Robin Campbell

Shared by emma_kate Make Your Mark team

“I believe that the fear of failure is much worse than the reality,” says Robin, who recently made a career change from banking to baking. “The fear of being made redundant was horrendous but actually it has given me the best opportunity to pursue something new and exciting.”

At 27, Robin has used the recession as an opportunity to turn her passion into a business. After being made redundant in late 2008, she set up a luxury but affordable cake company, Cakes by Robin.The business is going from strength to strength and Robin is planning to move into her own baking premises soon. “I can’t wait to have my own ‘cake studio’!” she says.

Tell us about starting up Cakes by Robin

I had worked in banking for 6 years and was used to receiving a monthly salary that paid my mortgage. I was looking to learn how to do cake decorating on a course in order to start the business slowly whilst still working at the bank. However, my carefully laid plans changed dramatically when I was made redundant in October 2008. Everyone was expecting me to try and secure another banking job (not that easy with the recession biting) and so when I announced that I was turning from banking to baking, people were a little surprised. The biggest barrier was probably realising that I was going to have to work very hard for every penny I was going to earn going forward and to push aside the fear of failure.

Where did the idea of cake decorating come from?

A friend of mine got married in August 2008 and had a beautiful wedding cake that cost £1,500. I started investigating the wedding cake market and found that there were only a few, very expensive cake designers who made the type of cakes that my friends and I would choose. I thought that it couldn’t be too difficult to make them and if I charged half the price, I would still be able to make a living out of it and pay my mortgage. I had always cooked and wanted to do something in the food industry but until that point I hadn’t come up with an idea. I needed to do something that didn’t require a huge injection of cash initially (because I didn’t have any!).

How do you look back on your time as an employee?

I don’t regret my time in the corporate world, because it gave me an excellent grounding in lots of things that are now essential to the success of my business (like business development, confidence in my own ability and the boldness to ask for things). Now I really enjoy the freedom of being able to do what I want, when I want and how I want. Setting up on my own was the best decision I’ve made, and I wouldn’t change it for anything!