Tips For Starting Your Successful Cake Business
Are you wondering what’s involved in starting a cake Business from home? Are you a hobby cake maker and wondering how to turn your hobby to a profitable business?
Here are some of the key Tips I would recommend:
Tip 1: GET CAKE TRAINED
If you really want to build your cake business, then you need to take your cake business seriously so that it can be a major source of your income. You will need to educate yourself and get trained. I sometimes find that hobby cake makers may be very good at baking but their cake decorating may not be the best.
I always recommend you take a course or attend a few trainings on cake decorating and sugarcraft. There are loads of cake trainings in Lagos, just run an internet search on them. Getting a cake decoration certification can also boost your personal brand. You may think you are good and you may be right, but there is nothing wrong in adding to your cake skills. Once trained, Practice, practice, practice. Keep pushing yourself and learning new skills and make sure you have the right skill set.
The best people to test your cakes on are family and friends who are also very good at spreading the word about your new cake business.
Tip 2: FIND AND DEVELOP A NICHE
Pick which cakes you want to focus on, whether it is cupcakes, Character/ Novelty cakes, wedding cakes, Desserts or something else.
Having a niche can help you develop your cake company's brand and even choose the right name to stand out from other cake businesses. Think about what makes you different from other cake businesses. Is there something that you can do that others do not?
Tip 3: PRICING
Pricing your cakes can be one of the hardest things when running a cake business. The most important things is to work out your pricing structure. It needs to be realistic and take into account your time. There are so many methods to pricing your products that you may get confused.
One simple way is to calculate the cost of ingredients then put a 30%-40% mark-up on it to cover decorating and time spent. You should bear in mind the customer is paying not just for your bakes, but for your skills and experience. Always respect yourself and never undercharge for your work- you are better off starting higher and lowering later as it is easier than putting your prices up when you realize you aren’t charging enough.
Also it is essential to research the industry and your market. This will help towards your pricing too.
TIP 4: REGISTER YOUR CAKE BUSINESS
If you are serious to taking your cake business to the top. The next step is to make it legal and register your cake business name with the Corporate Affairs Commission. Just because you have been operating under a particular name for some time and people know you under a name which has not been registered, that does not confer legal ownership of such business name on you.
Once registered, it’s a good idea to set up business banking for your cake business and also register your business with the tax authorities so you can get a tax identification number.
TIP 5: BUILD A WEBSITE
Having a website is the key to marketing your business and it's the simplest place for potential customers to see pictures of your cakes. If you're not sure how to set one up, do an internet search on creating a website where you will find lots of easy templates.
TIP 6: MARKETING
Once you're up and running, marketing is one of the most important things to get your cake business out there. For example, Business cards, flyers, word of mouth, a portfolio of your work to show to prospective clients, and contacting local and national press are all low-cost ways of advertising about your brilliant cakes.
The use of social media is It's a great way of spreading the word about your business. Twitter, Instagram. Pinterest and Facebook are free and easy-to-use marketing tools.
To create a Facebook page for your business, just go to the pages section on your Facebook homepage and click on 'create a page'. It's also an easy way of communicating with fellow cake makers and swapping advice. Lots of cake business owners hang out on various facebook cake groups,
TIP 7: KNOW WHAT CAKES AND FLAVOURS YOU WILL BE OFFERING
Get some good recipes behind you. try and stick to only offering a few flavour options but don’t be too rigid so you can be able to do something a bit different on request, especially if it's a dietary requirement.
Also, spend some time sourcing ingredients - if you shop around you can save lots of money.It is also worth mentioning that you must Be willing to put in the hours. Good business planning will help you avoid working unnecessarily long hours but you have to accept that in the early days you may have to put in a few more
Please leave a comment below if you found this article useful or have any questions. I am here to help.
Till next week.
Happy Caking!
RotimiCakeLady