She's On The Money - How to Cash in on Your Hobby (and Start a Business With Your Bestie) with Sweet Bakes & Miss Trixie

Episode Date: September 23, 2025

Ever wondered if the hobby that you love could be the thing that pays your rent? That’s the story of Alice (Miss Trixie Drinks Tea) and Alisha (Sweet Bakes), two women who turned frosting and fun into booming businesses. And after fangirling over each other on socials and becoming baking besties IRL, they did what most of us only joke about... they started a business together. From side-hustle beginnings to sold-out retreats in France, brand collabs, and even launching their own pastel-pink kitchen space and creative hub, these two have learnt exactly what it takes to turn passion into profit and start a business with your bestie without blowing up your friendship. In this episode: 🍰 How to know when your “fun little hobby” is ready to be a full-time gig 🍰 What it’s really like to go into business with your bestie🍰 Their secret recipe for mixing mates and money🍰 A money win that landed them a free car (and why shooting your shot matters)🍰 The PR play that had journalists fighting for an “exclusive” on their business launch🍰 How they hacked social media without chasing every trend (and why it worked)LINKS: Find Sweet Bakes (Alisha) and Miss Trixie Drinks Tea (Alice) on Instagram, and check out their dreamy kitchen and creative hub, Co. Bake Space. Get your business accounting admin sorted: Head to myob.com and sign up to Solo for $12 for 12 months. Join our Facebook Group AKA the ultimate support network for money advice and inspiration. Ask questions, share tips, and celebrate your wins with a like-minded crew of 300,000+.And follow us on Instagram for Q&As, bite-sized tips, daily money inspo... and relatable money memes that just get you.Acknowledgement of Country By Nartarsha Bamblett aka Queen Acknowledgements. The advice shared on She's On The Money is general in nature and does not consider your individual circumstances. She's On The Money exists purely for educational purposes and should not be relied upon to make an investment or financial decision. If you do choose to buy a financial product, read the PDS, TMD and obtain appropriate financial advice tailored towards your needs. Victoria Devine and She's On The Money are authorised representatives of Money Sherpa PTY LTD ABN - 321649 27708, AFSL - 451289.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

My name is Natasha Bamblett, I'm a proud First Nations woman, and I'm here to acknowledge country. Ti, gilinyan ganya, nianakaka yao yambina waka, nianakai nianbina yakarumja, duminyagumiga dumiga ithawaka nirawamundamun imelan, mumubangada boma ininyalan waka, gaononyakarumja, wutunarana. Hello beautiful friends. We gather on the lands of the Aboriginal people. We thank, acknowledge and respect the Aboriginal people's land that we're gathering on today. Take pleasure in all the land and respect all that you see. She's on the money podcast acknowledges culture, country, community and connections, bringing

you the tools, knowledge and resources for you to thrive. She's on the money. She's on the money. Hello and welcome to She's On The Money. Have you and your bestie ever had a genius business idea over a glass of wine and thought, we could actually do this? I'm Victoria Devine and today I'm chatting with two women who didn't just dream it up, they actually went for it. You've probably seen their cakes all over your Instagram feed. Colourful and just as fun as they are, but behind the buttercream is a seriously impressive business story. Alice Bennett is the

brains behind Miss Trixie Drinks Tea, famous for her pun cakes and vintage style piping. She started out as a sole trader baking from home and has grown her hustle into a thriving business. Joining her is Alicia Henderson, the creative force behind Sweetbakes. She turned her whimsical hand-painted cakes into a full-blown company, has published two cookbooks, and even competed on the TV show Dessertmasters. Together, they went ahead and launched Cobake Space, a dreamy pastel kitchen and creative hub built on community over competition. My friends, welcome to the show. Thank you. I am very excited about this. Having ordered and received both of your products before, I was like, what the hell? Like our producer, M-I-K-T, she's like, I don't

know. Have you heard of? And I was like, yes. I'm obsessed. But like, let's dive into everything about you guys. Let's go back to the very beginning. Tell us about how you first got into baking, when did it stop being like just for fun and become a business? Well, I started Miss Trixie Drinks Tea as a blog when I was in uni. Like if I'm really rewinding it back, we went way back. I was reading it. Oh my goodness me. Yes, we love an OG fan. Your branding has had a glow up. Yes. Yeah, we've had a glow up since then. So it was a little, you know, blog spot page and I was just publishing my love for desserts whilst I was starting marketing and PR at uni. And you posted it on Instagram too. Yeah, I did. Well, I was a little psyched to Instagram, but I finally got

there with, you know, those gorgeous like sepia filters. It was perfect. It was my aesthetic at the time. It was great. I ran the business as a side hustle whilst I worked in marketing and PR. And then when COVID hit, I lost my job in COVID, which was fine. We're all like all fine for it. And it was, I mean, I've mourned it. I've grieved it. You know, we're, we're past it. It's fine. we're therapized and I when we were in lockdown I decided that giving Miss Trixie drinks tea a real crack would be like why not like I had nothing to lose so I did that and I came up with these pun message cakes that seemed to really hit and match the mood at the time and they really took off and I just haven't looked back so like my hand was forced to go from side hustle to a full-time

thing, but like I genuinely wouldn't change a thing. Adore. What about you? This job that I currently have in the world of cake is the only professional career I have had, which I think is actually quite unusual for a lot of people. I think particularly in food, it is someone's passion or hobby that becomes a full-time gig. But I've been doing this since I was 19. So this is my 12th year in business. I was at uni studying. But you're only 21. How does that make sense? I know, I started when I was a mere child. This is a Monday podcast, we're good at math here. I know, I know.

