Your Niche
So you’ve got the passion and your belly is full of fire, with your new business venture. Great so what next?
First you have to identify what type of cakes you want to specialise in. In short find a niche. Do your homework and make sure you’ll have enough customers willing to pay good money for the type of cakes your want to offer. Another way of finding your niche is to look around, what are your competitors’s NOT offering customers? Could this gap be your ‘Goldmine’? Remember that good old saying ‘Jack of all trade, master of none’.
Here are a few examples of areas to specialise in:
Wedding Cakes – Traditional, Contemporary, Chocolate
Chocolate Cakes -
Novelty Birthday Cakes
Corporate Cakes
Special diet Cakes
Take for example ‘Choccywoccydoodah. Using their own words to describe the company ‘Choccywoccydoodah is an art and design focussed chocolaterie’ I stumbled upon the company at a ‘Designer Weddings Show Exhibition’. It was hard to believe that all their cakes on display were made from Chocolate. They looked like works of arts! Now that is what you call a niche. www.choccywoccydoodah.com
By concentrating on one major area, your marketing and advertising strategies will be better focused (stay running). And boy does that make life easier for you. Another very useful saying I hear in the business world a lot is this one ‘Turnover is Vanity, Profit is Sanity’ – trying to sell too many types of cakes just for the sake of selling isn’t the best way forward. If you research your market well, you will be surprised the number of customers that need your niche cakes....
What’s in a Name
Once you know your niche, that will bring you nicely onto finding a name for your company. Do make it memorable and catchy enough for people to easily recall. Imagine your company is listed in the yellow pages as a ‘one liner’ (that is just your company name and telephone details). What would make your name stand out amongst others? Here’s an example of an actual business...’Flowers Just Because’, there is no doubting what this business does, and I really do like the name, memorable isn’t it.
Your Solid Foundation
One of the first things you will need is ‘Your Business Plan’. This is the back bone of your business. This document states what your business is about, where you want to take it to and how you’ll take it to higher and new levels. It is your reference and guide.
Your business plan is often required if you are trying to access funding for your business. It’s very easy to spend all your energy trying to push your business forward that you can run off track and lose your focus. I found this quote in a book written by Tim Waterstones, founder of Waterstone’s chain of bookshops – it says ‘Where there is no vision, the people perish’ (Proverbs 29:18). It might sound a little harsh (do bear in mind the kind of a flowery language used way back then!) but it does illustrate the importance of a vision and the need to stick to it. Business Link offer advice on how to write up a business plan and have a template which you can use as a guide and tailor it to your company’s needs. Do give them a call or e-mail them to find out more.
Tel: 08457 17 16 15
www.businesslink.gov.uk
Keeping it Legal
Environmental Health Services:
Whether you are going to be working from home, or you buy or rent premises to work from – you have to register with your local Environmental Health Services. Call up your local council to find out how to go about this. Apart from making sure your premise adheres to all health and safety regulations, they will keep you updated with information useful or necessary for your company to know in terms of health and safety. I remember my first visit from the environmental health visitor, he was very nice and professional, giving the go ahead to trade from my premises and also full of advice, making me wonder why I was dreading the visit initially!
Apart from contacting your local council, have a browse of the Health & Safety Executive website to give you more advice on health and safety issues.
www.hse.gov.uk
HM Revenue & Customs or Companies House:
You have to think of the status of your company and then register your company with either of the above. The options for company status are as follows:
Sole Trader
Partnership
Limited Company
Limited Liability Partnerships (LLP)
Community Interest Companies.
In a nutshell a Sole trader is the most simple of all of the above to set up. You own the company and can employ staff. You will keep accounts, pay Tax & National Insurance and submit your tax returns. BUT you are liable for any business debts if your business runs into trouble.
Partnerships are two or more people coming together to form a company. They are similar to sole traders in status. As with a sole trader apart from keeping accounts, paying tax etc, you will be liable for any of the partnerships debts no matter how they were incurred or who incurred them. It is strongly advised to draw up a deed of partnership, with the help of a solicitor, to protect partners if any disputes were to occur.
In a Limited Liability Partnership, unlike a simple partnership, if debts are incurred members have some protection if the company runs into trouble.
A Limited Liability company is one where the company’s finances are distinct from the personal finances of the owners; hence you and shareholders are not in most cases responsible for debts incurred by the company.
Community Interest Companies, these companies are like limited companies, but profits made by the company are for the benefit of the community they serve or for a specific social purpose.
If you go down the Sole trader or Partnership route, you have to register your company with ‘HM Revenue & Customs’. This has to be done within 3 months of setting up your company. HM Revenue & Customs also offer free seminars locally to you, that they run for self-employed people. I found them very useful. www.hmrc.gov.uk
For all the other types of company structures, you have to register with Companies House, although you will still have some dealings with HM Revenue & Customs.
Company House details Tel: 0870 33 33 636 www.companieshouse.gov.uk
Employing Staff:
Even if you are starting your business from home, having the extra help to cope with orders is very essential. I remember missing out on a very important order a while back. At the time I was busy with a demanding order and got a call one morning to say, would I be able to make a ‘3 Tier White Chocolate Birthday Cake’ for the next day. I apologised profusely as I was really trying to see how I could squeeze it in. When I asked who was it for? The answer was very guarded, only saying that it was for a programme on Channel 4 and that was all they were allowed to say. The next day on Big Brother Channel 4, one of the contestants was celebrating a birthday.....!
When you do start employing people, you have to be up to date with legislations’. Things like how and where you advertise, how you select candidates, fair questions to ask at the interview and so on. Also what contracts you write out for your staff, wages, knowing what the minimum wage is as it changes every so often. how you deal with staff issues. These are all things you need to make sure you are doing properly. It is good business practice to have these in place, and also you will have the peace of mind that you did everything right in case an employee brings a case against you.
Here are a few websites with telephone numbers to help you along with such issues:
Acas – Best practice advice on employment issues.
www.acas.org.uk Tel: 08457 47 47 47
Equality Direct – Advice on equal opportunities legislation.
www.equalitydirect.org.uk Tel: 0845 600 3444
Disability Rights Commission – More advice on the rights of people with disabilities
www.drc-gb-org Tel: 08457 622 633
Business Partnerships |