there's nothing in the pic but a cake.

3) If you're really serious and want a lot of hits to your website, you can pay (don't know how much) to make sure you're indexed on the web. For example, if somebody googles "cakes" and "Maine" your business would be listed. I tried with crown of maine cakes and nothing came up. You can also visit local businesses with websites and see if you can put their link on yours in exchange for them adding your link to theirs.

4) Put a counter on your website so you don't have to rely on your guestbook to know how many people have visited your site. Some free ones here:
http://easy-hit-counters.com/

Good luck!

I don't have a business (yet ), but I believe it takes time and keep networking... e.g. I babble on to my hairdresser all the time, and I just brought in my photos and voila she and her assistant will be ordering from me next month...

as for your website...
it's really nice, however, check your keywords and metatags, when I did a google search your about page came up on the first search page, which is good, but you want your home page to come up.
also, I would advise putting you best photos as your category icons for you gallery - you have a very limited time to get people attention.

very nice cakes, by-the-way!!!

Don't be discouraged it does take time. Do you have supportive friends and family? Mine have signed my guestbook like they were customers to get me started.... having said that seeing i've been doing all the birthday cakes for family for the last 3 years, they technically are customers!

I use any excuse these days to do a cake and if I can't get someone to order one, then I present it as my gift to them, it allows me the practice and gives me a new photo to put on my website (which I've just set up properly as well).

Keep plugging away, always carry cards with you, bring it up in conversation as much as possible, give cards to family and friends who will pass them on, my sister and our "adopted" (as we adopted each other) mum both show everyone at their work my pictures, website and constantly rave about my stuff.... so try to get your family working for you too!

Don't get discouraged yet! It took my business about 6 months to really take off, and then I had so many orders, that I had to learn how to plan my time better!

Get some business cards printed - hand them out everywhere, leave them in offices, hang them on community/school billboards. If your community has Christmas craft sales starting in October or November, rent a table (the ones I rented were only $20) - you don't have to sell anything, but hand out business cards, flyers, have a portfolio on the table, and have samples (minicupcakes work realy well). And be out in front of the table, introducing yourself, and offering the samples.

Word will get out! Good luck on your new venture!
Nicole

First of all.. OMGOSH, you are so pretty!

I love your website--it is easy to navagate and I really think your cupcakes are wonderful. Keep it up, it takes time.

Don't give up! I looked at your cakes and you have real talent! I think getting started in a business takes some time. Myself I have not sold any cakes (yet! ) but I think the previous advice on telling everyone and having business cards will pay off. Carry a "brag" book with you and whenever possible show cake photos to people. Also I read on another thread that some people baked small cakes and brought them in to businesses with some of their cards and gave them a complimentary cake to get their names out. I brought a cake down to my local parent link office and now they are using a photo of my child with my cake in their ad! I was thrilled! Good luck to you!

Your site is very nice and easy to navigate. I really like it.

I just wanted to suggest to take the description of the cupcake bouqet off. It makes you sound like an amature and almost like you don't know what you are doing, when that's not the case at all. I had the same problem too. I would tell my customers what was wrong and how I was trying to learn to fix it on certain projects. Not smart. One of my clients told me straight up "Melissa, you are your own worst critic and if you wouldn't tell people, no one would ever notice" I have since stopped and they were right.
Also, I don't know what the cost of living is for your area, but girl--you need to raise your prices. I raised some of my prices and have more orders now. ( I still only do a few a month though because I'm busy with family life) Make sure you are making a profit and that you are not wasting your time. You need to get paid what you are worth in order to get orders to start coming in. Think of it this way, would you want a steak dinner in a restaurant for $5 or the one for 28.00. It might be the same kind of meal but people are going to question the quality of the steak and the restaurant if they are serving steak dinners at $5.
Martha Stewart couldn't sell her pies at $9 each. She dropped the prices to $7 and then to $5 and then lower. NO ONE would buy them. So she raised the prices of the same pies to $15 and they started to sell, pretty soon she couldn't keep up with demand and those same pies were selling out at $55. People were going crazy over them. Same pies, just costing more money. You do good work, charge them for it.

