Kerry purchased the Tasty Bakehouse at the young age of 22 with her husband Nick, 17 years ago.

More of an accidental entrepreneur, Kerry entered this business because she loved baking and the right opportunity came along.

Despite the fact that running a business has turned out to be extremely hard work, Kerry can't see herself any other way. She loves the freedom of making her own decisions, creating new products, and testing out what works and doesn't work for her customers. She said that owning a business keeps you on your toes, and your mind is always very active, whether you are going through good or bad times.

How does one become a baker?

Kerry said she loved baking for as long as she could remember. In fact as soon as she could reach the counter, she started making cakes and muffins. She wanted to leave school at year 10 to go to baking school, but her father made her finish year 12. She was determined though, and worked in pubs to save up for her pre-vocational course in baking at Regency TAFE.

This paid off and at the age of 21 Kerry was hired by Woolworths as a cake decorator. This led to a further opportunity and offer of a baking apprenticeship, together with a store operations apprenticeship. Her pursuit of this career and her dedication to it must have caught the eye of her supervisors and they invested further in her education.

Blending baking with business

Kerry has learnt a lot over the last over the last few years. Hiring and training staff with its associated challenges such as adjusting to a shrinking and expanding economy.

She is happy that they now have a solid and stable team, but takes nothing for granted as different needs emerge (packing, delivering and baking). Staffing is one of the things which is always on the top of her mind.

“It's really important to get the right team. A  new team member takes at least 3 months to train up so finding and keeping good staff is critical”

Getting a new small business off the ground with your first location is a daunting task. It takes a remarkable amount of planning, a great team, and a willingness to take a risk but in the early days of taking on the business, the economy was good.  Kerry and her husband decided to purchase a shop in another location. The baking was done at their primary Tasty Bakehouse and was then delivered to their other location.

Together they built up this new store and it was doing well. Unfortunately significant roadworks impacted this store location for some time, and they eventually made the decision to sell it.  Reflecting on this experience, Kerry said "you can research thoroughly, but some things you can't plan for or predict and you need to know when to cut your losses while you still can".

Change is the only constant

While the pandemic had its own very unique impact, it was is just one example of the constant change which her business continually needed to adjust to.

Services like UberEats and contactless trading have significantly eroded the bottom line. As an example, Kerry said no one could have predicted that someone living across the road from a bakery might use Uber Eats to order a pie, and that the customer may not care whether their pie comes from across the road or from a bakery ten kilometres away, so long as it is delivered to their door.

On the other hand while UberEats leaves less money on the table, Kerry & Nick still feel it is important to be on the platform for visibility - and as a way of people finding you - almost like being in a directory.

Moving forward

While Tasty has had a website presence and Facebook page, the website did not sell their products online, and Kerry felt that this was an important next step to making the full range of what they offer more visible and simpler to order and buy from.

Therefore, Kerry decided to apply for the Business Support Grant and is currently working hard with her advisor to create an e-commerce store which will shortly launch.  Kerry has been really committed to the process and is also now studying website design and building online courses in her spare time.

When I asked what’s next Kerry replied The Tasty Bakehouse Academy.

"We’ve all had cake disasters at home, so I am planning a series of online courses teaching people cake decoration". It turns out that Kerry is also practicing with video and lighting as part of creating the course and we can’t wait to see the final product!

"You’ve got to exercise your brain and keep thinking about how to improve your business" adding that she’s also started a diploma in Business "to learn the finer details and things I might not know".

Tips for others in business

We asked Kerry if she had any tips for other business owners or those contemplating starting a business. Here are her key tips.

• Having a bit of background experience working inside a business is extremely helpful when it comes to running a business.
• Keep trying to learn - it is really rewarding and stops you being stuck in the same everyday grind.
• Find a group of inspiring people that have the same values and goals - it can really help when the times get hard
• Get involved in networking within the small business sector or in the same industry . It makes you feel included and not so isolated. Learning from other business modules can also be really helpful.
• Being involved in a network could make it easier to exchange information, as some could specialise in certain areas that could be helpful for you and likewise you could help someone else as well, or they could be up to date with government update/regulations which you can hear about and be up to date with the information.

Kerry has also just been told that she is the regional winner in the SA and WA states. The National winner of this award would be going to Germany in October 2021 for Europe's Baking Expo! We wish Kerry luck for the Nationals.

Kerry and Nick were recipients of the Business Support Grant from City of Charles Sturt, and are having an online shop built so customers can place orders online.