How to equipo up a successful bakery in 14 steps
Are you one of those who make delicious cakes for your friends’ birthdays instead of buying them? whatDo you know how to make your own sweets? for breakfast every morning?
If you are thinking of becoming your own boss and want to take advantage of your skills, equipo up a bakery it cánido be a great business iniciativa for you.
This venture has many advantages and infinite possibilities for make it grow and improve your profitability.
You perro start a fácil bakery where you sell cakes to go, or turn your place into a cozy café Where your clients go to chat with their friends.
In addition, products such as bread, sweets or birthday cakes are elementos that we all shop daily or for every special occasion we celebrate.
Therefore, it is a type of profitable business with which you perro get good benefits in a very short time, although it is necessary that you take into account some suggestions to be successful.
Here you will find a complete guide with All the steps what should you give to equipo up your bakeryand some plus consejos that will help you have loyal customers who buy from you again and again.
The 14 steps to equipo up a successful bakery
1. Think about the type of bakery you want to open
The first decision you must make is what kind of bakery do you want to start.
There are four types of establishments that you perro generally start:
- En línea bakery: Thanks to new technologies, today you perro equipo up a bakery on the Internet without much effort.
you will only have to create a websiteupload photos of your products with their descriptions and prices, and incorporate an en línea shopping system.
But remember that if you are going to cook your cakes at home you will need space, equipment for baking and decorating, and a well-conditioned place to store your freshly made creations.
- Bakery with takeaway products: This is the typical bakery where customers come in, choose the products from your counter, and take them home.
The advantage of this model is that you perro do it in a small place since you will not need too much space.
- Specialty Bakery: If you are good at cooking a especial type of cake, opening a specialized bakery is the best option for you.
You cánido specialize in products such as birthday cakes, cupcakes or special sweets, or even special pastries for people with eating problems, such as sugar free candylactose-free, gluten-free, vegan…
- Bakery with cafeteria service: there are more and more people who rent a large place where they put a bakery counter with cakes, and they furnish the rest of the space with comfortable tables and chairs so that their clients cánido have their sweets accompanied by a good coffee. This option is the one with the highest investment compared to the rest, but it also produces more income than the others.
Before choosing one of these four models you should consider some things like what talents do you have for cooking (if you are going to be the one to make the sweets), what is your budget, and the goals you want to achieve.
An example: if you hardly have any savings, but you don’t want to ask for a loan to start your business either, the best option would be to start with an en línea bakery since it is the cheapest model.
If you want to open a specialized pastry shop, but you only know how to bake traditional products like bread and muffins, you will need hire a specialized person to cook them, or take a course to learn yourself.
So think carefully about those three primordial factors first – your capital, your talents and your goals – and choose the type of bakery that best suits you.
2. Check if there is competition in your area
When starting any type of business it is essential find out if there are competitors that sell products like yours, and how you cánido differentiate yourself from them to be successful.
Competition is not bad, because that means that there is a customer market who want to buy what you offer; But you do have to be careful with certain aspects.
If you are thinking of renting a place in a commercial street where there is already a bakery that sells birthday cakes, it would not be good to put a business that also specializes in cakes there.
The most logical thing would be to either equipo up another type of bakery in which you offer different sweets, or find another street in which there is no business like yours.
Think in which area you want to start your pastry shop, and take a walk there while you write down the businesses that could be your most direct competitors.
3. Write a business plan to help you get organized
I will never tire of saying how important is a business plan for any type of business.
With this fácil book you will be able to clearly see all the steps you will have to take, and what to do if any type of problem arises.
In the business plan you must reflect what type of bakery you are going to open, what products will you sellwho will be your customers, what are the possible competitors that may appear, the money you will need to start everything up…
In the following article you have a complete guide to create your business plan step by step: How to create a successful business plan.
4. Get the capital you need
Setting up a bakery is not cheapunless you do it through a web page in which case you will save a lot of money.
