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© COPYRIGHT SHELLY SHULMAN 2026

Saturdays at my nan’s taught me that 1980s novelty

Saturdays at my nan’s taught me that 1980s novelty cakes had absolutely no boundaries. 😂

Every Saturday when I was a child I’d be at my nan’s house in London, watching her make birthday and celebration cakes. And to be fair to her, she made all sorts. Plenty of perfectly lovely, perfectly normal cakes that I’m sure people were absolutely delighted with. But I’m not going to pretend those are the ones I remember, because obviously they’re not.

The ones that stuck were the gloriously outrageous ones. The lower half of a man’s torso, complete with willy. A woman’s chest. And, because apparently the 80s simply didn’t believe in holding back, a swimming pool full of naked people. 🤣

I genuinely don’t think there was a single thing anyone in the 1980s looked at and thought, “No, that probably shouldn’t be a cake.” These days we’d be clutching our pearls and wondering what the neighbours would say. Back then it was apparently just a Saturday.

And yes, before anyone asks, I did go on to run a cake business of my own. I’d love to say it was the cake genes, but honestly I think it was mostly that I grew up thinking spending your Saturday surrounded by cake was completely normal. I had my fair share of cheeky requests over the years too, but I like to think I kept it a bit classier than Nan. When I made boobs, they at least had a bra on. 😂

My most outrageous request ever? Let’s just say it is absolutely not PG, it definitely isn’t going on Instagram, and if you want to know you’ll have to ask me in person. 🤣

So now I need to know, because I refuse to believe my nan was the only one doing this. What’s the most outrageous, ridiculous or questionable cake you remember from when you were growing up? Or was your family a bit more sensible than mine? ❤️

Waiting for the perfect moment is just fear with a

Waiting for the perfect moment is just fear with a deadline. Except the deadline never actually arrives, does it? It just keeps quietly moving.

First it’s “when the website’s finished”. Then it’s “when I’ve got more followers”, or “after Christmas”, or “when things calm down a bit”. (Have things ever calmed down a bit? Genuinely asking.) Each one sounds perfectly sensible on its own, which is exactly why it makes such a comfortable hiding place.

When I started my cake business in 2006 there was no grand plan. Someone said I should do it as a business, my children were small, and I just started. If I’d waited until I had the right setup, the right prices and the confidence to charge them, I’d probably still be waiting. These days I still say yes to most opportunities and work out the how afterwards. That isn’t the right approach for everyone, but it’s taught me that feeling ready is mostly something you build along the way.

That doesn’t mean diving into everything at once or pretending planning is pointless. I’m a systems person, I love a plan. The problem starts when the planning, tweaking and researching become what you do instead of the thing itself. Knowing what needs doing usually isn’t what’s missing. Deciding which step comes next, and giving it a date, usually is.

So instead of asking “is this the right time?”, try asking “what’s the next step, and when am I doing it?” Not the whole launch or the whole new system. Just the next bit, with a date you’re not allowed to quietly move.

That’s a big part of what DONE. is about: choosing the actions that genuinely matter for your business, then actually getting them done with someone in your corner. If that sounds like what you need, comment DONE and I’ll send you the details.

And if you’re not quite there yet, tell me in the comments: what have you been waiting for the “right time” to do? 👀

“Link in bio” is so 2024. 😂 Seriously though, we'

I say yes to about 99% of opportunities and work o

I say yes to about 99% of opportunities and work out the how afterwards, so believe me, I know exactly how good a shiny new idea feels.

That rush is real, and it isn’t a bad thing. Most of the ideas business owners bring to me are genuinely good ones. A new product, a workshop, a second service, a membership, a partnership someone’s floated over coffee. The trouble is that “good” was never the right test, because nearly everything passes it. That’s how you end up with five good ideas, three of them half-built, and a business that feels busier without actually feeling better.

The better questions are less exciting, but they’re the ones that matter. How does this actually make money, and does it connect to what you already sell? Have you got the capacity for it in your real week, not the fantasy one where the admin does itself? And what are you going to stop doing to make room for it? Because “nothing, I’ll squeeze it in” is how good ideas quietly stall.

Parking an idea isn’t giving up on it. It’s deciding when it gets its turn.

If you’re staring at a list of good ideas and can’t see which one comes next, that’s exactly what a Shelly In Your Business day is for. We look at the whole business together, pick what’s next, and start it there and then.

Comment SHELLYDAY and I’ll send you the details 💬

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