124 – Adding Frosting to Your Business with Rebekah Wilbur of Rebekah Naomi Cake Design

You're listening to gift biz unwrapped episode 124.

It was the moment that I was offered money to make

a cake that I realized that this was a business.

Hi, this is John Lee Dumas of entrepreneur on fire,

and you're listening to gifted biz unwrapped,

and now it's time to light it.

Welcome to gift bears on wrapped your source for industry specific

insights and advice to develop and grow your business.

And now here's your host Sue Mona height.

Hi there.

It's Sue and welcome to the gift biz unwrapped podcast.

If you are a gifter Baker,

crafter or maker,

and you own your own brick and mortar shop sell online

or are just getting started,

you'll discover new insight to gain traction and to grow your

business. And today I have joining us,

Rebecca Wilbur,

Rebecca is the editor of America cake decorating magazine,

and she owns her own business called Rebecca Naomi cake design.

Her greatest professional achievement as a cake decorator is creating a

14 tier cake for the wedding of Kristin Jarvis West.

Kristen was the chief of staff to Michelle Obama and both

the first lady and the first daughter were in attendance and

enjoyed a piece of Rebecca's masterpiece.

Rebecca is also a trained musician and has taught both piano

and saxophone shortly.

We'll Hear how she made that leap to become a cake

artist. Welcome to the show,

Rebecca. Hi,

thanks for having me on the show.

So it's great to be here.

So very excited to talk to you.

Fabulous. And I like to start off our conversation in a

little bit of an untraditional way,

and that is by having you describe yourself through a motivational

candle. So if you were to pick a color that you

just always have gravitated to,

and some type of a quote or a motto or something

that leads how you feel about life in general,

I guess I'll say,

what would your candle look like?

What would be the color and what would be the quote?

So I have always gravitated to the color blue and a

lot of my cake they're actually blue.

So, or I would say the ones that have been very

successful for me,

I've been blue.

So I think my candle would be blue.

It, it sort of feels harmonious to me calming and that

the creative space that I'm in when I'm taking decorating.

So definitely it would be blue.

And in terms of a quote,

I guess,

a motto that I've lived by is that you don't wait

for opportunity.

You create your own opportunity.

Love that.

Yeah, that's the motto of my cake decorating career.

Those when I was a hobbyist and when I turned it

into a business,

We're so fortunate.

Now we live in a time when we don't have to

sit back and wait for someone to discover us.

If we just are brave enough,

you know,

get that courage going and present ourselves out there.

We can form our own path.

We don't have to sit back.

Like we all felt it used to be that you had

to wait to be discovered,

and you're just sitting there back crossing your fingers and you

had no control.

So I think that quote is really,

really great for this day and age.

So, and it also leads us perfectly into what I want

to talk about first,

which is what led you into baking and cake decorating?

Well, I've always,

and I think a lot of artists feel the same way.

Creativity is something that is part of our core being.

So no matter what we do in my,

or what career path we choose,

we are always gravitating towards creative art and as a means

of expression.

And it's almost like a need rather than something that we

choose to do.

It's something that we absolutely have to do.

So basically to cut a very,

very long story short when I moved to the States in

my early twenties,

from the UK,

and I had emigrated here to get married,

I was unable to work for a period of time because

I didn't have the visa to be able to pursue any

sort of career.

I was fortunate.

I was on Cape Cod at the time,

and I was living with my inmost because my husband and

I had not yet gotten to the point of me getting

a job or even a driver's license.

And I had a lot of sort of very lonely days.

And I ended up baking as a means to pass the

time. And I loved it.

I was very passionate about it,

and I really enjoyed sharing some of the recipes that I

had from back home with my new family.

And then when we,

obviously we moved out and I did have a job,

but when my daughter was born again,

I took some time away from my career,

which at the time was,

I was a resume writer for the us air force.

And I just started baking again.

And I think it was when I made her first birthday

cake that I sort of really started to look at cake

decorating as an art form.

And I enjoyed making artistic cakes and seeing that as a

creative Avenue.

So you saw that this was something you really enjoyed spending

your time doing.

At what point then did you think?

Well, I can actually start making money on this too.

It was a very slow progression.

I mean,

I think a lot of business owners have the same story

in a way,

especially in the creative fields,

you do something and you realize you're good at it.

You realize that you enjoy it.

I think basically what happened was as time went on and

I was making more and more cakes,

I would have friends that would come up to me and

say, Hey,

you know,

my son's turning three next month.

Would you be able to make a cake for the birthday

party? And I started making cakes for friends and family.

I wasn't charging them at the time.

