Are you the one that makes killer cakes for every occasion? Do you whip out to-die-for doughnuts? If you’re ready to turn your talents into a profitable bakery, you’ve come to the right place.
Award-winning television chef and cookbook author Grace Stevens has shared below her business advice on everything you need to know if you would like to own and grow a baking business.
This guide is meant to give you all the ingredients you need to plan, start, and grow a successful bakery. To get your piece of the pie, combine these tips with your impressive baking talents and you will be on your way to success.
Be a brilliant baker.
Much like building a gingerbread house, building a successful baking business takes a series of steps. In my experience, there is no way around excellence, so the first step is to make sure that your baking is beautiful. The same is true for all facets of the confectionery world, including cake decorating, catering, educational classes, online or counter service stores, speciality service, or sit-down bakeries.
Being phenomenal does not mean needing to make elaborate cakes that take days to complete. You can start simple, with what you know you make exceptionally well, until you have established a stable income stream from that product. When you draw up your basic menu, choose recipes that you can make beautifully every time. By playing to my strengths and growing from there, I was able to minimise time, overheads and ingredient waste.
Match your mentors.
Not all mentors will be the correct fit for your business vision. Making sure they match the industry you are entering and having more than one will help diversify your skills. For example, if you want to start an e-commerce bakery, make sure you’re being mentored by people who work within both the confectionery and e-commerce space. I’ve had the privilege of being mentored by a few amazing businesswomen whose success is measured internationally.
Having multiple mentors who are much better at you in your industry not only inspires you but will help you observe as they scale their businesses. My mentors include Eunice Borchers and Suzi Witt. They allowed me to hone my craft, answered questions that I had before they evolved into costly mistakes, and modelled sound, safe and stable business strategies I still use today.
Celebrate your customers.
Customer service is everything. To stand out, you need unique eye-catching products, displayed brilliantly, and great service. It’s a common mistake that e-commerce businesses do not pay enough attention to the customer’s digital experience of ordering, buying and paying. Just like you’d not open a bakery in a building that’s not up to scratch, trying to open an e-commerce store that’s not properly set up is a recipe for disaster.
There are two ways to properly set up your digital space. One is to hire professional web developers that know e-commerce very well. The other is to do courses until you can upskill to the point where you can build your site.
Balance the bitter and the sweet.
As with any recipe, having an e-commerce bakery comes with both pros and cons. The sweeter side of the deal is that your customers can be from anywhere – which gives your product impressive reach and influence if your digital presence is up to standard. The downside is that you are running a business 24/7, which can be overwhelming.
Finding the sweet spot in how you manage your time between work, family and play will help you cope with the unavoidable stress of starting a business. You may also need a better equipped and sized kitchen than what you have; planning for these investments and improvements is imperative. Until you can purchase these items, remember to keep menu ideas elegant, excellent and realistic.
Pay for specialist skills when you need to stand out from the crowd.
If you can perform a skill better than anyone else in the business you will be able to charge more for your time and increase your profit. The exclusivity of your skill also gives you a concrete competitive edge over any competitor; however, there are some challenges unique to running a speciality service.
I find that I often have to manage unrealistic client expectations that are an unfortunate side effect of reality baking shows. In these shows, they conveniently leave out the hours of work that go into our craft. Handmade and custom cakes are not cheap. I find that once I’ve educated my clients on the intricacies of my craft, we usually have a far more harmonious relationship.
Have a recipe for your success.
Planning is essential to all aspects of your business and formalising it into a business plan has the power to make you feel like you are really on your way. Your business plan should start with an assessment of who your market will be and a deep dive into where your ideal customer shops, eats, travels, and how much they spend. This will determine where you market your business and what the price of your products will be to place you in that market.
For an e-commerce business, your plan should detail the budget for digital expenses such as website development, digital marketing like Google ads, and social media marketing. It should outline goals like how much you realistically expect to earn in the first year, what percentage of your turnover you will put back into the business, and your business growth goals based on your research.
Price precisely.
How you price your goods is one of the leading factors that will determine how successful your business will become. Being mindful of expenses like packaging, consumables, ingredients, your time, and where your skill level is, all impacts your bottom line. Marketing for the launch of your start-up and the long term must be priced into every sale.
Be aware too if your market is seasonal, such as wedding cakes, you need to save a little for the slower months. Equipment needs to be maintained and replaced and included in your pricing. That way, when your tools have hit the end of their life, you will have the budget to replace them.
Ordering skills.
Make sure you order the correct amount of perishable ingredients and avoid the expense of ingredients going off by keeping detailed records of what you use so you can see seasonal trends and order accordingly. This will be difficult in the beginning, but once you are up and running for a few months you will have a better idea of the number of ingredients you use and order accordingly.
There may also be licensing and legal requirements for starting an e-commerce bakery in your home, so be sure to phone your local municipality to check on the health and safety requirements. They are different in every area and a business lawyer or accountant will be able to help you with the legal requirements.
While now it’s easy to sit back and explain your business journey, the truth is it took years of hard work, many mistakes, and lessons. There are three ingredients in the baking business you cannot go without. Butter, patience, and persistence.