If you’re here for the Home Bakery Day Links, then go ahead and scroll on down to get them 😊
But if you’re new here and don’t know what “Home Bakery Day” is, here’s how it works:
On my Instagram Account, I often give an opportunity (every other Wednesday @5pm CAT time) for home bakers like you to ask me whatever questions they want about how to create a successful Home Bakery Business. And people often ask me baking questions too, which is awesome!
In my answers I often refer people to blog posts that I and other bakers wrote because sometimes a question requires a bit more than a 5 minute response. This post is a Library (of sorts) with alllll of those links I tell you about throughout Home Bakery Day.
I like to share my knowledge and experience with Home Bakers like you, because I know how hard it is to feel stuck in your baking journey – with no one to turn to! Let’s save you some frustration, exhaustion and tears. Let’s get you closer to that success you’re working so hard for.
That’s all of them! If I accidentally missed one, please let me know in the comments below.
Join me every other Tuesday on my Instagram Account, for Home Bakery Day to get your Home Bakery questions answered! I answer the questions LIVE on Instagram every other Tuesday @5pm CAT time.
Hope to see you there! 🙂
What info are you looking for?
Hi! I’m Aurelia 🙂
I help home bakers create a Home Bakery Business with consistent orders so they never have to worry about a stable income.
REAL Home Bakery Heroes: How Tiffany Grew Therapie into a Full-Time Home Bakery Business
Home bakers often ask me if they can be a successful home baker if they don’t bake cakes.
Without hesitation, I always answer with a big fat YES! And one of the main reasons why, is because of Tiffany and her Home Bakery – Therapie.
Her Home Bakery focuses completely on making pies. EPIC pies.
And the first time I saw one of Tiffany’s pies I wanted to face-plant into it… with ZERO shame!
The PIES look incredible…
A golden buttery crust filled with the most heavenly fillings:
Flakey Brookie Pie (a brownie and choc chip cookie pie. I mean… WOW) Grandma’s Apple Pie Pumpkin Cheesecake Pie Banana Cream Pie Greek Honey Pie Cookie Dough Cream Pie
Are you drooling yet?!
Not to mention, she has the cutest son in the history of mankind!
But one of the things I love most about Tiffany is that she understands the VITAL role baked goods play in people’s lives.
The human heart NEEDS baked goods. It does something to help give us perspective and comfort in difficult times. Home Baked goods are like therapy for our souls.
And that’s why I’m so honoured and excited to share this interview with you today!
Therapie embodies the message of DELICIOUS, COMFORTING Home Baking to me. She’s a REAL Home Bakery Hero!
I’m confident that her story will comfort you, excite you and above all – inspire you.
Here we go!
For those who don’t know you; who are you, where do you live and what do you do?
My name is Tiffany Oppelt. I live in Kansas, United States. No, I don’t know Dorothy, but I do know there’s “no place like home” (Wizard of Oz joke). I am the owner and official pie lady of TheraPie, a licensed pie home-bakery in Manhattan, KS.
Where did you grow up and what were your childhood experiences of cakes, desserts, and baking?
I moved around a few states in the Midwest, but home was always near my Great Grandparents farm in Southeast, KS. As a young girl, probably starting around 6 years old, I would always ask to help in the kitchen.
I come from a family of amazing cooks (on both sides) and my Aunt and Grandma on stepmom’s side were crazy good bakers.
I spent a lot of time with them and LOVED being able to learn from them. We baked a little bit of everything really and had weekly family dinners on Sunday. We were a very close-knit family with a love of food.
Who first exposed you to baking?
My Aunt Karen and my Grandma Thera first exposed me to baking. My stepmom refused to bake because her mom and her sister were such talented bakers that she didn’t feel the need to learn. So, I went to them.
It started as doing little tasks and watching, then it was doing all the prep work like slicing apples and peaches and cracking pecans from our pecan tree. Then, they taught me how to take the reins and showed me what they knew.
What were your school years like; how did you feel about yourself, about life and about other kids?
Kindergarten through 8th grade (pre-high school) were all very hard for me. I came from a split home and experienced a lot of trauma as a child, and it left me feeling unworthy. We moved every year or two, so I went to so many different schools. I was very smart, but quiet and would turn red and cry when I had to speak in front of the class.
I was bullied quite a bit in 4th-6th grade. I never felt like I was “good enough” to be liked.
Of course, I had a small handful of REALLY good friends and they helped me through. When we moved to Parsons, KS to buy the family farm right before my 8th grade year. My parents said it would be the last move until I graduated from high school.
I decided that a new town that I would stay at for 5 years was the time to stop being scared and just be me. I tried out for a musical (my parents’ jaws hit the floor when I came home to tell them I’d done that) and got a leading role in Annie; I was Miss Hannigan. I was introduced to some nice girls and quickly made friends.
I took debate and forensics (acting/public speaking) and quickly found that I was good in front of an audience when I had control of the situation. I was State Champion in humorous and dramatic interpretation and went to Nationals twice in more than one category. I was “weird” but also made friends easily and was friends with everyone. I was in the “popular crowd”, but I made a point to sit with and be friends with the unpopular or “special needs” crowd.
I started to grow into myself in high school, even though I went through a lot of family/personal struggles during those years.
Did you always plan to be a baker, or did you have other career plans at first?
I did not always plan to be a baker. I always planned to have a career centered on Hospitality and food and imagined I would have my own Bed & Breakfast somewhere beautiful.
Do you have any baking or business qualifications from a college or university?
I have a Bachelor of Science in Hotel, Restaurant Management and Institutional Dietetics (Hospitality Management) and a minor in Business. During college, I spent a semester in Florence, Italy studying culinary arts and eating my way through 7 countries.
Not all of it was focused on baking, but it was all focused on food. It was the most incredible four months!
What happened that made you consider baking for a living? What was that “oh wow! I could DO this!” moment for you?
I’ve always wanted to own my own business (Bed & Breakfast was the goal). In 2018, I started baking pies as a form of therapy.
I was under a lot of stress at work, and it just felt good making pie and being in the kitchen. When I started, I just couldn’t stop.
I started with Grandma’s Apple Pie (still on the menu) and then started following every pie person I could find online, watching videos, reading cookbooks and just experimenting.
As I was posting pictures and giving pies away to neighbors and friends, I started to have people ask me if I sell them and it hit me like a ton of bricks…yes, I could sell pies.
TheraPie actually started out being called “Pies by Tiffany”. It started in my home kitchen, a pie or two at a time with a max of about 10 pies a week when I was “SUPER busy”. During that time, I was baking and doing EVERYTHING in my power to prepare myself to start turning it into a functional business.
In my head, I had two different options, moving into a brick & mortar or figuring out a way to be able to do it from home.
The challenge that I faced was the cost of renting commercial spaces in this town and needing to be fully licensed for cold pies. I toured so many different spaces. I talked to our local Small Business Development liaison at the Chamber of Commerce and started working to develop my business plan. Then I worked directly with the Department of Agriculture Food Safety Department. I also did a lot of research of other business models of people that I followed online or knew in person.
This was also the point that I started taking the Home Bakery Startup course with Aurelia, because I found that several of the places that I wanted to talk to about their experiences, either didn’t have time to talk or didn’t want to give me insider knowledge.
When I saw everything her course included, I saw the value in it.
