The Business Bakery

As I have said many times on this blog, being a wedding planner and running a wedding planning business take two different skill sets. Being a business owner isn’t easy and we all need help to build a better business. If you speak to any really successful business people they have all had a mentor of some description to show them the way and point out areas of weakness etc. I know when I first started out my mentor happened by accident rather as something that was planned. Bob was a veteran of the industry and took me under his wing and showed me the ropes. It was he who taught me how to say ‘No’. With him I learnt that I didn’t need to take on every lead that popped into my Inbox, or work with every client who happened to find my details in Yellow Pages.  He showed me how to be selective with my clients and only work with the clients who fitted within my business parameters. Bob was actually nearing retirement so was happy to pass on all his pearls of wisdom to me and I was more than happy to receive them.

However, not everyone is in that fortunate position of having one of the Gods of the industry invest in them, so need to look for their help in other forms. In the world of the internet it is easier now to find this type of help than it was when I started out nearly 15 years ago. As I was surfing the net earlier this week in my allocated surfing time, I came across a great website called the Business Bakery. What a little gem this is.

I have always liked putting a twist on things rather than keeping them dry and dull and that is exactly what the Business Bakery have done. They’ve taken what can be a very dry topic and turned it into something that is more fun, whilst still being extremely useful. The website is packed full of tips for Kitchen Table Tycoons (corporate women running a business from home). It is maintained by Julia Bickerstaff, the author of How to Bake a Business and is packed full of tips, ideas and advice that is all put together in a fun and interesting way.

On top of all the free advice there are mentoring sessions available which can be purchased in half hour slots. These sessions known as ‘Help Me’ sessions are one-on-one tailored sessions which give you the opportunity to work on parts of your business that may be areas of concern, or things you feel need a little tweaking.

Whilst the Business Bakery isn’t specifically geared towards the wedding and event planning industry, it is a great resource that can certainly offer something to all of us no matter whereabouts we are in our business life. Don’t forget to subscribe to the ‘Daily Juice’, which is the blog of daily inspiration.