There is a big leap between having mad ideas in the middle of night about starting a business and actually doing it. That’s the tricky bit. I opened my cake shop in Chelsea, near where I lived.

In order to raise the finance, I did something that would now be difficult, if not impossible. I walked up the road to my local bank and saw the manager and said: ‘I want to start a small business.’

Independently, he was able to say that he thought it was a good idea, noting that his wife had read my books, and I received an £80,000 loan. I rather doubt whether that would happen today as I’m sure I would be sent to some business centre and statistically assessed.

Of course it helped that I was a known figure. I always say there are pluses and minuses to fame. It undoubtedly helps you get coverage and publicity, which any business needs to attract customers. By equal measure, if there is anything wrong with your product, people will remember. You’ll get a black mark against your name.

Market crash

A really serious recession began pretty much the day I opened my shop in 1989. I had what they laughingly call a business plan but they always seem to me like fairy stories: year one will be this; year two will be that. And so on.

My estimations were a bit pie in the sky. It was terrifying. Not only was there the recession but I got so much wrong as I underpriced the cakes for a long time.

I hadn’t considered what I was spending and my hidden costs. Eventually, I calculated what I would have to make per hour to cover those costs and make a small profit. All our products are individual which makes it very complicated.

Someone once said to me that one’s instinct when times are tough – like they are now – is to try and cut the price of your product. In a way, for luxury goods like mine, that’s the opposite of what you should do as you’ll have to sell more to stay in the same place. Whereas if you push them up slightly, you need to sell to fewer people to stay where you are.

Diversifying my business

It is embarrassing to admit but it was years before we broke even. If I look at just the shop and the core business, if I’m absolutely honest, it was nine or ten years at least. Isn’t that shameful?

I managed to make it survive by diversifying outside the shop itself. I designed cakes for Sainbury’s and that’s what kept us going – later on, I branched out into a range of high quality cake mixes that I’m very proud of.

Now we make a small profit on the shop but it’s not a money-spinner. I would never say people should try and start out with our sort of cake shop expecting to make a fortune as they won’t.

If you’re clever, you can diversify. I had a website very early on – I’ve always loved technology – and that has been brilliant. I received plenty of assistance from the Federation of Small Businesses, learning how you can market wonderfully via the internet. I diversified in ways that I ever thougt about when I started the core business.

Working mum

I very much started the shop because I knew that with children I didn’t want to be out all the time on location. I never stopped acting but I did very much curtail it so I could be with my young family. I could work in the shop, spend time with my children and do two to three hours theatre work in the evening.

It was okay but it was hard work. There was a lot of juggling and I know it’s sexist to say it but I think women are good at multi-tasking.

It was easy for me because I loved it all. I believe it’s much harder to do one job that you really don’t like as it’s boring to have to drag yourself into work each morning. If it’s doing things you love, like I do with all the things I do, then honestly it makes it easier.

I love the fact that we are producing such beautiful things. The team here are the best I’ve ever had. I have created this business that is doing something really extraordinary. It makes people’s lives happy. Life is bloody awful really, as we all know, you only have to look at the world around you and it is deeply depressing and sad and painful.

But there are pockets of joy like a birthday or a wedding that should be celebrated.

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