So, either you are thinking about starting a home baking business, or you are a home baker well on the way to selling your first delectable cake, cookie, or candy. Whatever the case, it is highly likely that you are now wondering whether or not you can turn your culinary talents into a profitable business. In other words, you are in the market for knowing how to make a profit with your baked goods. No worries, it is much easier than you may be thinking.
On the subject of money, you need to start thinking about it before you even begin. Precisely, you need to sit down and figure out how much it is going to cost you to make your products versus how much you will sell them for – realistically. You cannot charge ten dollars for a single cupcake, after all. In order to do this, you need to add up both the direct and indirect costs that go into making the goods you will be offering. Naturally, this depends on whether you will focus solely on cakes or cookies, or plan to offer a variety of things with one or two specialty items. Anyway, what this means is that you need to add up the cost of your ingredients and the cost of any potential replacements – eggs, pans, et cetera – and even the amount of electricity you think you will be using. So, let’s just say that you are making cakes, and the cost comes out to $20.00 per cake. You know you can currently make ten cakes a day, so your cost is $100.00 per day. If you have decided that you want to make one thousand dollars a week in profits, then you will need to sell your cakes for $40.00 apiece and you will have to sell fifty cakes a week – which you can do. You see, at that rate, you will make $2000.00 per week – one thousand to cover the cost of your needs, one thousand in profits.
But how do you make sure that you sale fifty cakes every week? Presumably, you are already known for your cakes (and whatever else you happen to make). Well, you know you are going to have a few loyal customers thanks to friends and family. Odds are, they are definitely telling their friends about your new home baking business. Word of mouth is the best friend of any product, especially if it happens to be edible.
Still, you absolutely have to advertise. Do it in the newspaper, do it on the radio, do it anywhere you can. You can actually invite the food critic in your local paper to critique your baked goods. The same goes for any local magazines. You should even check to see if anyone in your area publishes an ezine on the Internet.
Offering specials can ultimately help you turn a profit. For example, offering free samples can lead to people buying what they tasted – and quite often do, especially with baked goods. Buy one get one free specials for cupcakes are great. For batches of things – cookies, cupcakes, doughnuts, et cetera – even the old buy a dozen, get one free deal is quite popular.
Tags: Profit
Thanks for the helpful information. I enjoy baking and am planning to take a stab at turning a profit from this hobby. I’m planning on doing some holiday baking and selling it but I’m stuck on trying to figure out the cost of the items. A lot of my friends have already expressed interest and now I’m wondering what I got myself into
I know I need to spend the time going to the grocery stores, writing down the prices, then doing the math to figure it all out. Once I’ve done that, what is a realistic percentage to increase the base cost to cover my time, electricity etc.? Any other tips you may have for a first timer at this venture would be greatly appreciated, thanks.
cost to make ginger snap or ginger cookies.. I make or buy from a baker.. If I buy from baker their charge.. 47 cents for 3 cookies in a plastic bag. each cookie measures 3 x3 inch round…1/8 inch thick. No nuts or raisens in cookie.. If i made, and new what i was doing, what should the cookies cost me.
I am an 84 semi retired business man,, I have been studying the cookie market.. their seems to be some missing cookies..
alfred