SWEET SUCCESS

I was a homeless single mum, sofa-surfing with my kids – now my cake business turns over £65k

Lucy used social media to help her business grow

• Eimear O’Hagan

• Published: 0:01, 28 Jan 2024
• Updated: 0:14, 28 Jan 2024

LUCY Scott, 35, lives in Selsey, West Sussex, with husband Ryan, 34, a baker, and her five children, Anthony, 17, Katie, 16, Tommy, 11, Bobby, nine, and Albie, four. 

Here she tells us how she went from sofa-surfing with her kids to owning her own successful cake business.

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“Standing behind the counter of my shop, looking around at the rows of cakes, I felt so emotional.

Not that long ago, I was a homeless single mum, sofa-surfing with my children as I tried to rebuild our lives. 

In 2016 my marriage came to an end, and I left the family home with my four children.

There were no council houses available, and most private landlords wouldn’t accept housing benefits.

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So, for four months we stayed at my mum’s house.

The children slept in spare beds, while I was on the sofa.

When the kids were with their dad, I’d stay with friends for a few nights.

It was such a difficult time.

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I hated not having our own home, and although I tried to stay positive, I had no idea what the future held.

Thankfully, in December that year I finally secured a private rented house and it felt like a new chapter was beginning.

I’d learned to bake after becoming a mum, mainly to save money, because shop-bought cakes were so expensive. 

The recipe I use to make sponges was passed down from my mum, and I taught myself how to decorate the cakes, which I sold to family and friends.

In 2017, once we’d settled in our new home, I decided to get serious about baking.

Without a regular income in the months before, as I’d been a full-time mum, I had very little money.

I’d even had to borrow from family to buy the children’s Christmas presents and to furnish the house.

So I used social media to promote my work for free, and orders began to come in for birthday and wedding cakes. 

To begin with, it was just a couple of orders a week, at around £45 a cake, but that was enough, as I had to fit baking around looking after my family.

I met Ryan, then 27, on Tinder in late 2016, and a year later he moved in with us.

He encouraged me to build up my business and, thanks to social media and word-of-mouth recommendations, my order book was soon full with mums wanting Disney-themed birthday cakes for their kids, and brides ordering multi-tier creations.

I’d put the children to bed at night then spend hours perfecting a design or watching cake influencers on YouTube to learn new techniques and trends.

In February 2018, Ryan and I married, and the following year Albie was born.

When the UK went into lockdown in March 2020, like so many businesses, mine ground to a halt overnight.

Nobody was having parties or weddings – suddenly, all my orders were cancelled. It was devastating.

But I knew I couldn’t give up, as I had a family to support, especially as Ryan was made redundant from his job as a site manager.

So, I decided to bake brownies, blondies and other individual cakes, which could be posted or collected from my home within social-distancing guidelines, and business boomed.

In February 2021, I opened my first shop on my local high street, called Beauty Bake.

With Ryan’s support, I spent £5,000 from savings and a credit card to pay for fridges, ovens, work surfaces and display shelves, transforming a dreary unit, which I rented for £580 a month, into the perfect little cake shop, with help from our parents and other family and friends.

I was so grateful for their support.

On opening day, there was a queue down the street!

I worked there, mostly on my own, with some help from my mum and sister, who I paid in cakes, as Ryan was busy being a stay-at-home dad. 

In December 2022, we moved to bigger premises and now have a shop and cafe in Selsey.

Ryan and I work together now – he’s learned to bake, while I decorate the cakes and serve customers.

We’re busy all year, but especially during Christmas and wedding season.

We often work seven days a week, which is tiring but satisfying, and our turnover is around £65,000.

In 2022, we were able to take the kids to Turkey on our first family holiday abroad, which felt wonderful.

In the future, I’d like to take on staff and launch a TikTok shop.

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For now, when I open my shop each morning, I marvel at how far I’ve come.”

Visit Beautybake.co.uk.