I was still looking at this as a hobby.

And it was the moment that I was offered money to

make a cake.

But I realized that this was a business.

It was always something I envisioned I could do from home.

Something I could make my own hours with.

I could set my own schedule.

I could be my own boss.

I mean,

those are always things that had appeal to me.

And so it was kind of a natural fit,

really. So was it one of your friends who had said

I'll even pay you for it?

Yeah. Friends started to want to pay me because I was

doing more and more elaborate cakes Cause they wanted to come

back to you again and again,

I didn't realize the amount of effort that went into making

those creations.

So they started offering to pay me and looking back,

you know,

obviously back then,

I wasn't really expecting a huge amount of money and things

have changed in that respect.

Sure. It was the mentality of realizing that I was creating

a product that could be sold.

So assigning a dollar value to your gift,

to your talent does that.

So what types of things,

Things did you need to do now?

You've identified that all right,

the blinkers went on,

this could be a business,

not just even accepting money,

but like a real true business.

What types of steps did you take then to actually turn

it from being a hobby,

even a hobby where people were paying you a little bit

on the side to being a real business,

what steps did you need to take to do that?

There were an awful lot of steps that were taken in

over the course of many years.

And it was sort of like you learn as you go

along. Initially in the beginning,

I realized that I needed to have a presence.

People needed to be able to find the outside of my

circle of friends.

So of course I did cultivate word of mouth relationships,

but I needed a brand.

So I looked into branding myself,

naming my business.

There's a kind of initial steps.

And then of course,

looking at the legal aspects surrounding having a home-based bakery,

it was doing an awful lot of research and trying to

connect with people online that were in similar situations.

To me,

I'm seeing what the stories were to gain perspective and see

what my next steps could be.

You joined some type of a group with other bakers who

were all over the country or something like that.

Online. I actually conveniently had a friend who was in the

UK, who I'd gone to school with,

who was following a very similar journey to me.

She was also a cake decorator and she was looking to

start a business.

And I was sort of looking at her and being motivated

by what she was doing.

And I think it brought out the competitive aspect in me

because it stopped me from just sort of plodding along on

this journey to sort of getting focused and setting myself goals.

And I saw that she had joined various cake decorating groups

where people were sharing it by sharing their work.

And I followed suit and did the same thing.

I saw her brand,

her business,

she designed a logo.

She had a great name.

I mean,

all of these things were sort of like a blueprint or

a map for me to be,

to implement those things myself.

Yeah. And I think having an accountability partner like that,

you don't want to fall short.

I'm sure it probably helped prompt you to keep going to

not only showing you the path,

but okay.

If she's doing it,

I can do it.

Definitely. I do recall I was sitting at home in my

basement and I recently,

I think that weekend done a couple of cakes for some

friends. And I had a Facebook page because everyone in this

industry has a Facebook page.

Even if you're not a business,

even if you're a hobbyist,

you want to be able to share your work with others.

It's a badge of honor.

It's something you take great pride over.

And she had a Facebook page and I was looking at

her page and seeing she had 400 likes and people were

studying to review her business.

And I remember thinking,

well, I need to step this up,

Nothing wrong with that.

Right? A little bit of a push there.

Yeah. A push,

a competitive push.

But those things motivated me,

not out of a sense of wanting to be better than

her, but making me realize exactly what you said.

If she can do this,

I can do this and forging ahead and making myself meet

these goals that I was creating for myself on a daily

basis. And you know,

there's nothing that says we have to do this alone.

I was hearing the other day and I believe this,

that pretty much everything has been created already,

unless you're going to be making the brand new version of

iPhone or something like drones or,

you know,

whatever it is.

But a lot of the things that we're doing have been

done before.

So we don't have to reinvent the wheel.

And I love that.

You talk about the fact that you went out and searched

for people who have either already done it or are doing

it already.

It makes things so much easier and it's not cheating.

Would you agree,

Rebecca? It's not cheating.

Oh, it's not cheating.

A lot of the people that are in,

I call it a community because I feel like I'm part

of a community of cake decorators.

And a lot of us are business owners.

But one thing I found is people are very willing to

share. They're willing to share their experiences good and bad to

help others that are coming up to avoid making those mistakes.

And there are a lot of mistakes that businesses make.

And they're always willing to offer advice,

Especially a business like yours too,

because it's mostly local.

There's no way you're going to be carrying a 14 to

your cake through the mail,

sending it through the mail or something,

right. To a point to a point.

