Bake sale tips! Small (very small) business starting tips?

[Shay]

anyone have tips on starting a bake sale in your community? I’ve relocated to Florida, and read that licenses aren’t necessary in homemade food sales. Anyone have insight in how I could go about having a bake sale?

anyone have tips in starting a small baking business, small treats and what not? Long term I’d love to have a small business, so I’m trying to take the baby steps. (Any potential partners out there)??

 

[ShuBunny]

Hey Shay,
I had a small bake business last year. Food licenses are not strict in my country.

best tips I got was from Norcalbaker.
1. NEVER ever give discounts to friends and family unless I am giving same discounts to everyone.
2. Perfect your recipe that you intend to sell and make sure you can repeat it EXACTLY.
3. find out the the competition prices and price yours CORRECTLY.

I fed my test bakes to close friends until the bakes were fine tuned. Then counted my costs and profit and started selling to wider network of friends.

due to covid then, I didn’t get sell at public places.

but someone got me to supplmuffins to a small bakery.

My tips for you:
1. start with a VERY small number of bakes that you have perfected and are memorable.

For a home baker, a few favorites seem to do better than many but meh.

2. Remember to include packaging into pricing.
Ribbons, boxes, paper dollies, carrier bags. Gift tags. Your name cards. Heating instruction cards. Bubble wrap. Etc.

These cost add up! Especially for a small baker ordering in small volumes.

My friend priced her delicate cookies at $10, got some orders. Found that paper boxes crushed them. Orders plastic boxes at $8 each. Made a loss.

good luck! Happy baking

 

[ShuBunny]

Sorry! No bake sale experience

 

[Shay]

Hey Shay,
I had a small bake business last year. Food licenses are not strict in my country.

best tips I got was from Norcalbaker.
1. NEVER ever give discounts to friends and family unless I am giving same discounts to everyone.
2. Perfect your recipe that you intend to sell and make sure you can repeat it EXACTLY.
3. find out the the competition prices and price yours CORRECTLY.

I fed my test bakes to close friends until the bakes were fine tuned. Then counted my costs and profit and started selling to wider network of friends.

due to covid then, I didn’t get sell at public places.

but someone got me to supplmuffins to a small bakery.

My tips for you:
1. start with a VERY small number of bakes that you have perfected and are memorable.

For a home baker, a few favorites seem to do better than many but meh.

2. Remember to include packaging into pricing.
Ribbons, boxes, paper dollies, carrier bags. Gift tags. Your name cards. Heating instruction cards. Bubble wrap. Etc.

These cost add up! Especially for a small baker ordering in small volumes.

My friend priced her delicate cookies at $10, got some orders. Found that paper boxes crushed them. Orders plastic boxes at $8 each. Made a loss.

good luck! Happy baking

Wow thank you so much for this insight, this is extremely helpful <3!

 

[georg2344]

Hello, the best way to sell your baked goods is to set up a website and advertise it, this is probably the only best idea because I don't see another one, unless your friends tell other people and come to you

 

[Shay]

Hello, the best way to sell your baked goods is to set up a website and advertise it, this is probably the only best idea because I don't see another one, unless your friends tell other people and come to you

I was thinking of doing this im just unsure about what platform to set it up on, but I’ll keep on with the research. Thank you!

 

[ShuBunny]

I was thinking of doing this im just unsure about what platform to set it up on, but I’ll keep on with the research. Thank you!

Hey Shay.

If cost is a an issue - go with free to use platforms first.

a website has
- annual domain name cost
- web hosting cost
- design costs,
- design updating costs etc.
and no one will find your website unless you are
1. Writing shit loads of blog articles to get the search bots to rank your website highly
2. Paying a digital marketing agency to buy digital ads to advertise your website.

companies with websites tend have a viable biz first before they spend on a website.

but this depends on your pockets.

going with free to use, such as Instagram/ Facebook/ Twitter or whatever is popular in your are. I love Instagram for food. And
Extremely importantly - using hashtags. They will bring likeminded browsers to your instragram.
eg: #floridahomeba

this keeps costs Low at the start, and gives you a public link that you can pass on.

when you business picks up, consider e-commerce sites.
I don’t have Florida context, but www.Shopee.com is popular where I am at. The platform takes a fee. But you just need to focus on getting your orders out.


Finally, when you are ready for a website, instead of designing from scratch, consider Shopify - they are semi ready made and intuitive for small biz owners dOing retail

good luck.

 

[Shay]

Hey Shay.

