Blog From chef Grace Stevens.. &. A Recipe For Success & Kitchen Tools for Baking Them the perfect Valentine’s Cake! www.gracestevens.co.za
Grace Stevens is an award winning author and cake designer, a teacher, blogger and television chef on the award winning morning show, Expresso on SABC 3
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Grace Stevens is an award winning author and cake designer, teacher and television chef on the award winning morning show, Expresso on SABC 3. She teaches the art of cake design and loves to share her passion for baking. Her blog, Baking with Grace, www.bakewithgraceblog.com, showcases her recipes. Visit her YouTube channel, Everyday Baking with Grace Stevens, for great family recipes. See less
A Recipe for Success – The Ultimate Guide for Your Baking Business
Thinking about taking your hobby from confectionary side hustle to a full-time baking business? The romantic idea that you will spend your days only baking perfect cookies is far from the reality of what it takes to run a profitable baking business.
Cookbook author, business owner and baking aficionado Grace Stevens shares her most valuable insights into what you need to do to begin your baking business.
Set informed goals
Every great cake begins with an amazing recipe. In business, your recipe should start with researching your target market, examining your competition, and setting clear, achievable goals to help you stay disciplined on the path to your sweetest business dreams.
Play to your strengths
Embrace the elements that make your creations extraordinary and play to your strengths as a baker and businessperson. Offering something unique, delicious, and reliable to your customers will keep your creativity flowing and ensure you get your financial piece of the pie.
Listen to your customers
Your customers can be your biggest advocates and having a great reputation can even save you money on marketing. Being mindful of your patron’s ideas, inputs and even criticisms will help you build a loyal base of return customers and pull in new business.
Ask for assistance
Identifying what is not your strong point and learning to ask for help in the right places is extremely important for your confidence, as well as the growth and sustainability of your business.
5 top tips on pricing that you never even thought about:
When selling your masterful creations be mindful of expenses like packaging, consumables, ingredients, your time and your technical skill level.
Marketing for the launch of your start-up and for the long term is important to cost into every sale.
Certain markets, such as wedding cakes, may have a seasonal swing to them and it is important to budget to diversify your products and save for the slower months accordingly.
Identify exactly what each of your recipes cost as if you had to buy all your ingredients and equipment tomorrow. Even the best equipment has a lifespan so it is important to plan to improve, expand and replace your essential equipment as needed.
Have a contingency plan. Adding a small amount onto each of your successful orders will ensure that you have the budget to remake an unsuccessful order without running at a loss. The number of re-bakes will be unique to your skill level and should decrease as you become more experienced.
Perhaps the most important pearl of wisdom that Grace shares is that you need to know your worth and stick to it. The value you assign to your creations is pivotal to both the health of your business and your professional confidence.
If you plan carefully, never follow a half-baked idea, are mindful of your finances and never undervalue your skills or the products they allow you to produce, you should be sifting your way to success in record time.
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