But so the point being that you're really not competing with

a lot of the people that are in there,

your community,

if you're in different areas of the country,

Yes, we're not competing and funny that you mentioned that I'm

actually very connected with the local bakers that are in my

immediate vicinity and those that are what we would traditionally call

competitors. Because I see them as a network.

We're a network of people that are all trying to do

something similar.

And honestly,

I always have that.

You build each other up and you do that by supporting

one another.

And you know,

I think in terms of my competition locally,

I friended them because if I am not able to do

an order or to make a cake and I'm able to

give them this bit,

then they're also able to do the same thing for me.

We're able to refer people to one another and also,

I mean,

I'm a small business.

If I'm not able to make the cake,

then what happens to the client?

And I've been fortunate.

There's only been one instance in the last five years where

I've been unable to fulfill an order,

but I actually came down with a very bad flu a

few years ago and I was scheduled to do a wedding

cake and I was unable to make it.

And I was able to reach out to this network of

bakers and ask them to pick up the order for me

last minute and to take that pressure away from the ride.

So I think networking locally is extremely important for the growth,

the business.

I Love that you brought that up too,

because I think there is enough business for everybody.

And your point about how you were able to,

even though you weren't able to service that wedding cake,

you were able to call upon your local community to help

is servicing the customer.

And in the end,

that's the most important thing.

And would you say then that that person would still come

back to you probably first.

So you're not really losing the business Long term.

Yes. And ultimately,

even if the customer doesn't come back,

I still got an excellent review and I was able to

satisfy the needs of that customer and they weren't very happy.

And ultimately that's what my business should be about.

Absolutely. So you referenced a little bit back that the journey

and building and growing a business is not without its struggles.

Can you tell us something that was really,

really challenging as you were building and growing and what you

did about the situation?

There's a lot of things.

I think in relation to me being a creative individual,

when you turn a hobby into a business,

you change your hobby because your meeting the needs of a

client, you no longer just doing things for the joy of

doing that.

And that was a challenge because at first I got an

awful lot of satisfaction from creating birthday cakes and celebration cake.

But after you've made 15,

you know,

Disney, frozen cakes and dream of you start to lose the

motivation and it becomes almost you resent to in a way

that's something that's difficult to get past.

And I eventually had evolved my business,

but I was able to do more creative projects,

but it certainly took time to do that.

So I think that's one of the obstacles for sure.

And secondly,

I would say it's about another problem with the growth in

terms of pricing,

when you start out,

most people vastly undervalue themselves and undercharge,

Oh, you are so right.

Yes. It's a huge problem.

Not just for your own business,

but for other businesses as well,

because you bring down the market value,

especially in your area.

And that creates problems for others in the industry.

This is a good point and give biz listeners.

I want you to really think about this in relationship to

what you're doing,

because I think in the beginning,

we'll have a tendency to say,

well, we're just learning.

You know,

we're just learning this business part of it because everybody here,

who's listening,

probably isn't an expert at their craft.

You're actually making,

if it's baking,

if it's creating jewelry,

whatever it is.

But you kind of forget about when you start transitioning over

in the beginning to selling that the value of your time,

the value of all your products,

the fact that you need margin.

And it is so much harder to increase your prices later

than the command,

the correct price in the beginning.

I do think people undervalue themselves and also one common mistake

that people particularly in my industry make.

I'm not sure if it's the same for other industries,

but they seek advice and they will ask others,

well, what do you charge?

And they're looking at it the wrong way,

because there are so many different factors at play and location.

What clients,

your targeting,

et cetera,

the cost of ingredients in your area or the cost of

products in your area.

So they're looking at others as a model rather than looking

at themselves and saying,

okay, what does it actually cost me to make this product?

What should a healthy profit margin be?

And then compiling a price list from that?

Got it.

So I think people don't have the experience to self-analyze and

figure out what their pricing structure should be.

And so what would you say to somebody?

I mean,

you obviously can't be so out of whack with the norm,

right? You have to be somewhat within a certain range.

I think it depends,

obviously for me,

I did do some market research.

I called around other bakeries to see what the average price

was for an eight inch cake,

et cetera,

or a three tier wedding cake.

But ultimately,

as I grew my business,

I came to realize that I was creating very highly specialized

product and I stopped comparing myself to others.

So I think it depends on the product you're creating on

your journey,

but certainly in the beginning you would want to establish yourself

competitively with those around you.

So explain to us a little bit what you were just

talking about in terms of a highly specialized product.

What does that mean?

Well, I guess the way that I look at it is

I give you an analogy of the fashion industry.

You have people that you have even stores,

chains that create great clothes and you know,

they fit the need.

