As I sit here writing a new blog post for the new year, I’m completely baffled at how a whole year has blitzed past at seemingly the speed of light. I mean… Where has the time gone?

I don’t know how 2018 panned out for you, but right now as I look back at the highs and lows, the great days and the not so lovely ones.. I am above all, thankful.

Thankful for goals met, challenges faced, skills acquired, lessons learnt and memories made. It wasn’t a perfect year, but it was certainly a memorable one!

The one word I would sum up 2018 is Progress. I look at almost every aspect of my life be it work, family, marriage and I’m grateful to see steps forward, ground covered and milestones met.

In one year of operating Sugar Sugar Cake School as an online learning platform, we’ve released a slew of courses & pictorials that have been received with open arms by the online cake community, grown our student membership by the thousands, doubled our social media following on both Instagram and Facebook, been nominated for awards and taught workshops across the globe.

But all of this didn’t just happen. I remember so vividly sitting down at the beginning of the year 2018 planning and visualising what I wanted my cake business to become in that year. And I can tell you that every goal and objective met was a result of how I set my goals for the year.

In this post, I’m going to share my 3-step planning process that I use to dream for the year ahead. Dreaming without a plan is wishful thinking. So in this blog post, I’ll be walking you through how to dream in a STRATEGIC way that will allow you to slay actual goals in the coming year.

With this Blog Post, I’ve also curated a special ‘Goal-Setting Planner’ that you can download and use in tandem with everything you’ll read here. Using this free PDF will help you put all the theory you’ll learn in this post into creating your own goal-smashing plan for the year.

It’s time to posture yourself for your STRONGEST cake year yet.

Step 1. PLAN (the RIGHT way )

I’ve had this saying drummed into me many times… If you fail to plan, you plan to fail. I can certainly testify to this. I’ve seen both ends of the stick to this and I’m reminded that if I want 2019 to be a goal-kicking, wave-making kinda year, I gotta plan WELL.

Planning for me takes on 2 main actions. The first is ‘Knowing WHERE I want to go’.

So, visualise where you want to be by the end of the year. What do you want your caking to look like, what kind of business do you want to create or how do you want yourself to evolve as an artist and entrepreneur? It’s important to have a general idea of where you’d like to be.

Why?

Well, not having a clear vision of where you’d like to be by the end of the year is kinda like driving around aimlessly without a destination in mind. You’ll spend a whole lot of time and resources only to arrive.. . nowhere in particular.

So firstly, have a definite and clear idea of what you want to see in your caking and business by the end of the year. For instance, it can look something like this:

“I want to have started a part-time business which specialises in XYZ by the end of the year and would like my work to be in at least 1 publication, and making a profit from my work by the end of the year. “

From this very general vision, you can then break down your “vision” into tangible objectives. The key with this is to be SPECIFIC. Don’t just write down one of your goals as “have lots of followers on Instagram”. Be clear about numbers, figures and actions.

Some examples of specific objectives to help you achieve your overall vision can be:

• Start my part-time business by March
• Earn $ xxxx from cake sales per month by September
• Get 1 publication in a magazine
• Work to reach 10,000 followers on Instagram/Facebook by the end of the year
• Participate in one live event (market/fair)
• Complete X online courses and read X educational books

Once you’ve done that, the next bit is figuring out ‘how to get there’. How to achieve the specific goals you’ve set. So this is where you have to work BACKWARDS. Looking intently into every goal written and figuring out what you need to do in the months prior to get there.

I do this by having a visual worksheet of the entire year in front of me (this is included in the Goal-Setting Planner pdf) and then marking down actions in the months prior that will lead me to achieving those specific objectives.

For instance, if I want to set up my part-time business by March, then as an illustration, here’s what I would put down in the months of January and February (yours may look different to this):

January:

• Call local council to find out what requirements are needed to get registered as a home baking business
• Create product line and recipes
• Get in touch with accountant to discuss business set up & financials

February:

• Prepare paperwork for registration of business and council approvals
• Test recipes & products (friends and non-friends) and get feedback
• Brainstorm ideas for names & branding

Be mindful that the actions you list on each month will be determined very much on the objectives you set beforehand. You also want to make sure you set REALISTIC objectives that you can actually achieve in the timeframe you have and in the life circumstances that you’re in. (for eg. Planning to start a business in the exact same month you’re having a new baby may not be the most realistic goal).

