Home-based cake businesses need to use some specific time-management strategies to make sure that they can get everything done. This is the guide that I used to sell, but I’m giving it to you here for free…Use the tips that fit for you to make your home cake business better.
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Home-based business challenges.
If you have a home-based cake business, you probably have specific time management and organization problems, we all do.
Think of all the time that you spend doing things that basically waste time each day, then imagine what an improvement in your business you could make by spending that time on your marketing or learning a new skill.
If people took the time they waste on a regular basis and devote it to something productive it would make their lives a lot easier.
Forget all of the pithy advice you hear about simple ways to be more productive. If they works for you that’s great, but a lot of things that people tell you to do fall into the New Year’s Resolution category.
They sound good to start with, you do them for a couple of days, but if it doesn’t work for you you’re not going to keep up with it.
I know that I don’t have all the answers.
I’m only human and sometimes when I sit down to do something business-related at the computer I end up asking myself “What am I supposed to be doing?” fifteen minutes later as I finish up wasting time on Facebook.
However, I ran a successful cake business from my home for close to 20 years, and for a period of time I was doing up to 5 or 6 wedding cakes a weekend, plus groom’s cakes. By myself. From a home kitchen that’s about 15’x15’ and doesn’t have any special equipment other than an extra oven rack.
So I do have a pretty good handle on some ideas for organizing and managing the time that I have.
As I thought about what areas people have trouble with as far as time management and organization go, I came up with the basic areas of general habits, paperwork, storage, baking/decorating, housework/household, and marketing.
I’m going to start with general tips, since a lot of them are probably things that you’ve heard before, but haven’t worked. You may just need to structure them in a different way.
General Tips and Scheduling
Turn It Off
The number one thing that I’ll keep saying throughout this is to turn your phone off, and turn your computer off.
The internet is responsible for more wasted time and distractions than anything, with the possible exception of small children.
No, it’s not going to be a popular suggestion, but if you pull your head out of that eyes-locked-on-a-screen position every now and then you might get more work done.
Don’t tell yourself “I’ll just take a 5-minute break to check my email.” You know very well it will be more than 5 minutes. Don’t lie.
Don’t tell yourself that productivity apps on your phone will work, they just make you spend more time looking at your phone, which can lead to “oh, I’ll just check this one thing while I have the phone out” and another fifteen minutes spent doing nothing.
So turn it off, then go ahead and read the rest.
Know Yourself
The most important part of adopting any new habit is to know yourself. If someone is telling you that they use an amazing electronic planner and you should too, that could be helpful.
Unless, of course, you’re like me, someone who prefers a good old-fashioned paper and pencil system.
I like being able to grab the list I made and not having to worry about being tied to a device all day. Paper works better in a power outage, too.
So decide whether you prefer some kind of note system that works on an electronic device, or whether you want to go low-tech.
I would suggest that you go with paper for a couple of reasons.
First, as I’ve said already, a smartphone is probably what you’re going to be using to track any to-do lists or schedules.
Since the smartphone is less a phone and more a mini-computer that allows you to hop online at any time, I’d suggest that you avoid a phone while you’re trying to get work done.
Just turn it off completely, or set it so that you don’t hear notifications that can make you act like Pavlov’s dog and turn you into a phone zombie.
Use paper, not a device.
Second, paper is quick and accessible without having to turn things on and off.
If you have to carry something with you there’s always a mini-notebook, so don’t say that you can’t carry a paper list with you.
It doesn’t have to be anything fancy, it just has to be something that allows you to keep track of what you need to do that day.
If you absolutely must have your phone with you and turned on so that you can hear notifications (if you have small children in school or some situation where you have to be able to respond to phone calls) get rid of any app that’s going to distract you from your work.
Either turn off notifications, as I said before, or just delete the app off of your phone entirely.
I’m serious. If there’s a way to block being able to just jump online at any given moment do that, too.
Do you work better in the morning or in the afternoon? Do you prefer to have scheduled times to do everything or are you more comfortable having a working list that you do whenever you get to things? Do you work better if you give yourself a deadline, or does that make you nervous?
Knowing yourself and being honest with yourself about how you work best is an integral part of developing good habits that you can actually maintain.
If a tip or hint is something that you KNOW won’t work for you, ignore it.
No need to force a square peg into a round hole. If one suggestion doesn’t work another will come along in a minute.
Understand That You Can’t Create Time
Time is finite. There are 24 hours in a day, and no more than that.
So to figure out what system you’re going to use to manage this finite resource, you need to look at yourself and be honest about the way you budget your time.
Are you good at getting things done in advance? Or are you an adrenaline junkie who secretly thrives on the stress of having to rush around at the last minute?
Are you good at estimating how long things take? Or are you always running late due to overestimating how much time you have to do things?
Are you punctual, or are you the one that everyone has to wait for because you’re running late all the time?
Let me tell you that running late, underestimating your time and rushing around are not going to result in efficiency in your business.
For the complete guide to tasting appointments, click here.
Be realistic about how you use your time.
The first thing that you have to do to start managing your time better is to have a good idea about how long things actually take.
If you think that it takes you two hours to decorate a cake, but it actually takes you three, you’ll never be able to schedule yourself correctly.
