Owning Your Own Cake Business: Pros & Cons
I’m typing this sitting in car line waiting for my kids to get out of school. I am actually tossing around the feelings I have for my cake business. Do I love it? Possibly. Do I want to burn it to the ground most Fridays? Most definitely!
These are the ups & downs of owning your own cake business. If you’re like me, you love the creativity and ability to make something beautiful and delicious for people who are celebrating important moments in their lives. You love knowing your artwork will be the center of the table and guests will ooh and aah over how amazing it is or how smooth your buttercream icing looks. Then they will send you emails and texts thanking you and telling you how they can’t wait to have another cake from you!
You will smile and feel like it’s all worth it until that next Friday rolls around and you’re up to your elbows in cake and icing and have completely used up all of your creative juices!
This will be every week if you’re anything like me. At least twice a year I decide I want to scale back and find another way to bring in extra income for my family. In the end, I always go back to cakes as past clients call and ask for the same cake they had last year and oh how they are looking forward to those Christmas cookies! I buckle every time!
So if you want to make an educated decision on whether you’re ready to own your own cake business, let me help you.
I have worked for a catering company as a cake decorator & baker, I’ve owned and managed my own cake shop with 7 employees, and now I’ve moved home and am running a full-time cake business alone. Needless to say, I see it from several different angles. The pros & cons are mostly the same, no matter the route you choose.
PRO : Having customers really appreciate your work and consistently order from you is a huge ego boost!
CON : Having people consistently order from you equals more hours on your feet and more icing to make.
PRO : Working for yourself gives you the opportunity to make your own schedule and spend time with family.
CON : Working for yourself can do one of two things: force you to realize you don’t have the discipline to make yourself work everyday or think you can do it all because you’re such an amazing multitasking genius and take on too much — forfeiting the time you set aside for yourself and your family. (This is me!)
PRO: You get to bake yummy sugar-filled delights that make your house or shop smell amazing. Plus, you always have access to a dessert if you need to bring something to a dinner party or potluck!
CON : You always have those yummy sugar-filled delights in front of you, creating a sugar addiction that is more intense then you could’ve imagined! Plus, now all your friends and family expect you to bring dessert everywhere you go.
PRO : Creating these beautiful cakes builds your self-esteem and makes you feel like you’re contributing to your household financially and also giving your family something to be proud of.
CON : Your kids get over the cake lady fame you’ve acquired and are now embarrassed by your constant delivery of baked goods to their school. Your husband or partner gets so proud of you and thinks you should sign up for every opportunity to grow your business even though you just want to sit in bed and watch Netflix!
PRO : You will make money and hopefully meet that financial goal you had set.
CON : You will have to listen to customers complain about your pricing because in order to make any money you have to charge an arm and a leg for your cakes and cookies based on the number of hours you’ve put in.
PRO : There is an amazing community of cake decorators and bakers out there that are happy to give advice and help you along the way.
CON : There are not so helpful cake decorators and bakers out there that will consistently tell you you’re doing it wrong because it’s not the way they do it. Ignore them!
I hope these pros & cons have helped you to really think about your options and not just the art of cake decorating.
For all you fellow cake decorators out there I hope that you were nodding your head & laughing a little with me!
There are so many real issues to consider and I feel that before I really got into this business, I only thought about whether I had the talent to do it and not so much if it was the correct path for my family and personal life. With that being said, you can always decorate and bake cakes even if it’s a hobby and not a business.
Good luck!!!
