5 Star - not the band!

Since my last post things have moved on a pace. Today I had my inspection from one of the Wiltshire Environmental Health Officers - very nice lady by the name of Lucy. She quizzed me for 1 1/2 hours, took the temperature of my fridge, inspected my sink facilities and baking storage area. After the official grades had been considered and added together she pronounced Red Apron Cakes the proud owners of a 5 Star Award for Hygiene and good practice. I look forward to receiving my laminated copy in the post in the next couple of weeks! How excited those 5 stars have made me feel - my daughter dearest commented it was only because of my OCD tendencies that I achieved it!
So I am now able to launch the business officially and a little bit before schedule - there's a first!
I have recently been considering advertising and so far have a free listing on yell.com, been persuaded to pay for a year's worth of optimized listing on google local (I have never heard anyone talk so fast for so long in my entire life! Talk about selling you something!) I have also been busy with my friend Vistaprint designing a tri-fold brochure with some pretty photos of cakes on, which my hairdresser will be glad to display on her counter-top!

I also did a little bit of free advertising in the staffroom of Isaac's primary school at the end of term. I left them lots of lovely fairy cakes to try with business cards and party cards. Today I rang up the advertising manager of the local churches magazine and enquired about placing a advert and will have one in place for 12 months from October all being well - no discount for being the Curates wife though!
So far I've had 2 phone calls from the yell.com advert, but unfortunately they both wanted cakes while we're away on holiday :0(
Yesterday when I was dropping my son off at cricket one of the Teaching Assistants asked for my card as she was interested in having a Baking Party for her daughter!
On another note I have been approached by a friend in Dorset who runs an Events business - team building days and other corporate events. They do chocolate making, baking and all kinds of cookery events and are interested in training me up as a Chocolatier and exploring the possibility of me running the Cupcake making/decorating events! More details to follow...
So all in all things are going really well and I made my first 3-tier Wedding Cake last week which went extremely well was very well received!!

conceptual visualisation?

As the title of this blog suggests oak trees don't grow overnight, Rome wasn't built in a day and a new business doesn't spring up overnight. I have been dreaming, visualising, throwing about concepts and trialing various visions of a new business for over a year now. This week I have finally written a business plan even though that probably should have been one of the initial things to be done! However sometimes ideas and concepts overtake reality and I had been caught up in the design and look of the business rather than the core business idea.
Having recently moved to a new area and sussed out the competition (of which there is quite a lot) I still want to give it my best shot and hope to offer customers a service of value. Only time will tell!
I have also been reading publications from the FSA about hygiene in business and setting up a catering business -well apart from the one they sent me that was in Welsh!
The next move is to inform the local health department that I wish to set up a catering business and wait for environmental health to inspect the premises and give me the green light to trade. There are also numerous other things like insurance, checking with the Diocese that I'm ok to trade from home, getting further supplies in and marketing the business for me to sort out over the summer.
All being well I should be able to launch my new business 'Red Apron Cakes' properly in September. I will keep this blog up-to-date with the progress of this new venture in the weeks to come. In the meantime please do have a look at my website www.redaproncakes.vpweb.co.uk for a peek at what I have achieved so far.