Do you have a particular skill for baking amazing cakes that everyone wants more of?
Perhaps you could utilise your talent and set up your own home baking business.
Often the most successful businesses are owned by people who are interested and genuinely enjoy their area of expertise. Home baking businesses often arise when friends and family start to ask you to bake for them. It is possible that you may have become inundated with requests for wedding cakes, birthday cakes and tray bakes.If you really enjoy baking, what an enjoyable way to make a living! It may seem a little daunting to take the plunge and officially set up your own home baking business, but it would be a shame to let fear hold you back from sharing your wonderful talent.
The following tips may help you on your way to success.
Decide on your unique selling point
Decide what type of baked goods you would like to sell. How are these different to your
competitors? Do you have a particular skill for baking children’s birthday cakes? Niche aspects
to your baking could be to offer allergen free cakes.
Write a business plan
There are plenty of online templates to help you with writing a business plan. You will need to
think about your preparation areas, how you will fund your business, going self-employed,
pricing of goods and costs incurred from meeting food hygiene regulations.
Purchase Equipment
Hopefully you will have a range of kitchen equipment suitable for your business start up.
However you may need to purchase additional equipment to meet food hygiene regulations also baking on a large scale may require some of your equipment to be upgraded.
Branding
It is very important to develop your own unique brand, it is something you could be thinking of
now even in the planning stage! You can then start to look at how you are going to advertise
your brand.
Bake
Of course you need products to be able to sell, so once you have registered with the necessary
people ie your local authority and met all food safety regulations, there is only one thing left to
do regarding products and that is to Bake!
Sell
Selling your cakes is of course key in ensuring that your business is a success. During the
process of writing your business plan you probably identified different outlets for your cakes to be sold. Word of mouth and a great reputation goes a long way, however it will be important to build your brand online to reach both local and national customers. Leaflet deliveries, advertising in local magazines and having a stall at wedding fayres will all help you to promote your brand and delicious baking. The proof of the pudding is in the eating – therefore offer samples to local shops and cafes, they may want to stock your baked goods on a regular basis.
Who know where the future may lead? One day you may have your bakes featured in a high
profile food and drink festival.