Emma
Goss-Custard is one of thousands of entrepreneurs turning their hobbies
into viable businesses. The 31-year-old quit a teaching career to
convert her passion for baking into a successful cake-making company.
She now runs Honeybuns, which employs 18 people, on a farm in Holwell, Dorset,
where she also cares for ill-treated dogs and ponies she has rescued.
“ I trained to be a teacher but it really wasn’t for me. I had always
baked and my mother was a keen baker so I decided to set up in business from
home,” she says.
Earlier this year she moved her entire operation, which makes traditional cakes
with a modern twist, from just outside London to the South-West. “It is
great to be doing something you want to do in the countryside,” she says.
According to research by Barclays, busy professionals quitting their jobs to
set up lifestyle businesses, often based around a hobby or interest, is a major
growth area for start-ups.
Many also move to the country to do so, with areas such as Devon, Cornwall, Somerset
and Pembrokeshire key start-up hotspots, according to the bank.
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