I did all of these things while working about 50 hours a week and being a mom of a 2 year old. During that time, I did a lot of thinking (basically 24/7) about pies and what I wanted my brand to encompass.
The business name I operate under currently came to me while I was at the sink doing dishes at 9pm. It was an epiphany moment, and it was perfect.
Were you scared to start your baking business and how did you deal with that?
Yes. I was absolutely terrified of starting and failing.
Aurelia and the group of Home Bakers were great at helping me stay motivated and believe that I could. I felt like it was a safe spot to voice my fears and know that I’m not alone in feeling that way.
I’ve had a lifelong belief that I’m not worthy and being in a spot where I was claiming to be “the pie lady” in town was scary. What if there were better pie makers out there?
How did your family and friends respond to your desire to bake for a living? And how did you deal with that?
Part of my family didn’t believe that I’d make it into a business and firmly believed that I needed to keep my job at Kansas State University as it was very stable and had great benefits.
My parents believed I could do it, but were worried about me taking on too much with my other job and being a wife/mom. My husband was happy that I was excited about it, but didn’t want it to take over our lives and was worried that it would come before him and my son.
I had a lot of really hard conversations during this time. I had a lot of self-doubt. I also had a huge determination to make it happen, so just kept moving.
What were the first bakes you ever sold? To whom did you sell them?
My church put in the first order of 5 pies for a luncheon they were holding within the Diocese. They posted a positive review on my Facebook. After that, I had neighbors and friends of friends starting to purchase them.
How did you feel once you made your first sale? And how did it influence your life & plans?
I felt triumphant.
Like I could definitely do it long term, but also that I still had a lot of things to figure out. It pushed me to find focus in all the different areas of my planning/dreaming mind for the business.
Did you ever feel any pressure or expectations to bake something other than pies, like fancy wedding cakes? How did you deal with that?
Yes. I was asked so many times to do items that weren’t on my menu.
Aurelia helped with the wording of how to encourage them to visit other bakers that I know and trust for those items. We have SO many talented bakers in our town, so if someone wants a pretty cake, I have a name for them.
I told them that even though “I can” bake other things, pies is where my passion and expertise is focused.
How did you grow your baking skills the level you’re at now?
PRACTICE practice PRACTICE.
AND….reading cookbooks, watching online tutorials, following bakers who are more experienced than I am. All these things were extremely helpful in me growing as a baker. I still grow, with every item I make.
How long did it take before you could bake full-time?
It took between a year and a half and two years to be able to get to a point where I could bake full time. During the middle of that, we moved into a new home specifically to build a commercial kitchen.
We were able to have done our homework enough that we got it done in about 4 months (talk about a messy and expensive project!), ending with a license as a food establishment and food processor.
The transitioning to a full-time home baker was something I wasn’t sure if I would ever get to, and then, it happened faster than I had planned.
Which books, podcasts or online courses helped most to grow you as a business owner? And how did they help you?
I am a constant learner and am always trying to improve myself. Aurelia’s Home Bakery Startup course was the most helpful resource.
There have also been many other things that I listen to when I need inspiration as a woman owned business including these podcasts: The Mindset Mentor, Biz Chix, and Being Boss by Emily Thompson.
I also attended an entrepreneur workshop designed for women that was hosted by the Small Business Association and it was a great class.
All of these resources helped me for different reasons, but a lot were about confidence in myself, how to overcome fear, how to deal with competition and how to be a successful businesswoman. I will also mention that I have a degree in Hospitality Management with a minor in business!
What are the 2 best decisions you’ve made in your Baking Business?
To capitalize on word-of-mouth marketing, and to strongly identify my brand.
What are the 2 most valuable lessons you’ve learned about running a home bakery?
1. You don’t have to be the biggest fish in the sea with an established brick and mortar to establish yourself as an expert in your craft.
2. If you are overwhelmed, your systems need evaluated and you need to consider hiring.
What are the 2 most valuable lessons you’ve learned about yourself in this process?
I’ve learned that I can absolutely do very hard things, and that sharing who I am is part of my brand.
What are the 2 most valuable lessons you’ve learned about people/clients in this process?
1. Clients will always ask and take chances because they won’t know how your business works unless you tell them clearly. And if they know you always say yes, they’ll especially take chances. 2. AND if they aren’t functioning in a way that works for your business, you just have to put systems in place to communicate better; make your rules clear on your site and say it in person.
What are your plans & dreams for Therapie going forward?
I would like to figure out shipping because there is a demand for it in my business, but I’m not rushing with the way our post is running right now.
I would also like to host pie making workshops with licensed therapists/counselors talking about the therapeutic side of cooking/baking to tie in my knowledge, my community, and the focus on mental health.
I would like to continue growing and have some form of a store front at some point, but not necessarily a full-on bakery, but more of a place to gather to pickup/enjoy.
HOWEVER, I am actually a lot less hardcore about getting a brick & mortar since I have wholesale accounts putting me in various locations of town (2 coffee shops and 1 full service restaurant) and the farmer’s market.
This Home Bakery model is working VERY well for myself and my family.
What advice would you give to anyone who wants to start a Home Bakery, but feels they aren’t “good enough”?
The only person who can decide if you aren’t good enough, is you.
There will be more than one time in your journey that you are going to doubt it and let those negative thoughts deter your growth, but that’s just your thoughts and you 100% are good enough.
You do not have to be perfect and have a flawless Instagram feed with perfect lighting. You need a good product, good branding and a good mindset and a good work ethic. If you have those things, you can ABSOLUTELY do this.
Wasn’t that just AMAZING? Don’t know about you, but I feel super inspired now!
If you’re lucky enough to live in Kansas, you can order from Tiffany though her Therapie website. And if you want to show her some love, follow her journey on Therapie’s Instagram Account.
🌟 And if you’re a home baker that would love to built a part-time or full-time Home Bakery Business like Tiffany, then check out the Home Bakery Startup course that shows you how to do it! The course opens in May & November every year 🙂
What was the most valuable thing you’ve learned from Tiffany’s story? Tell me in the comments below!
Aurelia 🙂
What info are you looking for?
Hi! I’m Aurelia 🙂
I help home bakers create a Home Bakery Business with consistent orders so they never have to worry about a stable income.
Do you dream of making home baking your career, but then thoughts like these start flooding your mind…
“People aren’t going to think my baking is worth it. They’re not going to buy it.”
“I don’t have enough knowledge or experience to succeed. I’m not prepared enough.”
“The other bakers are SO good. Why would anyone buy from me if they can buy from them?”
“I don’t have enough confidence to pull off something like this.”
“I’m just not good enough.”
Or maybe you did start a Home Bakery a while back. The first few months it went well, but then sales suddenly started dropping. And now no one is really ordering anymore.
Then a whole range of other thoughts start creeping in…
“I tried, but clearly no one wants my baking.”
“People just bought from me to be nice, but didn’t really think my baking is worth it.”
“The other bakers in my town/city are just better than me.”
Oh my dear friend.
First of all I just want to give you the BIGGEST HUG of all time!
I honestly understand exactly how you feel.
I understand because I struggled with these exact same thoughts for YEARS.
It’s difficult to live under a cloud of self-doubt, insecurity, feelings of inferiority and fearing failure…
But the GREAT news is that there is HOPE!
I promise you that self-doubt doesn’t have to rule your life. It takes some intentional action, but you can quiet down the voice of self-doubt in your Home Bakery journey.