If cost is a an issue - go with free to use platforms first.

a website has
- annual domain name cost
- web hosting cost
- design costs,
- design updating costs etc.
and no one will find your website unless you are
1. Writing shit loads of blog articles to get the search bots to rank your website highly
2. Paying a digital marketing agency to buy digital ads to advertise your website.

companies with websites tend have a viable biz first before they spend on a website.

but this depends on your pockets.

going with free to use, such as Instagram/ Facebook/ Twitter or whatever is popular in your are. I love Instagram for food. And
Extremely importantly - using hashtags. They will bring likeminded browsers to your instragram.
eg: #floridahomeba

this keeps costs Low at the start, and gives you a public link that you can pass on.

when you business picks up, consider e-commerce sites.
I don’t have Florida context, but www.Shopee.com is popular where I am at. The platform takes a fee. But you just need to focus on getting your orders out.


Finally, when you are ready for a website, instead of designing from scratch, consider Shopify - they are semi ready made and intuitive for small biz owners dOing retail

good luck.

Thank you so much, you have no idea how helpful that is! I was told Facebook marketplace might be good to start. I had Instagram but deactivated it I feel like Facebook may be more productive. Thank you again

 

[ShuBunny]

Hi @Shay,
Yes! Facebook marketplace! I forgot about that.

And the fact that Facebook and Instagram have merged will make it easier for you to post pics in those two platforms - using Facebook Business Suite. That’s is free to use too.

happy holidays!

 

[Ladylivesfree]

How's Florida? I want to move to freedom soon as I can! craigslist. local community center, donate to kids pta with little name cards so parents can sample. good luck

 

[retired baker]

Miserable For baking.
I worked a season in Sarasota, the humidity played havoc with everything.

 

[GrowthBakeryBusiness]

Hi @Shay,

If you need to grow your business, you need to start doing the following things:

1) Create your e-commerce website
2) Blogging
3) Google My Business Page
4) Create a Facebook and Instagram page, engagement
5) Advertisements

Let me explain in detail,

1) Create your e-commerce website
You can create your e-commerce website on WordPress or Shopify platform,

For the WordPress platform, you need to buy a domain name and Webhosting on a yearly basis
A domain name is a unique IP/name on the internet that can your target customer search for your brand name.
A Webhosting means a small hard disk space in which your website is stored.

You can buy a domain name and web hosting for Godaddy or Bluehost, services of both are excellent.
After you buy a domain name and web hosting you will get a control panel login detail -> after login you can install the WordPress
->completations installation the WordPress you can log in -> install the Woocommerce plugins (for e-commerce) ->
Now you can add multiple products with price.
Note: Upload high-quality images)
(If you still don't understand don't worry I already attached the PDF guide)

The Shopify Platform is very simple and easy to use. Only you need to pay monthly fees.
It has already many goods apps, you need to install apps. My recommendation is "Store Pickup + Delivery by Zapiet".

For Payment Gateway, you can use Paypal or Stipe integration.

( I know it sounds more difficult and technical but I tried as short as possible! )

2) Blogging
Blogging is the best method to get more visibility to your local clients. Google likes fresh and unique content. So if you update the unique post about your new order, events, or news Google starts ranking your e-commerce website, and result you will get tons of new clients.

3) Google My Business (GMB)
Do you 4 out of 5 people online searching for local intend only. If you do not have Google My Business Account then you are losing 80% of your customers.
Make Google My Business profile for your business...
Update regularly photos of your products or new orders, clients photos...
Ask for good reviews from clients...
These strategies will help you boost your GMB page and rank #1.

4) Create a Facebook and Instagram page, engagement
Don't ignore the power of social media platforms Facebook and especially Instagram.
Create the Facebook and Instagram pages...
On Facebook, your will cover most of elder traffic while Instagram helps you to cover mostly young traffic...
Post regularly new order photos or events...Keep engaging your audience...
Use popular community hashtags, Geographics/location hashtags, don't forget to use your brand hashtags for every post...
Don't use hashtags on Facebook it never works as per my expertise...

5) Advertisements
For getting more clients and sales you can start advertising on Facebook, Instagram, and Google My Business.

PRO Exploding Marketing Tips:
During making an order, post every photo after a certain interval on Instagram and tell your customer to check his/her order on Instagram and follow the page. It will create more engagement with your followers and increase more visibility.
Don't forget to share the link of GMB or Yelp for review.

If you have any queries, you can ask me. I am happy to help you.

 

[cheesycorn]

Thank you so much, you have no idea how helpful that is! I was told Facebook marketplace might be good to start. I had Instagram but deactivated it I feel like Facebook may be more productive. Thank you again

Highly recommend going with a platform like Hotplate - no hosting fees, any technical skills to set up, etc. And it's specifically designed from bakers like us. It has all the features you need as a baker selling goods, from the get go, takes 10 mins to set up, and super affordable.