How to Grow a Baking Business (just like growing a garden)
Consistency in your baking business is crucial to growth.
Consistency is not always an easy thing to come by, especially when we have a million other things on our plate.
By using gardening as an analogy, we can uncover the basics of strategic consistency and lay out a simple path to growth.
Creating Consistency
Even from day zero in your business, consistency should be a TOP PRIORITY.
You can think about consistency in your business, like gardening.
There are plenty of steps to get the garden ready for planting (getting your biz set up), and once you get those seeds in the ground (start selling), you still have to tend to the garden.
There are consistent steps you must perform to make sure your seeds fruit (your business shows return):
1. watering daily (posting on social, word of mouth or intros)
2. pulling weeds (sticking with big hitting products that sell well, instead of getting distracted)
3. trimming (promoting to your ideal client on a regular basis)
4. removing pests (staying on task and not wasting time)
This commitment to the growth and progression of you business, just like a garden, will literally make or break how much fruit (or income) your business can create.
Now don't get me wrong here, you don't have to devote your ENTIRE life to sustaining your business, but you do need to keep it on a front burner if you want to see results. It's as simple as that.
Below, let's discuss each topic in detail, and I will list off some tips to help you deliver more consistency in these areas.
1. Watering Daily
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posting on social media, word of mouth or intros
Thinking about your business like it needs to be watered every day may be a way for you to remember that even just a few minutes of involvement could help sustain your business in the eyes of clients.
It literally can be 3-5 minutes of work a day, if you can pinpoint which platforms work best for your unique style, as a business owner.
Here are some examples of ways you can "water", or consistently maintain, your business.
1. Post on the social platform of your choice everyday or every other day.
Choose from these popular options for posting:
an ad
promotion
sharing a testimonial
expressing your thanks
sharing product images
sharing stories
sharing availability
sharing news
shooting short promo videos
sharing an educational video about your business
Keep these tips in mind about each platform:
Facebook users like to see photos with word posts
Facebook prioritizes posts and videos that have likes and comments
Facebook prioritizes videos that are 3+ minutes long
Instagram prefers that you post once a day or less
Instagram can only support videos of 1 minute or less in regular posting
Instagram photos should be well lit (natural light or photography style lighting)
NOTE: If you are not already using video in your business (even short videos without your face in them) START DOING THIS.
Video is the future, EMBRACE IT!
2. Talk about your business.
Sharing what you do is LOVE. Don't be afraid to let others know what your profession is, in normal conversation.
If it seems like an appropriate time to mention you make XYZ, simply state something like, "Hey, I know you mentioned you were looking for a cake for your event. I run a small bakery and can help you! Here is my contact info and social link if you want to check out my work."
NOTE: Big TIP here, ALWAYS carry business cards with you! Always.
If you would rather be more nonchalant about it, you could always get a teeshirt printed with your business name or logo or something about what you make, and let people talk you up about it. But most of the time, people simply need the service of a baker, and there is nothing wrong with letting them know loud and clear what you do!
3. Intros.
By intros, I just mean making sure people in your industry know who you are. DO NOT hid in the corner. Trust me, this will cost you income and maybe even a lifelong friend. Get out there, stay positive and professional, and let people know you are here to stay (and want to work with them!).
The perfect situation would be if everyone in your industry got along and supported each other, although this will not always be the case. Some people simply don't play well with others.
Hopefully most of your intros will lead to others sending business your way or wanting to partnering with you at some point in the future.
Examples of people to introduce yourself to could be other bakery owners (see my article on The Human Bakery Business Funnel), companies within your industry (like party shops and event centers) and companies that will use your services (like banks, real estate, coffee shops, etc).
You could send a Facebook message, stop by their shop, set up a meeting or propose your own collaboration. In business, the sky is the limit!
2. Pulling Weeds
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sticking with your best products, instead of getting distracted
Pulling weeds, or choosing and nurturing only the best products in your business, is a crucial step to consistency.
It is very easy to get distracted by coming up with yet another product, when in reality you may just need to perfect a product you already have.
Sometimes, as bakers, we get A LOT of requests for tons of items we may or may not already make. And in most cases, we want to create what the customer wants, which normally means we are spending a lot of time working on recipes and designs for an item we may only sell once or twice.
My suggestion would be to play around with new items for maybe the first 6 months of your business. After that point, PULL THOSE WEEDS!
Look as sales data or think back to what people have bought. You want to be focusing on the top selling items in your menu or offerings list. You want to be offering the same products consistently. This creates a more professional and recognizable brand for your business.
