Posts

Mindset

I knew, when embarking on this career change, that I would have a hurdle to get over in terms of mindset.  When I worked as an Office Manager previously it was always with the goal of starting my own creative business as a gleaming beacon ahead in the future. I really loved my office job. I had wonderful colleagues, a great boss and the work was varied and interesting. I was also good at it and consistently went home with the contentment of a job well done. But ultimately it wasn't what I had ever seen myself doing. It didn't fit in with my sense of myself as a creative. I stayed in the role for seven years and may have stayed longer had I not had children but I could always tell myself it was temporary. I have changed career before now. I spent all my early years and 6 years of further education working towards a professional acting career. In the end it only took me 5 years of working in theatre to realise that it wasn't for me. That I needed more structure and stability ...

Pandemic

For the past five years I have run a wedding cake business from my home studio. I started by making birthday cakes for local families but my goal was always weddings and I quickly grew to a luxury brand with a strong reputation in the wedding industry for beautiful, bespoke cakes. I loved my work. I didn't always love the stress and the weekend deliveries but the weeks turned into months turned into years and I kept working away with no time to correct the elements of the business that weren't quite working for our family. And then 2020 came. It was due to be my busiest year. I had some lovely wedding cakes booked in and I looked ahead at the year with a mixture of excitement and trepidation. I knew I would be working 6 or 7 day weeks and wishing for more family time at weekends. I didn't know that there would be family time and free weekends in abundance. The effect of the pandemic on the wedding industry has been devastating. And I have been similarly devastated for my co...