Living in the digital age continues to provide a ton of opportunities for entrepreneurs of all kinds. This includes bakers and food artisans.
In previous decades, bakers experienced a sense of legitimacy when they attended a culinary institute and opened their own brick-and-mortar stores. Now, you can launch a successful online bakery business without professional training. A self-taught, self-starting baker can create a successful enterprise from scratch. How about that!
Nevertheless, consider some of the ways you can get started with an online bakery business.
1. Know Your Offerings
There are countless directions you can go in when you’re running a bakery. You can offer a range of freshly-baked loaves of bread, wedding cakes, or muffins. You can become a cookie baker who boasts the best chocolate chip cookie on the market. The key is to hone in on a specific specialty. Most food businesses are known for one or two items on their menu that sell the most.
While it might take some time to figure out what the public loves, be intentional about knowing what your core offerings will be. Consider testing the market by offering taste tasting sessions with various groups of people. Allow them to vote on the flavors and menu items they like the most.
If you’re running a cupcake business, seasonal items can work well too. If you sell pumpkin spice cupcakes in the fall or pink lemonade cupcakes in the spring, your customers might like those limited edition items.
2. Consider the Costs
Each state maintains different laws as it pertains to running a baking business. Some states allow you to operate a baking business from your home. Other states might require you to operate within the confines of a commercial kitchen.
Even if you start out in your home kitchen, the point is to grow. You’ll eventually need a commercial kitchen. You’ll need to secure commercial accounts in order to gain access to high-grade ingredients in larger quantities.
At some point, you’ll secure larger accounts with restaurants and major retailers. You’ll need to transport the products to various locations intact. You can’t do this type of work on your own. Connecting with a container trucking company will be necessary to make sure the baked goods arrive fresh. Don’t wait until down the line to consider those costs. Instead, create a budget and plan. This helps you to factor the numbers you need to hit in order to achieve a certain amount of growth on a consistent basis.
The success of any business is found in its numbers. When you know your numbers, it’s much easier to scale in the most practical manner. Securing a commercial space might seem daunting when you’re in the beginning stages. However, knowing your numbers and developing a growth plan help to make the dream a reality.
3. Curate a Mobile-Friendly, Responsive Website
A website is one of the most essential components of any online business. Don’t just stop at creating a nice website. Make sure the website is mobile-friendly and responsive. Customers need to easily scroll, view your website and make purchases through their phones. Because Amazon made it so easy to make purchases with their one-click payment feature, consumers expect a certain level of ease when they’re making a transaction.
4. Develop a Strong Online Marketing Presence
If people don’t know about your business, they won’t buy from you. Even with understanding the financials of your business, it’s important to leave wiggle room for a viral moment. When you create an incredibly strong online marketing presence on platforms like TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram, there’s a strong chance your business will go viral at some point. Whether the attention is good or bad, you’ll need to be in a position to handle the mass interest and leverage it.
Use social media platforms to your advantage by creating interesting content that promotes your bakery. Connect and develop strong partnerships with influencers who can effectively sell to their audiences in an authentic manner. Build a blog that’s specifically curated for search engine optimization.
While there’s nothing wrong with offline marketing strategies, remember that you’re running an online business. Put your products directly in front of your clientele through paid ads, sponsored posts, and great content marketing in order to gain traction and visibility.
The Bottom Line
When you’re ready to launch your business, be sure to develop a team that can help you with the legalities. Getting the proper certifications, bank accounts, and tax practices together will help you tremendously when it’s time to file taxes, deal with legal occurrences, and more. With these tips in place, you’ll be well on your way to launching and leading a successful online bakery business.