In this post we’ll break down self-doubt. Sometimes with brutal honesty. But please I’m being honest with you because I respect you and care about you.
It wouldn’t be very loving of me to tell you to just “be more positive! You’re awesome!” I’m sure you’ve tried that and know it doesn’t work, right?
We’ll start by talking very honestly about where self-doubt comes from so you can understand how it works. Then we’ll get into some tips and strategies for dealing with self-doubt when it comes up.
Please note: This post has affiliate links. This means that if you purchase some of these products I get a tiny commission – but at NO extra cost to you. I’m super proud to recommend these resources to you because they’ve changed my life.
Let’s do this!
Self-Doubt is Human and Totally Normal
One of the top lies you’ll hear in your head is that you’re the “only one” experiencing x, y and z. And this isn’t just in regards to baking! You’ll experience this lie about pretty much everything in your life, throughout your entire life.
Pretty much everyone experiences self-doubt, insecurity, imposter syndrome, etc.
It’s NORMAL to feel these things.
Those bakers who look so confident to you, also struggle with self-doubt. They don’t wake up every morning with radiant confidence! Absolutely not.
They’ve just learned how to understand self-doubt and manage it WELL.
And so can YOU. I also struggled with self-doubt for MANY years, so I really understand what you’re going through. Don’t think for a second that you’re alone in this. Because you’re not.
These feelings are natural and totally normal 🙂
Where Does Self-Doubt Come From?
This part might not sit well with you, but I need to share it anyway because it helps to understand WHY we experience self-doubt.
Personally it doesn’t help me if people tell me that “self-doubt is a habit”. Okay sure, but WHY is it a habit? WHERE does it come from?
That’s what I want to know.
I’m a Christian, so I’m speaking from that worldview. You’re welcome to skip down to the next heading if you don’t want to hear it.
The truth is, dear friend, all of us secretly know we’re not enough.
If we truly were enough in ourselves, then we’d just need to hear that once and we’d be able to live fully confident lives after that.
But all of us need to listen to affirmation after affirmation, encouragement after encouragement, quote after quote to try and convince ourselves that we’re “good enough”.
If it were true, we wouldn’t need to try SO HARD to convince ourselves. Don’t you think?
For example, grass is green.
We don’t need heaps of pep-talks and Ted-Talks to convince us of this because it’s TRUE.
So, our bottomless feelings of inadequacy must be something more if we can’t be convinced no matter how many times someone tells us that we’re good enough.
I confess, even I have tried to convince my subscribers of this in the past through emails I sent and Instagram posts I shared.
But Allie Beth Stuckie has challenged my thinking on this topic. Now please note, I don’t agree with everything she says. But I do agree with her on this.
The Bible is the only thing that helps us to make sense of our constant feelings of inadequacy.
Here’s a snippet from the description of the book:
“The truth is we can’t find satisfaction inside ourselves because we are the problem. We struggle with feelings of inadequacy because we are inadequate. Alone, we are not good enough, smart enough, or beautiful enough. We’re not enough–period. And that’s okay, because God is.
The answer to our insufficiency and insecurity isn’t self-love, but God’s love. In Jesus, we’re offered a way out of our toxic culture of self-love and into a joyful life of relying on him for wisdom, satisfaction, and purpose. We don’t have to wonder what it’s all about anymore. This is it.
This book isn’t about battling your not-enoughness; it’s about embracing it.”
Image source: tristanycorgan.com
This message has completely changed my perspective on self-doubt.
It’s helped me to understand WHY no amount of pep-talks cured my self-doubt and feelings of inadequacy.
And then it was like a MOUNTAIN was lifted off my shoulders! Because I no longer had to battle, tirelessly, every day to overcome my self-doubt.
Through embracing my not-enoughness I feel free because I no longer need to scramble to try and HIDE it. I no longer need to pretend and prove to myself and everyone else that I’m “enough”.
Maybe this offends you because it IS very countercultural.
But I felt compelled to share it because I know for some this is exactly what they need to hear.
How Can I Get Rid of Self-Doubt Forever?
I always believed that I need to be a fully confident, secure, fully prepared, highly skilled, highly qualified person in order to be successful.
(Maybe you believe this too right now?)
But I didn’t have the luxury of “waiting to feel self-doubt free” before I started selling my baked goods. Due to severe anxiety I couldn’t stay in my architectural technologist job. And due to debt, I HAD to find another source of income – immediately.
I was loaded with self-doubt, but I couldn’t wait for that to magically go away.
I HAD to start my business WITH my self-doubt.
Did this self-doubt influence my business?
Yes.
Did this self-doubt ruin my chances at success?
Not at all.
Here’s the truth my friend; you can’t really “get rid” of self-doubt to the extent that you NEVER experience it ever again. Self-doubt, a lack of confidence, imposter-syndrome (call it what you like) is a human thing.
As long as you’re a living human, you’ll experience these thoughts and feelings.
Pretty much everyone does.
Now here’s a little truth bomb for you: “Feeling nervous (and doubting yourself) is normal. Letting it stop you is a CHOICE.” – Mel Robbins’s YouTube video on self-doubt.
If you’re waiting to feel confident before you start your Home Bakery, you’re going to wait forever.
Your chances at success are infinitely multiplied the moment you start focusing on the things you CAN control.
You can’t control thoughts and feelings of self-doubt.
But you CAN control how you respond to them and what choices you make in reality.
You can feel difficult feelings and TAKE ACTION anyway.
If you haven’t started your Home Bakery because you’re waiting to “feel more confident” or “feel less self-doubt”, you’re actually intentionally making the choice to hold yourself back.
As Mel Robbins said, Feeling self-doubt is normal. But letting it stop you is a CHOICE.
“How do I get rid of self-doubt forever?” is the wrong question to ask. It’s like asking “how do I stop it from ever raining again?”
Because as sure as rain, self-doubt will always come again. Guaranteed.
Here are better questions to ask:
“Is overcoming self-doubt essential for creating a successful home bakery?”
NO, it’s not essential!
“Should I wait for self-doubt to vanish before I start selling my baking?”
Nope because you’ll be waiting forever.
“Can you have a successful business if you struggle with self-doubt?”
YES, you can.
“If I shouldn’t be basing my career decisions on self-doubt, what should I be basing it on?”
This is going to sound too simple, but that’s because it really is simple.
Here’s one of the most important questions I could ever ask you…
What Do You REALLY Want?
It seems like such a simple question, but it’s incredibly important that you really think about this.
No one asked me this question till I was 23 years old.
I was always thinking about what I “should be doing” or about making other people happy with my career choices.
Never, not once, did I think about what I really WANT to do.
“Aurelia, just for a moment, forget about what you should be doing. Forget what your family wants you to do. Even forget the expectations you have of yourself. What do you REALLY WANT to do?”
And I answered her:
“I want to bake.”
I’d never said it out loud before.
And hearing myself say that suddenly brought me clarity.
In the midst of all my self-doubt I knew what I had to do because now I knew what I really wanted.
Maybe no one’s asked YOU this question before.
So, now I’m asking you.
What do you REALLY want?
Do you want to bake?
Do you want to bake as a side business or bake part-time or bake full-time?
What do YOU want?
Write it down for yourself.
And now the trick is to make all your work decisions according to that.