It is scientifically proven that too many options will literally stop a person from making a choice, which means you need to clean up that menu! I suggest only offering 3-5 core categories of items. For my business, I chose just three categories (cakes, cupcakes and designer cookies).
Minimizing your products allows you to:
target your market much easier
use similar ads more than once
be known for certain products in your area
solidify your branding around what you offer
allow your customer to have an easier time ordering from you
minimize your bakery gear
have time to develop new flavors or styles of your top selling products
3. Trimming
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promoting to your ideal client on a regular basis
When you think about trimming in your business, I want you to think about the type of people that see your ads and consider buying from you. That might be A LOT of people, and not everyone is going to get to work with you. So by targeting your ideal clients, you are trimming away the extra people who aren't a good fit for your business. This will save you TONS of time and heartache.
You'll need to create an avatar of your "ideal client" in your head, so you can consistently be talking to them through your ads and business brand. What do they do, why are they buying from you, what do they like, etc?
As a business, you will never be able to service EVERYONE, so there is no need to promote and try to sell to EVERYONE. Targeted marketing (even to a smaller number of people) will generate much more sales and income than trying to speak to every single person who eats sweets.
With that being said, here is a mini quiz to help you come up with ad copy geared towards your ideal client.
Once your ad copy is consistently talking to the same type of client you would like to work with, you'll start seeing more and more qualified customers coming your way.
4. Removing Pests
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staying on task/not wasting work time
This part of staying consistent is probably the hardest part of the whole routine for me. I definitely suffer from becoming distracted during my work time. Not only am I the primary caregiver for a 3 year old, I also run another business AND get sucked into Facebook scrolling, just like most other people.
I have a few tips that I use to help with this so I still feel like I got a good chunk of work done each day.
Maybe one or two tactics will work for you too!
1. The Power Hour: If you haven't heard of this concept, it is basically a way to focus your attention on one thing only, for a period of time. An hour is a good place to start, but you could have 30 minutes or 2 hours, or whatever is doable for you.
To get started, I first pick a task that I need to work on (email creation, making samples, creating ads, photography, videography, responding to inquiries), basically anything that could be paused and started again at another time. I turn off my phone, close all other tabs, make sure my kid is in daycare/asleep and that I have everything I need to start. Then I set the timer for 1 hour and DO NOT STOP or work on anything else. Once the timer goes off, I put that project away and move on with my day! This can help you organize, clean parts of your house, and many other things that can be done in chunks of time. Set a power hour each day until the project is complete.
2. The Written Planner and To-Do List: I know not everyone likes a written planner, but for me, it's what makes all the gears turn smoothly in my life. I have one that is a medium size and fits in my purse (so I can always write something down), and it has sections for keeping notes and lists. I like to create a to-do list for each day, and especially for the following day, the night before.
The best part about this is that when you wake up in the morning, all you have to do is look at your list and you know exactly what you can start working on. It's already been thought about and planned out. You'll always have a goal or path ready for you. I find this to be extremely helpful, and of course I love crossing tasks off my list!
3. Waking up early: Not my most favorite option BUT if this can become a routine for you, it could change your business for the better.
My main goal has always been to wake up at 5 AM, knowing my kid will be up at 7 AM. So that gives me two good hours to get started on work related things, or just sit and drink my coffee while sketching designs or answering Facebook messages. It simply gives you a chance to breath and get ahold of your day before other routines kick in. This could be the life force that keeps you able to maintain your business on a daily basis.
4. Organization: One of the main reasons people have trouble working is because their work area is a disaster!
I know it might not be the top priority on your list, but I promise if you take an hour or two to organize your work area, it will make your time working less distracting and work will progress more smoothly.
I suggest getting some wire shelving to store your bakery items in. I like to pack everything into clear plastic Sterilite boxes, with labels stating what is inside. I also suggest investing in an actual commercial bakery table (if you have the room) and a rolling rack (either small or large). I like to hang things on the wall to get them out of my way, like reference photos, order form clip boards, scissors, tape, etc.
Here is a link to the Master Bakery Supply List article, so you can download the list that contains all these organization and bakery furniture items and has all live Amazon links, for your convenience.
Now, the trick to organization is that you have to be consistent about putting items back where they belong!!
Note from Melissa:
Consistency is something that needs to be practiced and honed each day. As long as you work towards something that feels good for you, the ease and success of your business will grow.
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