Amazing Artisans: Joe and Anna, Founders of BakedIn

Take a couple of friends, one big idea, and a weakness for sweetness, and you get BakedIn- the start up home baking kit company based in Basingstoke.  Joe and Anna, the cake-baking, brownie-loving, sponge extraordinaires behind the idea, decided that they wanted to turn their tasty hobby into a business one day on their commute up the M3 to work. They wanted to create a kit that would take the fussiness and wastefulness out of baking, but at the same time wanted to show people how easy and delicious it is to bake by yourself, from scratch. Last week we caught up with Joe to chat all things cake and start up businesses.

Tell us the story of your business! How did you come up with the idea?

'Me and Anna lift share to work, and one day, rabbiting away on the M3, we started chatting about how one of us had baked cakes to take into work. We started discussing how baking can be a bit of a pain when there’s only a certain amount of hours in the evening, and how you always end up with bits of leftover ingredients. And that's when we came up with the idea for the business. We tried out the products first- we made 150, gave them to our friends in little bags, and then got them to fill out a feedback survey. The verdict was pretty unanimous-everyone thought they were pretty great! We tested 6 different flavours, but ended up using only three of those to start with as we wanted to keep start up costs down whilst still being able to deliver a really high quality product. We booked three events to trial the kits at, and decided that we would make a decision after those events as to whether we were going to go ahead with the business.The products did really well, so we said, ‘right, let’s go for this!’ We always wanted to put the product into the boxes we have today, but stuck with the bags until we had the resources to do so. We did everything ourselves- we even printed the labels at home on our own printers!'

Would you say it’s better to just get a product out there before getting it perfect, or that you need to make it perfect before you pitch it to potential customers?
'There’s two schools of thought there. In a big business it’s essential to get things perfect, whereas the start up way is more about getting something out there, then getting feedback before you tweak it. We’ve employed some of that with BakedIn to an extent, but there’s always the perfectionist in you that doesn’t want to put something out there that isn’t exactly how you envision it in your mind, especially when its your own business. I think there’s a balance- I don’t fully buy into the idea that you should chuck something out there. I think it’s all about compromise; for us, that was the inkjet printed labels that we started with, but doing that we were able to get feedback and not take the risk of spending loads of money when we knew the product would sell as it was. The product needs to be trialed, but the product needs to be good enough too. I think its really important to feel proud of what you’re doing.'

What was your motivation for starting your own business?
'We really wanted to be able make a noticeable difference in a business, something that is often difficult to do in bigger businesses. We really wanted the autonomy of running your own business, and the satisfaction you get from knowing that every ounce of effort you put in you get back in some way or another, which sometimes you don’t necessarily get when you’re working for someone else. A main motivator was the fact that we got to do something that we genuinely loved.'

What’s the best thing about being an entrepreneur?
'That you get what you give. If you do something well you do well out of it, if you do something badly, you suffer from it. Me and Anna are really good friends, and lots of people have said that you shouldn’t go into business with your friends. I don’t buy into that at all- it’s more important to work with people you like...otherwise you should think about getting some new friends!'
What's been your biggest challenge?

'Managing demand and production was challenging, but probably the biggest challenge has to be getting in front of buyers. One of the things I take away from running a business part time (Joe and Anna run the business alongside their day jobs) is that it takes you so much longer to do things yourself. One of the mistakes we made was that we took too long to do certain things, and that was the thing that was stopping us from getting the product into the shops. One of the biggest lessons we learnt was that you need to just sit down, focus on something and do it, because it’s too easy to let things drag on if it’s your own project.'

What advice would you give to someone thinking of starting their own business?

'Research the market, but not too much- do enough to satisfy yourself so you have an idea of the market, and then just try it. At the end of the day there is no amount of surveys that can tell you whether someone is actually going to buy something; the only way to know is to make them give you money for it. You should also be organised, and try to have a balance of skills across your business- we've got a mix of skills between both of us but it would also be great to have someone with a sales background on our team.'

Find out more about BakedIn and their fab products on their website, or find them tweeting away here. And make sure to keep your eyes peeled on the blog post for Kitchen Table Projects team attempt at one of BakedIn's fab kits- coming to a kitchen soon!

Are you an Amazing Artisan who wants to be featured on our blog? We'd love to hear from you- drop us a Tweet @KitchTablePro with the hashtag #AmazingArtisan or send us a message to hello@kitchentableprojects.com