Confidence.
Hello, how are you?
Hope you've had a good weekend and I hope you've been busy when that's been baking or getting new orders.
Do you know what?
Even if you haven't been busy, sometimes it's just nice to have a little break, isn't it?
That's 's what I was doing this weekend.
I delivered a wedding cake on Saturday, which was lovely.
It was all set up.
Didn't quite go to plan.
I didn't quite go to plan in the sense of, once I'd got it there and decorated it, I wasn't happy with decoration.
So I had to do some figy pokery and change the design ever so slightly, but it all worked out in the end, the couple loved it, and that's the main thing, isn't it?
So that was my Saturday morning and then for the rest of the weekend, we've been gardening.
The weather here has been absolutely beautiful.
It's a great time to get outside, so we have completely redone our garden.
I mean, we've not, like, dug up any lawns or anything, not relatedly patate, but with painted fences planted, loads of plants, puts some neut trellisses up, painted the decking, got some new garden rugs.
So yeah, it's looking amazing.
Two days of really hard work.
But great feeling of satisfaction at the end of it.
So that was really nice.
So yeah, so it's been a really, really good weekend.
But I wanted to talk about something on this episode that I have found out over the weekend .
So I found out that Bake Diary is closing down, and I know that this is going to affect a lot of cake makers.
So if you're not sure what Bake Diary is, it's an app which you use to manage your orders, your pricing, anything business related.
So the fact that it's closing down, and I know there are quite a few thousand people that use this app, are now going to be struggling, so it's probably quite stressful if you are one of those people that uses this app.
So in today's episode, I want to talk you through what's happening and what your options are and what I would recommend instead, especially if you're here in the UK.
So what is Bake diary?
So Baked diary is, or was an app that a lot of keep makers use to manage the admin side of their business.
So, quotes, payments, pricing, availability, stock control, so, so much.
Basically, it helped you keep track of everything in one place, especially if you're juggling multiple orders and trying to stay organised, mainly for celebration cake makers, however, I'm sure there are some wedding cake makers that use this as well .
So hearing that it's shutting down, I get it.
It's a big deal, and I've had a few panicked messages come through my inbox.
So I thought this was a great episode to help you understand what you can do instead, give you some options and try and calm that stress.
So if you've been using Bake Diary before, this might feel like losing half of your brain , all of those customer details, the prices, quotes, the inventory, the product pricing, it's not going to be a small switch and I know for some of you, this is the thing that kept you on top of everything.
There are some solutions out there, so I've done a little bit of digging to help figure out what's next.
So there are a few options floating around online.
Most of them are suited to US based businesses, and they're not ideal for the UK bakers.
Now, I am in the UK, so I am focussing on that I actually think will make sense for us.
So the first one is called baking It.
This is a UK based app created with heat bakers in mind .
I have used this myself, which is why I can happily recommend it.
When I used, when I made celebration cakes, this was what I'd used.
I never used baked diary, so I can't comment on it , but I have used baking it.
It's probably the closest match to bake diary if you are looking for something similar so what do you get with baking it?
So again, it's an app, which you can use on your phone .
I not 100% sure if it's a web- based option.
That would probably need to be checked out, and that is something I haven't checked out, but you could probably have a look.
So what do you get with baking it ?
So you get a pricing calculator so you can properly cost the cakes based on ingredients, your thyme, your overheads, and then you would get an option to have profit and things like that .
There is recipe management, so you can add your recipes into the app and everything is saved and organised in one place.
You can do order tracking, so see what's coming up, what's confirmed and stay on top of it all .
Quotes an invoicing.
This is a big one.
You can send quotes to clients, convert them into orders and then generate invoices.
There are even like email templates built in that make the communication just that little bit smoother.
And there is also a 3D cake designer.
So you may or may not know that I teach digital cakes sketching, and I swear by it and recommend that everybody, every single cake maker is the whole world world, does digital cake sketching.
However , if you don't, the app baking it has a 3D cake designer, I used to use this before I started doing the digital cake design.
I did use this.
I'll be honest, it's not the easiest.
It is doable, but it's done by templates and it's done with design decorations that you can only use what is in the app.
There's no adding extras.
So, you know, if the app doesn't have a particular element that you are putting on the cake, then. Tough, unfortunately.
But it is really, it is really good if it's, you know, it can be really helpful, so you couldn't see your design so create mock ups for clients and then send them through the app.
It's not the flash iest bit of software, but it is practical, and it does what it says on the tin.
