The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

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breadsbymika's picture
breadsbymika

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Hi, 

I just started a bread business in October and sold to co-workers and made loaves for the owner to hand out as gifts to customers...but i have not had any real orders since. 

I have yet to find any I guess you would say quick bread bakers in the area. How to I get my name out there and get business besides my co-workers?

Also, how much should I charge?

I make banana, lemon blueberry, sweet potato pecan, eggnog, etc.

I do medium loaves (which I consider large) and mini loaves, also gift baskets and variety trays.

breadsbymika's picture
breadsbymika

Forgot to mention...I signed up a while ago and have been lurking around....decided to finally post a question and see I can get some help....I tried Cake Central but I guess they are all cakes and sort.....so no help...didn't know where else to go.

Thanks

Ford's picture
Ford

I am an ameture so I cannot help you on the business end, but I would like to welcome you to our forum.

Ford

IceDemeter's picture
IceDemeter

area that I have expertise in, but I would suspect that your first steps need to be ensuring that you meet business licensing and kitchen codes for your area, and putting together a very detailed listing of what your costs are to produce each type of quick-bread (ingredients, % of tool costs, % of utilities including oven / fridge / freezer / proofer use, packaging materials, and how much time you invest in each one).  You will need to decide on your sell prices based upon a reasonable rate of return for your time and level of profit on costs (and don't forget costs for shopping for the materials and delivering the goods, as well as advertising and travel / phone costs for building business).

Once you have determined that you are within legal guidelines and have your costs / sell prices figured out, then you can start to look for possible customers.  You are choosing to sell an extremely limited product line, and one which is going to end up going primarily to individual purchasers as a sporadic treat, or perhaps be sold by the piece as an offering in a cafe or coffee shop or small deli / restaurant sort of place.  Another possible outlet would be a local farmer's market or the equivalent.  Those are all places that you would have to approach with samples of your goods --- and they really will need to be something above the ordinary to be worth them spending the extra on what yours will cost vs the standard mass-produced ones that they are selling now.

Oh - another possible customer would be a business that does catered business breakfasts / lunches / dinners, as they often like to have quick breads and cookies and muffins as offerings.  You can also list on Etsy or local websites for private purchases (I have no idea where you are or what is available for that in your area).

Not to be discouraging, but quick breads really are something that most folks either make for themselves or only have rarely as a purchased treat, and I would think that they tend to prefer muffin form instead of loaf, so you might have a bit of an uphill battle competing with the big commercial sources.  You're really going to have to push what makes your offering different and special and above the rest.

Good luck, and hopefully some of the professional bread bakers can give you some more specific advice.

jimbtv's picture
jimbtv

Welcome to TFL.

Your question about expanding your operations is hard to answer in just a few paragraphs.

As IceD mentioned there are health department issues to overcome... or not. Where I live the health department sets a low sales threshold and doesn't want to deal with you if you are below that dollar value. In any case you will want to comply with the local regulations since having your business shut down by the health department makes for very bad press.

Scaling your operation to meet demand is another issue. If demand exceeds capacity, quality is the first thing to suffer. Making 1 or 2 of something is completely different than making 30 or 50 of the same thing. For me the capacity of my oven determines my throughput and I have scaled my operation accordingly. Scaling alone can trigger health department issues. Again, where I live, if you use commercial ovens, mixer, etc., in your operation the licensing is different, and it involves a waste water study to insure you can dispose of the excess waste water properly. It doesn't matter if you are baking 5 loaves in a Bosch wall oven or in a Blodgett deck oven, the reg's change because commercial equipment is involved.

Sales can benefit from a web presence and regular updates to social media sites. Local newspapers and on-line media sites can help get your name out there. Working the farmer's markets also provides good exposure. Eventually you may need to become proactive in pressing flesh and dropping off samples to stores and restaurants. Active selling can be daunting if you do not have the personality for it. I have learned to leave my ego at home.

Business is business so you will have to make a profit, and that comes down to effective business management. In order to stay competitive you will need to price your product appropriately. Originally I set my prices to be in line with other bakers. Eventually I was able to squeeze out a higher price due to a perceived higher quality. Purchasing is a problem for the small bakery because the big suppliers don't want to deal with you. That means your product pricing is higher since you are buying at the grocery store or big-box outlet and not from a mass distributor. Higher product cost and smaller throughput puts pressure on profits so it is important to follow you finances closely. Do not fool yourself into thinking you are doing o.k. because you choose to ignore bookkeeping.

As I said at the beginning, this is a very big subject and not something that can be addressed in a few paragraphs. I hope I have provided at least some food for thought. If you would like me to expand on this subject you may contact me through a private message.

 

Jim

Arjon's picture
Arjon

and then, if you decide to move ahead, create / write on for your intended business. While it's possible to develop a viable business without doing so, "flying by the seat of your pants" has far lower odds of success. The more ambitious you are in terms of how large and complex you want your business to be, the greater the need to produce a plan and to do so in more depth. 

breadsbymika's picture
breadsbymika

Thank for  all the help.

I am meeting all the guidelines in Texas under the Cottage Law....I would like to expand my customer base but within those guidelines...I am not quite ready to go real big just yet....my goal is to eventually have a little coffeehouse where I can sell my breads with beverages in the mornings or a little food truck where I can go to the big office parks and sell..

Like I stated I did over 200 loaves last year for my boss to give away at Thanksgiving and Christmas...its just getting more than those sales...

I like to suggestion of maybe taking samples to businesses with cards and menu and seeing if I can get customers from there...I do have a friend who works at Apple and told me they are always looking for different food for meetings....so I guess I will start there...

Thanks again and I am excited to have a community like this one to help and keep me from being discouraged.