I’ve not had the pleasure of meeting Natasha from Nevie Pie cakes, but I’ve followed her work for about 7 years now since I first started scouring Pinterest back in 2010 when I was looking for inspiration for my own wedding cake and came across her stunning hand painted cakes.  


I didn’t know then that I would end up in the baking industry myself, but was in awe of Natasha’s talent and unique designs.


Kudos to Natasha for recently gaining a listing with Harrods. Having gone through this process myself I've experienced first hand just how much time, effort and energy it takes to gain such a prestigious listing so I was so disappointed that her moment of glory has been overshadowed by all the horrible comments I’ve seen on various cake forums over the past few weeks about her unicorn cake.


It’s no secret that most of these cake forums are made up of home based cake businesses run by women. In a month where we’ve had a whole day set aside to celebrate women and their achievements, and all faithfully promised to support our sisters and have each others backs - it’s galling to see so many women come out with unfounded, spiteful comments about Natasha’s work.


These cake forums are full of threads from bakers bemoaning the fact that the general public just don’t get how much time & effort goes into making bespoke cakes, and that they are regularly expected to devalue their own work & in many instances work for a pittance, by customers who expect cheaper prices & discounts.

​These hobby bakers, who are reluctant to charge a proper price for their bakes in case it scares customers off.  And as a result so many of them keep their prices low, to keep their order books full. Effectively working for pennies, or worse, for free.

All these costs need to be factored into the mix to come up with the true ‘trade price’

The retailer will then add their mark up. Probably in the region of 2.5 times your trade price, sometimes much more. The retailer will have their own costs to factor in - staff, premises, insurance, marketing. The retailer put this all into the mix and set the retail price for which it sells your products in their stores. 

As a supplier, you get the opportunity to give the retailer a suggested range of RRP’s for your products. But let's be clear. Under competition laws, as a supplier you cannot set the RRP and insist on it. Once the retailer has purchased your products - its out of your hands. Within reason they can sell your products for any price they like. 
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So you see, this is not about the cake having 'a solid 24 carat gold unicorn horn' to justify its price tag. This is what it looks like to make sure that after you’ve baked & decorated all the cakes, packaged & labelled them, ensured they’ve reached the customer safely & in one piece, completed all the paperwork, jumped through all the hoops, covered all your costs, paid yourself and your staff - you haven’t done it all just for the love of it. But actually made a profit.

At the end of the day a thing is worth what a person is willing to pay for it. Your customers may be different to mine, and my customers different to Harrods. What’s important is that we all understand our costs and price accordingly. What’s important is that we all know & understand our customers and price accordingly.

But perhaps what’s most important is that we all acknowledge that in this diverse world of cake & baking, whether you’re a hobby baker or business baker, whether you charge £60, £200 or £400 for a unicorn cake - there is room for all of us, to charge as we need to. 

So next time you see a cake that is priced differently to yours instead of getting the talons out maybe get the calculator out and try working through the costings to understand why it might have the price tag it does. And while you’re there, why not revisit your own costings too to make sure that it’s not in fact your prices that are too low, rather than the other baker’s prices being too high…?


Comments welcome below :)


Nila x

Natasha herself has written very eloquently about #unicorngate on her blog. I encourage you to head over and read her blog post.

My 6 years of entrepreneurship have tested me to the limit. There have been huge, huge highs matched by periods when I have felt completely alone, adrift on a churning sea of turmoil, financial worry, disillusionment & despair.


And I know that at times this has had a knock on impact on the performance of my business. It’s been easy to blame this on external factors. But in reality it was because I wasn’t thinking straight. I was getting up and going into work day after day but not being productive and making progress. I’ve lacked motivation, direction and the energy needed to really move my business forward. 


Because my judgement was clouded, my mind was all befuddled, by the huge grey squall hanging over me. The outlook wasn't quite as good as it should have been. At times like this it’s easy to panic and start thinking that you just have do more, be more, work more to turn the situation around.


