Lockdown for wedding cakers

Advice for wedding cake makers in lock-down

Ten things to work through, to ensure your wedding cake business emerges from the Covid-19 crisis in good shape.

1 Contact all your 2020 brides. Let them know you’ll still make their cake, whenever their wedding ends up. This may mean taking on an extra pair of hands to help with baking or deliveries in the Autumn; freezing cakes; working though the night, whatever.

2 Also let your rescheduling brides that you can help them find an alternative florist or photographer if they loose their original bookings. We all know good florists and photographers. They probably won’t need you to, but it’s a nice gesture.

3 Contact all couples that you were talking to about possible bookings at the end of the year. Tell them it’s looking like it’s going to be very busy and that you have to prioritise rescheduling brides, so if they want to secure a date it’s important to pay a deposit now.

4 Get it out there that you’re holding video consultations. I’m throughly enjoying these. Chatting face too face about future stuff will lift your spirits as well as theirs, plus you dont have to tidy up beyond a tiny corner of your sofa.

5 Send out samples. This is hard work actually; baking, cutting and packing them neatly, but it’s worth it. Include a compliment slip with a little handwritten note, brand it as far as you can with stickers etc.

6 Have you’re recent couples been asking for similar designs? I recently created pretty much the same sketch for five or so couples - all asking for the same colour palette and composition. Make a dummy along these clearly trending lines and post lots of images of it on Instagram and Pinterest.

7 Learn new skills. Many cake experts are reducing the price of their online tutorials. Join the PrettyWittyAcademy and check out Suzi Witt’s excellent video editing course. Make little videos for folks who are bored at home and want to make beautiful cakes for their lockdown pals. Clean up your Pinterest, make sure your website is linked and you’ve enabled rich pins. Join the Indie Practice and check out Kate Beavis’ brilliant SEO and Winning by Pinning courses. Pinterest is gold for cake makers and will drive more traffic to your website than any other channel.

8 Sort out all your equipment. Donate any cutters or piping tips you no longer use to neighbours’ kids (safely obviously).

9 Buy some duck canvas on Amazon and use any old emulsion you have in the shed to create a unique and textured backdrop for your cake photographs.

10 Consolidate your pricing, and ensure a consistent profit margin. There’s a really good pricing tutorial on PrettyWittyAcademy. It’s life changing actually.