Rising star
Running a growing business on your own is exciting – but also extremely demanding. Just ask Jack Orsbourn, founder of Neat Cakes: a made-to-order, plant-based cake studio on Auckland’s Dominion Road. “It’s been super overwhelming as a solo business owner with the rate of growth my business has been experiencing.”
Jack’s no stranger to the kitchen. She founded Neat Cakes when she was just 18, taking orders online and nurturing a loyal community on social media. When she wasn’t baking show-stopping cakes, she ran popular cake-decorating workshops and monthly pop-up events that would sometimes see lines stretching down the road.
But while cake lovers were queuing out the door for Jack’s celebratory creations, behind the scenes, Jack was juggling everything from order intake to social media, customer enquiries, and admin – all while baking every cake herself. Her self-built website was struggling to keep up.
“The old website was completely self-made and there wasn’t much life to it,” Jack explains. “All the admin had to come directly through me and be processed manually. It was so much work for me.” With customers waiting for up to several days for a response – and the workload eating into Jack’s passion for baking – something had to change.
A slice of support
Enter ANZ Business Boost. Developed in partnership with Visa, the programme gave ANZ business customers a chance to apply for a share of $100,000 in funded support to help grow their operations. Jack applied with a clear goal in mind.
“I was hoping to gain my time back into the kitchen doing what I loved the most by baking and decorating. I needed to offload 90-95% of my admin by getting a new website built for me with the support of the ANZ Business Boost programme.”
As one of five winners chosen, Jack was paired with marketing and communication agency Bastion Shine. Digital expert Tim Turner, Head of Delivery at the agency, led the project and together they started by identifying the core issues.
“The initial meeting with the agency was focusing on identifying problems with the business that I was facing and how we could create solutions for a new website,” says Jack.
As Tim saw it: “The core of the issue was Jack needing to spend so many hours every day and every week on administration.”
The customer experience is so much smoother and easier… [and] I can spend more time with my friends and family and my dog – Jack Orsbourn
Whipping up a sweeter online experience
Jack and Tim worked collaboratively, with plenty of back-and-forth on the website’s design and functionality. Through this process, a new goal emerged.
Explains Jack: “My initial goal was freeing up my time,” says Jack. “But then the other goal was to make the customer experience so much smoother and easier.” Jack’s vision was a website that embodied the Neat Cakes aesthetic while making it easier for customers to place orders and find what they were looking for.
The solution: a vibrant, fully functional e-commerce website that automated key processes and let customers order cakes anytime, no waiting required. “With the support of ANZ Business Boost, we’ve been able to build Neat Cakes an online platform. We’ve been able to implement a full e-commerce system,” says Tim.
From burnout to buttercream
The impact of the new website was immediate – and personal. It gave Jack the space to step away from the computer and spend more time on what matters most. “It’s freed up heaps of my time,” she says. “I can spend more time with my friends and family and my dog and just have a better work-life balance.”
Tim reflects on the transformation. “The results for Neat Cakes have been phenomenal. We’ve been able to solve a lot of those pain points.”
Jack agrees: “[Customers] can order at any time of the day. They don’t have to wait for me to reply via email.”
With her admin load lightened, there’s more time to focus on changes that take the business to the next level. Jack was finally able to extend Neat Cakes’ opening hours to four days a week as a cake and coffee shop – something she had been wanting to do for two years.
Even more importantly, Jack’s rediscovered the spark that started it all. “The ANZ Business Boost programme has given me a massive confidence boost as a small business owner. It’s really reignited my passion for cake decorating that I felt when I first started.”
Sweet dreams
Now, Jack doesn’t just have more time to bake. She has time to dream. Looking ahead, she has her sights set on expanding Neat Cakes’ reach beyond Auckland. “I really want to keep strengthening my connection to the community. I also really want to grow my nationwide offering from monthly to weekly delivery options.”
And there’s one more dream she’s got her heart set on. “I really want to write a book, putting all my recipes into one place so that people all over the country and the world can bake at home.”
For Jack, it all comes back to the joy of baking – and sharing that joy with others.
“Thanks to the ANZ Business Boost programme, I get to spend more time doing what I love,” she says. “Life is worth celebrating with cake.”
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