The first thing to do, before starting any kind of schedule for yourself, is to take a week and write down how long it takes you to do common activities.
DO NOT skip this step, because you need to see actual times.
First, write down a bunch of things that you do on a regular basis. It can be anything business or household-related, but you should choose 15-20 activities.
It can be anything from making dinner to doing the laundry to answering emails, but try to include a lot of common business tasks that you do on a regular basis.
Also include time that you spend on social media so that you can give yourself a reality check. Write those tasks on a page in a column called “Activity”
Next, write down the time that you think you spend on that activity per week. Write it in a column labelled “Estimated Time Spent.”
Now, over the course of the week, keep track of the actual time that you spend on those activities.
Don’t try to do anything different as far as going faster or slower, just keep track of the actual time each day.
At the end of the week add the total time spent per day to get the time per week, then divide by 7 to see what the average time spent per day on each task is.
If you don’t work on the weekend, only divide work tasks by the number of days you do work on your business.
Now you can compare the estimated time to your actual time. If you’re pretty close, good for you, you’re good at estimating how much time things take to do.
Chances are you’re not going to be very close, though, because most people aren’t good at estimating time.
Remember that time is a finite resource. To effectively manage it, you need to know how you budget it.
Looking at your time budget, you should check to see if the amount of time that you’re spending on social media is out of control.
If your time budget worksheet reveals that you spend five hours a day looking at Pinterest and watching videos on YouTube, it’s time to cut that out.
If you want to spend your free time in the evening (after work is done) doing that, go right ahead. But really, you don’t need to be watching videos during the day unless it’s background noise while you’re working. Podcasts are better than videos for that, anyway.
SOCIAL MEDIA IS THE NUMBER ONE TIME-SUCKER THAT YOU SHOULD AVOID. You know it’s true…
Use a system.
So now that you have a realistic idea of how much time you’re spending on things, look to see where you can reduce, or streamline your processes.
Creating systems for everything work-related, whether it’s cake work or housework or kid work, is critical if you’re going to balance everything (more or less).
First, reduce…Reducing the amount of time that you spend on activities comes down to a few things.
Focusing on one thing at a time will help you do things faster. Multitasking is a fancy word for “doing too much at once,” and that isn’t efficient. So pay attention to one thing at a time and get it done faster.
You can also delegate things to other people, and automate processes if you can.
If there’s a task that you absolutely hate and because of that it takes you three times as long as it should, see if you can hire someone to do it, or find an online program to do it for you.
You might also want to automate your social media posts using any number of online programs that allow you to link accounts and schedule posts.
If you wanted to, you could go into Facebook and schedule your posts for the entire week at once. That will save a lot of time because every time you go onto a social media site to “just post one thing” you know that you’ll be sucked in for at least ten to fifteen minutes. If you can schedule everything at once you’ll avoid this lost time.
Once you get rid of things you don’t HAVE to do yourself and figuring out where you can automate things, you’re ready to start looking at making your schedule.
Click here to get my free printable business control journal! It’s important to have one.
Scheduling Yourself.
When you start thinking about doing a schedule for your work, you’ll need to refer to the “know yourself” issues.
HOWEVER, everyone can benefit from having a plan for the day, whether that’s a detailed hour-by-hour schedule, or just a to-do list.
Think of time management as an organizational activity…you have a finite number of hours in the week, so arrange the things that you need to do into those hours by spreading them out on your to-do list.
If you’ve done the time budget you know how much time different activities actually take, so don’t schedule things that will take 28 hours to do for the same day!
Types of planning
Think of the type of daily planner you would buy if you went to the store to get one.
Would you want one where you wrote in every activity and appointment in half-hour increments, or one that just let you write in everything you needed to do that day in a plain box?
I’ll say right now that if you have little kids it’s unlikely that you’ll be able to plan anything on a specific time schedule.
As soon as you do that someone will fall off their bike and break an arm, which is probably not on your schedule, so your detailed breakdown will be out the window.
Hourly scheduling
This type of daily breakdown isn’t good for people who basically have to react to the needs of other people all day.
You can’t plan to do certain things at certain times if you don’t know what’s going to be happening at that time.
Click to download a copy of this layout here:
I tried that approach when I first started trying to be organized and it failed miserably. My children were really young and it ended up being blocked off with 4 hours that just said “work” and three hours that said “kids.”
This specific time system was pointless because planning specifics with little kids around is too tricky.
If you don’t have kids, this kind of schedule could work for you, especially if it keeps you on track.
It’s a lot easier to schedule specific times for specific tasks if you know you won’t be interrupted.
Freeform planning
This next type is better for crisis-handlers because it gives you room to write everything down but doesn’t lock you into a time to do it.
You won’t feel like you’re behind schedule if you get interrupted and don’t finish a task at a certain time.
You can write everything you need to do that day down, and just cross the tasks off as they’re done.
Click to download a copy of this layout here:
What I did when I was super busy with cakes and kids and everything else, was to make a repeating to-do list with everything that had to be done on specific days every week, then I’d fill in the things that were specific to that week. Here it is:
By doing a schedule like this you can print out a bunch of them so you don’t have to write a new one each week, then just add things for each day.