And then you have the high end hope couture,

you know,

designers that are creating custom,

one of a kind,

very highly specialized pieces that people are willing to pay more

money for.

And that's kind of how I see myself in relation to

this industry.

The cakes that I make are very,

I think,

very highly specialized.

They take a lot of time.

The techniques so far advanced the ingredients are very high quality.

It's a bespoke service and a bespoke product.

I would also think that as you've developed your business and

the clientele that you now have such as doing the wedding

cake for Kristin,

right? And now the connection with the Obama family,

just through that,

that you're able to command a little bit of a higher

price because a bride is able to say,

Oh my gosh,

you're not going to believe this.

I got my wedding cake from the same person who makes

so-and-so. And so,

and when your reputation gets bigger,

your brand gets more known.

Then you can also come in The higher price that way.

Definitely. You're not just selling your product anymore than you're selling

yourself. Why would anyone buy a pair of Jimmy Choos?

It's a great product,

but you also want to just own a pair of Jimmy

Choos. I think it's the same kind of crossover analogy to

where I hope to grow my business and that my name

has value to it has a dollar value attached to it

in a sense Which all goes back to the brand then

to, yes,

your brand.

I mean,

very clear on your brand,

the audience that you're looking at approaching right from the beginning

so that you can start making headway right away in terms

of your reputation.

Yeah. In the industry,

a lot of people will ask me,

how do you get high on wedding clients?

And I'll go to their website and their websites culprit in

cute birthday cakes.

And I'll say,

well, you really have to dress for the job you want.

If you want to make high-end wedding cakes.

And someone goes to your website and they're not seeing high

end wedding cakes,

they're not going to book those things.

So you really have to represent a product that you want

to create.

Even if you don't have that clientele at the moment,

you know,

there are things that you can do to brand yourself.

She captured those clients.

And that goes through with exactly what you're saying.

You want to dress the part you want all your social

platforms to look the same.

It has to be the same vibe going through everything.

So your website,

your social media sites,

when people see you in person,

all of it has to be the same because if people

see that it looks different than a level of trust goes

down. So something for all of us to always be remembering

is that we're having the same feel in the same touch.

And that goes with colors and wording and everything throughout every

touch point,

including answering the phone,

taking orders,

the whole thing,

every touch point along the way.

So what would you say,

and we're still with your business,

cause I want to get onto the magazine in a second,

but is there something that you're doing that you see really

helps move the needle in terms of bringing in business?

Well, I definitely use social media a lot uncertainly.

I think that this,

this, this now social media marketing and advertising,

anything, just having a,

is extremely important to the growth of your business.

For me working with brides and the majority of rides that

I'm dealing with are millennials.

And this generation has a different approach to how they be

businesses. They immediately gravitate to social media and they want to

be able to talk with you via social media.

They don't necessarily want to pick up the phone to establish

first contact.

They might look up your business via Instagram,

or they may look up your business via Facebook.

So I definitely think social media is one area that I've

optimized to grow my business.

And are you saying Facebook and Instagram,

your strongest platform?

Definitely. Facebook is my strongest platform.

And I would say in the last year,

Instagram has definitely grown exponentially.

So I'm reaching a lot more clients through Instagram and Facebook.

Now what about Pinterest?

Pinterest? A little bit.

It's funny.

I will get contact from other bakers via Pinterest where a

bride has seen one of my cakes on Pinterest and taken

a picture of it to a Baker.

And then they'll source it back to me and they'll call

me or they'll message me and say,

Hey, my bride has fallen in love with this design.

Can we do a version,

all that?

Or can we use it et cetera?

So the interest has definitely been a tool for me to

connect with the industry,

but not so much with brides specifically.

Interesting. Okay.

Well, you know,

the business comes from all different places,

right? Yeah.

Let's talk now about how you got involved with the magazine.

How did that all start out?

Well, I had been a cake decorator,

a cake artist in the community for several years and I

had reached out to American cake decorating magazine in that time

to offer,

to make tutorials for them or to write editorial pieces.

And over the course of a few years,

I had sort of established a relationship with them as a

contributor. Of course,

the reason I did that was because it was always a

bucket list thing for me to be published.

And I think it is for a lot of businesses.

It's sort of like,

you feel like you've made it when you've been published.

So I got in touch with the magazine and the editor

at the time was a lady called Susan Schultz and asked

her if she'd be interested in featuring some of my work.

And it kind of grew from there and you did one

project and that went really well.

And then you were offered another opportunity and it grew and

grew and grew.

So that's how I became involved with the magazine.

And what's your position now with the magazine?

I'm the managing editor of the magazine now.

That's pretty cool.

