It is nearly the end of the half term holiday and I feel like I haven’t stopped. The week has been manic from start to finish and it is not finished yet. There have been sleepovers, cinema trips and tea out and that has been just the children. For myself, I now have my become a supplier of savoury bakes to a local craft shop/café and I feel like this place is going to be a hit so I am going to work hard and all the challenges it brings. As well as the café, I have a sponsorship to sort out so that I can start writing for the company. I have some ideas in my head about what to write about but I need to sort out the fine detail. The webshop sales are picking up now especially after I shared the Valentine Chocolate Oreo Brownie Heart photo which produced a couple of enquiries about products and collection and caused me to add collection only as a shipping method on my webshop. The orders are trickling in nicely but it means I have spent a lot of time in the kitchen this week. The order book is starting to fill up so I am trying to keep up to date with the paperwork which I am required to fill in when running a home business. The best part of this home baking is that I am not having to stand on a cold and drafty market stall to sell my products, I am only baking to order so there is less waste and I am available for the children – day or night. Perfect job really!!
The hardest thing with being a home baker/webshop owner is advertising and marketing your products. I will be going to Vistaprint for some leaflets/flyers as this is who I had my business cards printed through. At the market it was so much easier as I could verbally sell my products but the thought of being away from my family whilst running a stall does not appeal to me anymore. When I did have the market stall the children would stay with my husband which would let them have a day without me and then I got to see the happiness and excitement on their faces when I returned home which he has every other day of the week.
Now, as I am home based, I am trying to make sure my work on the computer is all done before I pick the children up from school so that I can spend some quality time with them. Sometimes this is not possible, especially during the holiday times but we are working around that. There seem to be a lot of late nights during the holidays spent catching up on work which I am trying to finish.
Tonight, I will be starting on the rewrite of my “All Things Christmasy” recipe book as well as trying to have an early night. Tomorrow, is a day of baking for the cafe at Canny Crafty in Gosforth, recording myself baking some goodies ready to make some more videos for Youtube, adding some photos to the webshop, looking at watermarking my images plus catching up on a few bits of housework before a busy weekend of baking for a family christening.
Next week, when I have more time I need to order more packaging, organise getting some leaflets and business cards printed and keep up to date with my paperwork. I need to restock some more too so a visit to a couple of supermarkets is required.
At the moment, I feel like my business is really starting to go somewhere and I am reaping the benefits so I need to keep going as the momentum is building and I am feeling quite proud of myself I want to say a big thank you to all my customers to date from the book sales to the webshop sales I feel like I have made the right decision at last.