We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Jennifer Santoso a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Jennifer , so great to have you with us today. There are so many topics we want to ask you about, but perhaps the one we can start with is burnout. How have you overcome or avoided burnout?
As someone trying to balance both a small bakery business and a full time job. Life can get pretty overwhelming sometimes, 24 hours in a day just doesn’t feel enough to tick all the boxes in your to-do list. All though I feel good and accomplished after finishing them, but continually keeping up with this pace will get me burnt out (so easily too, not to mention).
I find two things very important, first keeping a priority list with all my tasks and second having the courage to say no.
What is important to me? My small bakery business! I love it when I get to talk to customers and take the time to customize their perfect cake for their birthday/ anniversary/ baby shower/ etc. It’s more than a privilege to be able to make their cakes and seeing the joy on their faces when they see the final result, it brings me a lot of happiness and satisfaction. But running a small bakery business is not just that, it’s also countless hours buying ingredients, keeping track of the admin, baking, making & editing content for marketing, and so much more. With that I come to realized, this business is important but my well-being is even more important. I try to prioritize resting and my relationships with people, because I find when I’m doing well, I can give 100% to my business too. And when I’m doing well, I enjoy running the business, I don’t find baking (and everything else) to be a chore, but an enjoyment!
I personally think saying no (to customers) is something every small business owner struggles with. When you’re starting out, every sale means everything, every customer that inquires (even though there’s no sale) gets you excited! You might hear that joke about business owners doing a little dancey-dance after every sale. Well, it’s not a joke! It’s true. And saying no is very counter-intuitive. But, the reality of a small business is that, you’re unable to accommodate every request. For example, I’m a buttercream cake artist, and unfortunately I’m unable to offer fondant covered cakes. All though it’s sad to say no and lose a potential customer, but I’d rather say no than do something I’m unable to give my best effort to.
Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?
Hi, my name’s Jennifer the face behind the little cake shop “Cakekue”. CakeKue is a custom cake service specializing in buttercream style cakes offering cutesy, vintage, and Korean-inspired design. A home based cake shop in Burnaby, BC.
For some that are wondering “what is ‘Kue’ in CakeKue?” Pronounced “Ko-e”, means cake in Indonesian. I was born and raised in Jakarta, Indonesia until the age of 17 that I decide to move to BC to pursue college. Coming to Vancouver a couple of months before covid, I wanted to pursue baking as a past time hobby (with no intent of selling) as I didn’t grew up in a baking household, it’s been something I’m interested in doing! From cookies to tarts, I find making cakes most rewarding. As a self-taught baker, it was challenging to smooth out those cake layers, but after some practice and determination, I got better one cake at the time! A couple of months after I started baking, I decided to start selling my cakes through Facebook. It was scary to put myself out there, but now looking back I’m proud to take that step as now I’m able to expand my service to Instagram and hopefully other venues in the future.
With 2025 right around the corner, I have some exciting plans for CakeKue. At the moment, a cake decorating workshop is in the works and hopefully be able to start workshop classes by January 2025 onwards. Though not a formal invite, but I’d love to eventually welcome everyone that’s interested in decorating cakes, meeting new people, and make lasting memories! With this, I hope to make a positive community of people that like to have fun, creative and maybe a little messy 🙂 Follow @itscakekue on IG for more updates!
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
As a self-taught cake artist, a willingness to learn is an important skill. This may be hard to hear for some, but your mistakes are your BEST teachers. You can’t learn without making some mistakes along the way so don’t be afraid to try something new!
After 2 years in business, I’ve learnt so much from my mistakes in the 1st year.
I’ve taken the time to improve my cake recipes, polish my decorating skills, and also also manage the business aspect. I have learned how to manage customer inquiries more efficiently and implementing some policies that would better the customer experience. And I won’t learn any of those if I didn’t take the risk of doing in the first place.
I’m not an expert and have much more to learn! But, if you’re thinking of starting that business/ service. DO IT! The first couple of times might not be great, but you can only get better from there.
Tell us what your ideal client would be like?
This is a very interesting question! It’s safe to say that everyone is a potential customer, as I’m sure everyone at some point has a birthday, anniversary, milestone to commemorate, or if you simple like cake! But, I’m aware that not everyone is my target audience
It’s easy to compare grocery store prices to custom cake prices, as I use to be in the that point of view and do so. The reality is that you can’t compare the two! A customize cake is more than just dessert, it’s the highlight of someone’s celebration; they’re tedious, labour-some and each order is hand-crafted to complement a specific occasion. It takes more than just premium ingredients and materials to make it special, a lot of it is your time and years of practice. That’s why it’s priced differently.
And it goes well for all custom work artist!
At times some customers would ask for lower pricing, and it may be discouraging because it feels like they’re overlooking the value of the work we do.
When you support a small bakery business, you’re not just buying a cake, you’re also appreciating their art form 🙂
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/itscakekue?igsh=MXV6ejUxMmphZ2g1cg%3D%3D&utm_source=qr
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/@jennnifersantoso?si=6iJi-8zfeke8H0ul
- Other: [email protected] (business email)
Image Credits
Image 1-3 & 6-8 : Jennifer Santoso
Image 4:
In frame : Domenica
Photographer : Nidia Marin Photography
Image 5:
In frame : Nyasha
Photographer : Jiminpu / jpeg.photography
so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
