Step : Define Your Brand
Your brand is what your company stands for, as well as how your business is perceived by the public. A strong brand will help your business stand out from competitors.
If you aren’t feeling confident about designing your small business logo, then check out our Design Guides for Beginners, we’ll give you helpful tips and advice for creating the best unique logo for your business.
Recommended: Get a logo using Truic’s free logo Generator no email or sign up required, or use a Premium Logo Maker.
If you already have a logo, you can also add it to a QR code with our Free QR Code Generator. Choose from 13 QR code types to create a code for your business cards and publications, or to help spread awareness for your new website.
How to promote & market a cake business
Word of mouth will, ultimately, be your strongest marketing tool. While building your reputation, consider free online resources, such as social media and local business registries. If you become a member of any organizations, inquire about their online listings, which is often offered free of charge to members. Distribute mailers within the community and become a sponsor for local charity events. Many communities have charity events that feature local chefs take part in these to gain exposure.
Approach wedding and party planners in the area. These professionals are often asked for recommendations. If you partner with the right ones, your business could soar with very little marketing effort.
How To Open Your Cake Decorating Business
As you get ready to open your cake decorating business, its time to choose your niche or basic concept. To stand out in the market, its a good idea to have a unique specialty. It doesnt have to be outrageous, but something that youre really good at and want to be known for.
Here are some ideas for brainstorming:
Next, youll need to work out the logistics of how youll run your business. Heres a curated list to give you a roadmap to get started:
When youre starting your own business, there will be challenges and ups and downs. Keep in mind that this business was born out of a hobby you love, so if you persevere and plan carefully, success is possible. Passion matters. It could be what sets you apart from the others in the cake business.
With the right baking equipment, niche, and business plan, youre off to a great start.
Myth #: You Need Loads Of Money To Start A Home Bakery Business
SO, totally and completely false.
When I started my home baking business I had almost nothing. I had a $10 hand mixer, 2 cheap plastic mixing bowls, 1 square tin and 1 muffin/cupcake tin . Thats it! Thats all you need. I didnt even have an oven, so I baked at my husbands student house and then decorated the baked cupcakes back at my own student house. You can make it work!
I know there are so many gorgeous kitchens on , blogs and magazines, but dont fall into the comparison trap.
A beautiful, fully equipped kitchen is not essential to your home bakerys success.
Remember, this is good, honest HOME BAKING. When your mom or gran made your favourite birthday cake, could they manage without the $1000 Cuisinart Mixer? Was the cake memorable even though they mixed it by hand?
Im betting YES.
Focus on the quality of your bakes, not the aesthetics of your kitchen and I promise that your home baking business will be successful.
Beautiful branding and packaging can also be a very tempting expense. If a wrapper is beautiful, but the candy tastes bad, will you ever buy it again? No.
Just go for simple packaging to start off with. You can seriously get away with 50 cents per cake box. To add a personal touch, get a logo stamp made for $10. It looks super rustic and cool!
If they are super good, maybe offer them a $100 voucher/credit at your home baking business. Its a wonderfully enriching experience working with any other creative! Give it a try
MYTH #4 BUSTED!!
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Registering Your Cake And Baking Business
You need to register your new cake business with your local authoritys environmental health service at least 28 days before you start trading. It doesnt cost you anything and your registration cant be refused. An inspector will come to your home to check your food preparation area. Dont panic though, they are unlikely to just turn up at a personal address and are more likely to arrange a time to visit.
Its this inspection that will determine your food hygiene rating, so make sure your records and documentations are as good as they can be.
What Happens During A Typical Day At A Cake Business
Each day will be structured differently from the next, depending upon the orders you have lined up and how youve decided to structure your business. Many cake businesses forego a storefront location, focusing solely on custom orders. If you do choose a brick and mortar location, you will need to spend additional time baking, so that custom orders are met and displays are filled regularly. Once cakes are baked and decorated, orders should be packaged for delivery.
For many bakers, wedding cakes are their biggest revenue generators. To insure the cake arrives safely to the venue and is presented correctly, these works of art are often delivered and set up by the bakers, themselves. If wedding cakes are something you wish to offer, plan on devoting a portion of each day for transporting these goods. Most prospective customers will also want to have a taste-testing session prior to placing an order. This is an opportunity to build a relationship with the client, showing them how your creations stand out above the competition. It also gives them a chance to make decisions regarding the flavors and decor of the cake.