Step 2. Focus

Whilst we can do a lot of things, we need to realise that we can’t do ALL the things. Well, maybe we can, but we won’t be able to do them all well.

It’s important to have a clear focus for your cake work in each year. Wanting to be an established teacher, award-winning wedding cake maker, shopfront owner, product developer and blogger all in one year maaaay be a little too much for one’s platter in just 365 days. It’s important to build strong towards one main area in your cake work. Once you find established growth and success in that one area, then you can think about branching into other areas later down the track.

Often, we can get caught up in the successes of others in our industry and get “inspired” to do the same things as well without actually asking the questions of:

What am I uniquely good at?

What do I want this business to look like?

What’s important to me in my cake business?

In the first year of my business, I didn’t have a clue what I was doing. I didn’t have a clear focus and I was higglety-pigglety all over the shop.

In the 2 years after, I had a clear focus that I wanted to specialise as a boutique wedding cake maker that could generate $xxxx income per month. Needless to say, by having a clear focus of working towards that one direction, I surpassed my income goals, went on to win multiple awards in the bridal cake industry and became established as a bespoke wedding business in my locality.

In essence, work towards building strong in one direction, and working with a clear FOCUS.

Step 3. Budget (time, investment)

This is a pretty important step that often gets overlooked. In the pursuit of our ambitions, there are often barriers and circumstances that deter us from getting there. What are they?? Usual suspects are lack of time, busyness, lack of motivation, lack of knowledge or shortage of resources. So from the outset, it’s important to count the cost of what it’ll take to achieve our said goals and make allowance for that.

So for instance, in the aforementioned illustration, our “budget” or “input” that will be required to meet all of those objectives may be:

• Clocking 5 hours of focused administrative work time each week on my new cake business
• Investing XXX as startup costs and budgeting for marketing, admin, equipment etc
• Dedicating 1 night a week to learning, practising and experimentation
• Selling my antique dresser to buy a mixer
• Enrolling in a course to improve my fondant covering

This whole exercise is about determining “what am I willing to invest or sacrifice in order to achieve X Y and Z?”.

If we aren’t willing to do this bit, then it all fizzles into one big pile of wishful dreams. Counting the cost is what sets apart the dreamers from the doers.

Also, related to this, it’s important to determine what we are NOT willing to give up in the pursuit of our cake/work goals. These are things should remain priorities even in the midst of our driven pursuit. For instance, things like family time, self-care and health are all things that I’m mindful of maintaining even in the midst of dream-chasing. If we aren’t mindful of setting boundaries for our priorities OUTSIDE of our cake objectives, then these things can often get trampled over in the pursuit.

So there you have it, simple but essential – 3 steps to making 2019 your most sensational cake year yet! It’s time to get crackin’ on your 2019 goal-setting and set yourself up for some major WINS!

Again, remember to download my free Goal-Setting Planner to start putting these steps into practice and get your game plan in order. I can’t wait to journey 2019 with you friend.

Tell me dear reader, what’s your biggest cake goal for this new year?

 

Do you ever catch yourself thinking “If only I had better photography skills”, or “If only my images looked as good as hers”. Well my friend, you’re not alone. I too know all too well what it’s like to contort myself in ninja positions, snapping countless images only to realise that none of them remotely resemble your finished cake. One can’t help but ponder… What am I doing wrong?

As many of us have already figured out, having consistently good cake images is imperative when it comes to running a thriving cake business in this particular era. With our social media platforms and websites acting as our online storefront, a common observation is that – cakers who take better snaps, are better able to pull ahead of the pack.

In my last blog post, I shared about my ‘Top Instagram Strategies for Cake Business’ and thought it would be helpful to follow up with a related topic; one that will help you create better cake photos which you can then confidently release to the masses.

But before we start, here are 2 insider secrets about taking gorgeous cake photos for posting on social media:

• It is possible to take incredible images with both a smartphone and DSLR
• Your most fave cake pics online (that you see on other bakers’ feeds) are almost always EDITED.

Well now, just HOW does one go about editing their cake images? For a start, I would recommend downloading my Free ‘Instagram Tools Guide’ where I share the editing apps that I prefer to use for smartphone cake pictures. For DSLR images, you can use Adobe Lightroom, Photoshop or similar and apply the same points discussed in this article.

Sooo… what’s the deal with EDITING and is it really worth the time and effort?

