Today, I will be sharing steps on how you can start an online Baked goods business. Because my intention is to get anyone who reads my Blog to the point of starting a home business,  I always try to simplify the method of delivery of my posts so that you can get going as soon as you finish reading my post.

I also always try to use the simplest and easiest medium available to propose my home business ideas, so you can understand why I have a bias towards online businesses, it is because they are easy to start and you can start from where you are to grow.

Having said that, I will like to say that Baked goods business is an evergreen business that will be here with us till the end of time. This is because for as long as man lives, we must eat, and if we must eat someone has to do the cooking right?. This is the reason why I know that if all you know how to do is to cook you should never have to look for what to do. For so long as people will eat your food, you are in business.

In this post, I will dedicate my time to teach on the various steps you can follow in starting a Home based baked goods business.  I am always for starting a home based business because my primary audience is people who want to run a home business. They are tired of the 9-5 and will like to ditch it for more control over what they can do with their time.

Steps to starting an online Baked Goods business.

1 Assess your Skills

Before you think of starting a baked goods business, you must have an interest in cooking. If cooking does not give you pleasure in any way then perhaps this is not the best home business for you. For tips on determining what home business suits you please read my post on how to find the right work at home business for you.

Your assessment of your skills will determine what kind of baked goods business you want to go into. There are people whose expertise is basically cup cakes, they can whip up all manner of flavors of cupcakes, they are not willing to make birthday cakes or big size wedding cakes, that’s not their expertise.

If you watch food network a lot, you will notice there are people who specialize in different kinds of baked goods, the reason it’s important to note what you are really good at is that it will help you to zero into your target market, kind of like finding your niche market.

If you find that you have an interest in baking but you do not know how to bake, then you can ramp up and watch recipe videos and learn how to make various baked goods, you can learn at your own pace and keep trying out your ideas until you perfect it. If you meet me up in person, I am a doer, meaning that if I want to do something and I don’t know how to, I will find a way to learn it and perfect it until I learn how to do that stuff so well that you will think it’s in my DNA.

Now if this post is the answer to your question of starting a home based business and you are passionate about cooking, then this might be the right fit for you.  A little personal story here, my younger sister when in college, needed extra money which wasn’t always forth coming because of the fact that my Dad had to cater for a lot of us, we are 12 in my family, talk of a full house. She got tired of waiting for my dad to send her money each month, so she got together the little funds she had and learned how to bake a meat pie.

She sold those pies and made so much money that she replaced her monthly allowance which she used to wait so much for. My dad only knew about her business venture when he called her to ask how she had been coping, only for him to hear that she was doing fine, talk of when you want to come out of a bad situation you do what you must.

2 Assess your market:

Since you are not baking for your pleasure, you have to check whether there is a market for what you are about to go into. Baking is a type of cooking, I always feel that there will always be demand for food, but you have to take your time to research what kind of demand there is and what is trending in your food niche at these times. This will enable you to match your idea with a demand that is on hand, once you are able to do that you have a business.

To find out what is trending you can use Google Trends and Google key planning tool to determine the moving trend of the baked goods business you want to specialize in. if you are like me, I like to mix things up a lot, I will probably offer a variety of small sized baked goods to see which of my offerings got peoples attention better. To learn how to use the Google Keyword planner, check Backlinko.com . You can also check www.americanbakers.org. For your baking research.

3 Determine which Niche you want to play in

Baked goods just like any other food now have various varieties, paleo cooking, gluten free, nuts free, all kinds of categories, ketogenic compliant and even diabetic friendly cooking. We have various health concerns now when it comes to eating so getting your niche market right from the start will ensure that you know those you are going to serve. For ideas on Paleo cooking, check this Ebook on healthy cooking

Start from where you are; This is my favorite mantra as a home business championer permit me to use that word, it’s a word I often repeat because it helps you cut all the chase and get to doing what you want to do. You can even find it in the bible, remember when Abraham was talking with God when Lot left him to go to greener pastures, he said from where you are, look to the north, south, west, and east all the land you see I will give to you. God wanted him to use his inner eyes and see the possibilities before him.

Okay, enough of the preaching, back to what I was saying, start with what you have,  a kitchen, perhaps some baking equipment start. Remember you are starting out small, so you do not need to buy expensive equipment to start.  Start with your kitchen and make samples that you will use for your taste test.

Get your baking recipe out and begin to bake, it may be a recipe you have in your family that only your family members eat on special occasions, you may be surprised that, that is what will propel your success, so whip out that recipe and start making your first taste batch.

Writing this post reminds me of the story of Bama Pie  that I read while attending  Business school. Bama pie went on to become the number one supplier to Macdonalds. That story so inspired me and I bet it will inspire you too.