Side Note: I’m not saying “be irrational and selfish, quit your job and let your family go hungry.” Nope. Starting a home bakery is a very safe and gradual journey that doesn’t put your family’s financial health at risk.
When I say you need to make all your work decisions according to what you want, here’s what I mean.
When you keep basing your work decisions on where you’re at right now (self-doubt, imposter syndrome, etc.) you’ll remain in these circumstances indefinitely.
But when you start making decisions and taking action according to where you want to be in the future (a successful home bakery owner), then your life will start changing around you. Then you’ll start moving towards that future with every step you take.
Please know that I’m saying all this because I CARE about you…
Thinking about starting a Home Bakery won’t actually make it happen. Thinking about baking for a living won’t actually make it happen.
Reading is a wonderful thing that can be a great tool for you to reach success. But reading blog post after blog post and book after book and freebie after freebie won’t actually start your business for you.
And waiting for your self-doubt to go away also won’t start your business for you either.
You have a CHOICE here.
What do you REALLY want?
The Practical Side of Self-Doubt and Confidence
Earlier I spoke about the philosophical reasons WHY we all struggle with self-doubt at the core of our beings.
Now let’s talk about practical things like your talents and skills.
Most home bakers believe these are to blame for their self-doubt, and so they wait to become “more skilled” before they dare sell any baked goods.
Truth is, no matter how skilled you become, self-doubt will STILL feature in your life.
I’ve had a successful Home Bakery for over 8 years now, but last week I messed up a carrot cake.
I just completely forgot to add the oil!
And here came self-doubt again: “Nope, you’ve lost it. You were a good baker once, but clearly you’re not anymore. Maybe your carrot cake recipe actually sucks. Maybe you should hang up your apron and give up this baking thing.”
I kid you not!
All these thoughts from ONE messed up carrot cake.
So, don’t count on abilities to save you from self-doubt and then feeling “good enough” to start a home bakery.
Here’s a little quote by James Clear to knock your socks off:
“Lack of confidence kills more dreams than lack of ability. Talent matters—especially at elite levels—but people talk themselves out of giving their best effort long before talent becomes the limiting factor. You’re capable of more than you know. Don’t be your own bottleneck.”
Doesn’t that just HIT you right between the eyes? 😲
You see my friend, we keep making the mistake of thinking confidence needs to come BEFORE we take action.
I thought this too!
For years I longed desperately to have more confidence like some of my friends and heroes did.
I know what it’s like to be 100% convinced that EVERYONE else is better than you are.
It’s a very heavy and dark cloud to live under.
But as I said earlier; by God’s mercy I didn’t have the luxury of waiting to “feel free from self-doubt” before I started my Home Bakery!
I couldn’t stay in my architecture job unless I continued to use strong anxiety meds (which I really didn’t want to commit to).
The ONLY option was to start my home bakery WITH all my self-doubt and my super limited, unqualified, inexperienced baking skills.
And do you know what happened?
Over a number of years and hundreds of bags of flour I’ve come to understand that confidence does NOT come first at all.
Confidence is pretty much like a fruit on a tree. It’s a sweet end-result.
🍎 Confidence is the FRUIT, not the seed. 🌟 The SEED is taking action.
And if you suck at new things right now, that’s fine! At least it’s ACTION.
“Take messy action!” is what Jasmine Star always says in her motivational speeches.
You can only become a confident driver if you TAKE MESSY ACTION and get in the car – often – to drive.
You can only become a confident swimmer if you TAKE MESSY ACTION and get in the water to swim.
And in the exact same way you can only become a confident baker & business owner if you TAKE MESSY ACTION and bake things and sell them to people.
ACTION comes first and then confidence inevitably & automatically blooms over time.
So, if you truly desire confidence, then don’t prioritize confidence.
Prioritize TAKING ACTION and confidence will inevitably follow over time!
Final Thoughts on Self-Doubt
Don’t take your self-doubt thoughts and feelings so seriously that they stop you from doing what you REALLY want to.
Remember; self-doubt is normal, but letting it stop you is a CHOICE.
The more you bake for people, the less self-doubt you’ll experience. The more you bake and sell things, the more confident you’ll become.
If I waited for self-doubt to vanish before I started my Home Bakery, I would’ve STILL been waiting today!
Overcoming self-doubt is NOT a requirement for success, so don’t make it one.
And if you’ve started your Home Bakery, but kind of stagnated, then there’s something else you need to know.
It’s frustrating and confusing when clients don’t order anymore. I get it because I’ve literally been where you are right now.
But don’t lose hope my friend, because here’s the big secret…
🌟 The best products don’t get the most sales. The best MARKETING gets the most sales!
I always tell my Home Bakery Students a successful Home Bakery is 30% great baking and 70% great BUSINESS STRATEGY.
That explains why bakeries with average quality baking often get MOST of the sales!
Sure, their baking doesn’t taste as great as yours, but they’re ACING that 70% Business Strategy – and that’s why they’re getting sales consistently, without fail.
If you’re serious about making a profit with your home baking, you can’t afford to NOT learn about business & marketing.
The GREAT news is that ANYONE can learn marketing! It’s not something you’re “born with” or not.
If you’re open to learning new things, you can also become a marketing ninja!
How to STOP Undercharging and Raise Your Baking Prices
Have you been thinking about raising the prices of your delicious home baked goods?
Maybe you’re here because you’ve been struggling to make a profit in your home baking business.
You’re working SUPER hard and you’re baking practically every day of the week.
You say no to 9/10 social gatherings because you always have baking that needs to get done.
You’re up early every morning and working late every other night.
While your family is barbequing outside, you’re in the kitchen baking orders for tomorrow.
Then you look at your financials at the end of the month and see that you’re STILL earning small change. Despite all that effort and sacrifice! 😒 How is this possible?!
My friend, I know exactly how you feel because I’ve been there.
If your Home Bakery has enough clients and orders to keep you this busy in your baking, that’s awesome! Congrats to you!
But for a business to succeed and be sustainable, you’re going to need more than just heaps of orders.
You’re going to need each order to be as profitable as it can be.
“Why Should I Raise My Prices When Customers Prefer Cheap Products?”
Be very careful how you think about pricing and customers. If it were true that all clients prefer cheap products, then companies with super expensive products (like Ferrari, Prada and Rolex) wouldn’t exist.
Truth is that all customers are NOT the same!
YOU are not your ideal client.Just because YOU wouldn’t spend a certain amount of money on baked goods, doesn’t mean all other people won’t.
All people don’t want the same things. All of them don’t have the same spending priorities as you.
People spend money on fascinating things!
My in-laws, for example, never ever eat out at a restaurant. BUT they’ve spent thousands on collecting drawers upon drawers full of DVD’s. Home entertainment is a priority for them, so that’s where they spend their money.
My husband and I were quite poor when we just got married. We slept on single mattresses on the floor during the first year of our marriage. BUT, we ate out at least once every 2 weeks – because eating delicious food is a priority for us!
All clients don’t prefer cheap products with cheap quality.Don’t fall for the assumption your mind is making.
There are thousands upon thousands of people out there who will gladly pay good money for superior products like yours.
In short, not at all. Just like plants need water to survive, businesses need money to survive.
If you want to bake as a hobby, that’s fine. But if you want to turn your baking into a business that actually gets you a salary every month, you need to charge properly.
Charging your clients decent prices is not about being “obsessed with money” or “greedy” or “milking clients” for crazy profits.
