I’m very pleased to be saying hello again to the lovely Yvonne Donald from delicious cake company, Kake and Cupkakery. Yvonne’s first interview was in September 2012, and we had catch-ups in in October 2013 and then November 2014. and most recently January 2016. What I love about Yvonne is that she’s always trying something new and always then assessing whether that was a good idea – so often we either think about new things but don’t do them, or we try something out but forget to take a good, hard look at the consequences for our business. In January last year, Yvonne’s plan was this: “In another years’ time I think the main goal is to take a massive step forward with Kake and Cupkakery being my full-time job. All the other times when I thought I was ready, I really wasn’t, but now I feel more established as a business and a little local brand, the winds of change are beckoning to help me sail on out to my next adventure”. So, let’s see how she’s getting on!

Hello, Yvonne, it’s lovely to chat with you again. Are you where you thought you’d be when you looked forward a year ago?

Well, I felt I was making positive moves with the business in having a store front which was the main goal for me to run kake and cupkakery as my full-time job, and 2016 seemed the perfect time after a very busy year for me in the world of cake, I decided the time was right to make a serious move towards fulfilling my goal of owning a shop front, even viewing a property local to me and looking into gaining some extra financial support through a local organisation, but in the first couple of months of 2016 there was an unexpected illness in the family that threw us all. Thankfully, everything is fine and dandy now, I’m very happy to say, but it was a stressful time that threw my concentration and focus and  made me re-evaluate my aims and goals, it sounds doom and gloom, but it really wasn’t: if anything it was a  bit of an epiphany really, and a little sign for me to focus on the things that are truly important and think about how I want to live my life and run my business in the future.

What has changed and what has stayed the same?

My online presence has changed massively, so much so that it has made me reassess my business model from having a store front coffee shop style bakery to rethinking and looking into having a business unit instead to run the online business from, or even build upon my home to keep overheads as low as possible, which for me has always been an issue with running a storefront like it is for any business. With every step of my business, it has dictated where it was going. I would like to think it was me guiding it but it really isn’t, when demand grows for a certain item that I offer I tend to follow my gut and give it more focus and that’s one of the reasons (as mentioned in my previous update) I decided not to do wholesale orders to coffee shops any more, as it just didn’t feel right for me or the direction of the business.

I have continued to listen to my customers new and old, who seem to like the fact they can order cakes online and have cupcakes/celebration cakes delivered to their door or sent to friends or family, all done virtually, saving them time in having to go to a store to order or collect from a shop.

This is something I have realised more than ever in 2016, so because of this I decided to give the website a tweak and  researched a little about SEO and meta tags and got some nifty advice from someone I met at a networking event to make my website show earlier in Google searches.

In May I had one of my own cupcake recipes (blackberry Mojito) featured in a national baking magazine, to say I was over the moon was an understatement and then to top it off I was featured within the Birmingham Mail online as one of the best places to buy cupcakes in Birmingham, I’m still smiling about that as I type, as one of my ambitions was always to make one of these type of list, and after 5 years of hard work my business did, which in turn really helped raise my online profile which has me now gaining more orders via my website. I always get a little thrill when I get a form submission from my website for orders (simple pleasures).

Because of increased web orders, members of my family deliver orders for me when I’m not able, but I need to look into making my delivery and admin more streamlined and efficient so am going to get one of my sisters to help with that.

My blog called Adventures in Kakeland is still going and I’ve added a feature called “Meet the Baker” ,which was inspired by you Liz and your business updates. I basically send out questions to other cake business and bakers who can shout about what they do, the products they use and issues that we all share and feature them on my blog. I’ll be starting it up again for 2017 with a new batch of bakers. This helps me to create blog content which is linked to my business and will help increase web presence.

What do you wish you’d known a year ago?

To not equate my vision of success with someone else’s vision of success.

Any more hints and tips for people?

• If you have a website, work on keeping it updated with fresh content and make it as user friendly as possible
• Think about writing a blog, you never know, you could become an influencer
• Network and always seek out opportunities that will help raise the profile of your business
• Listen to your customers: we can get so romantic about doing things that we want to do rather than what the customers want
• Always let the customer be your focus and always try to add a little value or exceed their expectations
• Get some balance in your life: this has been my number one tip with each of my updates as I’ve learned the hard way
• We are all time poor and time is precious, so anything you can do to save someone (a customer) time is a win-win situation
• Look at other industries as well as your own to see what innovations are taking place, I’m a little bit inspired by how Uber and Air bnb have dominated the market in what are pretty much traditional industries with the main focus I believe as saving (us) the consumer time in making booking a taxi or accommodation, just a click of an app away

BONUS NEW QUESTION: What question would YOU like to ask other small business owners?

What time-saving online tool or app would you recommend for other small business users?

And … where do you see yourself and your business in a(nother) year’s time?

After all this time I finally realise my main priority is to see kake and cupkakery grow and flourish whether that’s online, through a store front or both.

So for the year ahead I want this to be my main focus as I see Kake and Cupkakery as a brand which I would like to become stronger within the local community and Birmingham as a whole.

I want to have more of a presence amongst the wedding market as I still have a little concept that I haven’t given my full attention to.

And maybe look into having an app, as we all have mobiles and I think an app alongside my website might be a good idea to save customers even more time and have ease of access for ordering.. So if any fellow small techy businesses reading this can help with this, I would love to hear from you: I’m happy to give you cake …

I love Yvonne’s learning points above and the time and trouble she takes to share them with us. Having a blog is certainly key: giving the search engines something that’s regularly updated means they are more likely to show your results high in the list and a blog is the easiest way to do this. I can’t wait to see what Yvonne does in the coming year!

Website: www.kakeandcupkakery.co.uk and blog Adventures in Kakeland

Twitter @Cupkakery

Instagram@KakeandCupkakery

Phone: 07837 876604