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We are delighted to welcome cousins Leigh Ashby and Andrea Daly, owners of Two Cousins Bakery, as our new group leaders for MTB Coventry which will be launching on 6th March.
Having both worked in Further Education for a number of years, Andrea as a lecturer in Holistic Therapies and Leigh as a Policy Manager for the Learning & Skills Council, they both felt frustrated and disillusioned working for other people and wanted to focus on their passion….baking. Two Cousins Bakery comes from our mutual love of baking, creating and eating cakes! They make fun and funky cakes and cater for all dietary requirements, so that no one is ever left out! They also run cupcake decorating workshops for adults and cupcake parties for children.
What inspired you to start your own business ?
Becoming disillusioned with working for others. Both of us had worked in further education for a number of years and wanted a new challenge, a change of career based on something we really enjoyed doing. Most importantly for us was to have a business that would fit around the needs of our children.
What has been your biggest challenge ?
Setting up the business was surprisingly straight forward. Our biggest challenge, both to start with and ongoing, is securing regular cake orders and maintaining contact with past customers.
What have you learnt about yourself since you became self-employed ?
The realisation that it’s not just about baking but being a business person that runs a bakery! We’re learning to be disciplined and self motivated and to put time aside to focus on the day to day things like on the day to day essentials like marketing and accounts. Working from home is great and just what I wanted but it can be easy to get disracted.
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What has been the best thing about being your own boss ?
How we organize our day is up to us. There is no set start or finish time, we know when we have to deliver orders by, but when the baking happens can be flexible. We set our own deadlines and decide if we can meet orders or not. We can work around our children and work when it best suits us whether that be in the day or evening.
Why did you decide to become a MTB leader?
We had been to a few Mums the Boss meetings in Coventry in the last year and we found the networking opportunities invaluable. We have met some lovely business Mums in our city, that has been a real boost to our business and when the group we attended ceased we didn’t want this valuable opportunity to be lost to us and others.
If you could give one piece of advice to an aspiring ‘mumpreneur’ what would it be ?
Do it! Life is too short. But before you go in with all guns blazing, do ensure that you have researched your market and, as boring as this may sound, you need to do a business plan. Particularly a financial forecast – can you afford to run this business or at least earn a lot less for a couple of years before it gets fully off the ground.
To join the mailing list for our Coventry group newsletter sign up here (select Coventry from the location drop down menu) and you can follow the ladies on Twitter at @mumsthebosscov