Up until quite recently, I never really took the time to consider my own mental health and how it impacts me on a day to day basis. Because I wrongly thought that looking after your mental health was only really for people that suffer from anxiety or depression.


I’ve spent countless hours working on the health of my business. Tracking sales, leads, cashflow, but never thought of having a resilience dashboard to help me monitor the the state of my own mind so I don’t reach the stage where I start to struggle.


Nearly 6 years in, I’ve become aware that what’s got me to this stage in my business won’t keep me here. That I need to work on strengthening my resolve as an entrepreneur. I’ve been making some changes in the business and just as every new stage in your business requires a new you - a new set of skills - it also needs me to develop a more resilient mindset.


I’ve been really keen to develop some new habits. So I’ve started doing a few things on a daily basis, that to my surprise have had a huge positive impact. I’m sharing them here in the hope that they might help you, if / when you find yourself in a similar situation.  

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​Community 
Check in with friends, regularly. I have one or two close business friends who I’m sharing the journey with. We regularly check in with each other, by phone or skype or meet up for coffee. Just to rant or offload or especially, to celebrate the wins. This helps to keep me accountable, makes me feel less isolated and lonely and the mutual sharing and support is a life saver. It’s great to talk to my husband, or my school/uni friends but its only my business friends who truly understand and empathise with what I’m going through and know how to kick me back into shape. 

​Keep a journal 
I’ve started keeping a journal. To record the minutiae of daily life, the hilarity and frustration of being a parent to two teenagers, of the little things and big things that I don’t want to forget. To help me reflect on and make sense of what’s happening. There’s something so therapeutic and cathartic about the act of emptying out my brain and physically writing my feelings down on paper. Those niggling worries and concerns that have been floating around my head now have a physical place to be locked up for a time while I focus on how I’m going to overcome them. 

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​Meditation/visualisation
This is a new one for me. For a long time I was very cynical about anything ‘woo woo’ I didn’t get visualisation (so I just visualise it and it’ll appear?) And could never get grips with meditation (so I just have to close my eyes and empty my mind of all thoughts? Impossible.) But I decided to bite the bullet and purchased a course 365 days to clear what's been holding you back - I didn’t have high hopes for it but it didn't cost too much,  so I was happy to give it a go.  

I get a daily teaching/learning/visualisation/meditation and because its drip fed - it's had this amazing snowball effect and is not woo woo at all. I’m only 3 and a bit months in, but I’m learning so much about how stress can be brought on by the flight/fight instinct and how much havoc this can cause, and importantly, the tactics to manage this. It’s in small bite sized chunks that over a period of time build up to a significant shift. And so much more. I’m determined to stick with it and can’t wait to see what doing a full year of the course will bring. 

Track your habits 
The habit tracker has proved to be a bit of a revelation. So, so simple and yet so effective. It’s a daily reminder to prioritise the right things. And a reminder to fit them in. Every day. It’s a simple checklist of things I should be doing, with little boxes next to them for me to tick off. On days when its grey or raining outside or I would really rather just catch another few episodes of Gossip Girl on Netflix rather than do the work, the lure of multicoloured squares is too much to resist. The 12 year old girl in me has so much fun colouring in the squares in bright colours - I love it! (I of course I had to invest in a set of beautiful gel pens). I can be a bit OCD, so sometimes just knowing that I’ll get to colour in another square and make my tracker look all pretty is enough motivation to stop procrastinating and get the thing done. Download your copy here.
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​Get Active
This one is such a cliche but it’s so true. I've taken up walking. I now spend 45 - 60 mins walking, 3 or 4 times per week. I love to put on my earphones and do 3 circuits of my local park, either listening to music or a podcast. While I’m walking I’ll be thinking about and reflecting on what’s happening in my life or business, I compose blog posts in my head, do mental checklists, prepare to do lists. I always come back from my walk on a high, with lots of energy, ideas bubbling away, and a really importantly - a clear head.