Well, here are my 2 cents on the subject: From observation of growth on both my Facebook and Instagram accounts in the past few years and measuring online sale conversions, I would surmise that Editing is a crucial step before hitting ‘Post’ or ‘Publish’ on socials as it helps our cake images return to a truer representation of what our cakes look like in real life. Often due to lighting limitations, shaking, poor positioning or plain ol’ time constraints, our captured cake pictures often need a lil’ help to get them looking their absolute best.

So in this blog post, allow me to hold your hand and walk you through my Top 5 Editing Points to making your sweet snaps waaaay sweeter.

1. Exposure

Exposure or brightness is the amount of light that is present or introduced into your image. The first edit I always make is to boost up the Exposure of my cake image to brighten it up. This always helps to take care of unwanted shadows, make the details on your cake more noticeable and create an attractive “airy” look around your images. Be careful to not overexpose your images as this can make cakes look “washed out”.

2. Saturation

Most of the time when we take an image, one of the things we’ll notice is that the colours on the actual REAL cake itself are richer and truer than the picture we’ve captured. With this, comes the need to boost up the Saturation or Vibrancy of the image. So go on an increase the Saturation on your image to give more depth to your dessert colours. On the flipside, going overboard with the Saturation can often make your cakes look “animated” and unrealistic.

3. White Balance

What is white balance? Well, often times when a white cake or white backdrop is captured by a camera, upon close inspection, you’ll notice that the white tones in real life don’t always come through as white in your captured shot. White balance is measured by the “colour temperature”, and can be manipulated in the post-editing process to determine the “warmth” or “coolness” of the image. Warm images tend to have a yellowish hue whilst a cool image, has more of a blue-ish tinge.

Before tweaking the white balance setting, determine first of all what type of “colour temperature” you’d like to consistently have your images in. Some social media feeds tend to have warmer images whilst others, a cooler aesthetic. I personally prefer to have mine sitting somewhere smack bang in the middle of the two. There isn’t a right or wrong, it just boils down to what appeals to your natural preference and tendencies. It also hinges on what suits your cake designs best. Warm images can inflict a cosy, ambient vibe white cooler images can give a crisper, minimalistic feel.

The best way to tell is to play around with the white balance toggles and settle on something that shows off your cake best. Tweaking the white balance is especially necessary to neutralise unwanted lighting hues (i.e. yellow ambient light at event venues). I personally recommend adjusting the white balance on your image so that it’s not sitting at either extremities and is something that is comfortable and pleasing to the eye.

4. Contrast

Adjusting the contrast can often bring out the finer details in your cake design. I find cakes with elements such as florals, texture, ruffles and intricate patterns do well with a slight boost in the contrast setting. There are situations however where increasing the contrast can backfire and this tends to happen more in images that have excessive shadows, or an entirely monochrome palette. So be aware that in some circumstances, it’ll be better to leave the contrast settings as is.

5. Shadows

Shadows can add depth & a certain moodiness to an image, so in some circumstances, shadows can be a welcome addition to a cake or dessert image. Often times however, harsh shadows (that are a result of photographing in harsh lighting coming from one direction) can make an image look overcast, so one of the things we can do to address this is to remove the shadowing in our image. That said, reducing the shadowing can often reduce the contrast of the image somewhat so be careful to balance the shadow reduction so that it doesn’t take away from the overall contrast of the subject matter.

6. Rotation & Cropping

Crooked cakes… it happens ALLL the time, especially if we’re not using a tripod to capture our cakes. This is especially so when trying to photograph a cake from a straight-on, front angle. No worries! After making all the prior colour and tonality edits, its then time to crop or rotate the image to make sure it’s at its best and proper angle.

7. Sharpening

Not all editing apps have this feature, but it’s one that I like to do within the Instagram app just before hitting Publish! I find that it gives my all cakes & desserts across the board a crisp finish, whilst bringing out a lot of the gorgeous details. It’s especially handy to remedy any accidental “shakes” and blurriness in our baked pictures.

*A note about filters: I personally recommend staying away from applying full filters as they can leave your images with an over-edited, unrealistic finish. I would however encourage you to experiment with using filters partially (a percentage of a filter) as it certainly can shorten the amount of editing time of an image. My personal faves are in the editing apps listed in my ‘Instagram Tools for Cake Business’ free pdf guide.

I’d love to know, how do you normally take your cake pictures and has this article helped you?