Unleashing Your Wedding Business Potential - with Lauren Smy

Let's get going with today's episode. Today I'm chatting with Lauren Smy. Lauren is the founder of the Honey Bee Wedding Cake Company, where she's created luxury wedding cakes, which are elegant and beautiful. Her work has been featured in many publications, including a regular column in Cake and Sugar Craft Magazine. In more recent years, I've got to know Lauren as she started helping other cake makers to grow their businesses through her training and membership.

And I've been in there regularly as a guest trainer. It's a pleasure to have Lauren on the podcast today. And I'm really looking forward to delving into her story and to hear what's coming up next for her. Lauren, welcome to the podcast.

How did you end up making wedding cakes for a living?

I was teaching at the time I was a teacher at A levels and I was on maternity leave, as I said, and I just kind of thought I wasn't sure if I wanted to go back to teaching after the maternity leave or if I did, I didn't want it to be full time anymore. It just kind of wasn't something that I was, I was loving as much as I was.

So I started kind of experimenting and making cakes, and then by 2015 when I was back at work two days a week, I set up what was called Honey Bee Bakes at the time, you know, cupcakes and brownies and all sorts of different things, and selling them kind of as a side hustle, but as a proper business, not, you know, like a hobby baker. I set it all up properly and, you know, and started getting lots of orders for that.

Obviously, I kind of then, I had the twins at home on my days off, as it were, so I was working around that. But it took off, you know, quite quickly really, and by, you know, two years later, I managed to leave my teaching job and work full time, in inverted commas, again, the boys are still at home, so kind of around them, but yeah, so I started, I kind of was full time.

cake maker in 2017. And then the boys, when the, once the boys started school, I was able to kind of, you know, go a bit quicker with it. And by the end, you know, 2018, I was just making wedding cakes. I'd been asked to do a few and I, you know, I just got my confidence up, did a few for friends and family, and then just, you know, went with it and started going to wedding fairs and doing things like that and realized actually that's what I really, really loved.

And if I was going to make a proper full time income. Weddings kind of was where it was for, for the, you know, financial reasons, honestly. But also it was what I enjoyed doing. I love making sugar flowers and, and that kind of thing. And I just, I was a bit sick of the, the Spider-Man and poor patrol and that kind of thing. So, yeah. So then that's when I rebranded and became the honeybee wedding cake company and, and went into making wedding cakes.

So how did you know that you could make that leap, that you had the, the ability to do it?

So I did make sure, I kind of worked, I went, I did courses and I you know, perfected my sharp edges and all the things that the cake makers listening will know about. Yeah, I went on flour, sugar flour. I'd never made a sugar flour, you know, in any, any form prior to when I started doing this. But yeah, I went on courses and I learned. I did some online courses, did some face to face courses.

And I just learned, to a certain degree, I guess there are some things that are a natural skill that's easier for some people to pick up than other things, you know. But yeah, for me it just kind of fit and I, and I realized, I just realized how much I loved it. And I loved that, that buzz of being there on the day. And yeah, there's like major. nerves and crisis of confidence of like, Oh, can I really do this? And, and not everything goes a hundred percent to plan.

You know, I had a few, you know, issues in the early days, but you learn from them and you, and you, and you move on with it. And that's just what I did.

them have that exact, that same thought. And I must admit, I do myself. It's easy to tell other people, but yeah, you, you see all the floors, you see all the tiny little things that other people just look as you say, look at it and say, wow, that's just amazing. But you can see that tiny little kind of dent in the back of it or, or where you didn't quite line up the ribbon perfectly. So yeah, yeah, that does happen. Definitely.

Now, people might be listening and thinking, well, you make that sound so easy, Lauren, that you were just doing celebration cakes and then you were doing wedding cakes, but actually I'm sure there was some hard work involved in that transition. So if there are people listening who are thinking, right, I do actually want to dip my toe into doing this wedding industry thing, how did you go about finding your first clients that weren't friends and family? Where did you find them from?