No, but this is, yeah, certainly not where I thought I was going to be. I was studying a journalism degree at university, love writing, love the media aspect of things. And like Alice was posting on the platform called Instagram and just had people pay attention to what I was doing as a little side project. So as most broke uni students do, they go, oh, isn't this a fun way to make some pocket money? and that is how Sweetbakes and my professional career was was born and I haven't looked back I love this and there's just something so exciting to me as someone who adores small business when

small business is genuinely born of passion like it's just like something that you were doing because you loved it not like oh I'm gonna sit down and work out what kind of business I could make some cash from because you can just feel that energy in the brand absolutely in the content that comes out and like i can make greens cakes i can make some betty crocker i mean perfect i'm proud of you for at least getting the mixing bowl out that's very good i'm a kitchen aid yes well i do is it ornamental or are we using it ornamental it is a very good looking kitchen it would suit your aesthetic it's the pastel blue heritage one oh yeah yeah yeah my husband bought it for me and i was like why maybe after today's little chat you'll be more inspired to actually give it a

rack I'm just gonna keep buying your cakes so don't tell anybody let's talk a lot about I guess this side hustle thing right like a lot of our community are side hustlers which I'm obsessed with how did you juggle going from having other jobs before going all in because like this stuff involves I would say a significant investment in time in money in creative like you've got to pull it all together and you're doing it all yourself how did you know when the right time was to take the leap and kind of back your own business full time instead of kind of like uni and this or work and this? I think for me, it was about judging what there could be. I could feel the buzz building. So it wasn't like I just threw myself in without having that customer base

or the attention on me. It's like when I felt that that attention was there from Instagram and the emails and the orders, I decided to go full time with it when I really felt like, okay, like I'm not throwing myself in with absolutely no one who cares. I was very, yeah, exactly. I did run my very basic 19 year old numbers and be like, all right, if I can take on six weddings a week, like that is absolutely a sustainable income for me at this point in time. And I think my mindset to being young was why not? I actually, to be honest, I think I'm still like that. I feel I come from a family who I know are going to support me through whatever I do. And I'm always going to have a couch to crash on. Yeah. I pictured my worst case scenario and my worst

case scenario. Exactly. I'm like, if this doesn't work out, I actually have a safety net behind me. So why wouldn't I just have a crack? I love that. Yeah. Yeah. And mine wasn't too dissimilar. Like even when I lost my job in COVID and I was doing the cakes during lockdown, you know, people were really responding to what I was putting out and I am relatively risk averse. So in the back of my mind, I was like, I can go back to production and events and PR that there is like a safety network there. But I had spent, you know, in those side hustle years, that was like pivotal brand building moments. So I was actually, you know, I was building a follower base, a community, like that was all happening in those side hustle days. So like the risk felt less because I had the follower

base, obviously in lockdown, like I didn't have a full-time job to fall back on. So it was like, well I'm giving it a crack and it's working yeah and so then when it came to like we came out of lockdown and I was like presented with do I go back to production or do I do Miss Trixie it felt like a safe option it didn't feel too risky to me yeah and Alicia you said something just before you were like I did my 19 year old numbers I actually think that there is something so beautiful about the naivety there because oh I can make this work absolutely because if you did the numbers today about starting a business I just know that you'd have so much more knowledge and don't get me wrong like we all want that knowledge that's why I have a literal podcast to share it yes but

you kind of just go can't be that hard no and I think chasing enthusiasm is also an option like life is so boring and so serious sometimes it is just fun to chase your passion or your enthusiasm and if it doesn't work out like oh good much rather have the experience and try something rather than rather than not I don't want to get to the end of my life and look back and be like god I wish I did that thing I'm happy to like try it all and see what sticks yeah I love it and did you do delusional numbers at the start absolutely oh my god absolutely I'm gonna be rich I mean I kind of wish I was 19 and doing those numbers because you know I was like you know I was comparing it to like a very safe salary in production which you know was was great I think

I really like the idea I've been able to work for myself be able to like working cake every single day like it's actually a privilege to be able to do what we do in this I'm like I get to make cakes like last week I was making a barbie cake covered in lollies and I literally had moments I was like I cannot believe this is my life like that's insane people would kill to be able to do that every single day I get to play with buttercream and cake like what a what a joy you need a lot of it oh yeah all the time absolutely like every day all the time every day I think I always say if we stop eating our own cake well something's gone wrong yeah I agree I am yet to be sick of And each other's, yeah.

And each other's. No, we are. And we'll tell each other. Can we be best friends? Absolutely. Come on down. Please share the load of the cake eating. It works very well for like bribery.

Like I'm just putting it. We've got something that we can bribe people with. And I would like to point out that I've also married the right man, right? So he only likes the cake and not the buttercream. So whenever we get cake, I get all the buttercream. Oh my goodness. Don't lie. That's the best bit.

That is so cute. What a match made in heaven. What a match made in heaven. Exactly. I need to know the energy between you two is, I don't know, it's electric like it's really fun I want to be more involved in this how did you two meet and then go oh this friendship is more than a friendship it's a business like give us the meet cute story Al okay so it's um a classic case of us like following each other on Instagram and

admiring each other from afar fangirling fangirling from afar very very like intently messaging that's sick amazing love that you know all of that that's the energy that we want as women It's like proper, proper cheerleading. And from the OG, we had not even met yet. Yeah, we had not even met yet. So that was like, like that was the energy from the get-go. And then we both got invited to go along to this like pastry. Very formal.