I went on your website and know that you will be successful in your cake business b/c you have the talent and passion for cake decorating.

I agree with mkolmar, you need to raise your prices so that it is worthwhile to you.

Do not rely on your guestbook entries on whether or not your business is doing well or not. Personally I don't really see the reason for a guestbook for a business they seem more appropriate for personal web pages and blogs. Like someone else noted I would add a counter to your site.

Remember that a majority of people don't totally rely on the internet to find local business. It's all about word of mouth.

I need to ask you why you don't decorate wedding cakes? You might find that there is a great need out there for them. I love doing wedding cakes. Maybe if you advertised wedding cakes you would get more business. Just a thought.

I have had my business for 2 years Oct. 1st of this year. The whole first year was a growing year. I had another job and just worked the business part time or I would never had made it. Now my business is booming and I have to turn down orders. Just give it some time and stay with it and it will grow.

please don't get down. ANY buisness takes time to grow. you have just been at it a few months. You are much braver than I am I have cards printed up but I won't pass them out. I still don't feel ready. You have started and you will see that soooon you won't have enough time to do them all. You will need an assistant lol. great cakes and great work....

Thank you everyone for your kindness and insightful wisdom. I agree with a lot of what you've suggested. Sometimes the answers are right infront of your face but you need someone to point them out.

I definately agree that I need to take some better pictures without "clutter" in the background. I think I will set up a place to take just cake pics.

I would love to raise my prices but it just won't sell around here. I live in Northern Maine where the biggest thing around is Wal-Mart. Local places sell there cakes for half the price I sell mine. Already I had a woman tell me that she could just go to Wal-Mart and get a $10 cake. And alot of cakes are sold to family and friends so it's hard asking for more money considering I've been giving them free cakes for years. If the business gets better in a year or so I'll probably raise the prices on the 3-D ones since you can't get that anywheres else.

I would love to wedding cakes but I consider myself a beginner. It's expensive buying the different things for wedding cakes; seperator plates, dowels, stands, etc. I need to make more money first in order to purchase that stuff. I will do small weddings and anniversaries.

I never even realized that writing about my mistakes with the cupcake bouquet would seem buzz killing. It's true though, if someone explained their mistakes with some product you would be turned off to it and think they don't know they're doing. I am my own worst critic. I can point out all the flaws in my cakes but I think it's helped me grow and understand what I need to work on.

Originally I had put my best cake pics for the cake titles in the gallery section but my sister thought the icons looked better. I think I'll put it back the way I had it.

I love the suggestion of giving free cakes to help get the business going. I make free cakes for every holiday so why not give it to business thst might order a cake next time. I was thinking about doing the local craft fair in October. Except I was complicating it by thinking I would have to make like 50 cakes in two days. I do have fliers and business cards so that would work out better just to pass that stuff out and maybe have cake samples or a few cakes to sell or display.

I'll do some updates tonight on my website correcting some mistakes.
Thank you everyone so much!!!!! I love honest opinions and sometimes my family doesn't help.
Again thanks!

send the link to all that know you or of you and request they sign your guest book.

A lot of people are afraid to break the ice! or be the first.

I would consider phot shop type of editing for a few of those photos that have extraneous stuff around the cakes. You wan the cakes to be the star attraction and have a presentation style photo. Edit out the magazines, kitchen tools and if possible the tupperware cake carriers, they all detract from a professional presentation. You cakes are fine, it is the presentation you need to tweak.

I really liked your website!! The colors made me feel comfortable.I agree with the comment about better professional pictures although I should take my own advice also.Hee!Hee! It took about a year fro my business to really take off.Word of mouth has been my best advertising!!!

First of all, congrats on starting your own business. I just went to your home page and was looking for where to sign the guest book. I could not find it. Then, I noticed that I had to scroll over at the bottom of the page to the right---there it was!! Maybe people are just not taking the time to move the page to the right because you can see all your pics and contact info without it........just a thought. And maybe you could make your pics look a little more professional by taking the date out of the pic and clearing the counter behind it, setting it up on a nice background, etc. You have great cakes, you want the customer to notice ONLY them when they are looking. HTH and good luck with your business.