Now, some people looking through reviews and things like that, some people have mentioned that there are little glitches here and there, but overall, it's a really, really strong option, especially because it works in British pounds and it is set up for UK businesses.
Now, as I said, I have used this in the past.
Now, it was many years ago when I was back doing a celebration cakes, so I don't know, seven, eight years ago, probably.
And it worked, and it worked well enough for what I needed, and it's a good option to switch over from Bake Diary.
Glitches here and there.
The only glitches that I found, I mean, we are talking seven, eight years ago, the only glitches that I found was in these 3D kick designer, so if that's not something you're going to use, I think you're going to be pretty alright with that.
So that is baking it .
I will put the link in the show notes, good directly to the software.
I'm not affiliated with it.
I'm just trying to help you move over and see Missly, you know, transition to a new app, because what else can you do?
So, yeah.
Okay, so the only other option that I am willing to recommend is spreadsheets, and I know you are thinking, wow, no, thanks. .
But it is something that is really simple and low cost.
You know, you can use Excel or Google sheets or Apple sheets, whatever it is that you want to do, they will all do the job and you can build your own system to track your orders and your payments and your ingredients costs, customer details, even like availability and delivery slots, it can all be done in a spreadsheet.
You do need to set this up, so there is a lot of up front work that would be needed.
However, there are some pricing spreadsheets out there already, which may suit your needs.
So I would have a good Google and see what options there are there. Ready made for you to purchase.
Pricing spreadsheets, or booking spreadsheets, things like that, So, you know, there are options out there.
Otherwise, build your own.
And the good thing about spreadsheets is that you are in full control.
You can tweak everything to suit your own process.
You know, there're also they're free .
So there's that.
You don't have to pay for anything.
Now, of course, it does take a bit more time to set up and you do need to feel fairly confident using formulas, but once it's done, it's really easy to maintain .
And if you're thinking, you know, that sounds great, but I just wouldn't know where to start.
Don't worry.
I'm actually thinking about putting together a spreadsheet template for cake makers.
So if that is something that you use , let me know and I'll get on it.
I don't know if it is something that cake makers would want or would need or would use.
So I haven't put that thought into action quite yet, but if it is something that you'd be considering, then let me know.
Let me know, and I will work on creating something to suit everybody's needs.
So, yeah, this thing this sort of thing always feels like a setback at first, but you have to remember, it is just a shift.
You've already built the business.
You've already figured out a million things along the way.
This is just another one of them that you have to figure out.
So make sure you back everything that you've got up in back date diary, back everything up if you can and take notes of everything, take screenshots of things and then decide what works best for you going forward.
So whether that's if you want something structured and all in one, then baking it is a great choice.
If you'd rather take control yourself and save some money than spreadsheets can be absolutely work, and whatever you choose, you're not starting over.
You're just adapting, okay?
So don't think that you've got to start from scratch.
Okay, so those are my two options.
I really do hope that this has helped to alleviate some of that stress that you are feeling right now because I do understand what kind of emotions you're going through with this.
So I'm hoping that this is sort of helped you think, right?
There are other options out there .
And if you've got any questions, send me a message on Instagram.
I'd love to hear what you're planning to use instead, and if you need any more suggestions.
There are a couple for the American market.
Now, I can't recommend them as such because I've never used them, but it is something that is out there for home-based businesses.
So the first one is called citron.
Oh, Caston.
Caston.
I hope I'm saying that.
So it is primarily built for the US based home food businesses, and it has like tax settings and legal integrations and things like that.
And the currency is in US dollars. Its payment processes and food labelling requirements are US focussed.
So Castiron, again, I'll put all the links to these in the notes, but this one, I can't recommend myself, because I've never used it, so do go and do your research .
The next one is called Crafty Base, and this is based in Australia.
It is widely used internationally, including the UK, so it does support multiple currencies, backtracking, and is flexible for the different markets .
But again, another one I've not used, you will have to go and do your research on property and link to that so that is a crafty base.
And then obviously we've got the baking it and slidsheets.
So I hoping that there are some options out there, which is going to help you get through this bit of a bumpy, bumpy situation.
If you know someone who's in a panic about baked diary closing down, send them this episode, it might just save them hours of stress.
So I'm going to leave you there and yeah, get in touch if you are going through the issue of fake diary closing down and you know, let me know your thoughts about the options that are given.
Maybe you've got suggestions that I haven't mentioned.
I'm always open to have conversations.
So I'd love to hear from you.
Thank you for listening and I will speak to you all very soon.
