Kirstie Louise Taylor
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Kirstie Louise Taylor is the owner and founder of FLOUR Patisserie. FLOUR is a fully independent bakery/patisserie specialising in cakes of all kinds. FLOUR produce a daily range of cupcakes, celebration cakes, full size bespoke cakes and up to 5 tier wedding cakes. They also make brownies, donuts, cookies, cheesecakes and Macarons.
FLOUR opened in the Central Market just over 2 years ago, on December 2nd 2016, ever since then this small local patisserie have been serving their ever changing cupcake range to everyone from 9 months to 90 years old on a daily basis. From one time Island day visitors to a local loyal following of customers who come back again and again FLOUR work tirelessly to create some truly fabulous creations for so many occasions that really do bring a smile your face as well as your tummy.
“The harder you push yourself the more you’ll surprise yourself with what you can do every day."
Tell us about your path to setting up your business and what motivated you?
Whilst studying for my last year of my fashion photography course at London College of Fashion I found that although I loved my chosen subject, maybe this was not my true passion. I wasn’t sure if I really wanted to spend the rest of my life behind a lens. Cooking, and particularly baking, has always been something I’ve enjoyed since being very young. Helping Mum in the kitchen, licking the left over cake batter in the bowl, decorating sponge cakes and experimenting with recipes is just something I grew up doing. My Dad has always made his own bread and my Mum was always having people round for dinner so I guess food has always been in my blood.
After graduating from LCF I started to search for a course to strengthen my knowledge and I found myself on the Le Cordon Bleu website. From all the courses on offer, the Patisserie course just jumped out at me and before I knew it I was learning from the masters everyday on all things patisserie. Whilst studying at Le Cordon Bleu I was working for a very established cake company in London and found a practical way to further my skills. This is when I thought to myself, “this is what Jersey needs!”
I began designing my own range of flavours and designs whilst still in London, taking small bookings for family and friends, but I soon realised I was a small fish in a huge ocean trying to get established. This is when I decided to move back to Jersey. After running weekly pop up stalls on King Street I found I was selling out a lot and the idea of having a dedicated shop was the obvious next step.
After a lot of planning and hard work I managed to secure a shop within the Central Market. It was possibly one of the most daunting and nerve racking things I have ever done. I literally put everything I had in to the shop, not really knowing if it would work or not. I only had the success of my previous bookings and pop up shops to go by. However, 2 years down the line I can easily say it is the best decision I have ever made. We’re still going strong and the more established the business has become the bigger and more frequent the orders come in. Some customers have nearly celebrated every family birthday and function with us for the past two years and that really is an absolute honour and a privilege. To know that your customers trust you with their most important days and events really does make you want to get out of bed in the morning and keep putting in all that hard work.
How do you work and what is a typical day like for you?
A typical day in FLOUR really changes from day to day, week to week. There are some things that always remain the same. We have set days for baking and decoration our regular cupcakes, but other than that I have to constantly change my schedule around the bookings we acquire. Some weeks can be busier than others, but as the time goes by we seem to be steadily busy every week, more and more each year. In general most days you will find me elbow deep (and more) in cake mix, Swiss meringue butter cream or some kind of ingredient. All whilst checking our bookings as I go making sure we don’t miss those important details that make all the difference.
What are the best parts about your business?
The best part of having my own business, to be honest, is being my own boss. My family will happily tell you that I’m not really one to be told, so having the freedom to do what I want, when I want to is really one of the best parts for me. Granted, I have orders to fulfill and deadlines to hit, but other than that I can choose when I schedule things to do day by day.
The other main thing I would have to say is the best part of my business is that I can, and do, constantly push myself further and further to achieve things that I never really thought I could do. The amount of orders we do around Christmas time for example is something that, if you had of told me I’d be doing a few years back, I would have laughed you down, but now it just seems like the norm to me, and open the possibility of pushing even further forward in the future.
What has been your greatest struggle as a business owner so far?
The most challenging part of being a business owner for me, has been finding the right team to support me. I have had some fantastic employees over the past two years, all with some amazing strengths. But, as I have mentioned I like to work hard and sometimes it can be tricky to find people who can keep up. I wouldn’t say I was hard on my staff but I like to push them almost as much as I do myself. I have trained some staff from absolutely no experience and to able to get them to my level of knowledge is not the most natural of things for me. But the reward of knowing you have given something more than a job to that person is definitely worth it. As my business has grown my team has had to with it and the team has to evolve alongside with the business too.
What has been your biggest a-ha moment so far?
It’s really hard to define an ‘A-ha’ moment, the first thing that springs to mind is ‘Take On Me’. In all honesty I don’t really think I’ve ever had one, or if I have I’ve been far too busy to realise. Each day has its own ‘A-ha’ moment I guess, every day has a different challenge to be overcome in its own way.
Do you have any advice for other small business owners?
Without sounding corny, the only advice I can give to any other young, small business owner is just believe that you can do it. That’s the first step to succeeding in what you want to do. Other than that, give it everything you’ve got. The harder you push yourself the more you’ll surprise yourself with what you can do every day.
What currently inspires you?
What inspires me? Probably new recipes and ideas to try, when I have time to. Food is my big passion and that’s what drives me, so I would have to say that’s what inspires me.
You can contact and find me here