Very formal pastry workshop thing with this world leader in pastry. We walked in separately, but we were both very clearly not in Chef White's. The only two. Yeah, the only two. In like pink dresses and little girly outfits. So cute. girly outfits makeup on looking great we were like hello hey you want to hang out and that was the first moment that we met and we just had such a great day and uh needless to say we also did the

best um i think it was sorry of course you did so legally blonde like never underestimate a couple of girls in pink because they might just be literally like it's hard yeah literally like and the world press chef was so impressed by us and we were just like love this for us and then yeah I shortly moved to London just after that so we stayed in touch um I know really rude so the friendship kind of took like a distant it was a bit of a distant relationship for a couple of years and then we said totally still hype queens online though that's for sure we circled back when we decided we both wanted to work together share kitchens we were both already working in separate shared kitchens yeah in suburbs that were actually quite far out from

where we lived so we sort of struck up the conversation as professional friends I mean we've come together not as like friends who grew up together we've always been work friends so yeah we caught up for coffee one day and said look if you ever want to change locations to somewhere that's like a little bit more central for us I'd love to share a kitchen with you and that was like the original jumping off point for us to start having conversations about our partnership yeah didn't even know shared kitchens were a thing yes oh they are yes like I work in finance guys yeah what do you mean that sounds so cute they're not typically like as involved with one another as like ours are a bit more like ghost kitchen yeah you know you might just do it by the hour and that

was the other dilemma that we had because we were we were investigating that but it was like incredibly expensive and that's why we were like if we actually just did this together and took on a commercial building together then yeah which you do need to share for a lot of small to medium sized businesses in the food space the outgoings are insane like food margins are really really tight it's a hard game to be in so sharing a kitchen was always a no-brainer for us you guys said before oh like we haven't known each other forever and like you could absolutely fool me and I love the idea that you guys are you're like I don't know you're hyping each other up and like I just think that there's not enough of that that goes on in literally any industry that involves

women I feel like sometimes we look at people and because we're maybe not confident enough we see them as competition instead of like friends who also are going through the same struggles and you guys have managed to go completely across that yeah and then I look at your new business the one that you have together co-bake space and it just feels like it's so collaboration over competition and that's the energy we love to have right like sorry I don't care if you're new to this come along I'll show you everything yeah and I think that a lot of people assume oh my gosh I wouldn't want to give all of my tips and tricks away because if I do that they'll copy me yeah they can't be you nor can they actually put the time and energy and effort and work in that you

have over the years yeah why did that become such a big part of your vision like from my perspective I'm like that makes sense of course but for a lot of others they might go why would you do that I think this whole scarcity mindset sort of underpins people who do feel that way and I think both Alice and I absolutely do not have that in us. I think it is honestly natural to us. I hope that we'll become a case study for why you don't need to be that way one day, but it's like going to Mecca, right? And it's like, if you went to Mecca and you only purchased one beauty product there, right? You only shop from one brand as a beauty enthusiast. Like that's never going to happen. Or you love food and eating out. You're never going to go to one restaurant for the rest

of your life. So why would we have this mentality that, oh, I make cakes. So therefore I have to compete with you. I can't share that with you. My customers want to come and eat cake from me, but they love cake. So they're going to come to Alice for a different occasion. So that's always been very important to us to be, to acknowledge that our consumers actually have a brain for themselves and we can share the opportunities around. And we can do that for people who come into Cobake as well. Like we love being able to, you know, talk to other business owners and share our knowledge and have like an open two-way conversation. And also like the world's pretty cooked. So it's a much nicer world to live in the world where we are like cheerleaders for one

another rather than seeing each other as competition or other, or other businesses that come into Quebec as well. Like it is a far nicer world to play in. And it's so fun. I can't explain to you how I have such a feedback loop for other people's wins. I truly do. There is something so exciting about watching someone so close to you or in the same building as you celebrate something, achieve something like that feels just as good as when I do it myself. It's it's such a wonderful part of our Quebec journey. Yeah. Love it. All right. I am going to stop us here. We're going to take a really quick break. And on the flip side, I'm going to want all the tea on literally what it's like to own a business with a friend. So, guys, don't go anywhere.

All right. Welcome back. Before the break, we heard how it started, how you met, that maybe 19 year old delusional numbers are actually a really great place to start. But now I want to get to the part that everybody kind of wonders about what happens when you mix your mates with your money, because it sounds so much fun, but also like really scary. And as somebody who has had failed business partnerships, I'm in awe. I'm like, oh my God, I wish that it had worked out for me. But what has been the best and then also the hardest part of running a business together? So I think for us, the reason why it works is because we both respect one another. I think respect is like literally the core ingredient for a business relationship

to stem from a friendship, because if you don't respect one another, or if you feel threatened by the other person or like deep, deep in you, you feel jealous or whatever those, of course, those feelings are going to come to the surface. So I think for us, like the idea that like, I have so much respect for what Alicia has done with Sweetbakes. And I know she feels the same way towards my business. So having that and knowing that that was like the foundation of our friendship, it made sense for us to go into business together because we knew that feelings of jealousy, competition, feeling threatened by one another, they weren't there. Like they just, they didn't, they simply just didn't exist for us. So I think that's how we could actually

take it to a business relationship? I think some of the challenges that are inevitable are I'm someone who is like a bit of a move fast and break things, bake things, you know, either way that phrase works. So I think the hardest challenge for me is now in a partnership is like, okay, we actually have to slow down because we need to have a discussion about it before we can just like move, move, move, move, move. But in the same degree, that's held me more accountable to make really solid decisions that I actually back and having someone to bounce that off so it has maybe like slowed down my natural pace in a way but we have better communication and um make better decisions because we actually have to go back and forth with each other but I mean this is our third