It’s just a basic fact of business. Businesses need to make money or else they die. It’s just that simple.
The Hamster Wheel that Doesn’t Get Your Home Bakery More Profit
Deep down we KNOW our baking business needs to make more money so we try to fix this. But we try to fix it the wrong way!
1. We so easily assume that our businesses aren’t growing because we “need more Instagram followers” for example. But it’s 100% possible to have a huge Instagram following and still not make enough money to even bake part-time!
In fact I know bakers with a following of like twenty thousand people but they are not making enough money from their baking business to do it full-time. “Popularity doesn’t pay the bills.” – Jasmine Star
2. Another super popular misconception most home bakers have is that they just need MORE clients and MORE orders for their business to do well. And they think the way to achieve that is MORE advertising – resonate with this one?
But it’s a flawed and dangerous approach.
Even if you advertise and market your business and bring in more clients, your business will STILL struggle.
It doesn’t help if you have a heap of clients but you still undercharge ALL of them. That’s not a recipe for success, that’s just a recipe for burn-out.
The answer to your problems of burn-out and lack of profit isn’t getting more and more clients.
Here’s a metaphor to explain my point better…
Let’s say your success is this water tank on the right. When it’s full you’ve reached your profit goals. But YOU have to fill your success tank with water from this river on the left – which represents your potential clients & profit. The only tool you can use is a water bucket to carry profit from the river to the tank.
When you’re undercharging your clients it’s like your water bucket has a hole in the bottom. So no matter how hard you try, loads and loads of water won’t make it to your profit tank.
And now you’ve got 2 options:
1. Run faster and faster from the river to the tank and scoop larger and larger amounts of water that you can barely carry.
OR option 2 which is to…
2. Plug the hole in your bucket!
Which option do you think is more logical? Which option is more sustainable?
It’s to plug the hole in your bucket, right?
In the exact same way the answer to your combination of burn-out and low profit won’t be solved by working faster and scooping up more clients.
The solution to home bakery burn-out lies in charging enough for the clients that you DO have right now so that all the water you carry and all the work you do goes into your success tank and contributes to your profit & success.
Does this make sense?
How to Charge Higher Prices: Step-by-Step
1. Spell out for yourself what makes you valuable as a human being. It’s not your work (because babies are valuable even though they do zero work). It’s not people’s praise (because people are biased, flawed and lie regularly). It took me a long time to see it, but eventually God helped me realize that I’m valuable because HE loves me. Not because a client loves me. Really take time to think about what it is that makes you valuable as a person. Once you establish this, you’ll feel way more liberty to charge the prices you’re supposed to.
2. Download the Pricing Calculator that calculates your recommended selling prices FOR you!
No need to do complicated math!
🌟 You can download the Pricing Calculator in the Free Resource Library >>click here to join the Library. If you’ve already joined the library, then open the last email I sent you and click the blue link to the Library right at the bottom of my email.
4. Update your prices! Simple as that! If the price increase is quite drastic, then you can increase your prices halfway now and the rest of the way 3 months from now. You never need to apologize or explain to customers when you raise your home bakery’s prices. Does any store you know do this? Probably not. Just raise your prices and move on with your life.
5. How OFTEN to raise your prices: You should re-calculate and consequently raise your prices at least once a year. Ingredient costs are constantly going up, so you need to keep raising your prices every year.
“What if I Feel the Recommended Selling Price is too High?”
The most important thing you need to know about home bakery pricing is that it’s not about your feelings! I know this sounds harsh, but let me explain.
Pricing is a mathematical, LOGICAL thing. If you build a business according to your feelings, you won’t make sound business decisions.
Logically, you need to charge the prices the Pricing Calculator recommends if you have any hope of CARRYING ON with your Home Bakery. I know it’s hard! But I’ve come to understand that a successful business is built on logical decisions, not emotional ones.
If you keep undercharging and giving discounts because of your feelings, you’ll burn out OR your business will.
I HAVE SOME DEEPER QUESTIONS FOR YOU:
>> Be honest: are you pretty much working all the time? Weekends? After hours?
>> Does you take in every order you get because you feel you NEED this money for your business to survive?
>> Are you undercharging because you’re so scared that if you raise your prices, your customers will get upset and leave?
>> Are you close to burning out? Are your relationships suffering because you’re maxed out and can’t keep up with everything?
All these are symptoms of not pricing correctly.
If you raised your hand to any of these symptoms, then the “Confident Pricing & Profit Kit” is the perfect fit for you! The Confident Pricing & Profit Kit is an online course for home bakers that takes the stress out of Home Bakery Pricing & Bookkeeping with done-for-you templates and systems.
If a client complains about your prices, then they are simply NOT your ideal client.
Truth is there will absolutely be clients who aren’t a good fit for your home bakery – and that’s ok! You don’t need everyone to like your business in order to be successful!
Handmade, homemade baked goods are luxury items and extremely valuable. Clients get something that’s made FRESH, just for them with top quality ingredients. It’s not a week old and with cheap ingredients like in the grocery store!
Even though there’s a huge market for this HIGH QUALITY type of home baking, it’s not for everyone – especially not “budget clients”. I’m sure you’ve encountered budget clients before!
If someone complains about your prices, you can politely refer them to the cheap, semi-stale stuff you find in the grocery store’s baking section.
How you determine your prices is none of your client’s business.
Do these clients do the same thing when they go to restaurants?… “Excuse me KFC cashier, but that cook of yours back there has a trainee badge and is new to the cooking scene. So, I’m only going to pay half for my order.”
No! It’s not even an option at ANY restaurant.
YOUR PRICES ARE YOUR PRICES. It’s not your job to “convince” clients that your prices are fair. Don’t take the bait! If they doubt your prices or complain, politely refer them to the grocery store’s baking section.
You can use this script:
“Hi NAME 🙂 I would have loved to bake for you, but unfortunately my prices are my prices. Every item is handmade with high quality ingredients and care. These things are very important in my business and cost a lot to keep going. If you’d like something more affordable, I highly recommend [local commercial bakery/grocery store]. I hope your event is wonderful! Best regards.”
A Bonus Tip on “Budget-Clients”
On this note, be careful notto market your baking as “for everyone and every occasion” because then you WILL attract budget clients who complain and ask for discounts!
Instead, focus on the fact that your bakes are a full on luxury, HIGH QUALITY, gourmet experience.
Closing Thoughts on Raising Your Home Bakery Prices
I know first-hand how scary it is to raise your prices! I get it.
But your business NEEDS you to raise your prices. Because if you don’t, it won’t survive.
Clients that aren’t willing to pay more for your high-quality, homemade baked goods, probably weren’t your ideal clients in the first place!
But take heart because there are PLENTY more clients for you out there!
If you’re feeling overwhelmed or anxious about your pricing & business finances, why don’t you get my financial templates so you can easily do your finances in just 10 minutes a week?
I’ve put together an online course with everything you need to confidently price your bakes and handle your finances.
How to Start a Home Bakery Business in 2025: The Ultimate Guide!
Welcome to the Ultimate Guide on how to start your own Home Bakery Business!
If baking super delicious treats has captured your heart and you want to sell your yummy baking for profit, you’re totally in the right place 😊
This information comes from first-hand experience in 10+ years of professional home baking.
There wasn’t a guide like this available when I started my Home Bakery, and it was tremendously frustrating to figure everything out by myself.
