BAKERY BUSINESS: How to start a lucrative home-based bakery business

Bakery Business

Bakery business is an establishment that sells baked food typically cake, bread, pies, cookies and pastries, baking business is cost-effective and are enormously captivating.

Are you that persons who bake’s killer breads, cakes, pastries etc and you intend to make money out of it?

Look no further.

The Introduction to Bakery Business

Baking is the cooking of food by dry heat in an oven in which the dry convection heat is modified by steam. There are three methods of baking:

1. Dry baking
2. Increased Humidity baking
3. Main Maire, this is baking food in a container of water and allows the food to cook slowly.

Baking business is broad that is why it’s salient to have a survey of the market and what it will entail to start up, this would include cost of equipment’s, advert and lots more.

Secondly, before you get started into any baking business you must know your niche and create a profile for yourself that stands out.

There are pros and cons of baking business.

Pros

1. It is high in profit and less expensive to start.
2. You can start small and from the comfort of your home.
3. It encourages creativity.
4. Faithful customer: A tasty product sells itself, keeps your client and increases your customer base.
5. Viable Market: not many can resist the aroma of a freshly baked pastries, bread, cookies etc.
6. Possibility for Growth: you might not expand the size of your bakery but you can increase the number of different baked products.

Cons

The baking industry is a multi-billion dollar business yet it has its grey areas.  

1. Product elasticity: if you do not sell they perish because they do not have a long shelve life. 
2. Competition: the industry is flooded with the good the bad and the ugly, and diverse bakeries. However, with a feasible and workable plan you can grow your business from zero to hundred.
3. High cost of equipment and ingredient. There is no guaranty that you will sell daily or make production cut and yet you will still need cash at hand to make fresh goods available every day.
4. Working Hours; the times for production are usually the times most people are still in bed. The work is tedious when you don’t have enough equipment’s to suffice.
5. Regulation: any food production company goes through lots of scrutiny and you are expected to scale the health and safety inspection at your production house and sale house.

You will also need certification proving your skill as a baker but not every baking business is exposed to this exploration.

The success of the baking business is dependent of the quality of the baker. I will mention 5 good qualities of a baker.

1. A good baker should be well grounded in their niche.
2. They should have expert knowledge on products and ingredients, and their differences, preparation process and costing.
3. A baker should be creative which means that they should regularly come up with new recipes and innovations.
4. He/She baker should be conversant with the reactions of products when they are mixed together.
5. Lastly, a good baker should be able to experiment with flavors because baking is a combination of art and science.

How to Start a Bakery Business From Home

Homes baking business has been around for a very long time and before you decide to turn that passion or desire as a newbies into a profit making venture there are a few pros and cons you need to know about the industry.

Pros

1. Who doesn’t like home baked bread, cake, pastries or cookies, there’s always a market for hot freshly baked products.
2. As long as you have a kitchen home baking business is easy to start with the right baking knowledge.
3. Putting creativity and uniqueness into your baked goods is a huge advantage of home baking.
4. You can sell locally or online it all depends on the baked products, shelve life and the propensity for it to be delivered.

Cons

Every industry has its drawbacks home bakery business is not left out.

1. Food business comes with health regulations and each state has its laws that governance the health department as regards food sale items.
2. If your demands grow you will like have to move your production to a bigger location.
3. Competition is high and you will need to put extra effort if you intend to succeed in the industry.
4. You will have to sell more products in other to meet your income goals and expenditure.
5. You might be required to have separate equipment from the ones you use in your kitchen and also a separate kitchen, this regulation is placed in some state.

In addition, before starting a home bakery business you should have the knowledge of safe food preparation and baking skill, for example if you have any kind of nuts in your baking you will need to warn your customer in cases of allergic.

Having knowledge on retail service is advantageous, research and understand the flaws and success of your competitors it will gain you edge over the lots. Lastly, be prepared for regular visit by the state health inspection team.

