Sunday 4 March 2012

Time for Tea?


I have always wanted to own my own successful business. This last month has been spent launching Tea 'n' Cake as a 'proper' business. At the end of last year I had enough stock to start selling online with Etsy to expand my audience http://www.etsy.com/shop/TNCake When doing markets people often asked if I hired out the china and at Christmas my husband suggested that I offer bespoke tea parties. I have all the china and can bake bloody good cakes so why not? But how should I market myself? How do you sell something like a tea party delivery business? I had made a decision at the beginning of the year that if I was going to expand the idea of Tea 'n' Cake I would have to do some real branding and marketing, and spend some money. I committed all my takings from Christmas to promoting the new Tea ‘n’ Cake. First thing was a website. I have a friend who is able to build websites. This is very lucky and also very cheap. I wanted to do it right, a site with great images of the services on offer. Luckily Ben has a great camera too. The photo shoot was a lot of fun and Ben did a fab job on the website    www.teancake.co.uk But having a website doesn’t drum up business on its own. I was recommended a local designer, Jade at BlackInk www.blackinkcomm.co.uk  who took Ben’s pictures and created a fantastic design for some leaflets. These have just been printed and distributed around Frome. I also contacted a popular local directory called TheLIST www.thelistfrome.co.uk and spoke to editor Faye. She was very friendly and full of good advice and ideas. She has supported me with some lovely editorial and I have booked some advertising, the first lot is just out. I have also written a press release (not fun) and this has now gone off to two local papers. I’ll be targeting some glossies next week. That was supposed to be the hard bit. But it was actually a lot of fun. People have been very supportive and given me lots of positive feedback on the idea and the branding. But now it’s done I feel very nervous. It’s only been days but what do I do next? Wait for the phone to ring? That feels wrong. Being busy is good even if you’re not making money (as long as you’re not spending it) but the waiting game is not fun. Perhaps I need some inspiration to market myself further. If anyone has some good advice I’m listening!

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