REAL Home Bakery Heroes: Tiffany from Therapie (Kansas, USA)

REAL Home Bakery Heroes: Tiffany from Therapie (Kansas, USA)

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!

She’s also one of my STAR students in my online course Home Bakery Startup 🙂

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.

RELATED: 4 Myths About Starting Your Own Home Bakery Business

 

How did Therapie start?

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.

RELATED: The Ultimate Guide to Starting Your Own Home Bakery

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.

RELATED: The 4 Essentials of Home Bakery Marketing

 

What are the 2 worst mistakes you’ve made in your Baking Business?

1. Saying yes to too much to the point of overwhelm,
2. and letting competition make me feel weak/small/less than.

RELATED: How to Deal With Self-Doubt in Your Home Bakery

 

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.

Want to make home baking your career? So did Tiffany! In this post she shares a behind-the-scenes look of HOW she created a full-time Home Bakery Business selling pies! Starting your own Home Bakery and baking for a living (without formal qualifications) is totally possible. Read Tiffany's story now... #homebaking #baking #homebakery #pies #bakingbusiness

 

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 🙂

How to Start a Home/Micro Bakery Business in 2025 – Ultimate Guide!

How to Start a Home/Micro Bakery Business in 2025 – Ultimate Guide!

How to Start a Home/Micro Bakery Business in 2025: The Ultimate Guide!

Welcome to the Ultimate Guide on how to start your own Home/Micro Bakery Business!

If baking super delicious food & treats is the best part of your day, and you want to sell your yummy baking for profit, you’re 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 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 with a full-time income (which I did for 6 1/2 years).

 

***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. A Jesus-follower, wife, and mom.

I was a full-time home baker in Cape Town, South Africa for 6 1/2 years. Then I scaled down to part-time baking for 3 years to free up more time for my online business because it’s my mission to help home bakers create a Home/Micro Bakery with consistent orders – on a tight budget.

If you LOVE to bake and want to earn an income from doing work you’re passionate about – from home – I’m here to help you make that 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/Micro 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. 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 IS RIGHT.

You don't need to have it "all figured out" before you can start selling your baked goods. Here's the ULTIMATE GUIDE for how to start a Baking Business from home - with what you DO have! You'll also get all the insider info you need to then grow your baking into a successful, full-time business! This super thorough guide will show you how to make delicious home baking your FULL-TIME career... #baking #homebaking #homebakery #bakingbusiness #cakebusiness

Here’s the TRUTH you need to know about starting a Home/Micro Bakery Business:

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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/Micro Bakery Business – from starting at zero, all the way up to full-time home baking.

In this post, you’re essentially getting my 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 details 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, colleagues, and other acquaintances for weekends.

(If you live in a town/city where you don’t have a network of people to sell to, consider supplying baked goods to a coffee shop/restaurant. If baking wholesale is against the law where you live, then you can bake for local B&Bs or offices because those count as DIRECT sales. My Wholesale Client Blueprint course shows you how to confidently pitch your home baking to coffee shops, restaurants, offices (direct sales), and B&Bs so you can get repeat orders and a reliable income.)

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 for Fridays.

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 buying a standing mixer and more baking pans.

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.

C] If you want to stand out from your competition, you MUST DEFINE A NICHE for your business. This means you specialize in solving a specific problem (relating to baked goods) 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.

D] You need to choose a great business name that stands out from your competition and attracts customers. This video will help you >> Home Bakery business NAME mistakes to avoid + what to name your business so you attract customers.

E] You’ll need to price your bakes correctly and I’ve got just the blog post to help you with that >> 6 Steps to Pricing Your Baked Goods with Confidence.

Are you in love with baking? Would you like to ditch your current job and start your own thriving baking business from home? This Roadmap is the Ultimate Guide to help you become a confident & successful Home Bakery Business owner! Click through to learn how to turn your passion for baking into profit... #baking #homebaking #bakingbusiness #homebakery #bakery

 

WHAT YOU NEED TO FOCUS ON TO GROW TO THE NEXT LEVEL:

  1. 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”.

Join the Free Resource Library to get these free guides.

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.

 

  1. 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 and “post regularly” I’ll get enough orders!”

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 that tool 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.

 

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.

But creating a part-time or full-time income from ONLY baking for direct customers is unrealistic in my experience. Creating a loyal customer base takes TIME. So while that’s happening in the background…

You must create more income streams for your home/micro bakery.

You must get your baking in front of MORE people – especially people who have lots of money to spend on delicious, high quality food like your home baking.

