Sweet Business Success: Let's Bake It Happen!

In a pint-sized dorm kitchen, complete with one square foot worth of counter top dated back to the fifties and an ancient gas stove, my dream of running my own cake business was born. Somehow I fearlessly hurdled the barrier posed by the meager functionality of that small space and managed to complete my very first cake orders and very first cookie sale in that tiny kitchen.

And I was hooked.

Sitting in this kitchenette, I anxiously scanned one last time the email I’d been drafting for the last fifteen minutes:

“Hello! I’m a hopeful future cake decorator and I happened to stumble across your cake website and thought that it was amazing! If you get a spare minute, could you share your story with me? What helped you get up and running?? Did you learn as you went or have a lot of practice before starting? I'd love to hear anything you have to say!”

Satisfied. Send. Shut the laptop.

Five years ago I sent that very email to Addy Cakes with high hopes and a small handful of recipes in my pocket. I was ready to strap on my apron and jump feet first into the baking game. And while I could whip up ten dozen sugar cookies to perfection, ice a buttercream cake with crisp smoothness, and crank out a couple hundred cupcakes no sweat, I had no clue as to what secret ingredients it would take to make this a profitable or sustainable gig.

I never received a response.

Cue the fruitless Google searches that left me incredibly underwhelmed with resources on how to run a home baking business. Cue the countless frustrated nights knowing I was trading my talents and time for a pitiful profit. The defeated echo of “I quit!” has resounded through my disaster of a kitchen many times.

But now I’m standing on the other side of those five years, and I stand proudly as the owner and artist of a fully functional, sustainable and profitable home baking business that, just like a fresh batch of my ultra soft nutmeg infused sugar cookies, I worked up from scratch. A cup of trial and three cups of error. Several teaspoons of disheartening mistakes. And a big helping of courage.

Now I spend my weekends crafting gorgeous painted tiered wedding cakes. I receive fifteen to twenty new order requests a week. I pay myself a higher wage, yet work less hours than I ever did at any 9 to 5. And I lose no opportunity to take my little one to the pool in the afternoon or have an afternoon picnic of mac n’ cheese with him in the grass.

This is the ultimate dream of every home baker.

And through this incredible baking journey of the last five years, I discovered something about myself that surprised me:

Just as much as I love crunching on a coconut cream filled French macaron, I love crunching the numbers. I’m thrilled with the challenge of crafting compelling marketing strategies for my sweets just as much as I’m thrilled by the challenge of stacking a three tiered cake. I’m passionate about pricing and strategy and production logistics, and love to indulge in the puzzle of piecing them together to grow my baking biz.

And I’ve now made it my personal mission to be the dazzling resource for other home bakers that I wish I had had when starting my own baking business five years ago.

Welcome to The Out of Home Baker, the Key to Your Baking Biz Dreams

When it comes to baking itself, the resources are a dime a baker's dozen. You want to whip up a meringue to perfection? Here’s a million different blog posts about it. How to get crisp, smooth edges on a buttercream cake? Check out thousands of online tutorials. A little troubleshooting help when your chocolate has split? Dozens of Google pages in response to your query.

What licenses do you need to bake and sell from home?

Oops sorry, the shop is closed.

It’s not about adding yet another recipe blog to the mix. To the hopeful home baker who’s mastered the recipes, you now need a solid guide to navigate you through the legalities, the logistics, the nitty-gritty that happens on the business side of it all.

It’s about profitability and sustainability. I watch too many home bakers spuddle away their weeks being busy, with nothing to show for it but aching feet, meager earnings, and time lost with family and friends.

Despite the long hours put in to whip up an army of cake orders each week, the average home baker is making far less than minimum wage.

Despite offering up a selection of gourmet delectable treats made with the highest quality products, they have no idea how to calculate all the costs involved creating those confectionery wonders.

Despite having the most wonderfully unique chocolate truffle recipe, they have no clue how to reach potential customers and get their products out on the market.

But I do! I’ve done it! And I say “no more!” to feeling like you’re missing half the recipe!

The Out of Home Baker is the ultimate resource that every home baker has dreamed of. Over the past few months since I began this venture, the page has had an organic growth of over one thousand followers. I receive daily messages asking for a post or a live stream to cover certain baking topics:

“How do I host clients for a cake tasting?”

