“[The space] had like fitted paint, fitted floor, and all the shelving was up. So we just squared up for the shelving.”

“Social media to me is a total minefield, I really struggle with all that […]. At the minute I'm getting a lot of messages from bloggers wanting free stuff, and I'm just like, I don't need the advertising. It [my business] is organically growing […] everything I've done has just been through word of mouth really. I'm lucky that way, I've got a really high return rate. So, when I make one cake, a lot of people kind of, stick with me. […] The last couple of weeks I've been doing like nine cakes a week.”

“I think my business has had to lend itself to being a like, luxury, like high tier... Just because I'm not making things that take me two seconds, they take me days kind of thing. ”

“I think the cake market is really saturated. Which a lot of people doing bake […] they can do what I can do, which is nice. So, because I've got my artistic background, everything's hand painted […]”

“Sometimes you feel bad, saying like, "Oh it's going to charge you this," but then you're like, well, it's three day's work, kind of, if that was in a normal working environment that's what the price would be. [...] there's customers I've had in the past who don't use me anymore just because I've had to put my prices up. Because you have to consider things like your rent, and all that sort of... Like the electricity, all that sort of stuff. ”

“I thought about like, moving to a bigger space, but I think at the minute being at the back [is better], like if you have a shopfront, you'll need to employ someone to be... Just, deal with walk-ins. At the minute [...] even though it can be quite lonely, [I] get my head down and get stuff done. […]”

“[...] when people come to collect [their orders] they're like, "Oh I'd no idea you'd be here!" I have a lot of people being like, can I come down to your shop? And I'm like, "Well it's not a shop, it's just a kitchen." It's just kind of the way it is. Social media's your shopfront. ”

“[…] I can put it [having visibility] into pros and cons of one who walks by the window […] it's not my clients who walk by that window every day... it's not a very affluent area, where people […] gonna be wanting to spend money on the cakes. Other thing is [...] there's a lot of times where people are sick and stuff like that. And I was so freaked out […] it [visibility] just would never have gained me any […] The only that'd helped me is trying […] to find where we are. ”

“There's a lot of kind of problems with like, drugs and all of that [in this area]. And I just feel that you get that everywhere. It's not just here […] I've been here nearly 2 years, I've never had any issue. And I'm not going to move for the sake of others’ judgement.”

“So, I have [done some business for the people who work here] actually. So the girls that used to work in here, that I got really good friends with, we share a homecare business and we do a couple of cakes for their family […] A guy D., I made his daughter's cake, and I've spoke a wee bit about me doing some filming […] because video content goes quite well on social media […] But yeah I do, I enjoy chatting to people […] I feel that's a skill that a lot of people don't have these days, and how to deal with people.”

“[The manager] helped with all the measurements, and then he came actually down with me one day, and we just measured everything. Because I was considering buying a double oven, because I used to work with gas oven […] Nice I have that relationship [with the managers]”

“A lot of people see that [cake] and go: "What! do you do everything in here?" I've just got it down to a fine art, of moving things about. And that's just, maybe considering changing my schedule so cakes get baked in time. So basically, […] I have a baking day. A ganache-ing day, which is a chocolate recipe put on the outside of the cakes, etc. […] And the more I realise that it's such a time-consuming part of my day […] it's a lot of shuffling, a lot of moving […]”

“The good thing about it [this space] is it's a communal space, I can take off time if I have to. [...] Usually if I've got collections, all my cakes will line up outside and it just gives them time in here. So... I never feel like, I can't chuck stuff out there if I wanted to.”