Yeah. I love the job Back to the quote on your

candle is you didn't sit back and wait and hope that

someone would approach you.

You approach them.

Yes. I had wanted this.

Like I said,

it was a bucket list thing.

It was a goal,

a life goal to be published.

And I just did some research and found the appropriate contact.

And of course it's nerve wracking because you are terrified of

being rejected.

Sure. And this is something I take into consideration.

Now when people contact me for publication features,

if they aren't quite where they need to be for publication,

we'll always work with them and give them advice on what

they can do to reach that level.

I'm pretty involved in helping people to achieve those dreams and

facilitate those life goals.

Once you then were published,

did you see a change in the way people would approach

you a difference in the quality there or the pricing you

could offer that kind of thing.

So what you were anticipating would happen,

did it actually happen?

Yes, it did.

Especially when I was published in bridal magazines,

bridal publications,

it sort of validated my business and I was able to

use that as promotional tools on my website and online,

and also to include those images in my portfolio,

which were impressive to brides and also validated my price point

And so important.

I mean,

you are doing upper end cakes obviously,

and not only is it the price that they're spending,

just the money that they're putting out,

but it's the event like you can't redo a wedding cake.

If your wedding cake doesn't taste good or isn't pretty,

you have to land at each and every time because an

event is a one-time event.

So having that credibility in terms of who you've done cakes

for in the past,

and then being written up,

I'm sure number one allows you to get the price points

that you do and also get to more business because people

want to go with someone that they know has the credentials

plain and easy.

If someone is listening right now and thinking,

Oh my gosh,

I never thought about that before.

This is something that I should be doing.

They first need to find out who it is that they

should be making contact with.

But then what do you say?

What's the approach In terms of publication?

They usually will message me.

And a lot of the messages are sort of the saying,

you know,

I would love to be featured in the magazine and they

usually will send me some pictures of their cakes,

but I would suggest to anyone who's interested in doing this

as first find the appropriate person that you need to send

your information,

to make sure that you address them by name in the

email, make sure that your email is clean and concise and

free of typographical errors and include links to your website,

your social media platforms,

and some really good images of your takes that have been

previously unpublished or not featured anywhere.

And let's say,

you know,

a popular blog or something like that.

So you're looking for unique photos then For sure,

Certainly photographs that have not been previously published.

And are you getting a lot of requests?

Yes. I get a lot of requests.

I probably get anywhere between 10 and 50 a week of

people who don't want to be featured in the magazine in

some capacity.

So it's a lot of contributors or potential contributors.

And a lot of obviously there's a lot of very,

very talented people in the industry.

So that's exciting.

How do you choose?

I try to include as many people as possible.

We feature between 50 and 70 contributors and every single issue

and we've published six issues a year.

So if we are not able to feature them in print,

I will try to feature them online.

I will try to feature them in our newsletter.

So I'm always trying to find a way to be able

to give them the exposure that they're looking for.

Giving back to the industry.

That's wonderful.

Jumping back just one more time now,

back to the cake business,

cause I want to make sure that we bring this in

customer service with your business.

What types of special things do you do?

I would suggest that the more pricey the product,

the higher level of customer service you would probably need to

have, what types of things do you do so that people

will want to come back to you again,

in order again,

apart from the fact that the product has to be fabulous?

Well, I invested quite a lot of money in my marketing

products. So for example,

I don't just have a business card.

I have a brochure and I usually take these with me

to networking events,

or I don't do that many cake shows anymore,

but I've done a couple and I will take some to

the cake show.

And I've invested in marketing products for cake shows,

you know,

nice backdrops,

clean downers.

All of my products are branded.

And so like you said,

there's cohesion and athlete aspect of my business.

And it's still pretty much just me.

I don't have a huge team of people,

but obviously in terms of dealing with clients,

it's about being very responsive and having a professional tone to

every thing that you do,

whether it's an email,

even if it's a message by a Facebook,

you're not talking to a friend here,

you're talking to a potential client.

So even though the platform itself is informal,

your approach to that client should not be good point.

And that's something you need to remember.

Yeah. And are you seeing people are reaching out to you

now in all different ways,

email, Facebook messages,

all different types of things?

Yes, definitely.

And particularly with Facebook,

I mean my business,

I will get messages at two o'clock in the morning at

five o'clock in the morning.

I mean,

it sounds insane,

but you know,

if you're abroad and you're planning a wedding and you happen

to cross someone's Facebook page and you get excited,

you're going to reach out to,

so I will usually get requests at odd times and odd

hours, particularly on the weekends.

