“Becoming a cake decorator was the only dream I’ve ever had. Honestly, if I wasn’t doing this right now, I have no idea where I’d be,” says Olivia Giaccotto, founder of Melbourne business For Heaven’s Cake by Olivia.
“None of my family members are bakers, however, I do come from an Italian family, so cooking and baking has always been a big part of my life and a part that I grew to love. Owning my own business was always the goal, but having it happen and grow so quickly after finishing school, is something I never expected,” Olivia tells Flying Solo.
From those humble kitchen beginnings helping her mum and Nonna to prepare for dinners and family celebrations, Olivia soon discovered her real culinary love lay in making cakes.
“I would probably say from around 10 years old I began making birthday cakes for myself and my family members and by 13 or 14 I was right into it,” she says.
Having discovered her passion for cake decorating at such an early age, Olivia’s high school years were a little different to most. Her weekdays were crammed with school and shifts at a local bakery. On weekends she studied at TAFE. By the time she had finished year 12, she had graduated as a qualified pastry chef and her love for creating colourful cake creations grew.
While Olivia could easily have rested on her laurels, comfortably working for someone else, she soon realised to really express her creativity she would need to go into business for herself and For Heaven’s Cakes by Olivia was born. While the cake-making and decorating came easily, the ins and outs of business admin, were less so.
Olivia soon became thrown into the deep end of small business administration and finances. It was a world of invoices and taxes and reconciliations and something she struggled to keep up to date.
“My business experience was zero-to-none. I don’t like the book side of things and that’s no secret. I know how to communicate with customers, I know how to make the cake and I know how to organise myself, but having to do the behind-the-scenes work is a whole different ball game,” she explains.
Buried under a mountain of admin and running multiple business software programs that didn’t interconnect, Olivia knew something had to give. The stress was beginning to take its toll.
“It was messy, my brain worked overtime trying to keep on top of everyone’s payments, having to manually record my receipts and do all the rest. I didn’t really know what I was doing, I didn’t have control over my finances,” she tells us.
Olivia set about looking for assistance and tried Thriday, an all-in-one business solution that has banking built directly into the platform*. Thriday lets you streamline your financial admin and take back control of your money and time. Unlike other platforms which focus on making life easier for accountants and bookkeepers, Thriday is tailored to the small business owner. So whether it’s invoicing, banking, reconciling expenses or even lodging your quarterly BAS statement, Thriday can manage it for you with a single source of truth – the built-in banking solution.
For Olivia, discovering Thriday was an instant blessing. Set up was simple and activating Thriday took a matter of minutes. According to Olivia, Thriday was like having access to a bookkeeper 24/7, and the service was second to none.
“Everything is there in black and white for you to understand, and if it’s not, the Thriday team are only a message away to help,” she says. “One of the most important things for me was needing help and support from real people, not robots, and when I tell you the team at Thriday are on the ball, I mean on it. Requests are answered in such a quick amount of time. Having a team behind you that are there to help you through it, who become an extension to your business, who are friendly and no question is ever too silly to be asked – and trust me I’ve asked some silly questions. It’s a real win.”
The cake creator says since switching to Thriday, her business admin is “10 times easier”.
“Before Thriday I spent every night trying to get it all together and organised across all the different systems. My brain was always a puddle and the stress of it was taking a toll, I couldn’t enjoy any downtime without thinking of everything I had to do. I double-handled a lot,” she says.
“Not only has Thriday saved me time, but it’s also saved me stress and so much worry and most importantly, it’s given me the freedom of having a break. Everything is there. Everything that I need for my business is in one space. It takes me under a minute to send an invoice, an eighth of the time to organise my receipts, well heck, it organises them for you! I have control over my finances which is relieving.”
With a real-time view of her finances now at her fingertips, Olivia is able to get back to doing what she loves – making and decorating cakes.
“Thriday has been a real lifesaver. I am putting the extra time into growing my business which I just wouldn’t be able to do without it. It’s not minutes saved, it’s hours saved, and an hour is long when you have orders to complete. It also allows me time for rest, physical and mental, which is very much needed when running a business,” Olivia shares.
“Money is a stressful thing if you don’t know where it’s going and how much of it is needed to run the business. Having to put aside for tax, GST and all expenses and overheads, I never really knew what profit I was making and if I was making any. With Thriday, everything is accounted for. You can clearly see what you have coming in and distribute the money into their own accounts. I have five accounts open for all my business needs, which helps me keep track of absolutely all my finances.”
Now that she is no longer feeling business overwhelm, Olivia is set to start the next phase of her business.
“I would love to have a little helper one day, allowing me to take on more work and reach a wider community. Right now though, I’m happy going at my own pace and letting my work speak for itself,” she concludes. “I just want to grow with the times and continue finding my niche.”
Want to find out more about how Thriday can help you save time and money so you can be like Olivia and get back to the business of doing what you love? Head to Thriday.com.au.
This article is brought to you by Flying Solo in partnership with Thriday.
*Bank account and Visa Debit card issued by Regional Australia Bank Ltd ABN 21 087 650 360 AFSL & Australian Credit Licence 241167