today we're going to go through the top

five cake struggles that I have that

ways and still deal with during my cake

adventure and my advice on how to deal

with them I got a new intro so today we

have another episode of cake corner

where I talk about cake stuff if you're

new to this channel I usually make and

decorate cakes here so if you like that

sort of thing please hit that subscribe

button and hit that notification bell so

you know I we trying to make a new video

but today instead of making a cake with

you guys I thought I'd go through all of

my major struggles that I've dealt with

over the last 10 15 years and believe me

there has been a lot of ups and downs

during this adventure that I've had I

swear I've told myself countless time

because I'm never going to make a cake

again just because I had so many issues

and a lot of my issues are not actually

cake related at all it's all the

external things that play a factor into

this adventure so I thought I'd go

through my struggles with you guys and

maybe give you some advice on how I've

dealt with it and how you can deal with

the - number one to me when I first

started was definitely not having enough

confidence in my skills and my

capabilities to actually be able to

fulfill an order that a client was

requesting now I will say this from now

there's a very fine line between not yet

having the skills to be able to fulfill

orders and not having the confidence if

you are a new cake er and you don't yet

have the skills to be able to do a lot

of things the only way to combat that is

practice and if you are a talented Baker

that's been doing it for a long time and

you just don't have the confidence again

the only way to combat that is practice

the more you do it the more confident

you'll get and then you'll be able to do

a lot more and again I have the exact

same problem I taught myself how to bake

and decorate cakes years ago and I still

learned what I read cake that I make so

for me I compare myself to all of these

like massive cake decorators and I can't

do so many of those things but the only

way for me to learn is to push myself

into doing things that I've never done

before and to practice them and then of

course the more age

the more confident I'll get and the

better I'll be so practice practice

practice now of course if you're really

good at what you do but you don't have

the confidence then you will most

definitely struggle with these second

biggest problem that they had when I

first heard a cake decorating and

actually still have probably the biggest

problem with which is pricing your cakes

it is such a hassle trying to figure out

how to price your cakes because you have

to figure out your skill level or since

your cost versus your labor versus your

competition it's all a big mess in your

head and you never know what to do I get

it

I've been there price of cakes is an

entirely too big of a topic for me to

talk about in one minute so if you are

interested in this and you want me to

make an entire video about this let me

know in the comments below and I'll see

what I can do but for now I think the

biggest thing to know is that you need

to know your work making cakes is not

easy it's a very hard thing to do and

very time-consuming so you need to know

what your worth is and charge

accordingly now I get it this all goes

back to struggle number one when people

first start decorating cakes they don't

have a lot of confidence and they think

I'm just a beginner

I can't charge my cakes away the other

people charge and you're right you can't

but you also shouldn't undersell

yourself the biggest problem that people

go through when they first start cake

decorating is that they charge really

really low I get it I've been there I

have gone into debt because of it it's

not a good path to go around if you're

one of those people that love cake

decorating and love just making people

happy with your cakes and you just want

to do it for finding and doing it for

your family and friends and you don't

care about your time go for it but I all

means be happy spread happiness it's all

good but if you are someone who want to

build a company out of this and you're

building your own business doing cakes

for a discounted price or do tea cakes

for free is a really bad path to go down

so you really have to think about what

your market is how much money you want

to make

and what kind of life you want to lead

in the future it's it's not an easy path

but it's got to be done the biggest

problem is under selling your cake so

that you're underselling yourself you

will never be taken seriously in this

industry if you just sell cakes for

peanuts when really they're not worth

peanuts at the end of the day even if

you don't think that your skills are up

to a certain level it's your time it's

your money and cake decorating is not a

cheap hobby it's a lot of equipment it's

a lot of supplies

it's materials for the actual cake your

costs are pretty high not to mention

your gas not to mention delivery not to

mention packaging and labor is the

biggest part of it so you really have to

think about how much you want to charge

these people and yes I know if you

believe that your prices a lot of people

won't want your cakes but at the end of

the day if they don't want to pay that

then they're not the right customer for

you the amount of times that I've heard

liking at that for $30 from Walmart you

go to Walmart you can get for $30 from

Walmart but that's not equivalent to a

custom cake it's okay to say no that's

just one thing that you're gonna have to

do again we're going back to Sterling

number one just because somebody else

has been in the industry who's been

doing this for 20 years charges $2,000

for their wedding cakes doesn't mean you

can - you really have to assess your

worth what you're capable of give

yourself an hourly wage and take it from

there it's not an easy thing to do I

know but you really have to just assess

your worth calculate your cost how to

eat your labor and put it all together

and take it from there you can do it

just don't undersell yourself and now it

all comes down to struggle number three

learning how to say no this has been the

bane of my existence I am horrible at

saying no I hate saying no especially to

people who are close to me like my

family and friends and friends of

friends because everybody wants a cake

and everybody wants it for free or at

least at a discount and it's not easy

saying no but you really can't

give retakes or discounted cakes to

everybody it's just not practical and if

this is something that you want to start

into a real business then you really

can't you are going to drive yourself

into debt because of it and I did and I

stopped cake decorating for many years

because of it because it just made me

not want to do it anymore

back in the day when I first started I

did exactly what I was telling you guys

not to do which is give cakes out for

free or for barely anything because they

didn't know how to ask for money and I

didn't know how to say no and truth is

people have no concept of how long it

actually takes to make a cake so I spent

days and days and days making a cake and

they were like all right cool thank

thinking that I am like a grocery store

that can produce things in bulk just

like that it doesn't work that way so if

you're someone who really wants to start

a legitimate business you won't be able

to do that by giving cakes away for free

and at the end of the day if they're

really your family and friends they

should be supporting you in building

your business and growing your business

and supporting you by actually

purchasing some of your things I'm not

asking for things for free so really the

