Your Little Helping Hand!

As a single mother of 2, running my business as a sole trader for the last 3.5 years has been great.  It gives me the flexibility I need to have a great work/life balance. I have worked hard to ensure that my brand is high quality cakes and customer service focused which has seen a large number of repeat customers over the years.

However, having a business that focuses on celebrations and people getting together in high number, means that the pandemic has really affected the business and I have had to start projecting forward and looking for new initiatives to ensure that I make my business sustainable.

During the summer/winter months I would attend festivals and fairs and of course these have not gone ahead this year, and those that are (markets) are very difficult to get into due to oversubscription, especially for food stalls.

I also ran workshops to teach people how to bake or cake decorate, and with the restrictions we have in place, this is another thing I am unable to do.

Croydon is a large, thriving and diverse town but has of course been affected by COVID. My business is based in South Norwood which has an amazing community spirit and the high street has been hit hard by the pandemic.  Many shops have reacted well to the change, but having a mainly online presence and no 'shop front' it is easy for Essence of Cake to be forgotten.  

People will always want cake (number or orders and size of cakes requested are vastly reduced), so to be able to access that through having a more savvy online offerings, I believe is the way to go for my business. 

I would us the funds to digitalise my business.  I would achieve this by upgrading my website, creating a simple cake ordering/payment process for the more primary cakes which do not need a lot of design work and for cake accessories such as bespoke toppers.  

To replace (in the future to run alongside) face-to-face workshops by filming and editing online videos/workshops that customers can subscribe to or buy one-off. 

I have a corporate cupcakes element of the business and can definitely improve orders through smart and targeted advertising.  And of course paid advertising to increase brand awareness and reach.

Essence of Cake x

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The global COVID-19 pandemic has created a very uncertain landscape for  millions of British small businesses, which is going to make it very challenging for businesses to survive. Together we can help them. 

Crowdfunder are offering up their platform to allow all UK small businesses to pre-sell their meals, events, hotel bookings etc. for cash now on a promise to redeem these at a later date.