There are certain things that happen all the time on the same day each week, so you shouldn’t waste time writing them down over and over.
You can just go in and write down any appointments, meetings, and after-school activities etc. that are going to happen each day onto the basic repeating list.
This is the same idea as an online calendar that repeats events.
If that works for you use that, but I’d seriously recommend that you print out a calendar for the week or the day, since batteries die and power goes out, so you don’t want to have your only schedule depending on an internet connection or a power source.
As I’m typing this my internet is out because of a winter storm, so if everything I needed to work was online I’d be in trouble.
Back to the repeating calendar…Notice that I put things for the weekend’s cakes scattered in throughout the week.
That’s because getting things done bit by bit over the course of the week prevents the last-minute rush and having to stay up until 3am the night before the cake is due.
It also allows you to fit shorter tasks in between things that might come up during the day.
I also put in a couple of household jobs because if it’s something that needs to be done every week, it should be on the list so that you remember to do it.
The busier you are the easier it is for things to fall through the cracks, so make sure it’s on the list.
Now remember…If you have young kids, don’t overschedule yourself. That’s the number one piece of advice I have to give.
There will come a time when they’ll be older and you can do more cakes per week than you’re doing now, but trying to fit more things into your schedule than you have time for won’t benefit anyone.
If you did an accurate time budget and you know how much time different things will take, you can plan your activities and know that what you have scheduled each day will fit into the time that you have.
Basic planning tips.
Now for some basic advice, use it if it sounds like something you could try, ignore if it doesn’t.
- Keep a yearly planner/calendar to write down things ahead of time. At the beginning of each week write down everything for that week from your calendar onto your weekly to-do list.
- Take a couple of minutes at the end of each day to see what’s on the to-do list for the next day. That way you won’t forget about things like appointments that are coming up, which is really easy to do if you don’t have everything written down.
- Even with your time budget showing you how long things take for you to do, assume that things will take longer than you planned. Add a little buffer time to make up for that.
- Schedule all doctor appointments, home maintenance appointments, and any other kind of appointments, toward the beginning of the week to leave Thursday and Friday for cake prep.
- Do one thing at a time!
- If there’s something that you really don’t want to do, do it first. Or at least start working on it first. Just get it out of the way or it will be hanging over your head all day.
- By the same token, if there’s something that’s the most important thing for you to handle, do it first.
- Schedule two times a day when you’ll check emails, preferably at the beginning and end of the day.
- When you take a break, use it to check your to-do list and evaluate what you need to change. Don’t get online.
- If you really, really hate a job, use a timer set for 15 minutes and do it a bit at a time. Or for 5 minutes if it’s super heinous.
- When you have time alone, use it to get some work done in an efficient and non-interrupted-by-children kind of way.
And the one piece of advice that’s applicable to everyone, not just people with children…LEARN TO SAY NO. Noooooooo. No. No.
Practice in front of the mirror, have someone role play an annoying and persistent customer with you, but learn to say no.
Household Management When Working From Home
The nice thing about working from home is that you can do it in your pajamas. Which is the biggest piece of bad advice ever.
Get dressed, for Pete’s sake. If you’re not going to take yourself and your business seriously nobody else will either.
You don’t have to do full hair and makeup every day, but for the love of God at least shower and put some real clothes on.
It will make you feel like you should be up and doing something, as opposed to slobbing around on the couch watching Netflix all day, even if that sounds pretty good.
If you’re working from home, or even if you’re working outside the home, you’re not going to have as much time to keep your house neat and clean and shiny.
Honestly, it’s not a big deal. Before women worked outside of the home they stayed home and managed the house all day.
But things have changed, and if you’re going to have a business you’re going to have to let some things go.
Remember this: True balance is a myth, and you can’t have it all at the same time.
There will be times when you have to put a lot of time into your business, and times when you aren’t as busy business-wise and you can deal with the household stuff more.
When your kids are really young they need more attention, and you won’t be able to do as many cake orders.
That’s okay, the business will always be there waiting, pay attention to your kids when they’re young.
In other words, there’s no reason why you have to do a thorough housecleaning on a week that you also have five wedding cakes scheduled.
Find Your Own Definition of Balance
There are a bunch of things that I did to maintain my own type of balance during times when I had a ton of cakes scheduled. Not all of them will work for you, since you might be bothered by different things.
Simplify food planning.
- I made it known that we were going to be ordering takeout on days that I was working. And that my husband was going to be the one to go get it.
This is obviously more expensive than cooking dinners from scratch, so if you want to keep your costs down you could use some of the other methods I had to get dinner ready without much effort on my part. The first is the crock pot and the second is cooking ahead.
Crock pot cooking is great for dinners because you don’t have to babysit it, and it’s ready for people to help themselves. It also won’t heat your kitchen up.
Cooking ahead is simple, just make double the amount of whatever you’re making for dinner and freeze half of it. Then put that in the oven when you’re working to heat it up, and you have a home-cooked meal with no effort.
Delegate!
- I delegated housework and let things that didn’t matter to me go.
Get your family involved in housekeeping. Don’t even pretend that they can’t help out, they can.
If you’re the type who’s going to freak out if things aren’t done perfectly, you need to decide what’s going to bother you the most, then do those things yourself.
