Deadlines! Ahhh!!!
I never forget to include on my advertisements that orders have 3 days lead time, however, some tend to overlook the details—or maybe they wanted to try their luck and hope I still accept their order/s despite the time constraint. (Yes, I'll be implementing a rush fee for rush orders soon!)
Last June, a day after I made my friend's cake, I received a rush order due on the next day. The pick up time is less than 24 hours but still enough to make a cake so I'm quite confident that I could do it on time. I'll just have to sacrifice a few hours of sleep.
The order will be picked up in the at 3 in the afternoon so I immediately made the customized greeting and base of the jelly cake at midnight and as soon as the customer settled the downpayment. I was done with the lettering and base around 3:30 in the morning but I still have to let the agar cool down to room temperature before putting it in the chiller. After that, I cleaned my working area, prepared the tools for decorating, then took a bath. I probably slept around 6:30 AM.
My plan was to wake up at 9 AM to decorate the cake. That way, the gelatin base or the gelatin layer at the bottom of the cake will still have enough time to properly set.
Now here comes the problem. I slept like a baby and woke up around 11:30 AM. 💀
Oohhh snaappp!!! I sprang out of my bed and went straight to make the gelatine solution to inject in the cake. With all the cramming I made, it still took me 3 hours to finish decorating the cake. I informed the customer that the cake isn't still ready for pick up and requested an extension of one hour to which the customer agreed.
I kept checking the cake if the bottom layer has already solidified enough to get unmolded. When the cake isn't still good to get unmolded, I requested another 15 minutes extension. Lol. Oh my goodness. I'm just really thankful the customer was considerate enough to allow time extensions.
I only remembered to take a photo of the cake right after sealing the cake's container so there you go. Lol! The gelatine base was still soft but enough to get unmolded. I just instructed the customer to let it cool in the fridge for a while once they get home.
The customer also requested beforehand that I do the writing of names on the gift tag because she's not confident with her handwriting. I'm not confident with mine either but I hope I wrote the names decently. Lmao.
Anyway, I should be implementing a fee for rush orders just so customers would consider complying with the lead time I've posted. As someone who does everything for the business, a rush order really takes a lot of my energy.
God bless to everyone who single-handedly runs their business. We rock!!! ⚡️