we're approaching three years of Quebec which sounds crazy that it's gone so fast. Are we having a party with cake? Oh absolutely. Oh my god we need to re-sign the lease as well. Oh yeah we need to do that mental note cap um yeah we do that and then we can have a third birthday party i think the other reason why we work is like our skill set and our backgrounds are slightly different so obviously i used to work marketing pr production that's my background i was in agency land which if anyone works in a marketing or pr agency knows how tough it is i come from a very like regimented background so like I would come to a meeting with like oh here's a spreadsheet and like this is how I want calendar invites to look like and da da da da and Alicia is not quite

like that not in the slightest I feel like you were tiptoeing around that and you were like oh no raw doggit that's fine 100% no that's not my journey I think I'm more of a like well no because I just throw it out there and it might actually just be fabulous anyway you know yeah yeah and I I get a lot of joy out of being like incredibly organized whereas you're just like oh well whatever yeah no feedback loop is that also one of the hardest things because like I work in a team and that feels like yin and yang but like you need someone who's got their stuff together but you also need the person who's like just try it might work though well but I guess it might work I think again that's why that respect piece is so important because it's like I respect the

way in which Alicia works and she respects the way I work so there's not I'm not going to be like, well, you're great. Like, hello. I'm just like, no, that's how Alicia's brains work. And it gives you another perspective. So I think it's also really important. I love that. And what would your advice be for my community who are like, oh, I've been thinking about starting a business with a friend. What do you reckon you would tell them? Well, I think because we didn't come from a place of traditional friendship, it's always been a professional relationship. I would say that there obviously has to be conversations about your values as a professional that needs to be in play. I don't think it's just about the synergy of you're like, oh my God, but I love this person.

I hang out with them and we have the best time together and we never fight. It's really about your values around money, around business that have to be absolutely aligned before you jump off into anything. And it really isn't for anyone. I feel like we do. We hear so many horror stories of people saying like, I can't do this with a partner. Yeah, because I think entrepreneurs... The accountant said he's never setting up another shared entity for me. No, we want to be that example that it is possible. Yeah, totally. And what do you reckon, Alice?

No, I agree. I think when we were looking to do it and looking into venturing into this business partnership, and I know I'm harping on about the respect, but, like, we really truly respected each other's ideas. Nothing was ever shot down. like i think you've you've got to and like we gave each other the air time to be able to talk about certain things and we could identify very early on like what our roles in the business would be

as well so like we do have like we we tackle different things because our brains do them better so it's like you know in crowbag i would do like the invoicing and the booking agreements and the emails and stuff and alicia's like i can do all the website stuff because like your skill is in like you can do that whereas i'm creative yeah you're more creative than i am so yeah perfect I've broken our website before I'm also banned from our website nightmare good good you two are very alike yes I'm not about to play with that go into a partnership we will admire each other from a distance look I want to go down a little bit more of a like formal business route right so like my brain

automatically goes to like structures and how you decided to set up your business and Alice you started down the sole trader route and Alicia you went ahead and you were like I'm gonna set up a company and both of those two things are completely different but also make sense one for both of you but then also you could have swapped probably at the start and had similar structures and then with the Cobake space you guys have gone down a partnership model can you talk us through why you made these choices and kind of what the differences are because it's not just like oh we went into business together like yeah there's structure there's actually tax we have to talk about oh we love we actually need to talk about like responsibilities and it would be a miss of

me to not ask about this stuff on she's on the money of course well i was a sole trader for a number of years a solopreneur for almost 10 years to be honest it wasn't until we actually moved into the premise of kovac space that i switched to a company and those reasons for me and sweet Bakes was because I had some big plans about the way that Sweet Bakes was structured. I want people to choose cake instead of sending a bunch of flowers. I want people to send a cake. I do, just so you know. Excellent. That's why we love you. Excellent choice. That was always my sort of ethos moving into Kobach and the way that I wanted to take Sweet Bakes. To do that, I needed to make some really big corporate partnerships and some wholesale arrangements. So obviously,

that comes with all those other liabilities and all those gorgeous, sexy things and insurances. So with that and my staff that I now have structuring it as a company is just far more beneficial to us when we're working at such a scale. I'm sure for Alice, her focus is on speaking on your behalf because I know you so well is very much about that beautiful, personalized, customized service, which is a little bit more one-on-one, which doesn't require that. And then the structure of Cobank being a partnership, I think that really sets the tone of what we do, that it is a 50-50 partnership and the expectation from us both financially and effort

wise is 50-50. And that's what that partnership really, really acknowledges. I mean, it's like we can be very casual about it in the way that we do our day-to-day stuff. You know, it's not regimented the way that we go about Cobake, but at the bottom line of it, I think it really solidifies like we are in this absolutely equally together. Yeah. I always get a little bit of a red flag because I'm pervy right I don't think anybody um has ever accused me of being like modest or like oh no it's not my business also like you know when people are like you never want to be modest no no you're just not interested I like oh like I don't like gossip I'm like oh no I love that like I don't want to be involved but like I want to hear what your neighbor's friend's

