Hello my Lovelies! It’s been a while since I last wrote, so much has happened, but I want to try & keep these to minimum word count so it’s to the point & easy to digest.
So where do I start? The past 2 weeks have been a rollercoaster ride, we were so excited for our very first market & the popularity of this particular market was surely going to make us loads of much needed cash. The goal was R60k which would cover Dec + Jan cakery expenses & we were ready for it.
In the week leading up to the market, I put up a notice to say I would not be taking any orders for custom cakes due to prioritizing market work. To my amazement, I received requests from 4 brand new clients (referrals) & then from 4 of my regulars. I thought of not taking the orders so as to not pressurize myself but decided against it. There was no way I was turning away new business or letting down my regulars. Thank God I took that decision because with the outcome of the market, I would’ve been in a worst position than I am now.
I baked all the cakes a day ahead of normal baking day to ensure that I had enough time for everything & still I was delayed & late with completing them. The combination of the heat wave & higher rate of loadshedding stages completely shattered me & my plans. There were so many moments that I just wanted to sit down & cry & it took all I had at the time to continue but I pushed on. Lots of friends & family called/ messaged to check in & their words of wisdom & encouragement really motivated me to continue. We worked until after 00.00 for 4 days & even had to wake the neighbour up at 1am to get our house keys. Caitlyn even mentioned that we should get blow up mattresses & just sleep at the shop lol.
My children worked hard & even Caden who had never been exposed to any of this tried his best to offer his help. From Thurs night to the following Tues night, I slept for no more than 4hrs a day & it wasn’t even genuine sleep. I didn’t eat much because when I did on Friday, I ended up getting a running tummy. I thought I had food poisoning & it was a nightmare to try & finish my 2 tier cake between being dehydrated & weak but I made it through. Not eating the rest of the weekend helped but obviously wasn’t the best idea because it reduced my energy levels. Riccardo woke up nauseous & vomiting on Saturday & he had to do all the deliveries, so we were even more stressed. I’m grateful that my mother offered to help us & came along to the cakery. I couldn’t get through finishing even one of the cakes until she started talking to me & with my mind on that, I managed to get through most of the work. At one stage I had such massive pangs in my heart, I was convinced I would have a heart attack & collapse! I normally suffer with anxiety but this was on another level.
I decided to prioritize my clients & cakes before the market because I spent majority of the Friday sitting at the market doing nothing & making only 1 sale of R200. By the time Riccardo finished the deliveries I sent my kids & my mum to the market to manage the sale of our Christmas goodies there. Again – it was super slow & very disheartening but we had a family friend come visit & buy up a storm so that helped the morale. Back at the cakery – I was alone & while I thought it’s what I needed, it definitely was super daunting. Thoughts of regret & resentment filled my brain & I thought I just needed to have a good cry & move on but the tears just wouldn’t come. After multiple conversations with myself in my head, I managed to pick myself back up & trek on. Things continued going slow at the market so I messaged Riccardo to come back & help me finish my final cake, I just could not manage by myself which is so unlike me & it was already 18.30pm. He arrived in no time & we each took one end of the fire truck & completed it.
I was so grateful that we have come so far in our journey that I can lean on him for everything including hands on business work. We delivered our last cake at 9pm that evening & then went for my mum & kids. Again – they were very disheartened & down, it was the hardest thing I have had to see in my life. Another night of falling asleep on the couch while waiting for fondant to dry or cakes to cool, another night of not having our normal family prayer time, another night not having an evening shower, another night not having my chamomile tea & reading a motivational book or colouring in my bible. The market had taken “everything” we had to give & gave us nothing in return & I was broken. I missed the first church service of Advent & was even more resentful because of it ……but we pushed on. Sunday at the market was better than the prior 2 days but still nothing close to what we had expected. We ended up reducing our prices twice in 2 days & then eventually selling out to our regular customers at a much lower price. We just needed to make some sort of money back & ensure our products didn’t go to complete waste.
I would like to say thank you to everyone who responded to that ad & took what they could, we spent the rest of the day delivering around Jhb. Thank you to the people who made a special trip to the market to specifically come & see us & support us with purchasing or giving us a motivational talk – it meant the world. Thank you to my friends who always checked in on me & fellow bakers who offered their help. Thank you to my customers who received their cakes later than committed delivery times & to those who received a not so “perfect” cake due to the weather but did not attack me or complain – your understanding made it possible for me to push through the rest of it.
The market had loads of foot traffic, it was really busy & our failure to launch could be attributed to so many things but essentially we came, we saw & we obviously did not conquer but we learnt so much! Next year we will know better but I’m not sure at this time if doing markets is for us. When I hear my kids feedback to their friends who ask about the market now, I realize that it wasn’t as bad as I thought it was, they have bounced back & they explain it to being our “1st time” & end it with “we’ll do better next time” so I’m grateful for that.
I’m grateful that I was too tired to make ALL the items I had planned for the market & decided to come back & do it on day 2, this made the loss not as big as it could’ve been. In total – the sales made after reducing the pricing was R2780, R617 was the 15% donation required to be donated to the charity organization who hosted so we ended up making R2163 which didn’t cover a fraction of what was spent 
R1500 was the cost of having a stall at the market for 3 days so basically – we made no money at all & the loss on fuel costs, ingredients, unsold products etc.
The lessons learnt are valuable & I’ll be putting together a guide for those who would like to do a market in the future – this will be based on all the things that didn’t work for us this time, what we’ve learned from the experience & tips on what could be done better.
Until next time – remember to bake people happy!