How to Start a Bakery

Do you love to bake cookies, cakes, and bread? Are you the one your friends and family call on to provide baked goods at family dinners? Consider learning how to start a bakery. Everyone loves the smell of fresh baked goods, but some people truly have a passion for baking. If this describes you, there is a chance you can have a thriving bakery that will fuel your passion while filling your bank account!

While (fairly) fresh baked goods are now available at supermarkets and other corporate owned entities, they will never eliminate the local hometown bakery. They cannot compete with the level of service you can offer, the superior ingredients you will use or your baking skills.

What You’ll Need to Succeed

The location of your bakery is something you should begin thinking about as soon as you decide to learn how to start a bakery. Location is important, because you want customers to notice your shop and be able to get to it and park easily. Because what you are doing in your bakery smells so amazing, it is perfect if you can find a location where a lot of people walk by your bakery every day.

Once you find a suitable location, you will need to install the equipment you will use to make your heavenly creations. This equipment includes an industrial mixer, large commercial ovens, plenty of counter space, and, depending on what you plan to offer, perhaps deep fryers for donuts, carnival bread, and other fried treats.

You might be the most talented baker anywhere, but managing your bakery takes a different kind of talent. If you are not adept at business procedures, consider hiring a manager who will “run things” while you create the vision for your business and the goodies for your customers.

One step in learning how to start a bakery is finding out what kind of permits and licenses you will need. Of course you’ll have to have a general business license, and you will need a permit from the health department to create and serve food at your shop. You can expect regular inspections to check for violations of codes and laws, so make sure you are current on the right way to operate your bakery.

Marketing Your Bakery

The first step in building a marketing plan for your bakery is to research the competition. Find out what they are charging, what they’re known for, and most importantly, what they don’t offer that people might want.

Once you get your delectable baked goods out to the public, word of mouth can take you far. To start out with though, it’s a good idea to have a “soft opening” and then throw a huge grand opening celebration a couple of weeks later. Give away a lot of baked goods during the grand opening and chalk it up to marketing expenses, because that’s exactly what it is.

There might be more than you would expect to learning how to start a bakery, but the rewards for doing it right are sweet indeed!

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