cousin did yeah um I just want to hear it um so like if I see a new business that's been like on my Instagram feed I might might do a little ASIC look up and to me one of the biggest red flags is when I see a new business arise and it's like 49 51 and I'm like oh there's a power play there like that's not to me that's not going to work and don't get me wrong my business ventures haven't worked for a plethora of different reasons but it's never ever been not 50 50 because I go no we come to this together like if we're not coming on equal playing fields why are we even doing this. So there's a conversation around that. Did you ever consider any other type of split? No, but also I think understanding that the way that we do Cobake, Cobake is supplementary to our

foundation business. Alice has a thriving business. I have a thriving business. So I think the expectation for Cobake to be this big, crazy thing isn't there either. So coming to the table equally actually just makes far more sense. And the pressure is off in a way, which I think is probably why it's working so well for us because our foundational businesses, Miss Trixie and Sweetbakes, those are the ones that give us a salary. Cobake works for a different reason for us. It's supplementary and it's fun for us. It looks fun. I want to start a baking business so I can come and play. It's great. It's allowed us to generate income for those separate businesses via Cobake. There are collaborations that we do that come into the Cobake building. So

So for example, say Merry People Gumboots came and did a gorgeous pop-up with us and sold their viral gumboots that you can typically only buy online. They wanted to do an in-person experience. They came to Cobake space and we provided them gumboot cookies and cupcakes. So Cobake obviously generated an income by the hire of the space, but then Sweetbakes and Miss Trixie also ended up getting a lick of the ice cream because we provided treats for the event. So Cobake has allowed us to collaborate and generate more income in that sense too.

Can I have financial advisors and mortgage brokers come in and decorate finance cupcakes? Like is that a thing? Yes, absolutely. We do that. It's honestly more fun when we bring in people that are so, so far removed from food. We get a lot of sporting organisations come.

Perfect. Footballers come and do cake decorating classes. Footballers do cake decorating classes. Literally. They're so cute. They're good. They lock in. They get really focused and it becomes competitive.

Do you know what? I was about to say it's about the competition. Absolutely. If they're sports people, they're like, well, I'm going to do it better. Yeah. absolutely and we do encourage it we do encourage it love it love a bit of healthy competition see that's the fun side of the business and then if we like flip it i would say that the admin side sucks like don't get me wrong i adore being in business but um you've got the like rough end of

the stick alice with being in the spreadsheets and doing all the invoices like that stuff just kind of sucks how do you keep on top of invoices and expenses and all of that not so fun stuff like and I also want to know like how did you choose what to do in terms of systems to then free up your time so that you can actually focus on the fun footballer decorating stuff I think both of us like for Miss Trixie Sweetbakes and Cobake we're pretty regimented in terms of like carving out time to actually do the admin and I think it's also about flipping the fact that like yes it's can be seen as quite boring and it's not the creative fun cake decorating but it's an essential part of the business and it's so important to be in the weeds of that it's important to see like

the money coming in the money going out doing the invoicing like having that visibility over your business will also like completely dispel your anxiety over it so i think it's just incredibly important with kobake yeah we have like allocated time in fact this is our kobake whip time so like we would typically like carve out time we need to talk about anything you know it's perfect it's like i feel like all we ever want is financial advice i can try and contribute more just like need to invoice key client today like over a long long coffee yeah perfect yeah so we're very regimented in terms of of that but i just think it is like you know admin is going to be part of the parcel in any business that you start or any job truly like even when i worked in production

it's like you do a big activation and then you'd be invoicing suppliers or what have you so it's just part of it totally genuinely just part of life but i think if you can flip it to say that it's going to give you transparency in your business that's a benefit to you and there's different aspects of it that we both enjoy in the admin category like you are you love obviously the lists and the spreadsheets i'm i love the stats i love a pnl i'm like i want to know about what's going in what's going out and where we're at and project it i love how are you generating that like what type of software are you through myob yeah okay cool very cool and at what point did you decide do you know what we're going to start playing myob because like that for a lot of

small business owners because you mentioned spreadsheets before I used to run my entire business on spreadsheets right like I would oh that made my heart start racing oh my god I'm sorry do you want to see them because they're still sexy I still think they're a flex but like I used to do all my own P&Ls on spreadsheets all of my own balance sheets spreadsheets payroll spreadsheets but that obviously leaves a lot of room for error but I was trying to be so frugal when I started my business because I was like well I don't have any extra cash I'm not even paying myself let alone like yes an admin software at what point did you decide all right well let's invest in this because a lot of people go oh it's really expensive I could do it myself and I don't

know about you but I got shot in the foot um and realized how much time I could save and was like well this is that's it isn't it humbling yeah I'm lucky that I had very good role models growing up my father is self-employed and my mum did his bookkeeping so that I know I was your genius a little bit lucky um that i saw how that could be modeled and the efficiencies of that kind of procedure and also like alice said i found it really empowering to be in my books and i don't want to do this road trips so i'm like if someone can auto generate and every day i can be logging on automatically and seeing how the business is is tracking like that is huge yeah huge yeah the automated systems like I use MYOB as well for my for mysteries and it yeah definitely has made

a massive difference in terms of just like the automation and the fact that it's given me back time I just sometimes like to do like a bit of a double check like on the side I still do as well and then I'm always humbled I'm like oh yeah there we're right yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah I just didn't want it to be right you know when it tells me how much tax will be owing I'm like that can't be right Yeah, I'm not interested in that. I did not do that. No, that wasn't me. I've tried various platforms.

I think, I mean, the reason that I use MYOB now is purely because that's my accountant's preference. But I have tried various platforms over the years. For me, it's also a lot about like the plug-ins and the things you can add. And like, I don't know about you guys, but like I have like done all of my like outputs but saved them as favourites. So all I do is go in and hit balance sheet.