But let other people do things that you don’t care about so much.
I had a friend who would flip out if the dishwasher wasn’t loaded “correctly.”
Of course, the “correctly” part was totally in her head, but that’s irrelevant.
It bothered her so much it wasn’t worth fighting, so she just told her family to leave their dishes in the sink and she would load them up.
If there’s something that just makes you go nuts, don’t try to delegate that.
One thing that kids, even little kids, can do is pick up their own junk.
I used to do the 5-minute room rescue from Flylady.com when my kids were little.
You basically run around like a nut and put things where they belong for 5 minutes.
Just doing it once a day helps, since three or four people putting things away for 5 minutes makes a huge difference in the clutter.
And less visual clutter helps relieve mental tension.
(As an aside, I think that “Feng shui” really translates as “pick your junk up off the floor so I don’t have to step over it to get through the room.” A clear path is a very nice thing.)
Do it now.
- Never put anything down “just for now.”
You know that when you put things down thinking “I’ll put that away later,” later never comes.
Take the extra ten seconds and put things away. If you absolutely can’t do that, have a corral spot where you put all the random things during the day, then take five minutes to put them away at the end of the day.
Watch out for rat’s nests.
- Identify your rat’s nest and watch out for flat surfaces.
I don’t know about your family, but for mine any flat surface is a possible area for someone’s rat’s nest.
You know what it is, it’s that collection of random items that don’t “belong” anywhere, so they end up in a pile somewhere.
My husband is a particularly bad offender in this area. He has rat’s nests of things in several areas around the house.
The top of the microwave is a bad one, the mantle is another one, and don’t even bother trying to look for the surface of his dresser, because you won’t be able to see it.
If you want to get rid of the rat’s nests, you pretty much have to be the bad guy and just ban them.
If they don’t bother you so much, you could at least give the offending rat a little basket and tell him that he can keep his junk in that, but it has to be contained.
I’d suggest making everyone clean up their rat’s nest once a week, but that can fall by the wayside if people don’t want to cooperate.
Don’t let them get away with ignoring it. This is a clutter issue, which can make the place look dirtier than it is, and clearing the nests out will make you feel better.
- Watch out for toy chests, deep baskets and bins.
Anything that’s deep and can hold junk usually holds a lot of junk.
Get rid of those unless you plan on using it as a tool to throw out toys your kids don’t play with after they fall to the bottom of the toy chest and are forgotten.
Clear it out.
- Goodwill is your friend
Keep a box or basket in a closet or the trunk of your car and add stuff you don’t use anymore to it on a regular basis. Take it to Goodwill every couple of weeks.
Lighten up on yourself.
- If you have young children give yourself a break.
Leave a lot of wiggle room in your daily schedule in case things come up. If you have ten hours of work scheduled for a ten hour slot, you know that will be the day all of your kids come down with the stomach flu.
Give yourself a lot of buffer space and if you find yourself with extra time on your hands, just do some work ahead.
Take a few of the things from the next day’s routine tasks list and get them done so that you free up time on another day.
Do water tasks first.
- Get water-related tasks done first.
This might sound strange, but it actually is a good piece of household advice.
Get rid of all of the chores that involve water first.
Laundry, dishes, mopping, whatever you might have to do, if it involves water, do it first.
This was a tip my Grandmother gave my mother, who gave it to me. I ignored it when she told me, of course, but it does make things easier.
Nothing is perfect.
- And last but not least, don’t go for perfection.
It’s cleaning your house, not sterilizing for surgery.
If there’s a period of time where you just can’t get all of the cleaning that you usually do done, just straighten up and vacuum.
A lot of time that’s all people notice anyway.
When my kids were really little I was at a mom’s club playgroup at a local playground.
There was a couple there (which was weird because dads usually didn’t show up) and we were chatting about how busy the kids were keeping us.
The woman said something about not having time to clean her baseboards, and I said “What, you’re supposed to clean the baseboards?”
They gave me the stinkeye and must have decided that I was some kind of cleaning heathen, but who cares? At that point in my life scrubbing baseboards wasn’t even on my radar.
Decide what needs to be done and do that. Don’t feel like you have to have everything spotless all the time.
You don’t have to be perfect, and there will be time to catch up when things on the business end calm down.
If your spouse complains that the house is messy, show him or her where the sponges are.
Storage Systems.
Here are some storage tips that have worked for me and my business.
All links in this section go to Amazon and are affiliate links that will pay a commission if they’re used to purchase something! As an Amazon associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
Centralize things.
If you can, have one dedicated space for storage, whether that’s an entire room or just a set of cabinets.
Some people have bought a wardrobe or tv cabinet with doors that close to store their cake supplies in.
I have a separate room that started out as my office and is now more of a storage room for supplies. I also have a cabinet in my kitchen that’s just for cake ingredients.
Zone systems.
I have different zones for different things, because that’s the most efficient way for me to remember where things are.
It’s the same as having different work zones for different tasks.
Keeping things in categories will help keep you organized and also makes it easier to see when you’re short on things.
If everything is scattered all over the place you’ll end up buying duplicates or running out of things.
In my office/storage room/dumping ground I have shelving that’s deep enough to hold cake boxes.