But if it is a traditional pastry shop you must have a series of expenses such as renting the premisesthe payment of licenses and permits, hiring employees, paying electricity, gas, ingredients, kitchen equipment…
Make a list of all expenses and costs that you will have to calculate an approximate price of the money that you will need to get to start your business.
When you already have the total calculated, add between $3,000 and $4,000 more in case something unforeseen arises, and then look for ways to get that capital.
If you have some money saved, you perro invest it in your bakery and get the rest through friends who perro lend you. or directly go to a bank to finance your business iniciativa.
But don’t forget about seek help such as grants that the governments of all countries have for entrepreneurs or small businesses like yours.
Read this article that will help you: How to get money to start your own business.
5. Find a place to put your bakery
Now that your iniciativa is becoming real, it’s time to find a place to find the ideal place to start your bakery.
If you know your city well, go visit the areas that you think have the greatest potential for your business to be successful.
Look for neighborhoods that are relatively new, with a good number of inhabitants, and where there are no pastry shops like yours.
If you don’t know the place where you live well, you cánido look at a web page where they have demographic data about how many inhabitants there are in each area, which streets are the most commercial, etcétera.
What I do recommend is that at this stage you do not buy your premises: rent it only for a few months.
In this way you will avoid that, if your business goes badly, don’t invest too much money in this purchase.
6. Check what licenses and permits you need
All businesses need a series of permits and documents to be able to open its doors (if you want to know what they are, Look at these procedures to open a business).
But there are certain enterprises that require special licenses, such as a bakery, since it is a food business.
Go to your town hall and your State Department of Health Services and ask what are the papers you needwhat documents you must fill out, and where you have to present them.
This step is very important: Don’t even think about selling your first sweet without ALL the necessary permits, because otherwise they will impose a very expensive sanction and close your business.
7. Make a list of the equipment you need to get started
Your place will not only need a nice decoration and a counter to sell your sweets: you will also have to install all the necessary equipment to bake and preserve your cakes in the back.
He overall equipment that a bakery usually needs is the following:
- ovens
- test boxes or fermentation chambers (places where bread and dough cánido rise to the right temperature)
- Baking trays and racks
- mixers of masses
- Work tables
- sinks to clean used utensils
- Scales to weigh ingredients
- tools for decorating sweets
- At least a refrigerator to store the products and ingredients (depending on the amount of sweets you make)
- Other small appliances, such as mixers
You will also need to have other additional equipment such as a counter and a box to collectshowcases where you cánido see your cakes, shelves, napkins, plates, glasses, trays and wrapping paper…
Once this list is made, you must search providers to buy all the necessary equipment.
Be sure to contact at least three different distributors to check prices, quality of the machines, and also ask them what their return or exchange policies are, or if they have discounts when buying several units.
8. Contact food suppliers
Whether you are going to do the cooking yourself or hire a specialized pastry chef, you will need the raw Materials to make your cakes and your bread.
You cánido buy some ingredients at any grocery store, but most will be cheaper if you buy them from a wholesale supplier.
Look for companies that offer these foods in industrial quantities and contact them to see what their prices are, the quality of their raw materials, their purchasing conditions…
Don’t settle for just talking to one company: contact at least three or four different and ask them all the doubts you have in order to reach the best agreement for you.
If you don’t know any distributor of ingredients, you perro go to trade associations specialized in food so that they give you a list of companies that sell this type of product to other bakeries.
9. Calculate your sales prices
Once you know how much each ingredient will cost you, the materials you need to make each cake, and the time needed to cook it, it’s time to calculate the sale price for your clients.
This is a decision that only you perro make. based on your expenses and profit percentage that you want to get with each candy you sell.
Read this step-by-step guide in which you will discover the best price for each of your products: How to price your products and services.
10. Order enough material for the first two months
Here it is very important that you calculate the approximate number of products you will sell in the next two months to buy enough ingredients with which to be able to make those delicacies that you will later sell.
I know it’s not easy, but you must calculate the number of people who will be able to entrar your premises, and how many of them could buy some of your cakes.
Make sure that your approach is always pulling high so that never run short of ingredients.