I think one of my first ones was someone who I'd done a christening cake for, and she was then getting married, you know, the year later. So there is that can kind of come from there, but she then posted on our like local, you know, you get the local mums Facebook groups of where you live, and she just put a really lovely review on there because I thought she knew I was new to it. She knew that I wasn't, you know, hadn't done it very long, but she kind of took took the, you know, leap in me.

And yeah, and put a really nice review on there. So I got a few orders from there, which was great. And also just like a little bit of word of mouth. The girl who, you know, the girl who did my nails, she had a lot of similar, you know, when I look back now for what I know and what I teach as well, it's like that similar ideal client thing where, you know, kind of women of a, of a certain age, they're like looking to get married. And I'm always made cakes for her.

And so she kind of recommended me to some of her clients. And so there's a lot of word of mouth actually in the, in the early days, definitely.

And I went to this one wedding fair and I just made sure I took extra samples and took it round to all the other suppliers there and made friends, because it's really easy to make friends when you've got cake in your hand. I always say that to people, you know, we're very lucky. It's not a bribe to be my friend, but, you know, it does help them remember you.

And yeah, and then there was a lady there who ran a bridal shop, and she kind of took me under her wing a little bit and introduced me to other people. And then, you know, we would recommend each other, and yeah, it kind of Snowboard from there. So definitely that word of mouth and networking with other suppliers is the way to go when you're starting out.

So Lauren, in more recent years, you've transitioned a little bit into helping other cake makers. As I mentioned in the intro, that's kind of the area where I've got to know you best. I love coming into your community of all those cake makers who are just so happy to be there and you just lift them up and give them the confidence to. do this transition and to believe in themselves.

What was it that made you kind of make that step into just going from making the cakes to helping other people with their businesses?

Something as well as just making cakes, you know, you know, it's like it is quite lonely kind of especially when you're really, you know, making cakes, you, you don't even get a lot of that interaction on the day you turn up and you deliver the cake and you go home. It's nice kind of talking to couples, but a lot of the time you're, you're on your own. So there was that little bit of solitude that I. you know, wasn't, wasn't, you know, the best.

But I, I had a lot of people asking, I know it sounds kind of cheesy, and this is what a lot of people say when they're going through, but I did have a lot of people asking me questions about how I did things and asking for my help on things, and I'm, you know, more than happy to do that. And then you kind of start to realize actually there's, there's a need out there. So I did a business and not, not that I know that it made a huge difference, but I did do a business management degree.

And there's a lot of things that I kind of learned in that. And obviously I set up my own business in the same way that other people do. I was a teacher. When I was a teacher. I taught business studies.

So the kind of background of what I, what I had in my, you know, previous experience, linked together with actually setting up and quite quickly growing, you know, a really successful wedding cake business, felt like it, it worked that perhaps I should be doing something of helping people to make cakes. I didn't really want to do decorating skills because a lot of people out there and there's a lot of people that do it really really well online and face to face.

I did do a few, you know, classes in my, in my kitchen but I didn't really have the space and I didn't have the setup for the, you know, the video recording of it all. My kind of passion behind it was the business and I'd see so many people, so many immensely talented cake makers. That were selling themselves so short and they, they just weren't charging enough generally is the, is the main thing, but not having the confidence, like you said, the confidence is a huge thing.

And I just kind of thought this, you know, I've always been that believer in, you know, community. And I just think. There were lots of people out there that needed just a little bit of, of help to do it. So yeah, so I started kind of learning about how to set up, you know, an online business towards the end of 2019 with the plans. 2020 was actually completely fully booked with Wedding Cakes for me. It was my like biggest, yeah, everyone listening knows the 2020, we know what happened there.

It was going to be my biggest year. I was, I was like preferred supplier at some of the really big venues. It was all going really well. So I thought, well, once I got through that wedding season, then I'll kind of start with this new business. But obviously we all know what happened in March 2020, all the weddings kind of got cancelled. And in some, you know, if you're going to take a positive from it, it gave me that opportunity to, to make the, the switch.

So it was something that I'd been thinking a long time about how easily it would have been to get it off the ground while working full time doing the wedding cake business. You know, I don't know. So. It, that there were some benefits to me for that, for the pandemic happening and it just meant that I could just get going with it. And it meant there were a lot of people that kind of saw this now as an opportunity.

