280 Bakes
  • Home
  • Cakes
  • Blog
  • Letterbox Cake
  • About
  • Contact

2016: An Amazing Year For 280 Bakes!

31/12/2016

0 Comments

 
 “What an awful year.”
 
“I can’t wait for this year to be over.”

Everywhere I look, people are saying things to the tune of “thank goodness 2016 is almost over”.
 
As tempted as I am to join in the mourning of so many people and things this year (because there’s been some truly awful news stories and personal tragedies), I want to reflect on the 280 Bakes story of 2016 - and it's far from depressing.
PictureWe're now specialist in vegan cake baking!
For 280 Bakes, it was a momentous year. I developed the company from selling cakes from my porch to neighbours to delivering home baked cakes across the city of Bristol, and then in the Autumn, expanding into Portishead. I’ve created new recipes, improved my graphic design and cake baking skills, and learned a lot about running a business. Due to growth in sales and a loyal customer base, I recruited three freelance bakers (plus one recruitment ‘practice run’ for an event) between September and November, and we still didn’t have enough weekends free to attend all the events we were invited to!
 
A real highlight was the Bristol vegan festival, where we had the chance to reach even more of the vegan cake lovers in the south-west. Vegans are still 60% of our customer base, so it was really lovely to be involved in such a celebrated festival – and it was our best event in terms of sales, too!
 
We’ve been lucky enough to meet a lot of new people, from entrepreneurs and mentors, from local food champions to customers who return time after time to our service. We have met so many inspirational people through various ‘start up’ business support organisations - an eye opening experience, not just in terms of how we might do things differently, more efficiently, but also how much help there is available for new business in Bristol. BRAVE, YENA and Get Set For Growth - South West are friends of 280 Bakes, and special thanks goes to Social Enterprise Works (Rob in particular). Without their encouragement and ‘sounding board’ status in the early days, 280 Bakes may never have left my front porch.

The most exciting part and proudest moment of our business journey this year was winning the 'Seats for Start Ups' business competition with BMI Regional. I won a return flight - anyone who knows me knows what a dream prize that is for me! - to Switzerland to check out bakeries and cakes done Swiss style. More on this later, but here's a quick taster *ahem* of the cakey delights I found...

One of the most defining moments we had this year was when CakeOD, our same day cake delivery service, was registered as a trademark. This was an incredible step forward for the business, protecting our unique service of home baked cakes ‘on demand’. Investing in the registration was a big step, and not a low-cost event, but it was worth it. It’s allowed the business to grow, and CakeOD continues to grow as a brand as a result.

Picture
Our business journey and my year personally hasn’t been all icing flowers and sprinkles, believe me, but for 280 Bakes, 2016 was a year not to be forgotten. Thank you to friends and family who have been so supportive. Helping me with emergency printing of fliers at home, cake testing (such a hardship, I know!), listening to my woes and excitements, helping at events when I needed an extra pair of hands – all very much appreciated.
 
And for the world in general? It wasn’t so bad.

  • It was the year 800,000 volunteers planted 50 million trees in India in just 24 hours. That’s volunteer power!
  • Wild tiger numbers rose for the first time in 100 years. There’s hope!
  • The World Health Organization (WHO) released a data report showing that global malaria deaths have decreased by 60 percent since 2000. Awesome.
  • For the first time in history, a refugee team took part in the Olympics. It’s sad that a team like this was needed in a way, but so encouraging that it was possible.
  • Cash raised by the Ice Bucket Challenge actually helped fund a significant breakthrough in the battle against the disease ALS.
  • In 2016, more young people watched Planet Earth 2 than The X Factor, suggesting they might actually care more about jungle frogs than Honey G. Win.
 
Hell, 2016 was the year Leo DiCaprio FINALLY won an Oscar!
 
So, 2016 kinda got a bad reputation, but let’s deal with it. Let’s learn lessons from the bad, and remember the good bits of cakes and current issues both.
 
Let’s make 2017 even better - Happy New Year!

Louise
Owner, 280 Bakes

0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Author

    Welcome to the 280 Bakes blog! Most posts are by myself, Louise, but if you fancy guest blogging, give me a shout!

    Archives

    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016

    Categories

    All
    280 On Tour
    Baking Tips
    Baking Workshops
    Birthday Cakes
    Blog Recommendations
    Boozy Bakes
    Business
    Celebrate With Us
    Christmas
    Community
    Cupcakes
    Customer Stories
    Fairtrade
    Friends Of 280 Bakes
    Gluten Free
    Guest Blog
    Halloween
    Home Baking
    I'm A Mum
    Just For Fun
    Lockdown Special
    Low Fat
    Low Sugar Cakes
    News
    Recipes
    Special Offer
    Summer Bakes
    Team 280 Bakes
    The Great British Bake Off
    Tre
    Vegan Bakes
    Wedding
    Well Being
    Work For Us
    Zero Sugar Cakes

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
  • Home
  • Cakes
  • Blog
  • Letterbox Cake
  • About
  • Contact