Graduate Ella Marsham is the brains behind Eat with Ella, a Norwich-based bakery business. Here she explains how her lockdown idea has become a full-time job
Life has been fast paced, exciting and a whirlwind. I’ve loved my life so far and have been very lucky with many of the experiences I have had.
At the start of the pandemic, I was still a student at university in Sheffield with plans to put my degree to good use in a more ‘professional’ career path later that year. After moving home to Norwich during the first lockdown, I started ‘Eat With Ella’ to fill my time at home.
I first thought of starting a small baking business when in lockdown – I was desperate to fill all the spare time we suddenly had on our hands and thought it would be a good project to keep me busy. I thought I could sell my bakes to friends and family in my local area. Once I created an Instagram account and begun sharing my ideas, things really took off and suddenly people I didn’t even know were purchasing bakes from me. Since then, things have been so busy, it really has been a whirlwind and I can’t believe this is now my full-time job thanks to my lovely customers and the local community!
Starting the business was kind of the easy part because I was on my summer break for university at the time. When September came and the business was being juggled with the workload of my final year, especially my dissertation, was difficult. I reduced the number of orders I could do each week, doing university work during the day and baking in my evenings and weekends.
I didn’t want to live with any regrets and not take the opportunity to continue my baking journey once graduating. I’ll always have my degree under my belt if I have a change of heart but for now, I’m continuing to try and grow this business!
We love a vegan bake! There are so many vegan options and, being vegan myself, these are my favourite to make!
We’ve recently just rebranded so this was a very exciting announcement for us! I’m also in the process of building a small kitchen conversion at home so I can have a separate workspace to the family environment I currently work in.
Visit www.eatwithella.co.uk, Instagram and Facebook
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