faster you learn how to say no in a nice

way I know it sounds me but you don't

have to be mean about it tell them the

truth tell them how much things cost and

take it from there and if they don't

want it they are free to go somewhere

else you have to also learn how to not

feel bad about people going somewhere

else I've learned that the hard way too

if they can't afford it they have to get

it from somewhere else it is what it is

if that's the way things are at then

they're not the customer for you and

that's something that you actually have

to be okay with learning as the process

goes on learn how to say no and they're

going to not feel bad and they're not to

be ok with whatever the situation is I

have taken a very long time to learn

that lesson but I'm telling you right

now if the faster you learn it the

faster you'll be on your way to having a

proper business number 4 marketing

yourself this is something that was way

harder to do in the past before social

media existed but now social media get

on it they

but Instagram Twitter whatever it is if

you are someone who is not very

technologically advanced get someone to

help you it's really not that difficult

try to take some fake photos of your

work post as much as you can try to gain

a following the more you get your name

out there the more people will contact

you for cakes or for whatever it is that

your points for it for me I make videos

now just trying to get my name out there

so obviously Instagram and social media

play a much bigger deal and I've only

been active on social media much more

it's it's probably a bit of a year and a

half ago if that and it's grown a lot

just of you posting on a regular basis

so it really I mean I'm not gonna say

it's not a lot of work obviously you

have to keep up with it post on Facebook

Twitter YouTube like it's a lot of

different avenues but just start with

the basics start with Facebook part

start with Instagram start with your own

social circle and word will spread and

the more you do that and the more that

you actually talk about your business

it's the better it will be for you don't

be shy about advertising yourself

because you're the only person that's

going to advertise for you and if you

don't do it nobody else will and now the

biggest struggle of them all the time

management this is not an easy struggle

to deal with I have been struggling with

this my entire life and now it's just

infinitely harder because now I make

youtube videos and I have to edit those

videos and I have a family and I work

full-time and I take cake orders and all

these extra things that come into play

and it's not easy but everybody has

those issues people have kids people

have families people have full-time jobs

and they have things that they want to

do outside of making cakes and other

hobbies and you have to really tie and

manage yourself and having a stress-free

cake life is something that you really

have to work hard towards and make sure

that you have a work-life balance

if making cake to something that you

love to do don't make it something that

you

doing it's not something that you want

to hate doing you started this because

you love it

and you want to continue doing it

because you love it the only way to

actually make sure that you are time

managing yourself well is to write

things down make sure that you give

yourself ample time to do the things

that you need to do which I know sounds

logical but it's actually really

difficult with making cakes and I get it

week you have to do a lot of things and

making cakes at the last minute because

it's food but there are a lot of things

that you can do in advance that won't

make a difference to whether you do it

early or later

except save yourself a lot of stress

creating a stress free cake environment

is actually a really hard thing to do

but a really important thing to do you

really have to know how much work you

can actually handle when you first try

making cakes

UNEP taking 5-6 orders a week and you

take as many as you can and you don't

really realize how much work it is

you're pulling all-nighters you're

overworking yourself the longer nights

you work the more unproductive you get

and the more tired you get and the more

you mess up it's not something that you

want to do it's not something to be

proud of you shouldn't be working all

nighters and it's just gonna make you

more exhausted for the next stage don't

do it to yourself if you don't think

that you can handle those five cakes

don't take those orders take only as

much as you can handle make sure that

you can actually do things in advance

and there are lots of things that you

can do in advance fondant decorations

you can most definitely do in advance

you can also make your cakes early and

freeze them so that they're ready for

when you actually need them the best

thing you can do for yourself instead of

a schedule of making your cakes weekly

so that you know what to expect on each

day's but you're not stressed out by the

end of the week number one before you

even start don't take on more orders and

you can actually handle so say that you

had two cake orders due this week I

would set it up like this on Monday make

all of your quantity decorations for

both of your cakes make sure that all of

the little pieces are done all the

little characters whatever it is are all

completed on that Monday spend the whole

day making just those on Tuesday I'd

make sure that I had everything

completed from Monday all my funded

decorations I would color out my fondant

so that it's ready to go for later I

would go go to shopping so that I had

all

my baking and icing supply it's ready to

go for the next day I would complete

things like my cake boards make sure

that I had all my dowels and everything

ready to go Wednesday would be baking

day I would bake all of my cakes I would

make all of my icing I'd wrap up my

cakes and put it in the freezer so

they're ready to go for the next day on

Thursday I would fill all of my cakes

and ice them all so that they're ready

to go for the next day and then finally

put all of your cakes together put all

the decorations are and stack them make

sure that they're all ready to go and

then Saturday all you have to do is take

them out of the fridge let it come to

room temperature make time to take

photos and videos so that you can post

it on Instagram and Facebook and social

media and then set it up for delivery

pack all of your items to go ready for

delivery and take it and then Sunday

have a date up there are lots of things

you can do to make sure that your

schedule is on target say you are

scheduled don't overwork yourself only

do what you can handle and make sure to

have fun of it whoo that was a lot of

talking but I think that's all I have

for today if you guys have any other

struggles that you guys deal with on a

regular basis that you need some advice

on please let me know in the comments

below and I'll be happy to make it into

a video if this is a new cake adventure

that you're starting remember it can be

amazing but that's Anna's videos for I

learned from our past mistakes and don't

make the same ones and hopefully it will

be amazing for you thank you so much for

all of your support during my taking

adventure it has been one heck of a ride

and it's been so much fun

please continue support me by

subscribing to my channel right over

here I've also had the pleasure of

collaborating with hi take it step by

step once again and made an awesome

unicorn pool floatie for their channel

check that out right over here and of

course check out my past videos right

over here thanks so much for watching

guys and see you next week bye

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