I agree that you should price your cakes on what they are worth not what Wal-Mart charges. I just picked up separator plates, etc from a customer whose wedding cake I did on Saturday. She said everyone loved the cake and that they were asking for my number. She said that they usually get their cakes from a Paddy Cakes (I love their cakes ) but they were impressed with how fresh and pretty my cakes were and that they would be using me from here on. I am at the same price structure as this bakery - and they aren't cheap - and no one seems to have a problem paying for my product.

BTW, I started out by sending sample platters to work with my husband, brother, sister, mother, cousin, neighbors. Anyone I could get to take one. Plus my husband isn't allowed out of the house without his cake book. This has really helped business.

Keep your head up!!

I'm not offended by anything anyone has to say. I appreciate everyone's opinion. How much would you charge for
sheet cake
3-D cakes
Heart
Cupcakes
and whatever else?

I forgot to mention that my advertising is word of mouth and flyers at local business in the nearby towns. I have 500 business cards made up. Every cake I've dropped off I've given them a couple. And my parents and in-laws have been passing out the business cards to people they know and work with. So far all my customers have come from my mothers workplace.

I'm confused... so you don't do wedding cakes?

Ooooh you're so pretty!
Here's my experience (and believe me, I'm no expert). I started out strictly word of mouth. As my orders came in, I got a site and started really building a portfolio among other things. I agree with everything that has been said about pics and also your prices. Don't ever think that you aren't worth more because no one else will either. Before I got into weddings, I was asked all the time to do them. I never told anyone that I wasn't capable of doing them but I wouldn't take an order 'cause I was intimidated by them. I made up excuses not to do them...and this was my 1st year of doing cakes. I understand your fear but in order to grow, you will have to compete. Make yourself unique. Offer something that maybe Walmart doesn't have and then put your foot into whatever it is they do have. All diamonds are rough in the beginning...and you have the ability to shine right where you are. And get paid what you're worth. You don't have to jack your prices up, you can gradually increase as your demand increases. But don't let anyone make you feel that you are 2nd best. If you travel a bit out of your area, take some material with you to leave in places. Visit your bridal shops and hair dressers. Marketing is everything. Sometimes you can't always depend on word of mouth...you have to go out there and shout...I'm here! Oh and I have a guest book and chose not to put it on my site. I'm lucky to get comments left. LOL But I can set it up so that I'll know how many people viewed my pics. So don't get discouraged. Sometimes being a big city trying to decorate can be just like being in a small town....with so many people decorating, you can go unnoticed. Keep your head up, the fun has just started. LOL

ps. www.vistaprint.com ....my best friend.

Remember too, there's an easy way to turn down an order without having to say I don't think I can do that yet, and that is to tell people you are booked. This is a good way to ensure you don't put the customer off your abilities without having to take on something you aren't ready for. I like to experiment on designs etc when I make gifts, particularly if it's a surprise gift, this way, you get the practice, there's no pressure if it doesn't come out right, because no one knew what it was supposed to look like anyway and it gives you the experience then to maybe want to do it or feel you are able to do it when someone orders a similar item.

HTH

Hey there

Another way to get word of mouth out (And I would only do this if you are legal) is go to the Chamber of Commerce in your area!

Its a GREAT place for networking, bring tons of business cards, and after your first couple of meetings when you are comfortable enough with the people there...bring in some samples! mini muffins, cookies, anything that you have made to get your name and reputation out there.

Those meetings are crawling with party planners, lawyers, bridal shop owners...all different types of businesses that would be graet to get to know. Not to mention..they can help with your "word of mouth" advertising, and it would raise your level of professionalism. (and that never hurt anyone

don't be discouraged..its all a learning experience...

"bake it, and they will come.."

Good Luck!!

That's so true, Chqtpi! Through my research, I did find that too. They have meetings and are a great networking tool. Also your local SBA and SCORE. Their sites are loaded with info too. But do this only if you're legal. (like Chqtpi said!)