To open or not to open….

I’ve been thinking long and hard about starting my own small business. My product is not unique – I would be making and decorating cakes professionally. My positioning and target markets, however, are a little different for my island. While wedding cakes are the big money makers, I’m particularly interested in shaped cakes and special event cakes. This would include birthdays, openings, parties, etc. I’ve even got some marketing strategies worked out. The thing is that I am not a pastery chef.

Bonnie Gordon Custom cake

This may or may not be a problem. While I could certainly benefit from studying pastery, and developing an in depth knowledge of baking, I’m not really interested in making pasteries, per say. Just cakes. A personal hero of mine is Toronto’s Bonnie Gordon. With a master’s degree in Fine Arts, she made an unlikely chef. However, her hobby and passion was enhanced by her background, and she’s now one of Canada’s most respected Cake Decorators. While I’m not likely to gain a title like that living on a small island (and not having the funds to travel and study with some of the most well-respected chefs around), it does give me hope that the path I’ve chosen is not an impossible one.

(As an aside, I once met Bonnie Gordon. She was staying in a hotel that I was working at with her husband. He was very proud of his wife, and she stood humbly by. He steered me to her website, and I’ve been complete enthralled with sculptured cakes since)

In order to test both my product and my market, I’ve been making cakes for events that I’ve been invited to. It’s helped me to build my portfolio, and helped me to realize that there might actually be a market for my cakes. Price points were sticky at first. Finding that balance of a price that both signals a quality product while also not shocking people is tough, but I think I’ve found a pretty good price point to start at. This was entirely from asking questions to friends, and it seems to be working (I quoted a price today and retained interest – even though the price was more than double a similar sized cake at Sobey’s).

Now I’ve just got to get my act together and get my business set up – I think….