Cleanliness sets the professional apart from the hobbyist. A bakers kitchen is like a sanctuary and must be treated as such. It should be thoroughly cleaned after each order is filled, and at the end of the day. Since each creation required a different set of ingredients, replenishing baking supplies is typically done on a weekly or bi-weekly basis.
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Choose Your Business Structure
Business entities come in several varieties, each with its pros and cons. The legal structure you choose for your cake business will shape your taxes, personal liability, and business registration requirements, so choose wisely.
Here are the main options:
We recommend that new business owners choose LLC as it offers liability protection and pass-through taxation while being simpler to form than a corporation. You can form an LLC in as little as five minutes using ZenBusinesss online LLC formation service. They will check that your business name is available before filing, submit your Articles of Organization and be on hand to answer any questions you might have.
Step : Register For Taxes
You will need to register for a variety of state and federal taxes before you can open for business.
In order to register for taxes you will need to apply for an EIN. It’s really easy and free!
You can acquire your EIN for free through the IRS website, via fax, or by mail. If you would like to learn more about EINs and how they can benefit your LLC, read our article, What is an EIN?.
Learn how to get an EIN in our What is an EIN guide or find your existing EIN using our EIN lookup guide.
Small Business Taxes
Depending on which business structure you choose, you might have different options for how your business will be taxed. For example, some LLCs could benefit from being taxed as an S corporation .
You can learn more about small business taxes in these guides:
There are specific state taxes that might apply to your business. Learn more about state sales tax and franchise taxes in our state sales tax guides.
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Get The Necessary Equipment And Ingredients
A couple of equipment youll need to start cake business are what you already possess at home. And because youll be operating from home, theres no needing spending extra.
Most of the most important equipment you need is an oven It could be electric or not.
You also need a baking pan and boards for baking. Vegetable oil, Flour, salt, baking powder and butter etc.
The kind of ingredients you need depends on the cake you want to make. There are cakes like cream cake, chocolate cake, fruit cake etc.
And:
thats why undergoing training is highly recommended. It exposes you to stuffs like this and more.
How To Start A Cake Decorating Business From Home
So you have perfected the art of baking and are wondering if you are ready to turn your hobby into a cake decorating business from the comfort of your home. The first step is determining if this is something you are practically up for you dont want to bite off more than you can chew, so to speak.
This article aims to give you highly unique, informative, and actionable information about the benefits of turning cake decorating into a business, how to turn your kitchen space into a baking station, and how to start the business.
How do you know if youre up for the cake decorating business? Here are some things to consider:
- Do you have great baking skills?
- Do you know anything about running a business?
- Do you have the right baking equipment?
- Do you have the gumption it takes to be an entrepreneur?
Whether or not you answered yes to all these questions, there are ways to prepare for success. To pursue your dream of owning a cake business, youll need an outline of what you can expect, the steps you should take, and how to follow through on the process.
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Track Your Finances From The Beginning:
Start bookkeeping from the very beginning and dont forget about taxes. If youre not sure how taxes will affect you, do a google search for your country and state, or go to your local tax office and ask.
You dont have to get fancy. You can just keep a simple spreadsheet at first in excel or google sheets, which is free to use. Later on, you can then move up to something fancier like QuickBooksor Freshbooks or something similar.
Make sure to track your income and expenses from the beginning. If you get a separate bank account, its much easier to keep track that way.
Take Time For Yourself
Our final piece of advice is to breathe. It’s a scientifically sound, fundamentally brilliant idea. One of the things we’ve learned is to schedule days off after big events or particularly heavy weeks of cake making. After Cake International, for example, we always book a couple of days off from all of the excitement! There’s only one of you and you can’t pour from an empty cup. For the first three years we kind of forgot to breathe. It really wasnt great for us, our health, our family or the business. You just cant work every hour without it catching up and hitting you over the head.
There’s always time for tea!
Which one of the points felt most true for you starting a cake business? If you could do a bit of time travel, what are the wise words youd tell your cake-business-beginner self?
