Selby Ventures: Love and sugar
- Selby Trust
- Oct 23
- 3 min read
From selling on socials to a shop in Shoreditch, Cake Me Over grew in size and confidence, thanks to expert mentoring and consultancy from Selby Ventures. Justyna Klimek, Founder explains…
“My business started on Instagram in 2021 – I started posting my cakes anonymously on Instagram (@cakemeover). I’d lost my job during lockdown and initially it was just for fun.
I didn’t feel ready to put my name (or face!) to the cakes I was creating but had lots of encouragement and my cakes attracted attention, and I started receiving orders.
My baby cakes are very popular. The smaller 4inch cakes are decorated ornately and before long I was selling up to 20 baby cakes a day, plus bespoke celebration cakes. It was a whirlwind! Two years ago I started to offer workshops, and since then I’ve been planning for the next stage of the business.
Push the button
I’m ambitious and knew how I wanted to grow the business. But Selby Ventures gave me the confidence to push things forward.
When I first spoke to Michael, a growth consultant, it was as though he pushed a button in my mind.
It was the first time I’d spoken with someone external about my business, my product and my goals. It was a really honest conversation and quite emotional to step back and look at what I’ve achieved.
I’m very passionate and driven but in that moment, I needed external encouragement and advice to make things happen for my business. And that’s exactly what Selby Ventures did.
By the next time I spoke to Michael I’d signed the lease on premises for my bakery and cake shop in Shoreditch!
Clickbake
The Selby Ventures team helped me to improve my financial planning and formalise my pricing strategy. They’ve helped me to see the value and quality I offer and to understand the costs of running my business and the numbers behind the cakes.
This is particularly important now I have premises and have recruited my first member of staff. I know what I need to be selling for the business to be profitable and for me to continue grow.
I want to drive footfall and sales to the new shop and to grow our reputation and profile in the immediate local area, and was introduced to Tom, a digital marketing consultant who’s been a total diamond.
He improved and launched my website and online store cakemeover.com and completed some initial SEO work to target custom cake enquiries locally. The website is a new sales channel and bridges the gap between my Instagram business and the shop.
Tom also developed a plan for me to grow my Google Business profile and local SEO presence and created a marketing strategy that gets all my business assets (my shop, website, insta account and Google Business profile) working together to translate into sales and growth.
I’m also planning to relaunch my workshops soon and am ambitious about how my business will grow.
Oven ready
My mission is to share love and sugar with the world, but it’s equally important that I share my story. I want to encourage and empower other women – particularly fellow single mothers – that you can achieve your goals and dreams.
I came to London in 2013 and at the time could barely speak English. I did lots of jobs – as a maid and cleaner and in hospitality and retail, but baking has always been a big part of my life.
I love to be in the kitchen experimenting, and baking for my son. In that bleak moment in 2021- baking and Instagram came together for me to create joy and distraction.
That said, while my brand is pink and glitter, behind the scenes running a small business can be incredibly tough. The support I’ve received from Selby Ventures has lightened the load and knowing I have a team of people who believe in me, my vision, goals and cakes has been transformational.”