You’ve got a few options here:

1. You can sell your baked goods at Food/Farmer’s Markets!

Food markets were, hands down, the fastest way to get “cash injections” in my new Home Bakery. They often saved my business from going under!

Plus, it’s ALWAYS good for you to practice talking to clients, make new connections, and get more comfortable selling your bakes.

Now you might be thinking: “What if I sell almost nothing, get stuck with a bunch of leftovers, waste my money, and make no profit?”

This ☝️ is THE BIG fear I had too when I started selling at Food Markets. I got the runs before every market (TMI, I know). WISH I was kidding.

To be honest, it happened to me a few times 😱
TWICE in the first year of starting my business.

“So why, pray tell, did you continue selling at Food Markets, Aurelia?!”

Because I had ALSO felt the happy glow of fulfillment & accomplishment that comes from:
seeing a line form at your stall,
seeing customers’ ecstatic reactions when they eat your baking and rush back for more,
and then needing to put up a makeshift “SOLD OUT” sign – for 3 days in a row!!

It’s an incredible feeling!

If I could wave a magic wand I’d wish for every home baker to experience this. (Okay, maybe I’d wish for our toddler to eat all his food with a smile every day too! #momlife)

So, WHY were some markets such a waste and others have me selling out early?

It comes down to THIS 👉 Selling out at Food Markets doesn’t happen by accident. It’s not down to “luck”.
Selling at Food Markets is a science you can learn.

ALL YOU NEED IS:

1. Delicious baked goods (You’ve already got this checked. I mean, everyone is constantly telling you how delicious your baking is!)

2. Proven strategies for selling your baked goods at markets – this is the part home bakers usually leave out and that’s where my course, Food Market Magic comes in 🙌🥳

In Food Market Magic you’ll get my secrets from 7+ years of Food Market experience to help you create a beautiful display you feel proud of, attract customers, and make food markets worth it for your Home Bakery! ✨

And here are some free Food Market tips for you.

 

2. Consider supplying baked goods to a coffee shop/restaurant.

And if baking wholesale is against the law where you live, then you can bake for local B&Bs or offices because those count as DIRECT sales.

My Wholesale Client Blueprint course shows you how to confidently pitch your home baking to coffee shops, restaurants, offices (direct sales), and B&Bs so you can get repeat orders and a reliable income.)

 

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 charge enough for your baked goods. Because if you undercharge, you’re not going to make enough profit and you won’t be able to grow your business.

RELATED: 6 Steps to Pricing Your Baked Goods with Confidence.

 

WHAT YOU NEED TO FOCUS ON TO GROW TO THE NEXT LEVEL:

  1. 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.

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  1. If you’ve scaled down to a part-time day job, you’ve now got more time for baking.

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.

Caring about your customers as people is KEY to creating a loyal customer base, repeat orders, and building a successful home/micro bakery.

RELATED: 6 Easy Steps to Deal with Difficult/Dissatisfied Home Bakery Clients.


3. 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!

RELATED: The 4 Essentials of Home Bakery Marketing.

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.

 

  1. 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.

 

  1. 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 can get some Photography tips for free on my Instagram “Photo Tips” story highlights and if you want my step-by-step system for taking drool-worthy photos of your baking (without an expensive camera), check out my course Irresistible Photography 😊

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PHASE 3: FULL-TIME BAKING

HERE’S WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE:

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:

  1. 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.

I highly recommend the book “Superfans” by Pat Flynn!

 

  1. 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.

All of that comes down to marketing.

Fortunately, marketing isn’t a skill you’re “born with” or not. Anyone can learn how to be great at marketing! Read my post about Home Bakery Marketing.

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.

RELATED: 7 Books every Home Bakery owner needs to read.

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.

 

  1. 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.

RELATED: How to Promote Your Home Bakery Business & Get More Exposure.

 

  1. You need to build a strong brand.

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.

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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.

# Good news is; anyone can learn marketing skills! You can do that though studying business & marketing books and testing out their strategies. Or you can read this blog post to get proven Home Bakery Business marketing strategies >> The 4 Essentials of Home Bakery Marketing.

 

Download the Home Bakery Business Roadmap

We covered quite a lot in this post so I’m sure it’ll feel a bit overwhelming!

To make your life a bit easier, I’ve created a short & sweet Roadmap for you to remind you of what you’ve learned today.

>> You can get the Home Bakery Business Roadmap for free when you join the Free Resource Library.

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 🙂

Got a question? Something to add? Let’s chat in the comments section down below! (I respond to every single comment)

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