“What’s the best way to transport a wedding cake?”

“What in the world should I be charging for my custom cookies?”

It’s time to monetize The Out of Home Baker. I’m ready to show up, be of service, and take my passion for the business of baking to the next level, with the mission to elevate my fellow bakers as well. I’ve cooked up the perfect membership recipe to provide home bakers with all the ingredients they need to go out and bake it happen!

Ingredient Number One: A Model to Follow

“The road to learning by precept is long, but by example short and effective”

- Seneca the Elder

Remember my email to Addy Cakes? I would’ve given anything, would’ve gladly paid her, just for a few days to follow her around and understand how she ran her home based wedding cake business. How did she get clients? How did she get orders? She was living the life of my dreams and I just wanted to know everything about how!

This is exactly what the first tier of my membership would be: An exclusive weekly vlog that follows the ins and outs of my own successful home bakery day by day. A virtual mentor ship from someone who’s doing the thing. All the mistakes, the genius, the planning, and the real moments of my business, completely uncovered as a model that you as a home baker can follow.

Ingredient Number Two: Monthly Membership Live Streams

"Networking is not about just connecting people. It's about connecting people with people, people with ideas, and people with opportunities."

-Michele Jennae

Bump up to the second tier of membership to get the second ingredient to success: a monthly invitation to join in exclusive live stream sessions led by me and other guest experts in small business topics.

Each month I’ll be live and have some real time discussion about the nitty-gritty behind the business. The fears, the struggles and challenges faced by home bakers. All the topics you’re chomping at the bit to learn, we’ll dive deep into them during these monthly live sessions.

How do you deal with the orders that go wrong? Let’s have a real conversation about it.

What are the legal barriers to starting a baking biz? I’ve got you covered- let’s talk about it!

A little bit of marketing help or tax planning advice? Let’s bring on a guest expert and have a whole conversation about it!

These live sessions will connect you to the right thoughts, the right ideas, and the right direction that you need to take in your own home baking business.

Ingredient Number Three: Coaching Opportunities

"If you don’t build your dream, someone else will hire you to help them build theirs."

– Dhirubhai Ambani, founder, Reliance Industries

This is where your membership gets personal and magic happens. In this tier, all the focus is on YOU and YOUR baking business. After all, you have a sweet product, a unique creative approach, and a unique market you’re operating within. Let’s take everything you’ve learned and actually apply it together to your home bakery!

This tier includes live virtual group coaching sessions, where I walk you through monthly health check-ups on your baking business. We’ll check and evaluate your goal progress. We’ll analyze the profitability of your business. We’ll calculate the next steps needed to take your business to the next level.

Want a little more one-on-one attention? Let’s set up an individual coaching program fine tuned to your own baking biz needs. Six weeks of weekly private sessions, daily check-ins and encouragement, and individualized planning specifically tailored to your business.

Ingredient Number Four: Downloadable Resources & Templates

“The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing”

-Walt Disney

A good template goes a long way when you’re running your own business. And mine will be available to you as an easy download, so you can skip the trial and error and get right to fine tuning your baking biz! Everything from customer response templates to order invoices to booking contracts, all ready to download and ready to go!

Ingredient Number Five: Step-by-Step Courses

“Small businesses, you can give them capital, but what they often need as much is mentoring, advice and help with their business plan.”

-Karen Mills

When it comes to really nailing down your home baking business, there are a few crucial topics that need extra good coverage. These are delivered through a one-time purchase online course. A step-by-step breakdown that you can follow at your own pace. A few of the courses include:

-A Pricing Bootcamp that dives deep into pricing mentality, calculations, pricing communication, and strategy

-A Sweet Social Media Reboot that walks you through the essentials of a successful Instagram page for your baking biz, how to get your posts seen by potential customers, and how to craft your page to deliver what a customer needs to know in order to place an order

-A Dessert Photography Class for getting the great glamour shots that your sweets deserve!

Let’s Bake it Happen!

If there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that there is room for every home baker to have success. You can be the stay-at-home momma who makes killer cookies and a killer profit all at the same time. You can do the work you love and get paid for it. Become a member of the Out of Home Baker and let me show you the recipe to sweet business success!