But I’ve put together this super thorough guide so that YOU DON’T NEED TO FIGURE EVERYTHING OUT ON YOUR OWN. In this post, you’ll essentially get my roadmap for creating a side-hustle, part-time or full-time Home Bakery Business.
Because let’s face it; many people talk about how to START a Home Bakery. But no one really talks about how to make it your FULL-TIME career.
I’ll show you exactly how this process works, starting from zero all the way up to full-time home baking.
In this post you’ll learn the 3 different phases of a Home Bakery and what you can do in each different phase to start or grow your own Home Bakery business.
If we haven’t met yet; hi! I’m Aurelia Lambrechts. I’ve been a full-time home baker in Cape Town, South Africa for 6+ years. Now it’s my mission to help flavour-obsessed home bakers like you create a Home Bakery with consistent orders so they never have to worry about a stable income.
If you want to become a confident & successful Home Bakery Business owner, I’m here to help you make it happen!
Please note: This post has affiliate links. This means that if you purchase some of these products I get a tiny commission – but at NO extra cost to you. I’m super proud to recommend these resources to you because they’ve completely transformed my Home Bakery Business!
Before I get to the 3 Phases of Starting a full-time Home Bakery, here’s the most important thing you need to know…
Understand that Building up a Home Bakery Business is a GRADUAL Process
There’s a HUGE misconception among Home Bakers today! They often seem to think; “I need to leave my day job TODAY so I can start my home bakery TOMORROW!”
This misconception leads to 2 different responses which are both wrong.
A] You’ll be filled with dread and fear. You might be wondering: “HOW am I going to do this? What’s going to happen to my finances? How’s my family going to survive?!”
B] Then, on the other hand, you get people who react in ignorance and blind optimism. In which case you might be thinking: “Yes! Let’s do this! I am going to make heaps of money in no time. My baking is delicious, I just need some quick sales tips and tricks. Two weeks from now, I’m going to have a full-time bakery!”
This is NOT how a Home Bakery works. If anyone has been telling you a Home Bakery will make you rich in a few weeks, they’re totally lying.
You absolutely CAN make a good living from Home Baking, but it doesn’t happen in a few weeks.
But know right now that you don’t need to be filled with fear as in point A above. And you also need to understand that a full-time Home Bakery isn’t an “overnight success path” as in point B.
NEITHER ONE OF THESE RESPONSES ARE RIGHT.
Here’s the TRUTH you need to know about starting a Home Bakery Business:
First of all, the journey to a full-time home bakery is very SAFE. You’re not going to be putting your family at risk financially. The journey to a successful business isn’t reckless or spontaneous.
Home bakery success does not happen by accident. It’s planned. It’s very strategic. You apply specific strategies to get results and reach success. You don’t just bake delicious things, post them on social media, “hope for the best”, and then it works out. That’s not how it works.
The journey to a full-time home bakery is very GRADUAL. You’ll never be diving into the deep end and suddenly have to make things work, and if you make one mistake then it’s all over. Gosh, no! That’s way too much pressure and certainly no way to build a successful business.
This process can and should be sustainable. You can start and grow your baking business extremely gradually. You can even stretch out the process from starting your home bakery to baking full time over a year (or more) if you want to.
Because the beauty of a Home Bakery is that YOU are your own boss! This means YOU can control the pace at which you grow.
That’s why a Home Baking Business is such a fantastic business model. It’s ideal for moms. It’s ideal for wives and husbands. A Home Bakery is perfect for people who want to stay home and be there with their kids.
All because it’s a gradual and safe process that you can plan around YOUR unique lifestyle and responsibilities.
I asked my Home Bakery Pro students if they experienced the journey to full-time home baking as a safe, planned, and gradual process. Here’s what Angie Watts from Glow Life Foodie had to say.
I’ve also been in positions where I was sick, or my husband & family needed my help with something. And because I’m my own boss I could take a week off from work.
As Angie says, “you’re the driver of your business so you get to decide how fast or slow you go”.
That’s the reality of a home bakery business. It’s not overnight, all-of-a-sudden, “full time home baking in two weeks – here we go!”. That’s not how it works. Starting a Home Bakery Business is gradual, safe and planned.
Growing a home bakery is very much like growing a plant from a seed. It starts very small but as you nurture it, it grows into something amazing.
You start with good soil in a flower pot and you plant a seed in it (phase 1). Then it grows to fill the pot (phase 2). And only then do you plant it into the large garden bed (phase 3). It’s a very nurtured, gradual process of growth that happens one step at a time.
Now that we’ve covered this super important point, you’re ready for the next part of this post…
The 3 DIFFERENT PHASES of starting a Home Bakery Business – from starting at zero, all the way up to full-time home baking.
In this post you’re essentially getting my secret Home Bakery Business Roadmap!
You can also join my Free Resource Library to get a clear, condensed illustration of this Roadmap (if you want to skip all the detail in this post).
PHASE 1: STARTING OUT (You’re just starting or you haven’t started yet)
HERE’S WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE:
You start by baking for the people you know. That’s how every single business starts.
You start by baking for friends, family, and acquaintances for weekends.
(If you live in a town/city where you don’t know anyone or none of your family & friends will support your business, then you can look into supplying baked goods to a coffee shop / restaurant. If baking wholesale is against the law where you live, then you can look into baking for a local B&B or hotel. Or you can even look into hosting decorating/baking classes at home! Most municipalities don’t have a problem with this at all!)
That’s how you start. This way you don’t have to leave your job before you can start!You start your Home Bakery as a Side-Hustle.
This is the way I started as well when I was still working in architecture. I would bake every Thursday night after work. I literally started by baking one batch of cupcakes.
Over time it gradually grew to about ninety items every Thursday & Friday night for clients. 180 items per weekend were my weekly limit when I still had a desk job.
During this “Side-Hustle period” you can start saving up the profit you’re making to use in the future for expenses.
You don’t need to have it “all figured out before” you can start your Home Bakery Business.
You can do this after hours one night per week to start with. That’s how a home bakery starts. You don’t necessarily need to rent a commercial kitchen space just yet. You can start very, very small with what you have.
SOME PRACTICAL TIPS:
A] You’ll need to get a certificate from the Health Department in order to bake legally at your Home. You can read this blog post to help you with that >> Home Bakery Certificates, Licenses, and Insurance.
B] Filling out the free Home Bakery Business Plan workbook will help to give you clarity about your new business! In the workbook you’ll get lots of important questions you might not be thinking of yet. Join the free Resource Library to download the Business Plan Template.
WHAT YOU NEED TO FOCUS ON TO GROW TO THE NEXT LEVEL:
During this phase you really want to focus on getting your baked goods even more delicious. Improving the quality of your baking is very important in this first phase. Focus on improving your baking skills.
I’ve got 2 guides for you in the Free Resource Library to help you improve the quality your baking:
“How to grow your baking skills for free” AND “5 Weekly Habits to become a Better Baker”.
Stretch and challenge yourself to bake new things that you’ve always want to bake. Research recipes and baking techniques. Read a lot of blogs and watch YouTube videos about baking.
So, before you bake a cheesecake for example, don’t just get any recipe and dive in! The chances of a failed bake are HUGE if you don’t research!
Home bakers often ask me how I can afford to practice my baking. But the KEY here is that you don’t practice with ingredients. You practice with RESEARCH. That’s how you improve your baking without wasting ingredients and money.