That's clever. sheet and like yeah it just generates the balance sheet that I'm looking for because like yes I know that I have my I don't know if you guys do this and I'm about to ask but it's so fun to see how excited you get about this too it's so lame isn't it but I have my own little meeting with myself once a month right because it turns out it's just me in business performance review for yourself but I go through all of my numbers and like compare it to the month before and like I know what I want to compare but I also don't want to have to go through and like tick every box every single time so I just like saved them as like my monthly favorite balance sheet or my yearly

balance sheet and I like that stuff it saves time but it means that I don't know about you guys the mental load of being like oh my god I have to sit down it's actually really easy yeah yeah so yeah when I got to that point I was like oh maybe this extra cashola is actually worth it it's absolutely worth it it always is though isn't it of course like of course I think it's the same it's annoying isn't it every time like signing up to a like a gym challenge or whatever it's like you know you pay for that couldn't be mean no but you pay for that fee and it's like there's expectations and they're going to give you the outcomes of how you are you running faster are you lifting more it's like that's the same in the accounting softwares and making those spreadsheets and saving those

favorites it's like you're you're holding yourself accountable to constantly check in if you're paying for the fee you recently switched your email platform yes and i've been banging on for at least i was like switch you need to tell me what you're with clavio i'm like you need like there are all these amazing like that's so funny because i need to switch to clavio it's so expensive old mate she's like oh my god the open rate is like double i was like yes so it is worth it it is worth it i was using the one that integrated because we've run a shopify website as well i was just using it through there out of sheer convenience and it was very cost-effective yeah I won't say who we're with right now because they're not authorful but

like there's a lot to be desired or being left to be desired yeah and I was like looking at all the price points and I'm like it's so expensive but yeah the open rate is very good since I've been using Klaviyo for probably two years and this year has been like the one year that I've really focused on my EDMs I've been really trying to be regimented and sending them out like every three weeks and like obviously there's not like that much extra to say about cakes but there's always something going on that you can talk about when there is a will there is a way precisely and it's like one of those classic things like you send it out and then you say this and you're like oh yeah obviously yeah yeah you're reminding people in another way and obviously those

subscribers like the people that have subscribed they're the tapped in ones your instagram followers of course like you've got some very tapped in people but this the conversion is harder there than it is with your subscribers so yeah but it's just one of those classic yeah I have no issues with sending emails either because I feel bad when people if people have seen something on Instagram I'm like oh this product or service we're doing is sold out the people who are subscribed to my emails and they say oh my god I didn't even know yeah like I'm betraying them if they don't get an email because they do they they want to know yeah they don't miss out that's why they're with you I feel like over the last few years I've learned a lot about like these

EDM flows and what that looks like and complete side note that I wasn't even going to talk about on this show but I've done a few podcasts on EDMs and making sure that like as a business owner you actually own that because you don't own Instagram followers like Instagram can delete that but hypothetically if that happened you could email everyone at Miss Trixie Bakes and be like hey I'm still here this is my new account and like make sure that you're in contact with them but then they also feel like they have a more intimate relationship with you like if I'm opening your emails actually care and you know what I love when a brand is like we're releasing a sale but here's the link early I'm like thank you so much thank you I want to know or like you're doing a workshop

or something absolutely I want to be the first in the know I might not always buy but I always want to feel like I'm at that next level with that business or with that brand absolutely and yeah there's ways that people use and abuse that but like it's like my EDM that goes out every single Friday like I write it and we send out a newsletter and it's like my unhinged requests like I do recommendations I've done everything from cake to frozen prawns like I'm always like this is what's on my hit list this week guys like yeah I love it you can tell the brands that and the people who do that who are actually invested and see their email to my fam and you know what and you know that you're not sending it because you feel like you're being a nuisance you're like I am so enthusiastic let

me tell you if you don't want to hear unsubscribe because some people reply to my emails and I'm like, hey, babe. Hello, it's you. On the same vein, both of you have incredible social media presences. Like they are so fun. And you seem to be both really good at generating PR for your businesses and for co-bakes. Do you have any tips and tricks? Like what can I learn and what can my community learn, especially from you, Alice, who used to work in the space about like building a social presence and gaining PR for that space because PR is savage like that's hard. PR is hard and it can be really disheartening as well because often you know PR is the game where you're wanting journalists to write about you organically and that's a hard game but I think persistence is

the biggest thing if you're going down the line of traditional media you need to pitch you need to bug journalists like there's no tomorrow because they are always on the hunt for stories there will be snow but snow news days slow news not so much in Australia though that's more of an American thing yeah but you just like you just never know and I think I've always I think for me like I've always approached Miss Trixie as like social media is incredibly important but again to your point if that went tomorrow then it's like what else do I have so for me I was you know when I was starting it full time, I was like, I want to be spoken about in the key Melbourne media. It gives you some notoriety. And I wanted that to work alongside my social media presence. I'm a bit

of a traditionalist in that sense. And of course, like there are always moments that you can have quite unquote viral moments on TikTok or what, you know. TikTok. Wow. She's really down with it. She's up with the cool kids. I'm down with the cool kids. TikTok. My dad calls it the clock app So, you know, you can have all these moments, but I think if it's like a well-rounded strategy where you've got traditional PR, you've got social media, you've got brand, all of those components can, can give you a really, really strong social media presence, but it exists outside of that as well. That's what will lead to the conversion of sale because you're going to look like a trusted business. But for anyone who is actually looking to engage with like

