Jane Asher offers advice to setting up a business in the recession

How To Whisk Up A Profit In A Downturn

Fuel prices rising, house prices falling, inflation rising, consumer spending falling and the credit crunch biting! If you are thinking of starting up your own business now couldn’t look like a worse time…or could it?

One woman who defied the critics and set up her own business at the start of the last recession was Jane Asher. With her passion for home baking leading to a best-selling cake decorating book, Jane Asher set-up her own small business. After persuading her bank manager to give her a loan to refit a shop and kitchen, Jane Asher Party Cakes opened in 1989. It has since grown to become one of the country’s foremost bespoke cake makers.

Jane admits to being completely unprepared when she set up her own business at what was a frightening time at the start of the last recession. Like many entrepreneurs she had a vision and a passion for her product which saw her through the tough times when the business wasn’t breaking even and for many years, running at a loss.

She shares the struggles she has encountered as a small business owner and reflects on what she would have done differently, offering tips and advice to budding entrepreneurs and to worried small business owners on surviving an economic downturn…