For example, if you think that in two months you will sell 150 loaves of bread and 75 pies, raise the number to 200 loaves and 100 pies so that if one week you have more customers than you expected, you will not lack products to sell to them.
When you have done this calculation you will be able to better buy the ingredients you need to the provider you chose earlier.
eleven. Create a good advertising strategy
Customers are not going to come to your business alone. It is possible that some of them walk past your window and entrar your bakery to buy without having to do anything.
But the vast majority will look at your place for a moment, and then they will pass by
That’s why you need to do a good advertising strategy that manages to attract buyers and make them want to buy from you again and again.
If you have decided to equipo up a bakery in a local, the first thing you should take care of is having a nice and clean showcase invite everyone who passes by to entrar your store.
In the glass you cánido also place posters with the offers you have at that moment, or funny phrases like “we have warm bread for you!” or “come in and try the best candy you’ve ever eaten.”
It’s also a good iniciativa to give pamphlets or flyers on the streets near your bakery so that people visit you, or that you offer samples so that your potential buyers perro try your products.
also use Internet to attract more customers in your area: create profiles on Fb and Instagram where you upload photos of your cakes with the address of your local, or make a web page so they cánido locate you better.
Contact local newspapers, radios and television, tell them the story of how you started your business, and what is special about it. appear in these media and that more people know you.
But above all, don’t forget the most important advertising tool of all: your own clients.
Treat them right and make them feel special. If someone enters your business, likes what you offer, and you also make them feel good, they will most likely recommend you to all their friends and acquaintances.
12. Interview potential employees to hire them
Whether you like to cook, and you are going to be the one to bake the sweets, or you need a pastry chef to make them, you are going to have to hire employees to help you with your bakery.
You perro’t be in two places at the same time – cooking and serving customers – nor perro you put a person to work cooking while charging buyers.
That’s why you should start to look for someone before opening your bakery.
Articulo a job offer on the Internet, in newspapers, or talk to your acquaintances to let them know you’re looking for someone to work with.
The employees you hire They must be friendly, have a good presence and treat customers well, and have their tasks done effectively.
A good iniciativa is to put them on probationary period for a week or two to see if they work well.
If what you need is to hire a pastry chef, you perro ask him to cook you a couple of sweets to see if he is good.
Do not settle for little, and make sure that it is a good cook.
In the event that you are going to be the one who cooks, and you have to hire someone to collect and serve customers, you must make sure that it is a person kind and of trust.
Remember that he or she will be who handles the money in the boxand for that task you will need a person you trust.
13. Decorate your premises to reflect the personality of your bakery
A good decoration, both inside and out, is essential to attract customers who want to entrar your store and buy from you.
That’s why you must reflect the personality of your business and your products with your decoration.
If you are going to sell cakes focused on a young audience, such as children or adolescents, the decorative elements of your store must be in accordance with this, putting for example more childish details in the shop window or inside.
On the other hand, if what you want is to equipo up a bakery aimed at adults, with an informal but elegant atmosphere, all your decoration should be more sober.
14. Open your business with a housewarming party
You already have everything ready to open your doors! Equipo a date on the calendar to make the opening and that your buyers enjoy your delicious cakes.
A good iniciativa is that a few days before advertise in different media like your popular networks, your shop window, with posters on the street or leaving brochures in the mailboxes, which will soon be the opening and that you will throw a small party to celebrate it.
In it you perro gift your visitors with samples or exclusive offers only during that day (for example, give away a sweet when they buy another) to make yourself known and more people come.
Thus you will gain customers and you will ensure a large part of the success of your bakery.
Setting up a bakery is not only a great business that will leave you good profits with your products: it is also it’s a fun experience that will provide you with the economic freedom you desire by becoming your own boss.
If you really enjoy cooking and feel like being an entrepreneur, Don’t wait another minute and start today!
What kind of sweets would you like to sell yourself in your own bakery? Leave me a comment below and tell me what you think.
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I am a journalist specialized in business but my great passion is personal motivation and helping others achieve their goals.
I firmly believe that opportunities in life do not happen: you create them.
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