How this black entrepreneur turned her baking passion into a six-figure business

For Natasha Orumbie, baking has always been a secondary passion. Rightly so because baking has been in her family for generations – her father and his sisters baked, and her grandmother baked before she died.  

“I distinctly remember the white Kenwood mixer that we used to have, and the traditional routine of being given the bowl to run our fingers around until it was literally clean,” she told UK’s Express. “Those were the days parents were not hypersensitive and worried about giving their kids salmonella poisoning and as you can see, I’m alive and well today.”

Orumbie previously managed her baking business, N.O. Cakes R Better, as a side hustle while working a 9-to-5 job. She baked for 10 years with what transpired to be a profitless business and almost quit. According to her, she could make life-like novelty cakes but had no idea how to run a business.

However, due to the pandemic, she was mostly home and It was during this period that she decided to devote more attention to her baking business. The mother of three spent more time studying how to build a successful business through social media. She even took a mentor who guided her in her transition from a side hustle into a full-on business.

“I was working closely with a mentor one to one, who was able to look at and understand my business and share specific strategies that were able to help me transition,” she said. “It was when I started to implement these strategies, and it took about a year from that point of implementing the strategies I learned to get to that six-figure salary.”

Aside from picking up the skill of baking, the recipe her family used in baking was also passed down to her. However, Orumbie has her own touch on the recipe, and did her best to convert into the traditional metrics; with each annual taste test, her dad’s seal of approval seems ever closer.

“Thankfully my clients have no comparison and are in love with the version I have managed to put into recipe form, so that’s a great thing,” she noted.

Today, the venture that started as a side hustle is now generating a full-time income worth six figures. However, the transition from a part-time job to a full-time one did not come easy for her, and for budding entrepreneurs, “the move could be daunting,” she adds.

Nonetheless, her advice to upcoming entrepreneurs is to educate themselves on the importance of investment and understanding the numbers.

“My advice to those, considering turning the side hustle into a full-time income, is definitely to start understanding the numbers as soon as possible,” she noted. “That is the biggest issue preventing the success of most businesses in my opinion, even when they are more experienced.

Orumbie’s initial plan was to become a lawyer, but she ended up at the University of London to study English, and ended up becoming a teacher. After 15 years in the profession, she decided to quit and focus on her side hustle.