Happy New Year, wherever you are and whenever you find this.
I wish you a year full of health, real social connection, and the kind of wisdom that helps you build a life you’re proud of.
Today, I’m not giving tips or sharing strategies.
Today, I’m simply crying out loud a bit — about what it really feels like to build a niche food business in one of the toughest cities in the world… with nothing but persistence, recipes, and a stupid amount of hope.
This is the real story behind It’s Healthy and my little dream of creating the best healthy cakes in London.
Arriving in London With £1,000 and a Dream
Seven years ago, I lost everything abroad. Every business I had collapsed.
I came to London with £1,000, a suitcase, and one burning thought:
“I’m going to build a business that makes genuinely healthy desserts.”
I moved into a shared house with 10 other people.
My English was shaky (still is sometimes), but I didn’t care.
I was obsessed.
The first thing I did?
- Applied for start-up funding
- Got accepted
- Received a £5,000 loan
- Worked in a kitchen while building my cake business on the side
I had recipes. I had motivation.
What I didn’t have was any idea how different Vegan cake London would be compared to the food industry in my home country.
I thought I knew entrepreneurship.
I had no idea what was coming.
When the Entire Game Changes
When I used to run businesses years ago, the world looked different:
- Instagram DMs actually worked.
- Ads were cheap.
- £5/day could bring customers.
- Word of mouth was powerful and simple.
Then London slapped me with reality:
- Social media changed and lost the TikTok wave
- Ads became brutally expensive.
- Competition became global.
- And word of mouth?
In London, people barely speak to their neighbours.
I also realised something important:
London isn’t “one market.”
It’s hundreds of nationalities, each with their own taste, habits, and beliefs.
And I was trying to introduce something niche, something unusual, something people had to learn to trust.
So I changed my recipes over and over again.
The cakes I make today are nothing like the ones I started with.
The Branding Mistake
In the middle of struggling, I made a classic beginner mistake:
I spent £3,000 on branding.
Logos, story concept, identity.
Beautiful — but useless without customers.
Branding doesn’t pay the bills.
Sales do.
I posted nearly 4,000 times on Instagram.
I reached 9,000 followers.
And in return?
Not enough sales to survive.
I tried influencers.
Nothing.
Covid, Burnout and 150 Job Applications
Then Covid arrived.
I quit the kitchen job — toxic environment.
I thought I’d land something quickly.
I applied to 150+ jobs.
Not a single reply.
Not even a phone call.
Meanwhile:
- The business was barely alive
- Income was zero
- Bills didn’t stop
- I had already taken loans
- Stress was constant
Eventually, I had to take a £15,000 loan from a bank (paying back £21k).
I invested some of it in ads again… and again burned money because I didn’t know what I was doing.
I had no mentor, no guidance — just stubbornness.
From Cakes to Construction
At one point, I accepted the harsh truth:
“I need a job. Any job.”
The only industry open during Covid?
Construction.
So I became a labourer.
Then slowly moved into electrical work.
The industry was harsh, toxic, aggressive… but it paid.
With that income:
- I paid off the start-up loan
- Paid off the bank loan
- Kept It’s Healthy barely alive
- And kept posting, slowly, painfully, stubbornly
It was survival mode.
Becoming British and Coming Back Stronger
This year, everything shifted:
- I became a British citizen
- Became a fully qualified electrician
- Reached real financial stability
- And made a promise to myself:
“When I’m stable, I go all in again.”
So I did.
I got two 0% interest credit cards (18 months).
I built proper ads.
I trained myself.
I analysed every number.
And I went all in.
The Google Ads War: Small Budget vs Giants
Back from holiday in September, I started serious Google Ads.
Daily budget: £40–£50.
Study data.
Add negative keywords.
Refine everything.
Month 1:
- Spent £1,100
- Lost £460
Month 2:
- Spent £1,400
- Lost £646
- BUT gained more new clients
The machine learning began working.
But I launched ads right before Christmas — the WORST time for small competitors.
Big bakeries dump thousands of pounds daily into Google Ads.
And suddenly I was competing with:
- Chains
- Long-established bakeries
- And even Amazon for certain keywords
Me.
With my tiny little budget.
Absurd.
And exhausting.
Watching Carts Fill… Then Empty
One of the hardest parts?
Every day I see:
- Lots of people adding products to cart
- Lots reaching checkout
- Then they disappear
No sale.
Money spent on ads.
No conversion.
You start analysing every pixel of your website at 2AM.
It’s painful.
My Only Real Weapon: SEO
After all of this, I realised:
SEO is the only long-term weapon a tiny business has.
So I attacked from all angles:
Website SEO
- Publishing daily articles
- Aiming for 200+
- For every long-tail search possible
- So Google crawls my site daily
- Improving my ranking every week
This year I went from position 40+ to position 20 on average.
Some days: 11–15.
One push away from page 1.
Google Maps
I treated my Google Business Profile like Instagram:
- Daily posts
- Photo updates
- Quick texts
- Replies to all reviews
Now I have 329+ five-star reviews.
Almost all from clients who paid, tasted, and loved the cakes.
My rankings across London?
- North London: often #1
- Central London: #4–#9
- South London: #12–15
(still work to do)
The next milestone: 400–500 reviews, then 1,000.
Because at 1,000 reviews, you stop being “a small business.”
You become a London destination.
And that is my dream.
The Hard Truth About Food Businesses
Food is one of the toughest industries:
- High failure rate
- Small margins
- Giant competitors
- Niche product = harder marketing
- People hesitate with anything “different”
But I still believe in what I make:
- Nuts
- Seeds
- Fruits
- Cocoa & coconut butter
- Honey or agave
- No refined sugar
- No flour
- No chemicals
Real ingredients.
Real food.
Real flavour.
This is why I still fight.
Why I Don’t Give Up
I look at brands like:
- McDonald’s
- Innocent
- KIND bars
They didn’t win because they were the best.
They won because they were consistent, visible, and strategically loud.
Maybe one day, someone will call and say:
“We need a truly healthy dessert option.
People want this.
We want you and your product.”
Maybe it happens.
Maybe it doesn’t.
But I’m still here, building, learning, pushing.
My Hope — and My Ask
If you’re reading this and you’re in London — or know someone who is — you can genuinely help my journey:
- Try one of our healthy cakes
- Leave a review if you already ordered
- Share the website with someone who cares about health
- Or simply consider us next time you order birthday cake online
Every small action makes a difference for a micro-business like mine.
For Fellow Entrepreneurs
If you’re building something:
- Crying is normal
- Doubting is normal
- Losing money at the start is normal
- Feeling overwhelmed is normal
You only fail when you stop.
Keep knocking.
A door will open eventually.
And if you read this whole story:
Thank you.
It means more than you know.
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