10 steps to setting up a home bakery business

1. Choose the products you what you want to bake
2. Research the laws and regulations of your state base in respect to food service business.
3. Procure the needed license and permit your business needs to kick off, this is provided by the state and information regarding the obtaining process are online.
4. Tax: you can get your sales tax permit online and they are free dependent on your state or country of operation, its important that you find out if you are to collect sales tax on your product, this information will be fashioned by state’s tax or comptroller office.
5. Choose what bakery business entity you want to operate. Its either a Limited liability Company, partnership or  a Sole Proprietorship but it is advisable to not settle for a  Sole Proprietorship to protect your personal asset from future lawsuit.
6. Write a business plan
7. Purchase equipment and supplies separate from what you use in your kitchen.
8. Get a business logo and order a fantastic packaging that will have your logo on it.  
9. Marketing strategy: this is the core heart of any business growth. Great products but no sale is the fault of poor marketing strategy, print flyers, face to face marketing, open social accounts (Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter etc.) don’t open social accounts that you don’t personally control because that is the face of your business online.
10. Maximize your selling point which could be online, offline, order service or specialty service.

Bakery Business Ideas

·      Bread Making

·      Cake Sales

·      Wedding Cake Creation

·      Candy Making

·      Pie Making

·      Vegan Bakery

·      Gluten-Free Bakery

·      Event Catering

·      Dessert Food Truck

·      Freelance Cafe Baking

·      Baking Supplies Store

·      Online baking Course Creation

·      Food/baking Blogging

·      YouTube Personality

·      Baking Kit Sales

·      Baking App

·      Baking recipes or printable guides online sales

·      Baking Product Reviews

·      Baking Specialty Ingredients

·      Sales Pastry Chef Service

·      Baking Supplies Store Artisan Donuts Shop

Bakery Business cards

A bakery business card is a fast way to share contact information with someone it could be a potential client or partner, a business card is better than writing your number down on a piece of paper. Only important information’s are needed on a business card for example Name and business name, email address, phone number, business logo, etc.

Here are a sample of business cards and you can find more templates on Pinterest.com

Bakery Business plan

The following information should be included in your business plan formation.

• Executive Summary should contain what makes your brand stand out and your expected growth progression and why that will make it succeed. You will need to write a strong angle in your first paragraph, take advantage of concise words, in addition add your business strength or what unique service you provide.

If you are writing to get sponsors, know who your investors are and write words that will pulsate with them and it will be easy to understand. Lastly, be truthful and avoid words claims that you can’t defend.

• Company Overview and Description section should clearly state your niche, your theme, target audience, special features or recipes, a clear cut out strategy plans, legal structure and your immediate and future goals.

• Market Analysis is the area where you will state how you intend to fit into the industry. You will start the outcome of your research which will include the demographics, the trends, your competitors, codes and regulation and comprehensive financial information. This should also state what platform you intend to use for marketing online and offline.

• Business Offerings section would focus on the products and services you intend to sell, where you intend to buy your equipment’s and ingredients, what new product you will be selling if any, what special product you will sell and do you intend to patent it or is the product unique to culture and if there are elements that will cause there to be limitations on your products.

• Management is very important so therefore it should state the organogram of your establishment, how many staff you will be employing, will you be baking yourself or supervising, who takes part in the day to day decision making and policy making, will it be a partnership entity and how the percentage of the company will be shared.

• Financial Projections should explain how your bakery business will fare in the future even though you can certainly ascertain what the financial projections will hold.

Create a realistic step by step formal business plan that will turn your vision into a reality and help potential investors understand your financial strategy on how you intend to grow the bakery business; this can help you secure an investor.

In conclusion, detail the day to day running cost of the bakery and how you intend to pay suppliers, bills and salaries, in other not to get stuck, practically project duration of time profit will begin to turn in, this will further assure and impress your investors or potentials that your bakery business will be lucrative.

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