And I would say that if you are not equipped to

work during the weekend or those odd hours,

which we're not make sure that you have a response set

up so that your client is not just left in the

dark, they know that you will be getting back to them

within a certain timeframe and make sure that you do that

and you follow up with them.

So it's important to plan for those things.

Absolutely. So what do you do if you get a Facebook

message at two o'clock on Saturday morning?

So if I get a message at two o'clock in the

morning, obviously I'm not going to be online,

but I have my messaging in Facebook set up to send

out an automatic response.

It actually has my logo and branding on it.

It's very polite and it will help them that I will

reach out to them if it's Saturday,

it would be on Monday.

And then as soon as I can on Monday,

I will reach out to them again personally and try to

establish contact so that I can talk to them over the

phone. Cause I do not like to conduct all my business

by email or via message.

I would like to have a phone phone conversation with my

clients so that I can get to know them and we

can establish a rapport and a relationship straight away.

It feels more personable to me to be able to do

that. It's important to me.

Right. Right.

And using that example that we were just talking about,

they know then even just,

if it's an automatic response that there's been some action on

your end,

do you know,

they're just not putting a message out into this abyss,

you know,

but they've heard something back.

And so that I think would appease people and clearly everyone

understands not being around on Sundays.

Right. In terms of meeting with clients,

because obviously it's a challenge,

especially if you have a home business to meet with clients,

my home is not equipped to host clients and I conduct

my business from the home in terms of,

I make cakes here.

So it's not clean and spotless 24 hours a day.

It's clean of course,

but there's usually baking going on and it's a little haphazard

to host clients in that type of environment.

And so I have an established relationship with a beautiful bed

and breakfast that is within close proximity of my business.

And I hope tastings there usually once or twice a month

throughout the summer.

And then let's say once,

every couple of months throughout the winter time,

and I book clients at time slots to meet me at

that in breakfast,

it provides a professional atmosphere,

professional setting to conduct the tasting.

And it allows me to be able to more adequately manage

those clients and group them together so that I'm not throwing

time away here.

And they're booking one client one weekend,

one client another week.

I can bake all of my samples and meet with the

clients in one day.

Right. Perfect.

And that sounds a beautiful setup Because it also sounds right

in line with your upscale branding.

You know,

you're not meeting at a coffee shop either you're meeting in

a nice setting.

So that sounds great.

What you were talking a little bit earlier about networking events.

What are you doing in that regard?

I'm involved quite heavily in a group here in Virginia corporate,

Virginia wedding and event network.

And it's a V awe and I'm a member.

It's a paid membership and it's a very broad network of

wedding professionals.

It's not cake specific,

but I'm able to connect with professionals across all aspects of

this industry.

And it's been a great resource for me.

So I've very much enjoyed being a part of that group.

So professional networks within your industry versus a chamber of commerce

or something like that.

Yeah. I mean,

we have local meetups or restaurants.

We'll do a business card exchanges and I've been able to

participate in things like styled shoots by the Virginia wedding and

event network.

So Rebecca,

let's talk a little bit about how you work your normal

day, your baking at home and your in a very similar

situation that I hear all the time is the more business

you get in,

the more you're making work for yourself.

You're the one making the cakes.

You've decided that you want to keep it for the most

part, a one woman show,

which is wonderful.

I mean,

we're so lucky to be able to have that choice bigger

is not always better in terms of more volume.

You're also doing the magazines.

You've got a couple of things going on now.

Is there something that you could share that a tool or

something that you're using all the time that keeps everything like,

I guess I would say it just keeps you in control.

Yeah. I mean,

I'm all about time-saving and streamlining things.

So in terms of managing my business,

I have a schedule.

I mean,

it sounds like a simple tool,

but it's very effective.

I know what my daily tasks are.

I knew what my weekly tasks are.

I know what my monthly tasks are and I implement software.

Certainly that's able to help me to manage that.

What are you using for social media?

I use hoot suite because I'm able to operate different platforms

simultaneously. It's a great tool for being able to look at

your analytics and see where you're resonating and what clients you're

reaching and how effective your marketing strategies are.

And in terms of my home life,

I have a SharePoint system set up.

So this is something unfortunate.

My husband works in it and he's able to design new

things. So he created a system for me that helps me

to manage both of my businesses And that's called a SharePoint

system. So that's something that's unique to you that you have

yourself. It's a database that he created for me to be

able to manage all of my clients.

I can auto generate emails.

I can auto generate invoicing.

It's linked to my PayPal account.

It's sort of all about streamlining my business operations.

And then what do you do to stay up to date

with your industry?