I got those at a local Home depot or Lowes, and they’re easily available and not too expensive. You can get them delivered to you from Amazon, see them here (#affiliate link)
I also have shelves and bookcases that hold all of my supplies and tools.
One of them is a rolling cart that’s meant to be used in a mechanic’s shop (I think) and it has bins that fit on the shelves. (#affiliate link)
That cart is great for holding gumpaste cutters, molds, etc. etc.
Make sure that you label EVERY bin that you have things in or you’ll forget what’s in them! This is the toy chest phenomenon I mentioned before.
I have zones for gumpaste supplies, food colors, boards, boxes, cutters, molds, floral wire, etc. If you group things together they’ll be easier to find when you need them.
Go up.
When I run out of room on shelves, I install more shelves, but higher up. (See them on Amazon here. #affiliate link)
You can store things that you don’t use very often on wall-mounted shelves that are installed above existing ones and above doors.
Just look at all the empty wall space that’s UP.
You obviously shouldn’t put things like super heavy boxes on a shelf that’s attached to a wall with those little drywall expander screw thingies, but you can store cake dummies on them.
Or cake stands, airbrush equipment that you hardly ever use, display cakes, etc.
I have my extensive collection of cake boards and random junk on high shelves in my storage room.
Here we have some cake dummies, boxes, and a bunch of floral wire that’s hanging from an upper rack.
See the white shelf that’s sitting on top of the brown shelf in the corner? That’s a regular wire bookshelf that I appropriated (#ad) and just stuck up there, so it’s strong enough to hold heavier things, which ended up being boxes, in this case.
I also see some cake stands, bins of paper flowers, and some seldom-used decorating tools up high.
So basically, don’t forget to go up. But as you’re doing that, get rid of things that you REALLY haven’t used in a long time, because reducing is also good when organizing, as we all know.
You can also store things on top of your kitchen cabinets if they don’t go all the way to the ceiling.
Keep things contained.
Use bins to store like items…cookie cutters, gumpaste cutters, food coloring, etc.
I also have one section of my office where I keep gumpaste flowers that I’ve made ahead, generally roses and peonies since those tend to be the most commonly-used flowers these days.
I make them in white, then when I need some for a cake I can just pull them out and color them.
I store them in the plastic shoebox sized bins (#ad) that have loose lids so they’re not airtight.
Another section is for items that brides have given me, and for specific cakes.
I’ll label the bin with the bride’s name and wedding date, and flowers, ribbon, toppers etc. go into it as they’re collected.
That keeps everything in one place, and I can check to see what I need to make for a cake by sorting through the bin to see what’s missing.
Here’s my bin area, with some boards above them:
Small-space storage.
If you have a lot of little things, you could get some hanging storage systems with pockets or shelves (#affiliate link) that you could hang in a closet or on a pantry door.
Shoe storage systems, like an over-the-door shoe organizer, would give you a bunch of little pockets that you can see through to store things and keep them easily reachable.
Over-the-door shelving systems can be added to a kitchen pantry door to hold food colorings or boxes of petal dusts, piping tips, etc.
There are hanging sweater storage bins that have shelves in them (#affilaite link). Get a sturdy one and you can store cake pans or boards in them.
A bookshelf placed in a closet can add a lot of storage space, and you can still fit in other things that hang in front of the shelf.
Fishing tackle boxes can be used to store small bottles (#affiliate link) of food coloring, petal dusts, piping tips and other small tools. Close it up and stick it in a closet or out of the way when you’re not using it.
Boxes with little drawers that are used for nails and screws in workshops are good for piping tips and other small tools.
Pegboards on a wall, or a bulletin board, can be used to store things up and out of the way. Cutters and other tools can be stored this way, and you’ll be able to see exactly where they are when you need them.
I use vintage wall pockets to store rulers, pens, and exacto knives. They’re made to be hanging flower vases, but they’re good for small items that need corralling, and they’re decorative as well.
Nest things.
Cake pans are the bane of any decorator’s existence, since they take up so much space.
I’ve managed to shove all of mine onto a couple of shelves by nesting them into each other. You can see them peeking out of the photo above at the bottom.
This cabinet was an old tv cabinet, so it’s pretty deep and I can fit larger pans on it.
I have 2” pans nested from sizes 3”-16”, and square pans from 4”-16”, and the 3” deep pans nested on another shelf.
By combining them I can get two entire sets into a relatively small space.
I’ve seen some pan storage systems that have them nested and stacked upright (#affilaite link) on the side of the pan in a pot rack kind of holder, which would work if you have a tall space to use. You could use a base cabinet in the kitchen to store them like that if you have one available.
You could also nest them and store them on top of the kitchen cabinets, since they’re not too heavy.
An ottoman with storage space inside could also be used to store cake pans, boards, or other supplies. It will keep them completely out of the way and out of sight.
Boxes go under.
Boxes are everywhere in my house now, especially since I started having to buy shipping boxes. I store them anywhere there’s space.
Since I never used the desk in my office, I took the chair out of there and now store boxes under the desk.
I have boxes under our piano (it’s a big piano), on shelves in my office, on shelves in my “art room” and anywhere else they’ll fit.
I do NOT put them out in the garage, because insects like cardboard, and I don’t want them to be out in a humid area.
