Friday Feature featuring Janet Mc Kenner from Delicakes

Welcome to Feature Friday from Creation|Collaboration - today we're featuring Janet Mc Kenner from Delicakes.

Thanks for chatting to us today Janet - can you introduce us to you and your company?

This is actually my third career - previously I have been an auditor and taken a second degree in psychology as a mature student. I am delighted to be back with my first love of food after originally studying food science and cooking.

Where did the idea of running this as a business come from?
As I was finishing my degree, I realised I was making more and more cakes in the evenings and weekends for friends and friends of friends. It evolved into my business because, being honest, it's all I ever wanted to do was bake and create exceptional sweet foods. I was worried that it may not be financially viable so I agreed with my husband I would not expand out of the home kitchen until after the first year.

What do you love most about your business?
Transforming pure ingredients such as; sugar, butter, eggs, vanilla, and chocolate into a cake that becomes the feature point of a celebration. A birthday party needs a cake to put candles on, a wedding needs a centre piece. I love that the cake provides the central photo opportunity of the event and my creative skills bring pleasure and a WOW factor on special days.

What would you like to change?
I wish that local authorities did publicise your Hygiene score if you work from a home kitchen – but the rules are they only do this if you work from a purely commercial kitchen with no dual use.

What is your aim for the next year?
I want to expand my wedding cake business to form the core of my work. This would mean I have more planned work and less ad hoc and last minute orders. To achieve this I am currently creating my website and it will be styled as WeddingDeliCakes.co.uk

Where do you ultimately see yourself?
I believe, by my third year, I will have a house style and will launch a new range each wedding season in keeping with the upcoming bridal trends for that year.

What are your Top 5 tips for new Business Women?
Tip 1: Stop doing the research and give it a go now – especially if you can limit costs
Tip 2: Be financially organised so you know your profit margins on every product you sell
Tip 3: Think of ways of upselling your product or range – in my case if you order a birthday cake, I ask if you want cupcakes to match, or if you order a wedding cake I ask if you want cookies as favours
Tip 4: Be flexible, my original idea for expansion was to deliver cakes to local businesses but I found this was time consuming and not as profitable as celebration cakes – hence I am now going to focus on the big celebrations
Tip 5: Don’t walk before you can run – yes a shop would be lovely but with overheads and the cost of staff this is a step change investment that needs to be just right before

A few last words - How do we contact you?

I am featured on http://www.mykingshill.co.uk/ until my own site http://www.weddingdelicakes.co.uk/ is launched; you can email me at delicakesme19@gmail.com; you can also catch me on Facebook: at http://www.facebook.com/delicakes and on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/delicakesme19.

Thanks so much for chatting to us today Janet, your cakes are fabulous looking and I'm sure people are so delighted to receive them!

Don't forget to check back next week when we'll be featuring another woman run business!! If you're interested in being featured on this blog, please drop us an email to creationcollaboration@yahoo.com with the words "Feature Friday" in the subject line and we'll get back to you.