I think I already know since you're involved with the magazine,

but is there something that you do in addition to all

the articles and all of the information that goes through the

magazine so that you stay current within your industry?

Yeah, I think what happens,

it operates two ways.

In some ways we are creating the new trends,

because like I said,

it kind of puts us down from the top.

And a lot of the things that I do because they're

so custom,

it's dictated by the bride and certainly things that are trending

within the fashion industry and within the wedding industry,

I do a lot of research myself.

I'm always looking on interests and trying to be abreast of

the latest trends.

And it's really important to do that.

Research yourself as well,

I would say,

and make sure that you are meeting the needs of the

client. One thing that I like to do is I like

to look at Pantone Pantone website for the course of the

year. It helps me to know what the upcoming trending pallets

are. And I'll usually create cake displays that are obviously boom

and size,

but they allow me to take photographs of those peaks and

then use them for promotion marketing when I want to reach

So I'm always looking in search.

Yeah. All right.

Great. And then,

is there any advice if someone is in a spot that

you were in way back when,

or some of these new people who are coming in and,

you know,

want to get recognized within your magazine?

Is there any advice you'd give to someone who's just starting

out? They're just getting on their way.

They maybe not haven't taken the first step yet.

They've been thinking about it,

but they just haven't gotten started yet.

Okay. If you're thinking about starting a business and you're a

hobbyist and you're quite good at your craft and you're at

that point where you think,

okay, I could turn this into a business.

I would say one thing that I did that facilitated me

to be able to do that easily was investing in a

good camera.

It's something that people don't really think of,

but it's something that you can easily do.

And honestly,

I always tell people that when I invested in a good

quality camera,

it transformed my business because ultimately you're selling a product.

But at the end of the day,

all you're left with is an image of that product.

And being able to capture great images of your product will

grow your business and help you reach new clients.

And you can use those to promote your business,

to create a website,

to get published,

to do all of those things.

It really comes back to being able to capture good images

of your work and data people will say to me,

well, I could hire tography it.

Well, you could hire a photographer,

but that's a big business expense.

And can you honestly hire a photographer to every single time

you make any product?

Every single time you make a UK?

I certainly can't.

And being able to,

I guess,

take control of my own marketing has given me a huge

amount of freedom.

So now every single time I create a cake,

I can capture the images of the cake and I can

use those images to create additional revenue streams.

So I can,

this is more specific to my industry,

but I can create tutorials for example,

that I could sell.

So I'm not just selling the cake,

I'm selling how I make the cake and I'm using the

images to promote my business,

to future clients.

Then I'm using the images to grow my website and I'm

blogging about what I've done.

So I'm bringing in an audience through blogging.

So I guess having a good,

camera's a good staff.

It sounds like it's a really basic step,

but when you go through and you start defining why it

really comes to life,

really make sense.

And the whole idea that you're presenting I think is so

important too,

in a really great idea in terms of being able to

show people how it's done,

because then you can take the pictures step by step by

step. And like you're saying,

building something that you can sell that you're not having to

make over and over again,

because once you've got that dyed tutorial,

video, whatever format it comes in,

once that's done,

you can sell it over and over again.

Yeah. And we're a super,

super visual industry.

I mean,

if you will work in the creative arts field,

it's a visual industry.

And if you're passionate about cake decorating,

you're passionate about card making.

It's not a far stretch to become passionate about photography.

Believe me to be creative with,

you know,

There you go.

What type of a camera are you using right now?

When I first started,

I got a basic entry-level DSLR camera and it costs me

$350. I bought it on eBay and it was a package

deal. And I knew nothing about photography.

And with that camera,

I managed to be published and buy bridal magazines by shooting

my own work.

I had that camera for a couple of years and I

actually gifted it to a friend in the industry.

She is a wedding planner and she was always investing a

ton of money in doing very expensive style shoot.

And I would say to her,

look, take this camera.

And you know,

every time that you're out and about and see things that

are inspirational to you,

and you think you could cook something quick together to expand

your portfolio,

you have a camera that you're able to do that with

on a small scale.

And then I ended up purchasing a much higher end camera.

So the one I've got now is professional level.

It costs me two or $3,000,

but I was able to offset that cost against my business.

And it's a tool that I use on a weekly basis.

Got it.

Are you willing to share what camera you're using?

It's a Nikon D 800,

I think.

And I have a 50 millimeter prime and that's pretty much

all I use.

I take that camera with me everywhere.

Like, so it's been a fantastic tool for growing my business.

Great information.

I appreciate your sharing that with us now,

Rebecca, I'm going to ask you to dare to dream.