If I was desperate, I’d store them under the beds, wrapped in a clean sheet.
They could also go under or behind a couch. Just wrap them up in a clean sheet or put them in a garbage bag to keep dust off of them.
You can slide them upright behind a couch or a bookshelf, I have some behind the rolling rack in my office.
If you can build a divider system into a deep shelving system, that might be the best way to keep them organized.
When you store bakery boxes flat, like I have them on the bottom shelf in one of the previous photos, it can be hard to get to them.
If I need a box from the bottom section of the stack, I have to try to pull it out from under the heavy stack on top of it without ripping anything.
Stacking them on their sides is a better option, but sometimes you can’t do it that way.
Just remember…The best way to do it is whatever way it works best for you.
Working from home challenges.
Working from home can be difficult, especially if you have small children.
If you have kids who are really young and who aren’t in school yet, don’t even try to pretend that you’re going to be able to put in a full workweek unless you have a lot of support.
I started my business when my kids were really young, but my husband picked up the childcare on the weekends and when I was working in the evenings.
If you don’t have family who can do some of the childcare, you’ll need to be realistic with yourself about how much you can schedule.
This goes back to your time budget and being honest with yourself.
People won’t think you’re actually working.
Even if you do have people who can take over with the kids, it’s not uncommon for them to complain about how much you’re working if you rely on them a lot.
I’ll be brutally honest with you now…Spouses, friends, and family don’t always appreciate that you’re working when you have a home-based business.
They seem to think that you’re sitting around doing nothing all day, even when they see you working.
I’ve heard of people whose family members keep encouraging them to “get a real job,” or who can’t seem to figure out what they do.
You’ll also have friends and neighbors ask you to take care of their kids, or pick them up from the bus, or whatever, because they know that you’re home.
Don’t be afraid to say no to people, and tell them that you can’t do it because you have work scheduled. After a few “no” answers from you they’ll stop asking unless it’s an actual emergency, and that’s when you can decide whether you can help or not.
My own husband knew very well what I did, since he saw me working, but he didn’t really take it seriously until the day that I told him how much I was making that year.
I remember seeing the light go off in his head and he said “Hey, that’s real money!” like it hadn’t occurred to him that I was working a real job, and like I said, he was actually supportive of what I was doing!
But that’s the reality of home-based businesses, people seem to think that you’re doing it for fun.
The long and short of this, then, is that if you’ve been responsible for most of the childcare and housework up to the point of starting your business, other people won’t necessarily be super happy to have to start pitching in.
You’re going to have to stand up for yourself to get help, and you’re also going to have to work efficiently.
Work strategies with kids around.
Here are some strategies that I used for working with kids around:
- Start from the beginning teaching them that they can help you by not trying to help you. This is something that all kids can learn, whether you think so or not. Give them credit for being able to understand that they need to stay out of the way while you’re working.
- You can give them playdough and cutters to make a pretend cake with. Some people will give them fondant but that’s a good way to get them stuffed full of sugar when you’re not looking. You should also try to teach them to not eat while they’re working…
- Teach them that they shouldn’t eat while they’re decorating since it makes your hands dirty and that can make the food dirty. This is basic kitchen sanitation, and it IS possible for kids to learn this from a young age. You just have to teach them that decorating is not the same as eating, and that alone might make the decorating less attractive, so they might not bother you as much while you’re working.
- Try to get as much done as possible when they’re not around, obviously. After bedtime and before they get up are often the best times to get a stretch of work done.
- If they’re a little older, and have a good grasp on the not eating concept, let them make some gumpaste flowers while you’re working.
- Keep tv for a treat while you’re working, or have a video game or something else that they like that you only bring out when you need to keep them occupied. You could also keep a bag of little toys or games that they can play on their own, or if there’s a toy they like to play with only let them bring it out when you need to work uninterrupted.
- Limit orders when your kids are young, it’s the safest way to preserve your sanity.
- Have a babysitter you can hire occasionally to take the kids out of the house. Even with a babysitter, if they’re in the house you’ll end up being interrupted. Get them out of your workspace for the most efficient use of your time.
- Don’t schedule anything for days after holidays. It’s not a good idea to try to cook a turkey, handle family obligations, and also decorate cakes.
- If you know that you’ll be busy with kids’ activities during the summer months, either take a month off of doing cakes or just schedule yourself lighter. I started taking August off, since June and July were busier for weddings, and it was good because it gave me more free time when the kids were home. The work that I did was more of a planning-type, lots of paperwork and planning ahead.
Systems will help you.
Systems and routines are really important when you’re doing a lot of cakes per week, regardless of whether you have children at home or not.
Anything that you can do to streamline the process and get things done ahead of time is important, and fitting the tasks that have to be done into the time that you have per day is more important.
These are some things that I do to speed the process of baking and decorating.
One of the main things that I’ve gotten in the habit of doing is breaking up the baking process so that I have part of the process done every day, as opposed to trying to fit it all in in the space of one day.
It’s helpful to break it up when you have multiple orders, since that can mean the difference between five four-hour workdays and one 20-hour day, which is no fun at all.