traditional PR and contacting the media. It is a long game. It's a hard one. It's a game of rejection. You will get told so many times, oh no, not today. Or like, well, we'll just put it on as a footnote. That's if you get a response. But you know, if you give it a crack and you strike up those relationships with journalists, it can be incredibly, incredibly beneficial. And when we started Cobank, we, yeah, I feel like, you know, Leisha had a really good idea around what we would do on socials and I was like I know what we're doing for media like and we had a very I mean it was a very remember it was very stressful because one another media outlet got a hold of the story oh my god it was we sold it an exclusive it was a whole thing yeah that would

have given me such anxiety which is so funny I'm like we were just opening a venue but they were treating it like we were giving like royal gossip like who are you speaking to and we want to be the first to break the story and I was like guys this is just a bakery we've been here no it's not It's not just a bakery. It's a whole ass community sitting down. We did. We were loved and wanted though. It was nice.

We were being harassed by a journalist. We had to call the other media and be like, someone's gotten the scoop. We need you to run this now. Like it literally, it was crazy. Hilarious. I love that for you. I'm manifesting this energy for every business in my community.

For every business that you're in hot demand and the journalists want you. I feel the way that you're speaking about traditional PR and playing this long game and having patience is also really applicable to social media, which is something we constantly talk about we are never trying to be the biggest loudest most viral person at every turn because I just don't think that that has longevity yeah so when I'm making decisions for social media it's about being authentic and making decisions that represent me

and I'll be happy to look back at them in three four years time instead of just chasing trends and doing what the other person's doing it's like I would definitely discourage people from trying to be the coolest hottest new bombshell that enters the villa right it's about staying power Yeah, because we know how that goes for the Instagram followers. And, you know, again, like you need to be doing what is, as you mentioned, authentic to you and your followers will pick up on the fact that that is authentic and they'll also remember you because I feel like if I see, you know, some flash in the pan moments,

I can't then tell you what the business name was. I can just remember the content but I actually can't talk to who created it. It's so annoying sometimes too because you like tell someone about it and then you're like, oh, find that video for you. you cannot find the video for view. No, of course not. No, it's just doing what other people is doing. Yeah. Okay. You might get the views and the clicks and the followers, but you're not making a lasting, authentic impression on people. And for us, like we need to make a sale at the

end of the day. Exactly. Exactly. So it's like, if it's not actually leading to a sale of a cake. No, a TikTok dance doesn't typically do that. It'll get you views, but it's not going to necessarily transfer. That's very disappointing. I know. It really is. Because all I want to do is actually dance on TikTok if I'm being so real. It's like the last thing I want to do. So this strategy works really well for me and I will lean very hard into, no, don't dance on TikTok. I was having a conversation with a girlfriend the other day and she works in marketing and, you know, we sometimes do giveaways through She's On The Money. And for me, something like that is always about just giving back to our pre-existing community. It's not like, please tag your

friend and they have to be following and they have to do this and they have to do that because you create a bubble of people that were only there to get the free hair straightener or the free skincare products but you're there to sell cake and they might not even be aligned to that so I think you have to be really strategic as well about the content you're putting out because do you want people following you because like you're low-key really funny and making TikTok dances which could never be me or do you want them following because they're like oh my god I've got to save her for later I need to order a Leo season cake or I need to do this or that you always want those people and even if they're not your buyer right now they might be your buyer

eventually i've had people who have been with me for 12 years 12 years and it's that is those are the relationships that i'm trying to nurture it's like keeping people who are actually invested in me in my cakes in my business in my story those are the people that i want to keep on side rather than always seeking out new new faces and that's also been really applicable to kobake as well because we have had a lot of long conversations with people but the timing wasn't necessarily right for them to come and use Kobake. So like we've reached out to, you know, so many brands and so many PR agencies, but again, we needed to create like Kobake had to become memorable that they would circle back and find a reason to use it in whatever, which way. And that's been

really, really important, right? Like what we've put out on social. So people are seeing that the space can be like, you know, used in a plethora of ways. Yeah, precisely. Yeah. We haven't gone down that line of you know making it just look like this like flashy of the moment venue it's like no this is a space that's going to exist and it's there for you when the time is right yeah I actually love that so much and I'm really sad that we're running out of time I have another question before we go on this show I always talk about money wins and confessions so I want to know what has been your biggest money win or your biggest like I wish we had known this sooner lesson when it comes to running a business? I think it's not even necessarily the financial gain that came out

of this, but my biggest money win for me, I recently went to France and taught a pastry retreat and the ticket, I know it's the fanciest thing I have ever said or ever done, but the ticket price of it is insane. Oh, well, we're going to be doing it every year, which is very exciting. Can I come? Or do I have to be a pastry chef? Please, you can come. There's a few more What's left for next year? Please come. I was really, really apprehensive about putting that online because the actual like price for people to come

is the biggest ticket item I've ever, ever sold. Of course. It's a week-long pastry retreat in a chateau. For me, the biggest money win there was the fact that it sold out and people actually came out. I was like, oh, my God, I'm so used to selling these cakes at a few hundred dollars to have people invest their time and thousands of dollars to come on this experience with me

was a huge, huge money win for me. and just the most amazing experience. Congrats. How good is that? And now you're going to do it every year? Every year. Stop it. It's actually my dream is to renovate a castle in France.

So it's just like that's my stepping stone to making a castle. It's going to be the Cobake Chateau. The Gâteau Chateau. Stop it. Stop it. And also another thing that you're doing as well, tell me about books. Is there hypothetically a book in the works? There is.

