Thinking of opening a bakery? This thought has certainly crossed the mind of any individual with passion for baking at some point. After all, there’s nothing better than doing something you enjoy while also getting paid to do it.
While running a bakery can be an amazing opportunity to showcase your creativity, knowledge, and skillset, it also means that you’re the one in charge of everything. This can be as daunting as it is thrilling, but with a couple of handy tips in mind, you can learn how to start a bakery that will rise to all occasions. Below, your bakery entrepreneurship 101.
Consider the bakery business model you want to use
First things first, you want to make sure you have a clear vision for your bakery business. Do you imagine the classic counter service where you’re baking and selling products yourself? Perhaps you’re looking to unite people’s love for coffee and pastry by opening a bakery cafe? Maybe you’re attracted to the idea of moving from events to festivals to street fairs to meet the demand for delicious pastry while driving a food truck? Or, maybe you want to take things slow and set up a home bakery with fewer start-up costs.
The truth is, there are many routes you can take when looking to start and run a food business. They all have their pros and cons though. Ultimately, it’s up to you to decide which bakery business model is the most suitable for you.
Decide on the type of baked goods you’re looking to sell
Start a bakery
Photo: Pexels
Once you’re settled on the business model you’ll use, you can move on to the fun part – deciding about the types of products you want to sell. From bagels and bread to pastries and donuts, there’s a wide array of baked goods to choose from. While some bakery owners choose to focus on one particular product, many of them decide to offer a wider variety of goods.
Wholesale frozen bakery products are your best bet in this case since this ensures that your bakery business will be supplied with baked goods at rather competitive prices. Once your bakery is established, make sure to introduce new offerings to your range of baked goods. Give some thought to your pricing strategy as this will ultimately determine the success of your products.
Come up with a solid business plan
Having a detailed business plan in place goes a long way in helping your bakery business succeed. Just like baking, you need to gather all the important ingredients in one place to make sure you’re not missing anything. Think of it as your roadmap. Use it as a visual aid to help you cover everything that’s important in a progressive, step-by-step manner. It will also come in handy when you’re presenting your ideas to the investors and help you ensure funding.
Other than helping you clearly visualize your business goals and tackle financial management, a business plan will also serve as a guide for navigating your target market. Once you’ve tackled market research – which is a vital component of a business plan – you’ll manage to lower the risks while also getting a clearer understanding of your consumer base.
Think about different aspects of setting up a bakery
While choosing which products to sell and coming up with a name for your bakery is definitely one of the funner parts of starting a bakery business, you also need to consider other important aspects that will inevitably affect the success of your business. For starters, you’ll need to set up your bakery at the right location while factoring in things such as competition, cost, and store traffic. Then you need to consider the design of your bakery, the floor plan flow, and whether the plan includes areas such as customer waiting area, customer restrooms, and the like.
Finally, you’ll need to spend some time and money on the type of bakery equipment your business needs, and make sure you meet all the different legal requirements including zoning laws and permits. Once all of this is in place, all that’s left is to create a captivating marketing campaign for your bakery business. This will help draw in the customers and make sure that they come back for more.
Wrapping up
The process of starting a bakery business is very much like the baking process itself. You ought to make sure that nothing is missing and tackle everything step by step. You also want to enjoy the process as much as possible, and you definitely don’t want to rush things.
Keep these tips in mind as you embark on your entrepreneurial journey and you should have no problem getting your bakery business off the ground and ensuring it runs smoothly.
Main Photo: Pexels