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None of these habits have particularly taken up much time. It’s not hard to find 4 hours in a week to exercise, if you can fit it in while doing your day to day, so much the better. Walk to the station instead of getting the bus, walk the kids to school instead of driving. I now try to make sure I’m in bed by 10pm and spend half an hour doing my journalling, meditation & habit tracker before turning the light out. I feel so much more relaxed and drift off to sleep much faster. 


Doing all of this on a regular basis has led to huge moment of revelation. I think it finally dawned on me that my big fat juicy goals for this year aren’t going to be achieved by me throwing more time at it, burning the candles at both ends, working all hours. No. My growth will come because for the first time in ages I’m thinking more clearly, my decision making is swift and more efficient, I have bags more energy & motivation. I’m in a complete state of flow. Like the old me, but on Berocca!


Don’t get me wrong, businesses absolutely do fail because of finances. They fail because they don’t grow, or focus on bringing in more sales, because they fail to plan. But equally I’ve seen businesses fail or failing because the owner becomes burned out or unwell due to the constant stress and worry, failing to think clearly and take the decisive and precise action that’s needed to weather the storm. If you find yourself in this situation and want to make some changes then maybe some of my habits might be of help to you?


So tell me. What are your thoughts? What steps do you take to work on your own resilience and mental health? Do you have daily habits to help keep you on track? 


Let me know in the comments below - I’d love to hear your story.

Beautiful photographs courtesy of Unsplash

If you're a creative or foodie entrepreneur looking to start or scale your business or looking to turn your hobby into a business then why not come over and join my members only facebook group Kitchen Table Entrepreneur where I regularly offer support, tips/tricks and training to help you grow and become profitable. 

​I look forward to meeting you over there!

As a mentor to creative and food businesses, I’m contacted on pretty much a weekly basis by women, usually at a time of great change in their lives - on maternity leave and thinking about the prospect of return to work, illness and no longer being able to do a 9-5 as before or facing redundancy and being unsure about the road ahead.

Being the amazing, creative and resourceful beings that they are, they usually have a seed of an idea for a business they’d like to set up.  Or, like me, be looking to turn a hobby into a profitable business, so they can support their families while doing something they love. 

Quite often, faced with the prospect of giving up stable employment and the comfort of a  regular monthly wage, they are understandably fearful of taking a leap into the unknown. I know when I found myself in this situation 6 years ago, this is exactly how I felt. Like them, I turned to entrepreneurship as a way of navigating this challenging inflection point in my life. 

So there you have it. Twelve pieces of incredibly invaluable & insightful advice for anyone starting a food or creative business today.

​So tell me, if you are thinking of starting up, what's holding you back? Or if you're already on the start up journey, what piece of advice would you have?

Let me know in the comments below. I'd love to hear your story.

Nila x
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It was the Easter holidays so I took a week off work and baked and baked - cupcakes, cookies, cake pops - the lot. The weather was lovely so my husband took the kids out for day trips so I could get on without too many distractions. I planned out my stall, made some signs and got some business cards printed.

​On the weekend of the show I roped in all the family to help out with setting up my gazebo and manning the stall. We had glorious weather and the crowds were out in full force.  I was so excited and a little bit nervous too.
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​The first morning passed by with a few customers stopping by the stand and all saying the right things - oooh and aaahhing over the cupcakes, cookies and cake pops. And then they’d walk on by.

​The afternoon was even quieter. The hot dog stand a few stalls up was heaving,  massive queues building up with customers eager to part with the best part of £6 for a sausage in a bun and a few onions. But no-one was interested in cupcakes. I couldn’t understand it.
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That night I got home feeling really crushed. I’d been so diligent in carefully planning out what products I’d make, I’d spent a lot of time designing and making beautiful floral cupcakes, cookies for the kids and cake pops too.

​They were all packaged with lovely tags and ribbons and the stand looked good. I’d put ingredients labels and best before dates on everything. It looked professional.  So what was I doing wrong and why was no one buying?