- Freeze fondant décor or store sealed up ahead of time. You can make fondant decorations that have to be put on the cake when they’re soft, then freeze them. When you take them out of the freezer they’ll take a couple of minutes to become flexible again, but you’ll be able to put them on the cake and conform them to the shape of the cake, the pieces won’t have dried out. Doing these ahead of time will speed your decorating time up tremendously since you won’t have to cut out each piece when you’re putting the cake together.
- Work ahead whenever possible. Make a list of all decorations for each cake by date and work ahead on the list. I keep flowers etc. in the individual bins for each bride in my storage area. When it’s time to decorate the cake I have everything in one place.
- Prep dry ingredients ahead of baking day and store in bags or containers.
I use the Ziploc containers that are about the size of shoeboxes to measure out the dry ingredients for each batch I have to bake, then I label them with yellow stickies. On baking day I would grab each one and bake off what it said on the sticky note (2-10” vanilla, 3x base recipe) and so forth. Measuring out the dry ingredients ahead of time speeds the baking day process up a LOT.
- Prep your fillings and icings ahead of time. If you have at least the first batch of icing ready to go on decorating day it will cut down on time spent that day on making your components.
- On baking day, bake multiple layers at the same time. I’ve heard people say that they only put one set of pans in the oven at a time, but I have no idea why. I ordered an extra oven rack and put that in my home oven so that I have three baking racks, and I fill every single one of them up, let me tell you…I can get an entire four-tiered cake in one oven, and it speeds the baking process up. You have to be aware of the oven hot spots so that you can rotate the pans between racks if needed, but for the most part I just move them to a more center rack as I take them out when they finish baking.
- Clean as you go. I know, people hate this, but it’s easy to do 5 minutes of dishwashing before you start another batch of batter, and it’s a horrible feeling to think “I’m done!” then to turn and see a huge pile of dirty dishes waiting for you. I tend to wash all my pans and put them away before I start decorating, I just feel better having done it. And I don’t have a ton of pans waiting for me when I’m finished and dead on my feet at the end of the day.
- Try to keep your work area uncluttered. I know, ha ha. Do as I say, not as I do…but it does make you feel better to not have to work around stuff on the counter. Toss dirty spatulas into the sink, throw stuff out, whatever you need to do.
- When it’s time to decorate the cakes, do it assembly line style. Everything gets filled, then levelled, then crumb coated. When you get to the crumb coating part, start separating out the different tiers so that the sections of each tiered cake travel together. Put away any tools that you used for each task after you’re done with that part of the job. Doing all the rote tasks in one shot will get you into a rhythm and make it go faster. You can write the flavor of the cake into the top of the tier with a toothpick if you think you’ll mix them up.
- If at all possible, get an extra refrigerator to store your cakes in. This will keep them separate from your family’s food, and will make it less likely that someone will accidentally stick their hand into a finished tier. If you only have one fridge, do NOT go out and buy three gallons of milk the day before you need to store cakes! My husband once came home with a couple of six packs of beer on a Friday. That beer sat out on the counter until my deliveries were done the next day, thank you very much…
- As you’re decorating, make an emergency bag to take on the delivery with you. As you finish with each tip, tool etc. put it in the bag. That way you’ll have every tool you need to fix any damage. Also put a paper towel and a spatula in each bag, or keep a separate bag with paper towels, spatulas, scissors, and other tools that are common to most cakes in it.
Paperwork management.
Ah, paperwork, nobody’s favorite thing.
Systems and routines are super important to have here, since lost paperwork can cost a lot of time to recreate, and time is money, my friend.
Finding ways to streamline your paperwork is, thankfully, a lot easier now than it used to be.
Online services for bookkeeping can be helpful, but I just did all of my expenses once a month when my credit card bill came, and all of my income once a month when the bank statement came.
Using my own spreadsheets let me make sure that everything was entered correctly, so at the end of the year I didn’t have to go back and re-verify all of the figures.
I found that the online bookkeeping service I was using would occasionally skip things and not import them the right way, so I was missing things.
As far as financial paperwork goes, the way that I do it is to have a paperwork zone in my office.
I toss every receipt, invoice, etc. into it as they come in, and once every other week I go through and make sure that everything is entered into the system.
I’d suggest leaving paperwork for once a week or once every other week, unless you prefer to take ten minutes a day to enter everything. By doing it in a chunk of time I only have to get into the financial mindset once, get the receipts out once, etc.
If you work better doing things as they come in by all means go right ahead.
You might want to look into the scanners that send each receipt directly into the expense category you designate, then you can get rid of each receipt as it comes in.
General paperwork tips.
Here are some things that I do to streamline financial paperwork and weekly cake paperwork, such as shopping lists and delivery paperwork:
- Take work with you to do or articles to read for times when you’re sitting waiting. Car pickup line at school? Keep copies of cake decorating magazines or tutorials with you to read while you’re waiting. Sitting waiting for the kids somewhere? Take a bag with your upcoming contracts and fill out all of the delivery paperwork for them. I used to get a lot of work done during the summer at the pool while my kids were swimming, and some of my most productive time is when I have to sit at the mechanic waiting for my car to be serviced.
- At the beginning of each month go through the orders for the next month (do February at the beginning if January, etc.)to see if you need to order any special boards or equipment. Don’t wait until the first of the month because you’ll end up like the people who order from me and say “I need this in two days, can I get it by then?” No, no you can’t.