Yeah, there is. Which is very exciting. So I had the opportunity to publish a book with Penguin this year called Everybody Loves Cake. Welcome to the family. Thank you so much. What a lovely and honourable club to be in. So it's coming out in November. And it's obviously, I mean, I think actually the premise of the book comes back to some

of our ethos about Cobake space. I didn't just want to write a recipe book with absolutely fabulous cake recipes, but I've intertwined the stories about people's connection to cake within the book, because I think that is just so what we are about. It's about the story of cake, the way that it creates community and connection and, yeah, very excited about that one. I'm excited and I'll make sure that all the info about pre-orders is in the show notes for everyone listening because I just know

that that's going to be so fun. That's how you're going to use your KitchenAid. This is happening. She's going to make an Everybody Loves Cake recipe and we're going to christen the KitchenAid. Absolutely. I see this in the future. One time I tried to make sourdough in it.

Does that count? Yes. Oh, absolutely that counts. That's next level. Sourdough's hard. Yeah, that's next level. I think it was pancake flat, yes. It was a salad with a pancake.

It was a focaccia. Yeah, it was a focaccia. I meant to do that. It was flatbread. Never let them know. Exactly. And Alice, what about you? What's your biggest money win or wish I'd known this sooner moment?

It's like a money win adjacent. An adjacent money win. An adjacent money win. Thank you. Still a money win. Yeah. I am an ambassador for Nissan and I proactively pitched to them when I was only like six months into Miss Trixie

because I was telling the world that I was delivering cakes around Melbourne, but I didn't actually have a car. I was like, oh, yeah, I'm delivering cakes. Sorry, don't let that stop you. No, literally. So then I was like, I don't have the money for a car. Like I actually can't afford to buy a car. I was like, I'm just going to ask some car companies

and see what happens. Shoot your shot. I can only say no. And so I proactively pitched out to car companies and now I've been an assistant ambassador now for like four and a half years. Stop it. and it was just like I couldn't believe it and I had a lot of people including one family member

who was like there's no way that a car company is going to give you a car okay and I had that that's literally like like the minute someone says to me that you can't do something I'm like let me out yeah back to the start of this conversation how hard could it be literally so I was like I'm going to give it a go and look appreciate that I obviously have a background in where like pitching comes quite naturally to me but I was just like so you can we have the tools 2025 yeah it's storytelling so that was like a massive win for me and it's been incredibly helpful to have the support of someone like this and getting me through and getting me around town because I don't think I could do the job otherwise no absolutely not and also to have a brand that

like backed you yeah like that's cool yeah it was very exciting so that's been an absolute money win sorry that isn't money win adjacent that is a legitimate money win it was a great saving so that was a massive thing so i think of something that we might have like wish we had known sooner i know something that i did incorrectly from the outset as the naive 19 year old um i had didn't segregate any of my business and personal finances when i first said iconic for mentioning this i harp on and on and on about okay great let's like just reinforce that one. It's hard when we work in food, it feels like the supermarket run should be a business expense. Yeah. No. Yeah. So learn the hard way. The chocolate chips are also for me.

I remember my accountant saying to me once, she's like, and what would you be using salmon for in your business? I'd be like, uh, sweet quiche. A sweet salmon quiche. I didn't come here to be attacked. That's so weird. What are you doing? You are not getting treats next time I come. actually no i've got a great one okay okay a way that we um we learned by being burnt through kobake so we as you can say uh energy is like happy and bubbly and positive and we think the best of everybody right we built this space to like really uplift our community and the brands and businesses that come through that leaves you open to be taken advantage absolutely does despite what we know we we did let that get the better of us and unfortunately we had another

female founder who actually like totally skipped out on their bill with us because we were too trusting in the sense that we didn't have all of those things signed on the dotted line and the money in the account before an event. And we got absolutely burnt by it. So just to reinforce, even though we can be light and fluffy and think the best of people, those things, those contracts and invoices exist for a reason. And that is a really awful learning because obviously you've been financially hit by that but i don't know the rotten fruit always falls from the tree by itself yes that stuff it's an unfortunate lesson to be reminded of then you do you boo yeah but it's not sustainable no no but it made our systems uh we just regimented our systems about the way that

we accept our bookings again so you know we learned oh i love that i think people respect us for it like even like the particularly the smaller businesses that come to use cobag they are like oh no they mean business like you know if we don't hand this space back in a way that we found it like our booking agreement is lengthy it is watertight oh my goodness i actually hate that and i hate that it was another female founder girl what are you doing what are you doing but guys thank you so much for hanging out with me and talking sweet treats it was such a fun chat And I just know my community is going to absolutely love this episode and want to follow both of you and order your books and order your cakes and come into your co-working space.

I'm so excited about it. Thank you so much for having us on the show. And for anyone who's not already stalking your amazing, sweet creations, I obviously will put all of their info into the show notes to make it as easy for you as possible to find them. And if you loved this episode, please let us know in the comments or share it with someone else who's got big, sweet business dreams. don't forget to follow and subscribe so that you never miss an episode we've got more inspiring

chats coming your way and i'll see you guys on friday bye the advice shared on she's on the money is general in nature and does not consider your individual circumstances she's on the money exists purely for educational purposes and should not be relied upon to make an investment or financial decision if you do choose to buy financial product, read the PDS, TMD and obtain appropriate financial advice tailored towards your needs. Victoria Devine and She's On The Money are authorised representatives of Money Sherpa PTY LTD ABN 321 649 27708 AFSL 451 289.