I'd like to present you with a virtual gift.

It's a magical box containing unlimited possibilities for your future.

So this is your dream or your goal of almost unreachable

Heights that you would wish to obtain.

Please accept this gift and open it in our presence.

What is inside your box?

I'd love to own my own magazine.

I mean,

at the moment I'm an editor and I have a lot

of freedom and I love the magazine I work for,

but I think it's always been kind of a dream of

mine to own my own magazine.

So I'd love to do that.

Yeah. You sound like a woman who likes to take controls.

I get that.

Yeah. It's difficult sometimes because especially if you work with somebody

else, you have these creative patients and you just can't implement

them. So it can be an obstacle at times,

especially if you're very highly creative,

but in terms of my cake business,

I like exactly where I'm at with my cake business.

People always think that you have to keep moving forward and

progressing. And it's like,

Oh, well,

don't, you wish you had a store from isn't that the

ultimate goal.

And no,

it's not your business.

Exactly what you choose it to be.

And you should never feel pressured to take it to that

next step.

If you're happy with where you're at,

I'm perfectly happy with making one or two cakes a month.

I mean,

they're big cakes.

I make a good profit on every single item that I

make. I'm very happy with my work environment and I'm happy

to continue doing that.

That works for me.

You're so,

so right.

Nothing is saying that you need to get bigger and Oh

my gosh,

a brick and mortar shop comes with a whole new level

of not just challenges but skills,

because then you're going to have to have employees.

The costs are higher to totally different ball games.

So I really,

really am thrilled that you bring that up.

That you're happy,

right. Where you're at.

You're appreciating where you're at.

I know you have at least one young child at home,

so it fits your lifestyle right now.

And who's to say down the road,

you might want it to be different.

Maybe, maybe not,

but you're right.

You control everything when you're in business for yourself.

So I'm glad you bring it up that way,

that you're happy.

And that makes me thrilled that you're just happy and content

right there.

Yeah. I hear from a lot of people,

obviously our magazine publishes a business column and we have a

business column list that deals specifically with cake businesses.

And a lot of people get into business.

And quite often,

a lot of people regret going into business.

They worry about what do I do next?

And ultimately if you choose to get into business,

you can choose to get out of business and you don't

have to give up your passion for your craft or your

hobby by saying,

okay, maybe being a business work for me Or only a

certain level of business,

like you were saying in the very beginning,

when you flip it over to be in a business,

it changes your hobby changes.

Yes, it does change.

And even for me going and doing high-end wedding cakes,

I know in the beginning I said,

I was doing,

you know,

20 frozen cakes and it wasn't fulfilling for me or inspiring

in a sense that feeling does sort of go with you.

Even when you change to doing,

for me,

high-end wedding cakes,

there's still a certain amount of repetition there.

There's still a certain amount of relinquishing creative control.

And so I do things for myself on the side.

I like to create cakes for myself and I still consider

it to be part of the business because I'm using those

Gates as marketing tools.

I'm always using them as marketing tools as a way to

promote myself and also as a way to continually improve my

skills and stay sharp.

If someone wants to see some of the things that you're

doing, where's the best place for them to go a website

or Facebook page.

Yeah. I update my website very regularly and it's www dot

Rebecca Naomi Kik,

design.com. And I have a Facebook page again,

facebook.com forward slash Rebecca baby kick design.

And I update my Facebook fairly regularly.

I post content quite frequently and I update my site continuously.

Perfect, perfect.

And give biz listeners,

you know,

there's a show notes page.

So we'll have all of that information there waiting for you.

If for some reason you don't have the time to capture

it today.

Okay. Rebecca,

as we finish up here,

I just want to make the point that generosity is when

you light someone else's candle with the flame of your own.

And that's what you've been doing here in terms of sharing

with us,

your journey,

the combination of the magazine with your business,

the honesty you don't really want to grow any bigger right

now, everything is sitting really perfect.

The way you have everything established.

All of these things are so helpful for our listeners just

to understand,

relate to their situation and so that they can make their

decisions as they move forward.

So I appreciate so much all of that information.

And Rebecca,

my wish for you is that someday you get your very

own magazine prompted by you.

Cause you're a go getter obviously.

And may your candle always burned bright.

Thank you very much.

you're welcome.

Where are you in your business building journey,

whether you're just starting out or already running a business and

you want to know your setup for success.

Find out by taking the gift biz quiz,

access the quiz from your computer at Vic dot L Y

slash gift biz quiz or from your phone by texting gift

biz quiz to four four two,

two, two.

Thanks for listening and be sure to join us for the

next episode.

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