Despite the challenges , the unicorn cake actually turned out great ! I didn ’ t receive a compliment or any thanks from the customer on delivery , which irritated me . So I decided to post a photo of the cake to my ( business ) Facebook page .
This was admittedly against my better judgement , but I was craving that positivity from my followers and recognition of a job well done after slogging away in the kitchen . You know that feeling ?
I posted the photo and ( to my great surprise ) the aforementioned customer shared my post to a local public Facebook group , raving about how amazing the cake was . Despite her previous ‘ Karen-like ’ behaviour , I was so relieved she had shared positive feedback !
Then unexpectedly , I received an onslaught of cake enquiries from eager Mum ’ s requesting “ reasonably priced ” unicorn and drip cakes for their children ’ s birthday parties . They had all seen the photo of my unicorn cake in that Facebook group !
I remember internally cringing ... this wasn ’ t the audience or the type of cake orders I wanted to attract to my business !
But I had no one to blame but myself .
In a flurry of panic , I immediately deleted the unicorn cake photo from my Facebook page and spent a good hour responding to ( declining and referring ) order requests .
Boy did I learn a BIG lesson .
Ultimately , that cake order ended up being way more trouble than it was worth ; it was a huge waste of my time , money and energy .
It was clear the Karen-like customer didn ’ t respect my time or talent . Additionally , accepting a unicorn cake - something I NEVER created or ever planned to do again - just distracted me from delivering value to my higher paying customers who actually respected my worth .
I should have never taken that cake order . Lesson learnt .
This is just one small example of how embracing the latest trends - without any thought - can negatively impact your business .