Opening and growing a bakery business is a pretty awesome career choice. But don’t let your excitement cause you to push ahead too fast and make amateur mistakes. Follow these five tips for starting your bakery successfully.
Once you’ve decided to start your business and have a plan to get things moving, the first step is to get your business license and permits as required by local state, city and county government regulations. Even if you decide to start small by operating the business out of your home, you still need to follow the rules. Your kitchen will need to be inspected by the local health inspector and fire department. You can get around this by using a community kitchen that already has all the permits required by law, but you’ll still need to register your business name and get a tax license to get started.
Once your bakery business outgrows your home or community kitchen—or if you get a business loan and go big from the start—you’re going to need some help. Don’t be too quick to hire an employee and rush the interview process. It’s a lot more stressful and more expensive to fire a lousy employee than it is to hire a good one right from the start. Take your time and make wise hiring choices.
Promoting your small business is easier and cheaper today than ever before, thanks to social media and the internet. But you still need to know what you’re doing, and you need to be consistent. Are you going to run a small local bakery, or a wider-covering bread distribution company like Klosterman Baking Company? Hit-and-run social media and blogging efforts won’t be enough to build up a solid customer base. If you can’t keep up with the work of marketing your business, then hire a professional to handle the promotion side for you.
When starting a new business, cash flow is king. You won’t have positive cash flow for a while, so it’s important to be very careful about every expenditure. If you can live without it, then don’t buy it. Don’t spend your precious bill money on unnecessary things like the latest and greatest kitchen equipment, computers and gold-plated business cards. Pay your bills, set money aside for taxes and then splurge on upgrades when the profits make those purchases justified.
Eventually, your bakery will be so successful that you’ll want to open another location or get some distribution deals to put your products in other stores. Spend some time researching the options available to day, such as franchising, food trucks, online sales and delivery services from GrubHub, UberEats and others.
Running a bakery is a big responsibility and takes a lot of hard work. When you decide to take the plunge into entrepreneurship, be sure to follow local regulations, budget your money wisely, hire great people, take advantage of online marketing opportunities and have some ideas in mind for expansion.
Dixie Somers is a freelance writer and blogger for business, home, and family niches. Dixie lives in Phoenix, Arizona, and is the proud mother of three beautiful girls and wife to a wonderful husband.