- Along the same lines, once a quarter go through all of your upcoming contracts and tally up how many boards of each size you’re going to need for the next few months. Check to see if you need to place an order for anything or if you have everything you need in stock. Basically, do things assembly-line style when you have a block of time (paperwork, baking schedules etc.)
- Keep a set of forms that can be used every week, including delivery information, baking schedules, shopping list spreadsheets, etc. I have a spreadsheet for my shopping list that has every recipe I have on it. I do a sheet every week with the cakes I have to bake that week and then multiply that on the spreadsheet to make my shopping list for the week.
- Have a schedule to get busywork out of the way early in the week—make shopping lists, fill out delivery info, put boxes together etc.
- Prep invoices for balances due ahead of time and keep it with the client’s contract. When the time comes to invoice people you’ll have it written up to mail. If you prefer to email invoices you can create folders for each week and include drafts of every invoice that needs to be sent that week. When the week comes around, get the drafts and send them as scheduled.
- For keeping track of orders, use a combination of paper and online records. Make one file in your email account for each customer, including every email they send to you and your responses. Label these with the date and the customer’s name. I also keep a paper folder for each customer, which has printouts of all important emails and their contract. The files are all kept in a file box so that I have everything in one place for easy access.
- Each file that I have has a sticker on the front of it where I check off deposit paid, balance paid, balance billed, etc. that way I can glance at the folder to see if the cake has been paid for without having to open it and go through all of the paperwork.
- Keep a paper calendar with each client’s name on the date the cake is due. Don’t write down a name on a date unless the deposit has been paid and the contract has been received. That way you can keep that near your phone and you’ll be able to tell people at a glance whether you’re booked for a date or not.
- Use a carbonless message pad for phone messages so that you have a copy if you lose the top part.
- Keep a record of upcoming appointments near the computer so that you can write people down when they set up a meeting. Do it right away so that you don’t double-book people!
Marketing
Marketing is a real time-sucker these days.
With the increase in the use of social media, it isn’t enough to just place print ads anymore, now you have to be online promoting your business or you might as well not have one.
Well, that’s not 100% true…Some businesses, including cake businesses, do just fine without social media, and some businesses that have a huge social media presence aren’t making any money, they just look like they are.
The majority, though, fall somewhere between those two extremes.
The problem, though, is that promoting your business online takes a lot of time, and a lot of that effort is wasted.
If you sell cakes locally, you should be concentrating your marketing locally.
That means that you might get more results from an ad placed on a local wedding guide site than you will by growing your Facebook following to half a million “fans.”
If those fans aren’t from your area, and have no intention of hiring you, there’s no point in marketing to them.
Before you start spending a lot of time marketing online, figure out who you want to sell to.
Aim your marketing toward that group. If you sell wedding cakes, go to a local wedding networking group where you can meet other vendors to get referrals.
If you do children’s cakes, see if you can connect with local schools for a PTA event, or place an ad in a local parenting newspaper. Try out different things to see if they work.
Using social media.
As far as social media goes, there are a few ways to streamline that process.
First, figure out what platform your customers are on.
Facebook is still the biggest player, but it’s hard to connect with people now that they’ve tightened up on how they show posts.
You might want to search for local brides on Pinterest or Instagram (search hashtags for your town or area) and interact with them there.
It might be worthwhile running an ad on Facebook (not a promoted post) and targeting only women in your area who have recently changed their relationship status to engaged.
Schedule things.
The best way to minimize the time that you spend promoting your business online is to schedule as much ahead of time as you can.
I use the native Facebook scheduler to schedule a month’s worth of posts at one time. Then I just need to respond to comments occasionally, but I’m not online posting things all week.
Scheduling blog posts is another time-saver.
I write about a month of blog posts at once, then schedule them for publishing later on.
They publish to my blog, then I have that linked to my Facebook account, which is also linked to my Instagram account. That way I get a bunch of posts published on a few different platforms at once and I don’t have to do anything once they’re scheduled.
Linking accounts is a good idea, and cross-posting when possible is another time-saver.
Don’t spend too much time on social media during the day if you can help it! It’s a good tool but it can be a real waste of time if your marketing efforts aren’t meeting your audience.
Finally, I’ll add that social media should include your website.
Don’t neglect your website, make sure to update it once a week or so. Just check in and see if you need to change dates or add photos.
Final words.
Systems and routines… The most important part of keeping on schedule when you’re really busy.
Turn off your electronics when you really need to get work done. You know when you’re procrastinating, and you know that the internet is the tool of procrastinators worldwide, don’t pretend!
If you have small children who need your attention, don’t overschedule yourself. There will be plenty of time for that later, and nobody’s giving out awards for the person who’s the busiest and most sleep-deprived. It’s not a badge of honor to be exhausted all the time and unable to manage your time well.
The ability to have everything at once in perfect harmony is a myth. Balance is relative, and sometimes things have to take a back seat to other things for the time being. It’s not a big deal.
Find what works for you, because what works for me might not be within your habits. You have to find systems that work for the way you operate. Once you do that you’ll be able to get a handle on your time.