Before I baked my first cheesecake, I watched every single video on YouTube about baking cheesecake so I didn’t risk having a flop and wasting expensive ingredients.
I read every single blog post and watched every single YouTube video I could find on baking cheesecake before I baked my first one. And as a result, the first cheesecake I made was already good enough to sell.
So, before you bake ANYTHING, research it as thoroughly as possible. That’s how you make your learning process economical.
In this phase you can also START an Instagram account and a Facebook page. BUT (super important) don’t spend a lot of time on social media yet!!
I see this all the time with new home bakers. They think; “if I just create an Instagram account or a Facebook page then I’m suddenly going to get a lot of orders and then life is going to be perfect.”
That’s not how it works. Just posting baked goods on social media and hoping to get sales does NOT work.
Instagram and Facebook are great platforms but they are also platforms that need to be used STRATEGICALLY. Social media is just a lifeless tool. It’s what you DO with it that matters!
Later in your Home Bakery journey, social media can be amazing for your business. But it’s not worth your time to spend all your time on Instagram and on Facebook when you’re just starting your Home Bakery.
Don’t focus on getting likes and feeling popular on social media during phase 1.
Rather focus on improving the quality of your baked goods. And also focus on the relationships that you’re building with the people you’re selling your bakes to.
3. In your home bakery journey you’re going to go through A LOT of trial & error to get consistent sales and success. This is normal!
But, if you want to skip 4 years of trial & error (because that’s how long it typically takes to really get a thorough grip on CONSISTENT Home Bakery sales), and you want precise systems and strategies to get you weekly sales, and if you’re tired of worrying where your next sale is coming from…
Then my free Home Bakery Masterclass is perfect for you >> Register here.
If you want to do this all by yourself, that’s fine too! Just know the DIY route is going to take MUCH longer. Be patient with yourself and your learning process!
PHASE 2: PART-TIME BAKING
HERE’S WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE:
In this phase your client base has grown a lot since phase 1. Your weekend, side-hustle home bakery is fully booked. You started baking one batch of something for Fridays. Eventually it will become two batches, three batches, four batches until you’re fully booked for Fridays.
Then you’ll start baking for Saturdays as well.
SOME PRACTICAL TIPS:
A] While you’re still working full-time at your day job, don’t bake more than 2 evenings per week. If you do more, it’s going to start putting a lot of pressure on your family life. Baking every single night of the week after work is not sustainable. Two nights per week maximum, okay? Don’t put your family under unnecessary pressure and don’t wear yourself out.
B] In this phase it’s crucial that you price your baked goods properly. Because if you undercharge, you’re not going to make enough profit and you won’t be able to grow your business.
C] If you want to scale your side-hustle home bakery to a legit part-time business, you’ll need to DEFINE A NICHE. This means you specialize in solving a specific problem for clients. If you “bake anything for any occasion” you’ll get lost in the crowd. Defining a niche for your Home Bakery is the ONLY way to stand out!
Lucky for you there’s a guide in the Free Resource Library called “How to Find the Perfect Niche for Your Home Bakery“. Join the Free Resource Library now to get the free guide.
So, now that your weekends are fully booked, it’s time to grow.
WHAT YOU NEED TO FOCUS ON TO GROW TO THE NEXT LEVEL:
The reality is, you can’t progress to a part-time home bakery AND have a full-time day job. That’s impossible. You’re going to burn out. Your family is going to suffer. You are going to suffer. It just doesn’t work.
To progress to a part-time Home Bakery, you’ll need to scale down your day job to a part-time position.
It’s crucial that you don’t make this move too early!
Every weekend in your Home Bakery should be fully booked for at least two months and then you know that it’s safe to progress to a part-time Home Bakery.
Move over to a part time day job so that you free up more time for your baking. But note that this part-time day job won’t necessarily be in the same line of work you’re in right now.
You may need to compromise and take a part-time day job that isn’t necessarily your first choice. But remember that this change is a means to an end because you have a vision of your future and your home bakery that you are building.
To make that happen, you need to scale down to a part-time day job. So, that might mean reception work for someone or freelance work. Use whatever skills you have to get a part-time job.
You’re doing this so you still have stable income from a day job, but also have more time available to grow your home bakery. If you don’t make that space of time available, your home baking won’t be able to GROW to fill it up.
It’s like digging an extension to a dam in advance so that you can catch more rain in the future.
This change to a part-time job does come down to a bit of a leap of faith. You can’t have a full-time day job AND a full-time Home Bakery Business at the same time!
As you let go of your past reality you can start grabbing onto your future. You can’t hold onto your past and hold onto your future at the same time. You’ll to get torn to pieces!
So, at some point, you need to start letting go of your current reality so that you can grab hold of the future success that you want.
If you’ve scaled down to a part-time day job, you’ve now got more time for baking.
Now you can start looking out for a couple of wholesale clients. The benefits of wholesale clients are VAST! But the best one is probably that you only need ONE wholesale client to make HUNDREDS of sales.
From a marketing perspective; wholesale clients are so much less effort than direct clients! Because then sales no longer depend on YOUR effort.
With wholesale clients, the sales depend on THEIR effort. They make a profit from your bakes AND you’re just raking in more sales and profit from their effort. It’s awesome!
But you don’t have to bake for wholesale clients if you don’t want to.
Regardless, you always need to continue to grow your direct client base. Always focus on growing the relationships with your direct clients. Focus on giving them great products and great quality service.
And most importantly; connect with your direct clients as people.
Because remember, home baking is a very relational thing. It’s something that our mothers and grandmothers did for us. It’s a very family-orientated thing.
Relationships are so KEY to building a successful home bakery.
The next thing you can focus on in phase 2 is to learn beginner marketing strategies and skills.
It’s vital for your success that you learn marketing skills and business skills.
Home bakers often ask me; “how do I get more clients and sales?” I understand WHY they ask this because who doesn’t want heaps of clients and sales?!
But if you take away ONLY ONE THING from this blog post, let it be this…
A Home Bakery isn’t as simple as just baking high-quality things, getting a few “quick sales tips and tricks” and then everything works out. That’s not how a Home Bakery Business works.
A successful Home Bakery is planned. Success comes from strategy.
If you want to start a successful Home Bakery Business, you need to understand how clients THINK and WHY they buy things!
Let me give you a silly, but effective example. I was actually looking at my cat as she was busy drinking water.
She WANTS water. She knows she needs it. But if I pick her up and hold her close to the water and tell her; “Drink Kitty! Drink the water” She undoubtedly WILL scramble and run away – even though she wants that water.
Even though she’s thirsty she won’t bow to what I’m asking her to do. If I forcefully hold her there and ask her to drink the water, she’s going to just have the opposite reaction and run away.
And that’s what we often do with our clients. We bake something really tasty (that they actually do want) but we use terrible sales techniques that send them running away.
Here’s one example of these “terrible sales techniques” I’m speaking of: we just post something on Instagram and expect people to jump and order.
But asking people to buy your stuff without any kind of strategy or understanding is like forcefully holding them up to a bucket and saying; “drink clients, drink!”
And it doesn’t work.
“Quick sales tips and tricks” aren’t going to give you a successful business. They might give you a few sales but they won’t give you a successful business. Do you understand the difference?
A few quick sales are not the same thing as a sustainably, consistently successful home bakery business. They are two different things.
