Living the dream and more

Our cupcake display is a specially designed glass cabinet that minimises airflow to make sure that cupcakes don't dry out. I actually dreamt about how this would look for at least 3 years. I still can't believe how it's turned out more perfect than what I envisioned.

We're onto our ninth week of trading and it feels like it has just flown by, yet at the same time I feel like I've been doing this for a lot longer. It doesn't really make sense but I feel as though my sense of time is a little warped, it's most likely because every waking minute (and even in my dreams) I am consumed with my cupcake store. The last two months have been amazing, the highs, the lows and the learning curves. There's so much I want to share and I have no idea where to start.

When it has quietened down and there's a few spare seats upstairs, I normally sit in the top right corner typing away and responding to emails, orders and preparing for the next day. I love that corner. Plus, I get to sneakily hear what my customers reactions are when they eat cupcakes and drink our coffee =)

Every moment that I am working, even though I may be far beyond tired, stressed out or frustrated, I love every moment of it. I finally have that fire lit again, that driving force that makes me want to achieve more and grow. I haven't really felt like this since I was 19 and started working in the IT industry...and even though I started my online business last year, I was doing it on my own from home so I never felt like it was a truly a real company as I got to make up my own hours and slack off whenever I wanted. Now, I have others relying on me to run this company properly, to grow this business, to take great care of my customers. I can't slack off at all because as soon as I do, there are repercussions. Each mistake I make is crucial for me to learn the lesson so I don't make it again. I have to learn the skills of being able to manage people and a team of people. I need to learn how to manage my stress levels and not become overly frustrated. I need to mitigate problems and solve them quickly especially when we have 10 orders to put out in a day, 2 weddings to cater for and also be able to cater for all the customers that come into our shop.

I always knew running a business wouldn't be easy but it's hard to prepare for it until you have your own business. But one thing I am grateful I did do when I was younger was to get experience working in different businesses and companies to understand how as an employee, we should be treated. All those horrible and pleasant experiences I've had, has given me that understanding and point of view that I need to exercise as a business owner and 'boss'. I'm so grateful that I have found some very talented, fun, extremely hard-working and honest staff that are working with us. I want to make our workplace a fun environment to work in and make sure that everyone that does great work is appreciated and fairly rewarded. I believe that most people don't work just for monetary rewards, it is about being appreciated, being able to learn and grow, a sense of achievement and contribution to the business. Would you rather earn a lot of money at a job you hate or work at a job that makes you entirely happy?

Enough biz talk, lets get to some photos. It seems to be Wedding season as it starts to (slowly) warm up in Melbourne, so here are a few Weddings we've created in the past month or so. Which one is your favourite?

Super Mario Bros. Cupcake Wedding Tower. Super unique and super awesome idea. I was so hesitant creating this for a wedding as I wanted it to look stunning, simple and not too... tacky. Dave & Kathy (bride & groom) were thrilled with it and everyone that has seen it has given so many compliments so I'm so glad it turned out well.

Rowena & Chris' Wedding Cupcake Tower at a gorgeous venue, Gum Gully Farm, that had a rustic farmhouse barn. One of the best parts of wedding orders is when I get to setup the towers even though it can sometimes take hours but I get to visit stunning venues and be able to take photos of the end result after all that hard work.

One of the most intricate wedding cupcake towers I've created to date. All the cupcakes were custom designed, some with intricate cherry blossom designs and others with flowers and hearts. Brendan & Elisa have been a pleasure to deal with and I'm so grateful I had the opportunity to work with their wedding tower as they had such creative ideas which in return allowed me to create this for them. The flower arrangement I created on the spur of the moment as the table turned out to be quite large and I wanted to make it stand out.

Thank you to all the lovely couples I've had the opportunity to work with to create something unique on their special day! If you're newly engaged and are looking for wedding cupcake towers, please feel free to contact me to arrange an appointment and have a complimentary cupcake tasting and to discuss your ideas - www.cupcakecentral.com.au

Back to work now but I won't be complaining. I still have to pinch myself sometimes to make sure I'm not dreaming this up because I am really living the dream. I'm excited about tomorrow..all the time, I'm excited about the future and I'm always dreaming big because I know that it can happen. I know a lot of you wonder if this could be you and I'm telling you now that it CAN. You can make up all the excuses up in your head of how it can't work but what if you started thinking about all the ways to make it work? There were so many odds against me when I started on this journey and really the only person that can make your own dream come true, is you. I know this all sounds corny and out of a Tony Robbins book but sometimes repetition is good. Keep doing it until you get good at it, stay positive and have complete belief in yourself.

Also I'm not sure if I've mentioned this before in my previous posts but on my vision board in my bedroom was this picture of Magnolia Bakery that was from a Cleo magazine many years ago. I believe my vision board works, most of the things I've pinned up there has come true...well except the Jessica Alba body but hey I'm working on that one right now. I'm going to have a butt like hers soon and I'll blog about it because I want to prove that I can defy the odds and achieve it - even when working at a cupcake store and eating so many cupcakes a day!