Starting a cake business from home is no easy task, but we don’t want you to feel put off! Knowing how to set up a cake decorating business from professionals who have been exactly where you are means you can avoid many of the difficulties they had and save yourself a lot of hurt, hassle and heartbreak along the way!
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Step : Set Up Your Business Phone System
Getting a phone set up for your business is one of the best ways to help keep your personal life and business life separate and private. Thats not the only benefit it also helps you make your business more automated, gives your business legitimacy, and makes it easier for potential customers to find and contact you.
There are many services available to entrepreneurs who want to set up a business phone system. Weve reviewed the top companies and rated them based on price, features, and ease of use. Check out our review of the Best Business Phone Systems 2022 to find the best phone service for your small business.
Recommended Business Phone Service: Phone.com
Phone.com is our top choice for small business phone numbers because of all the features it offers for small businesses and it’s fair pricing.
Get Some Business Knowledge And Know How
Getting some basic business knowledge is my number 1, need to haves! Knowing how to brand your business, know who your ideal clients are, how to lean into your niche, set and outline your business plan and goals, and market your cakes is going to be essential if you are going to make any money.
I will touch on a couple of the more important things here but I would recommend you listen to The Business of Cake Making Podcast to get a fortnightly top up of business advise.
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Tips For Starting A Cake Business At Home
So, you?ve finally made the leap to start your baking business and satisfy your friends and family?s love of your signature cupcakes. To cut costs and decrease risk, you realize it?s a good idea to start the business out of your home. You have the kitchen, equipment, tools, and secret recipes to do it.
We know what your thinking, ?If Martha Stewart started her wildly successful catering business from her basement in the 1970s, what is stopping me?? Nothing, now what? Well, we?ve provided a few tips for starting a cake business from home that will help you bring your dream to life. As a beginning entrepreneur, you probably have a lot of questions, and we at Medina Baking & Supply are here to answer them.
Below are few things to consider before you dive in head first.
Find A Business Mentor
One of the greatest resources an entrepreneur can have is quality mentorship. As you start planning your business, connect with a free business resource near you to get the help you need.
Having a support network in place to turn to during tough times is a major factor of success for new business owners.
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Is This Business Right For You
Some of the most skilled chefs claim to fall short when it comes to baking. Are you one of the fortunate few who are skilled at baking? Are you passionate about the art of cake decorating and enhancing someones life celebration? Have you often pondered the benefits of being your own boss? If your answers were yes, opening your own cake business could be the perfect opportunity to realize your professional and personal goals.
Want to know if you are cut out to be an entrepreneur?
Take our Entrepreneurship Quiz to find out!
Follow Local Zoning Laws
There are also local zoning laws youll have to follow when you start a bakery in your home. Ask your local zoning office how many people you can have in your home before it needs to be zoned as a business. The rules for single-family homes are different than for small businesses.
If you are just going to be baking and decorating cupcakes at home and wont have customers shopping or buying them there, discuss this with the zoning office.
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Hosting A Grand Opening
The final step in opening a bakery is to host your grand opening and welcome customers to your business. A successful grand opening can get your new bakery off to a good start and help create some loyal customers. You should advertise your grand opening to create interest and ensure that customers know when your bakery is opening.
One great way to get customers in your bakery on your grand opening is to offer discounts and specials. For example, you can offer discounts for the first 100 people to visit. Another option is to give customers who order a dozen cupcakes one cupcake for free. You can also offer free samples of your breads and other baked goods to help convince customers to make a purchase.
Start A Cake Business By Following These 10 Steps:
There is more to starting a business than just registering it with the state. We have put together this simple guide to starting your cake business. These steps will ensure that your new business is well planned out, registered properly and legally compliant.
Exploring your options? Check out other small business ideas.
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Keep Your Kitchen Legal
It sounds easy enough to put on an apron and start baking, but you should check the laws first. Different states have different requirements as far as cottage food laws are concerned.
Many states will allow you to run a business from your kitchen without making any upgrades. You may face restrictions on where you can sell your food. For instance, you might need to go through a safety protocol course if youre selling anywhere other than a farmers market.
Likewise, you may need to register your business. And you may have limits on how much you can produce. So, do your homework on the legal matters before you start baking!