Day two dawned and we headed off early to get everything set up again. Again we had beautiful weather and the organisers popped round with encouraging words as they were expecting big crowds.

​The day started slow, but I had a few customers stop by and pick up some treats. Then a particularly grumpy looking woman came up to the stall and had a good look around and walked off muttering “£1.50 for a cupcake?? I can get 2 for 70p in Asda…”

The rest of the day went pretty much the same way. Packing up time arrived and I was bit flabbergasted. What was I going to do with all that stock I’d made? It was all wrapped so it would be fine but only for a day or two.

To my surprise the manager of the on site cafe popped over to have a chat. He too said how pretty my products looked - and then he asked how much stock I had left over and if I’d consider selling it to him at cost price to resell in the cafe. I was caught off guard but luckily my husband who’d helped me plan everything stepped in and suggested a price which the manager was happy with.

​He went off and came back shortly with the cash to pay for the stock and a couple of helpers who loaded up a trolley with the cupcakes, cookies and cake pops and off they went. 

​Thanks to this little stroke of luck, I just about managed to cover the costs of the stall and my ingredients. Nothing more. Not the greatest start to my cake business venture.

For a few weeks after the fair I felt really down and despondent.  I wasn’t sure I even wanted to start a food business because the short shelf life was always going to be an issue. The ‘two for 70p in Asda” in particular stuck in my mind.

​​I didn’t realise it all the time but in truth it was a pivotal moment in my start up journey. It taught me some really crucial lessons, and I would end using up what I learned from this experience to tweak and develop my business and product range.

So ultimately it was a really valuable lesson - learned the hard way - without which - my business might never really have got off the ground.

So what did this experience teach me:


Know your customer
It taught me that I didn’t really know or understand my customer. Before the bake sale I hadn’t really done any work to think about who my ideal customer might be, what they liked, why they would buy my products. I went into it very much in the mindset of "well everyone likes cake don’t they?" I was lulled into a false sense of security by the fact that my family and friends raved about my bakes. That’s not the best basis for your customer analysis and they are probably not going to be representative of your target market.

Know your product
It taught me that I hadn’t quite found my perfect product yet. After a lot of reflection and soul searching I realised that I would have to give up on my dream of owning a cupcake business because I would need to sell A LOT of cupcakes on a regular basis to make any real money and this wasn't practical. Sounds obvious now doesn’t it?

Know the size of your market
It taught me that by having a short shelf life product, that I couldn’t easily get to people I was restricting myself to a very local market. And this would make it hard to scale. And local customers weren’t really prepared to pay a fair price for my products.  While this might be okay for a hobby baker just looking to cover their costs, if I wanted to build a thriving business I’d need to come up with a different product that I could ship around the country, the world even. If it had a long shelf life or the product was non perishable, even better.
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Know your sales strategy
It taught me that if doing events was going to be part of my sales strategy that next time I’d need to do my homework before signing up. Where was the event taking place, what was the footfall and buying habits of visitors. What other food stalls would be there. Would there any competition - from an onsite cafe for example? Was this the sort of event that my ideal customer would attend? I hadn’t done any of this research before signing up.

So all in all, my first ever bake sale wasn't a complete disaster but if I’d continued making these same mistakes then I don’t think I would ever have got my business up and running. It’s not uncommon to make mistakes when you’re running a business. Making mistakes can be a valuable learning experience. It’s important to take calculated risks in business and keep trying new things. But when something doesn’t quite go to plan, the important thing is to pick yourself up, keep going and learn the lessons.

If you run a business I'm pretty sure you've experienced something similar. So tell me, what’s the biggest ‘mistake’ you’ve made in your business and what did it teach you?
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Let me know in the comments below - I’d love to hear your story.
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If you're a food or creative entrepreneur starting or scaling your business or looking to turn your hobby into a business then do come over and join my members only facebook group Kitchen Table Entrepreneur where I regularly offer support, tips/tricks and training to help you grow and become profitable.

​I look forward to meeting you over there!