Should I do it?

[Rosiie]

I’m thinking of starting my own business in couple months, something I’ve wanted to do for a long time. It’s a cake business and I live really close to my local market, I was thinking of having a stall there and sell cupcakes and cakes, and take orders.

The problem is, I’m in two minds whether I should employ my next door neighbour who’s a friend of mine, she’s also a SAHM.
I’m scared that I’m gonna come to regret it and something’s gonna happen. It would be nice to have someone help me transport the cupcakes and just be there with me in the market and it would only be for 3-4 hours whilst the kids are in school. I will do all the baking, she will just be there with me at the stall for those few hours. I’m hoping to open a shop one day.

Should I employ her or should I just bite the bullet and do it myself?

Have you actually made and iced 250 cupcakes in one go? I'm a very competent baker and made 60 for my own wedding but it took ages to decorate them to a standard that didn't just look like slightly nicer cake day at work stuff. It was expensive too.

Also 250 cupcakes would mean you selling at least 50 an hour which is very ambitious (my exH ran a market stall for a number of years and the actual number of hours you get a decent footfall of people for is no more than 4-5 per day)

Could you post us a picture of some of your cupcakes?

Friends and business don't mix. I've seen it fall apart every time. The friendship that is

OP ..i am sure all the PP are not trying to tell you not to do it but just start small and build up , i wouldnt consider doing a market stall from the start maybe advertise locally and at schools etc and build from there. Small steps being sensible would be the best way forward .

Will you be giving up a job for this?

Averageguy yes that's exactly what I'm gonna do. Start small and build my way up.

Tempus Im gonna do a trial run before I go on the market, so will try to bake 200 cupcakes to see how long it takes me and will share with friends and neighbours.

Positively glad it worked out for you. I know I'm being paranoid, but did you ever got robbed? 🙈

Lobster nope I'm a SAHM 😬

will try to bake 200 cupcakes to see how long it takes me

Reminds me of this.

Would you buy cake from a market stall?

For me, so much would depend on the presentation of the stall, all cakes covered to keep off insects in warmer weather or dust etc. blown by the wind or customers sneezing on them, handling them, squashing them etc.

What about food allergies, are you going to list all ingredients?

Could you bake a specialist range of say gluten free or other 'allergy-free' cakes, if you can make them more-ish you'd be onto a winner I'm sure. There's not much availability of yummy food for people who have allergies, you could break into a large market there, but do research it first.

As for employing your neighbour, would she be professional enough behind the stall talking to customers? Hygeine, appearance, communication etc.
Then there'd be a possibility she could watch and learn and set up a rival business, would you have an employment contract specifying that as a no if you did take anyone else on?

It's not an east way to start, but i wish you the very best of luck!

Fog thank you I'll look into a specialist range.

I know it's gonna be hard and I'm willing to put my heart and soul into this business, because this is something I wanted to do for a long time . I know others have done it before me and succeeded.

I will update you guys once I get the hang of it

Interesting thread - good luck, and come back and update us later.

Definitely do NOT ‘employ’ your NDN. Just don’t.

Don’t you have any friends that would help you out a couple of times? I have helped friends and they’ve helped me, on all kinds of ventures.

I think you’ll need a lot more than a bit of fairy dust to make this work now tbh. Cupcakes aren’t the ‘thing’ they were a few years ago, but you haven’t got much to lose if you don’t go mad spending unnecessarily & don’t get tied into a long term place in the market.

How much is the rent at the market? My ex used to pay £50 per day for a single sized pitch but this was nearly 20 years ago in Kent, not London. The rent for county shows etc ranged between £200-£500 per day.

A decent boot fair might be a better place to do your trial runs as they have minimal overheads in comparison?

Oh and another thing to consider is that you'll probably need to turn up to pretty much every market day to keep your pitch which means having to go along in all weathers even though you know you'll be very lucky to break even let alone make a profit on bad weather days. You can't just rock up when it suits because the companies who operate the markets need to ensure that there's a consistent turnout of stallholders - if a website etc advertises that such-and-such a town has a market every Tues and Fri for instance then they need to ensure the stallholders are there!

Check with your EHO if you're allowed to do specific allergen free baking. Where I am you need a separate kitchen and lab testing to sell gluten free products, not possible if working from a domestic kitchen.

I would 100 percent go into business with a very good friend - but I mean a friend I now inside out and can trust to have my back even when we are negotiating something and have to argue our way to a resolution. Also - I wouldn't hire them neccesarily I would want them to be equally committed to the business, not just an employee. But I have top quality reliable friends and it would be a great thing.
I am wary of hiring acquaintances and neighbours as the loyalty is not pre-established and if they have a greviance it could go sour.

I would recomend starting a business though, if you have enough reserves to risk and the willingness to work very hard. I never started a business with my brother years ago because we basically talked ouselves out of it. It would have been hard but I genuinely think we would have made it. A few years later when I started my second business it was a struggle, but I think it would have been easier with one already under my belt, iykwim. As long as you don't risk too much cash in establishing it I don't think you can really lose from the experience, you'll work hard and get new skills.
Maybe blog about it too and take lovely photos for instagram and get famous that way too!

Rosiie I wish you luck, genuinely do but many of the businesses I have mentored have failed because it was “what THEY really wanted to do” rather than the fact that it was a viable business model with a real need for the product/service. This is especially true when it’s people who want to do something around the dc ( not saying that’s you) and try to start a business to suit their own needs. I totally understand why people do that and it’s what I did to a certain extent but it rarely works
People don’t want to discourage you here, it’s just that you sound a bit naive, especially wanting company on the stall
If you get to the stage of needing ( really needing) to employ someone then pick the best person for the job, not a friend.
Good luck if you decide to go ahead