I recently posted apologising for my recent absence on the Gram and promising answers soon, and here they are...
I have been working as a cook in a Nursery since October 2020 and I have loved it!
It suited me perfectly; not only because I actually got to see people and leave the house while many were still locked down, living a double life of shirts versus pyjama bottoms in makeshift home offices. But, because the Pantry was young, I was supplying one cafe and had a few small orders a week if that, nursery was my back up - my safety net.
I would spend my mornings; baking/planning/plotting world domination/"researching", go to nursery for a few hours in the afternoon to cook tea and then return to decorate my mornings bakes, pack up orders yada yada yada.
Slowly but surely as each order came in I became more confident that there was a definite lack in the local market for good vegan and gluten free cakes and that maybe I should be pushing myself a little bit more. So I started to put myself out there and taking my wares to market to spread the word and get to know my customers and what they wanted a bit better face to face.
Jump forward two and a half years and I have just moved to Portsmouth, am supplying three cafes on a weekly basis, with a few more in proposal stages, and on average are turning out three or four bespoke celebration cakes a week.
There just weren't enough hours in the day to fit everything in: travelling to and from Emsworth for work now took an extra 30 mins. I was staying up (way past my bedtime) hunched over the table making the decorative accents to finish the cakes - its no wonder I'm consistently moaning about my back hurting. And finding less and less time to do anything but work.
So after a lot of thought I decided that I needed to take a leap of faith and remove my safety net.
I didn't necessarily need it there any more it was more of a what if?
What if I don't get any enquiries? What if I don't get enough orders? What if the cost of living means people just don't order specially made cakes any more?!!!
But then on the other hand there were just as many or even more what ifs to keeping up with the job.
What if I get sick? (as I so often did working with children) What if I don't have enough time to do all my cafe orders? What if I burn out? What if I make a silly mistake because I'm too tired? and the biggest of all ...
What if I stop enjoying the Pantry because I'm working all the time?
That was probably one of the most important. I'd come so far, did I really want to risk throwing that all away by losing the passion that I have for it? I admit it also helps that I am very fortunate to have the most supportive network around me, who definitely have a lot more confidence in me than I do sometimes! but here I am! doing it !
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