They were on furlough or whatever else was happening and they could see that as a chance to, to get their, their wedding cake or their cake business, you know, transitioning over into wedding cakes. Cause that's what I kind of really specialize in is the wedding side of things rather than. just cake businesses.

people making in your community when it comes to their wedding cake business?

But, but also just at the basic level, a lot of people don't actually just work out their costs. And they kind of almost pluck a number out, not out of thin air necessarily, but they don't necessarily, they haven't thought about it fully in terms of their costs and their time.

And people might, perhaps they have, perhaps they've thought about their costs and they're like, Right, okay, I'm covering how much it costs me to make the cake, plus I'm giving myself an extra tenner or something like that. And it's, it's not taken into account in their time.

And also, you know, the majority of people, even if they've got as far as that and accounted for their time, and even if they've accounted for profit on top, the thing with pricing that I find a lot of people miss out is they're not charging enough to cover the cost of running a business. So they don't take into account all the time and money they spend on running their business.

Not just being in the kitchen making the cakes or in the studio, you know, making, getting the flowers, whatever, all the different things they do, but all that behind the scenes stuff. I think it was a surprise for me, actually, when I started running my business. I thought, I'll make cakes. And I thought, actually I realized I spend probably more time at my laptop, you know, running my business, getting a website set up, you know, doing the accounts, all the boring stuff, sorry accountants.

But yeah, doing all of that stuff and all the marketing as I did actually sort of standing in the kitchen baking the cakes and people don't account for that. That's the biggest thing I think that people don't account for when they, when they're pricing their products and services.

This is how much you're charging for a cake and this is how much you're earning an hour and it's like one pound an hour or something.

They're really shocked and so I would encourage and I'm sure Lauren would as well, if you're listening to this and you are in that position where you've got your head in the sand, like be brave, go to a coffee shop, like get your laptop out and work out your numbers because sometimes the shock realization of how little you're earning will make you realize actually. This isn't about I need to be amazing to put my prices up.

Actually, I just need to put my prices up because right now I'm the worst boss in the world and I'm paying myself nothing.

Which one do you think you're more likely to book? Because both the cakes are amazing but the way they're presented online is so different. And I often see that cake makers either have really bad images or they just don't really know how to get good images. And I think it makes a massive difference to how much they can charge and how much their inquiries are going to come in. What's your advice to cake makers when it comes to getting photography of their products?

You can get some really good settings, learn how the settings don't necessarily need to have a professional, you know, camera. But also think about If you know the venue, I think sometimes the lighting and that kind of thing, if you're in a marquee, that's always the worst for me, taking pictures of cakes in a marquee, always just the, the colours just go completely wrong and the lighting's really wrong.

You know, if you can, if you can take a picture of the cake at home, if you've got a set up at home, try and do that in a really nice way, really. But also, make friends with the photographers and be nice to them. I know it's hard, I know that you'll probably have some photographers listening and I know it can be frustrating when you're asked for pictures from, you know, other suppliers, but it makes such a, such a difference.

And if you can get the pictures of, you know, the cake cutting pictures, all of those are, are, are so, so valuable. So I'd say, you know, be, be friendly, send cake maybe, ask the professionals. But yeah, yeah, just be really mindful of getting, you know, the best quality pictures that you can.

So find the ones that have got the same, you know, positive mindset as you, when it comes to this collaboration stuff. Now, Lauren, I've been watching your journey and working alongside you over the last couple of years. And I know that you've been going through some stuff personally, and you're actually making some transitions in your own business. So I'd love to hear a little bit more about what's coming next for you and kind of how you've got to that point.

About 18 months ago, my son was diagnosed with ADHD, and Through his diagnosis, kind of long story short, I realised that I had ADHD and I'd been managing with it and I'd been kind of doing, running, I think, you know, to be honest, I think running a wedding business with ADHD is, is, can be a good thing, like, I think it's a good career for people with ADHD.

