Cooking up a profit! Hobby to Business

Being self-employed means you’re determined, creative, and utterly amazing for creating something unique!

Lots of supplier businesses these days seem to stem from hobbies; cake baking, 3D printing, card-making etc. But how can you start making money with your passion?

Working with your passion makes you self-employed, that much is obvious. That means your time is yours to organise and timetable, and your payment is dependant on your influx of customers. It can be challenging, but you can still continue with your current employment before business picks up for yourself. Just remember to organise spare time for yourself to chill out!

Being self-employed means you’re determined, creative, and utterly amazing for creating something unique! So we’ve been coming up with a few pointers to help anybody thinking of starting out in the event industry.

Let’s say you’re thinking about a cake-baking business. Start small to begin with; if you enjoy baking, try a few favours for friends to see if you can get a system going. Organise a charity bake sale to see how your cakes are received and use this opportunity to advertise your services. While you’re at it, don’t take exposure for payment — most places don’t accept that as currency after all! Even with your friends and family, you should ask for payment for your services, and if you want to do discounts for them then that’s your prerogative; it’s not our place to tell you how to do business!

Remember to use opportunities to your advantage. If there’s a fair on somewhere, people will be ecstatic to hear there’s going to be cake. Cupcakes can be a great idea for this since they can come with paper cases to be recycled, and it’s also a good opportunity to show off your icing skills. Think about your prices — will they cover the cost of ingredients and hiring space? If you’re worried about your price, you can always ask an outside source on their opinion and offer some free samples so people can try before they buy! Use this chance to really get your name out there as well — order some business cards or flyers, and try to hand them out with purchases of your cakes. Talk to your customers, listen to what they need and input that back into your work and business strategy. You’ll learn a lot about your strengths and weaknesses from this; you may discover that while gingerbread isn’t your thing, your brownie traybakes are to die for!

Create a social media account for your business and remember to upload your progress as you go. For a small independent business like cake baking, personal progress is great content. It gives your business a more personal feel and lets your audience know you’re someone they can trust. Why don’t you post your process of creating your tasty treats to your social media (a couple gifs, some boomerangs, a pic or two), and upload your feelings on trends in the cake making community? It also helps to see pictures of your cakes being appreciated by your customers, to build a sense of trust with your audience. Having a social media account is all about making sure your voice is heard and that people can see your passion for miles!

In the future, you can begin to consider larger projects and features for your business, but remember that you have plenty of time to work towards it — don’t forget about the little things that help along the way!

Watch this space for more advice on how to grow your passion into a business!

See you next week.

Facebook: UPlanIt / Twitter: @uplanit_online / Instagram: @uplanit_online

Photo credit: @splitshire, @daria.shevtsova, @aliciazinn,