4 Get your One-page Business Plan done and keep it simple:

The word Business Plan often evokes some shivers down some peoples spine, especially if you hate numbers. Well, you don’t have to worry, I have a post that simplifies what your business plan should look like, get it here. That said, write out your biz plan and figure out ways you can make your business profitable by selling your products at the right price. Remember that because you have to invest in buying your condiments, you have to learn to keep your costs low.

5 Get your licenses and permit:

I am all for doing business the ethical way, I will advise you research ways of getting your licenses sorted out before you start out. A good place to start will be the American small business association. It’s a site that offers a whole lot of small business resources to small business owners.

You will also need to check your state laws to see whats obtainable and whats not. While writing this article, I learned that Wisconsin is yet to pass a law that allows home baked goods sale, so you have to be sure of what is obtainable where you live before setting out. While at it, remember that once you have your permit you are a small business and you will require to file your taxes, for consultations on that you can contact e -file .com, they offer such services.

 

6 Marketing & Promotion:

Now that you are all set up to go, you have to learn that marketing is the key to getting your business out there. The next thing that matters about promoting especially for your online baked goods business is that your promotions will basically be two pronged.

-Offline

-Online

For the offline marketing activities here are a few ideas on how to proceed.

Plan a Tasting party and create a Buzz about it

Now because you are going to sell a product which people will eat, you will have to be willing to start by having a tasting party, a tasting party is basically an occasion where you give out free samples of your products and get people to give you their honest opinion about what your product tastes like and what kind of improvements they had like to see.

It’s like a prequel to your launch day for your business, wait a minute you were not thinking that you will start an online business without some kind of launch date, scratch that, not in these days. You have to make people hunger for your product even before you have started selling, that is the new kind of marketing these days, you sell it before the day arrives. Especially if you are planning to have an online baked goods business you can’t afford not to pre- sell your products. Here are a few things to note

-Your ability to presell before your launch date will ensure that the orders come rolling in before your due date. You can post videos of your prelaunch activities on your online platform to ensure your online community is aware of whats going on.

-You can also involve your online community in the tasting party by sending them samples before your party date, that way they can join in and taste and post their own opinions online as you hold it in your physical location.

– Ask them to take a short video describing what it tasted like and their recommendations, you will find that those videoes may become the testimonial you need to draw in sales for your baked goods business.

-Hold a Bakesale in your community or find out the nearest on going Flea market near you and find a way of opening a stand for your business there. Even though your business is geared towards an online platform, connecting with people offline is a must since people can relate with what they have tasted before. Getting your bake sale sorted out can help you connect with your immediate neighborhood people who will spread the word about your goods.

While at the baked goods sale, do not forget to hand out your cards with your online contacts or you can choose to collect peoples emails as they approach your stand, this will help you to develop or start up your email list in other to ensure your marketing and promotional efforts are getting to those who already know you.

-Offer free samples to friends and family and ask them to give you their sincere feedback

Get Corporate clients through this means:

Offer free samples to places where there are likely demands like restaurants, coffee shops, schools and Gas stations, shopping malls. The intent of approaching these groups is to see if you can secure a contract that allows you supply to these set of people at certain times in the month.

Online: Marketing online will require these platforms:

–Instagram

-Pinterest

-Facebook.

-Blog.

In marketing to the online media, pictures, videos and words will be used as your marketing tools. Your ability to describe peoples experience with your products will go a long way to help showcase your products. Write the best description for your products to ensure that your site easily comes up during searches.

-Facebook: In considering the above-mentioned platforms, my key advice will be to start with Facebooks groups that engage in sales in your area, join local Facebook groups to market your goods via posting in such groups and your Blog.

-Instagram is based mainly on pictures, so make sure you take cool pictures of your product and leave your details for people who want to reach you.

-Pinterest: Pinterest also deals with pictures and is also a search engine for products so make sure you are able to make pinnable images of what you sell and post it in group boards for maximum exposure.

-Blog: Finally, the killer online medium that ties all these marketing efforts together is your Blog where you get to talk about what you do and how you do it.

For someone who probably has never had a home business before this may sound scary but it doesn’t have to be, remember that blogging can be fun too, and can also be an income channel too. By blogging about your products, you could sell training on how you produce or run your stuff

You can also make it place to connect with your customers not only to take orders but to listen to their preferences and complaints as well. A blog is a platform that unifies all the different aspects of marketing together. If you are tight on cash, you can start with the free blogging platforms like wordpress.com and so forth but as you grow, you may want to move on to paid platform, in moving to a paid platform you can consider using a professional online store application like  Shopify

If you would like to blog about it, I have got your back, here is a post about how you can start a blog when you are not a techie. You will find in that post resources that can help you start your Blog in as little as 2 hours.

Finally, know that promoting and fine tuning your business strategy will help you run a successful online baked goods business.

To learn more about how to start a home business please sign up to our mailing list here. For signing up you will get a free ebook and a free affiliate check list, plus a 5-day free training on Blogging for profit.

Do you have any other ideas on how to start an online baked goods business, leave your comment below.