So there was lots of, lots of positives, you know, in terms of like my, you know, creativity, generally people with ADHD tend to be more creative and there's all the kind of, you know, the other strengths that you'd be resourceful and more determined and all of that kind of thing, so running your own business.

But there are things that I, you know, was realising that, that can make it more of a struggle in terms of, you know, like executive functioning skills, they call it, but planning, the goal setting, the kind of, strategizing and, and all of that. You come up with lots and lots of ideas and you have loads of things that you want to do, but actually kind of implementing them can be harder.

And yeah, and then I worked with an ADHD coach myself and I did a coaching qualification so that I'm kind of accredited. And I'm now, I've realized also that some of the one to one people that I, the cake makers that are working, I was working with had ADHD and they realized, some of them already knew, some of them, as we were kind of in our discussions, realized that they had it. And it just kind of felt like a natural thing that actually a lot of the people that I was working with had ADHD.

And I'm now starting to, to branch out and work with other business owners with ADHD, not just cake makers. So I've still got the membership and everything is still running with the cake makers. But I'm also kind of, yeah, opening up to working with other entrepreneurs that have ADHD and helping them with those kind of challenges.

You kind of almost gaslight yourself into like, you know, have I, have I just made it up? If you feel, you know, really confident in, in definitely all of these things kind of make sense to you and you don't need a diagnosis, then that's, that's 100 percent up to you.

But for me, it felt like it, it, Yeah, it gave me that confidence in, in knowing that that's what, you know, made my brain the way it was and that that's, you know, that was me and helped me kind of, probably helped me ask for the support that I needed and, and, and get, get some, some additional support.

But it was that, yeah, working at what works well for me in terms of, you know, sometimes it's just practical things like breaking tasks down into smaller chunks. It's, you know, tools that you can use you know, the calendars, the type of, yeah, like there's a program called Notion. Anyone's heard of that, but it's a really good place to kind of put all of your.

It's a bit of a brain dump for everything that's going on in your head and plan and organise out things because that's one of the big challenges is organisational, you know, managing to, to keep everything in place. And also working memory is a challenge. So things like that to put in place.

But one of the other things, or like the main thing I think that's been really valuable for me and that I'm finding is work, you know, really good for people that I'm working with is just that kind of self compassion. The, in the awareness around. Knowing what it is that makes things perhaps sometimes a little bit more difficult. Sometimes makes things easier and, and, you know, it works better for you because of your brain.

But that, that awareness of what's going on for you and understanding and acceptance really. And so there's kind of, it's like almost a two pronged approach of what are the things I find difficult and what things practically can I put in place to try and improve that. But also knowing, yes, this is a bit harder for me. Not using that as an excuse. I very much, I don't kind of believe that we, you know, Oh, I've got ADHD so I can't do it. It's okay.

I do find this difficult and I find that really frustrating that I find it difficult. But it is the way it is, you know, and that's, that's quite a big kind of thing to, it's hard to, to do that, but to accept that actually, yeah, this is hard, so I need to do it differently, and I perhaps do need to, you know, find, you know, it might take me longer to find the way that works for me.

It might be that this does take longer for me than it, than it might do if I didn't have this condition, so I need to leave myself more space for it. So yeah, a lot of that, I think that's the biggest thing for me, is that kind of, Yeah, being kinder to myself and I think that's, that's, I mean, I, I think that's important to anybody regardless of any kind of, you know, neurodiversity or anything like we should all be kinder to ourselves and all give ourselves a bit more of a break, you know.

Where do you want to see yourself going over the next few years?

program or probably a membership, something like that, because I think community is really, really important. That one to one bespoke support I think is really, really important as well, but also that kind of being around other people who get it, who understand, you know, and the good and the, and the sort of more challenging aspects of it. So that's my kind of plan for the future.

Now I always end the podcast with the same question, which I'm going to put to you now, which is what's one thing you wish you'd known sooner in your own wedding business?

a bit of advice from and support from. You don't have to kind of figure it all out by yourself. And I did a lot of that. And it's lonely, you know, and it's, and it's hard. And sometimes just kind of having, having some people to, to kind of lean on is good. So that would be my advice.