So, it’s unavoidable; if you want to build a successful Home Bakery Business, you’re going to need to learn how to think like a business owner.
You’re going to need to grow as an entrepreneur. You’re going to need to learn marketing skills. And the great news is that anyone can learn these things! I honestly mean that!
Doctors need to learn all kinds of skills to practice medicine. Lawyers need to learn all kinds of skills to practice law. Chefs need to go through chef school to learn all kinds of skills to be a chef in a restaurant.
And in the same way, if you want to be a home bakery business owner, you need to learn business and marketing skills.
Be open to learning those things. If you just keep baking delicious things and hoping for the best, you’re constantly going to struggle to get clients.
You will get SOME sales based on talent and recipe quality alone. But you’ll struggle to build a CONSISTENTLY successful business that you can scale into a part-time or full-time one.
During phase 2 you definitely need to create a website as well.
This is where you’re really going to start getting more sales.
I know it seems daunting to create a website for your Home Bakery, but it’s actually very simple! You can seriously create a website in one afternoon. It doesn’t have to be a big deal. It’s actually very simple and easy to create a website on Wix – just use one of their drag-and-drop templates. SUPER easy.
Don’t put this off, okay? You must create a website for your Home Bakery in phase 2. Simply because a website communicates to people that you take your business seriously.
If you don’t have a website, they’ll assume that you’re just baking as a hobby. If you just have an Instagram page and a Facebook page, they’ll assume that you’re just baking casually and that it isn’t necessarily a business.
But when you have a website, you’re telling people you take yourself AND their needs seriously.
With a website it’s also becomes possible for people to order online from you. People live online nowadays so you need to be online to reach them. That’s a simple fact of 21st-century century business.
In phase 2 you also need to start paying more attention to your photography.
If baked goods don’t look delicious on a photo it’s tough for people to imagine themselves eating it. It’s tough for them to believe that it’s delicious if it doesn’t look delicious on the photo.
You have a consistent income every week that you can depend on and now you can just make that income MORE.
At this point when you are fully booked as a part-time baker. You’ve maybe got 1 or 2 wholesale clients and/or a direct client base that keeps you busy.
You essentially have a part-time day job and a part-time Home Bakery Business.
Pay attention to when that part-time baking is filled up completely for at least three months. Then you can start to move on to a full-time baking job and leave your day job for an employer altogether.
This is a scary step. I get it. But, at the same time it’s exactly the same as in phase two where you have to let go of your current reality to start embracing your future success. It comes down to the same thing.
It’s still a very safe and gradual process as you can see. You don’t drop everything immediately to bake full time and suddenly make a full salary from your baking.
Starting a Home Bakery is gradual – but as with anything NEW, there are still small steps of faith involved.
But please note that you can save up for this phase if you’re scared your finances might suffer. If you’re worried that you won’t have enough money to make a full salary when you start baking full time, save up the money you make in phase 2 of part time baking.
WHAT YOU NEED TO FOCUS ON TO GROW TO THE NEXT LEVEL:
The most important thing to focus on in phase 3 is giving your clients an AMAZING experience with you.
This is where you really need to understand what creates client loyalty.
Clients nowadays have a whole array of businesses to choose from. If you don’t know how to cultivate loyalty with your customers, they might move on to another baker.
That’s not the end of the world, you can always get more clients. But you need to understand how your clients think and what turns them into loyal customers, so research that online or in books.
In phase 3 you really need to ace your marketing game.
You need to know about copywriting. Copywriting is just a fancy word for all the writing you do in your business. This includes the words that you use on your website, words in your e-mails, words you use on social media, etc.
As a business owner, you need to understand how to get through to your clients. You need to understand completely how they think. You need to understand what makes them buy, what attracts them to a business, and what puts them off.
There are also loads of books out there you can learn from. You don’t have to necessarily take an online course to learn these things. You can bootstrap and do it yourself.
The perk of my Home Bakery Business courses is that I’ve read through all of those books. I’ve applied those theories to my home bakery business and tested them.
I’ve learned in my eight years of home baking that a home bakery is a very unique type of business. So, that’s the advantage of doing my courses; I give you the strategies that actually work so you don’t have to go through all of that trial and error yourself.
If you want to learn the exact system that got my Home Bakery fully booked for 3 months in advance, then my Home Bakery Masterclass is perfect for you! You can register for my free Masterclass here.
If you read books and apply what you learn, you CAN do it all by yourself. But it’ll probably take about 3-4 years of trial and error to refine the strategies you learn in books. It takes time before you actually figure out how to generate consistent income in your Home Bakery.
You need to optimize your website to rank high on Google.
This is so important because you need a consistent stream of new clients coming into your business.
Consistent sales come down to two things:
A]Your current clients are loyal. They stick with you and buy from you over and over again.
B] You also have a steady stream of new clients coming in and Google is the best way to do that. Getting new clients from Google has revolutionized my business.
But you can’t just create a website and then hope that people find you on Google.
There are all kinds of specific strategies you need to use. They call it SEO which stands for “search engine optimization.”
This just refers to the things that you do to make Google like you so that they’ll recommend you to people when they search for bakers in your town/city.
You can do things with your website on the back-end and on Google so that when people search for baked goods in your area, you’re the first one to pop up. You can seriously do this without paying a cent for advertising!
And then when people click through to your website, you say exactly the right things to make them understand that you are the baker need.
Then they click and order from you. If you can get this right, you’ll never need to worry about getting new clients again.
Now, a brand is often a very elusive thing. People often think a brand is just your logo, colours, fonts, business cards, etc. (I used to think this too!)
But all that stuff is NOT your brand. Those things are PART of your brand, but it’s actually just branding DESIGN. It’s just one leg of your brand.
Yes, of course, your branding design needs to be beautiful. You need to have a beautiful website, and beautiful food photography that draws people in. All of that MATTERS.
But your brand is MORE than just the graphics of your Home Bakery Business.
Your brand is actually WHAT YOUR CLIENTS THINK & FEEL about your business. So, that goes WAY beyond a “pretty logo”.
A brand is about the message that your business is putting out there. It’s about what your home bakery stands for. It’s the vision that you have, the beliefs that you have, the principles that you have in your home bakery. These are the things that make up a strong brand.
And the words that you say (copywriting) are a massive part of this.
You need to have the right words on your website, e-mails, Facebook posts, etc.
You need to understand how to communicate effectively with your clients so that they know your baking is the solution to their problems.
Phew! Congrats for making it this far!
Let’s do a quick recap of what you’ve learned today.
# To start and grow a home bakery business is a safe and gradual process. You start small with one batch of bakes. Then you build your business up very gradually so you’re always getting an income. Your family will never be at risk. Your finances will never be at risk because you’re always getting an income.
# Note that you don’t need a flawless website and epic marketing before you can START selling your home baking! You only need to start learning about marketing & website building in phase 2.
# You can absolutely start selling now already. The beauty of a Home Bakery is that you can earn money from your baking while you learn business & marketing skills in the background.
Thanks for reading! It was great to have you here.
If you’re confused about anything, let me know in the comments below. I love helping home bakers and seeing them just reach success faster. Let’s start and grow your home bakery business together!
Chat soon
Aurelia 🙂
What info are you looking for?
Hi! I’m Aurelia 🙂
I help home bakers create a Home Bakery Business with consistent orders so they never have to worry about a stable income.
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