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How To Run A Cake Decorating Business From Your Home:
There is nothing like working from home. It is cheaper because you don't need to commute or buy a special wardrobe to go out into the public. You can also use a home office as a tax write off. Here are some ideas to help you start and succeed in a home based cake decorating business.
- Find a Unique Way to Sell Your Cakes - Think about why people should come to you for their cakes instead of going to a bakery. Do your cakes taste better, are they more beautiful, do you offer a unique style, or do you provide better service (drop off cakes on the special day)? You may want to offer all of these things to get the customers coming to you. Once they see the beautiful work you do, they will tell everyone they know and you will be able to get more business.
- Use Press Releases: You should send a press release to local and nearby news papers every time you participate in nonprofit or community events in your town. You should also send a press release if you have anything happen with your business. When you do, be sure to mention everything that makes your business unique. This will be a bit of advertisement along with the announcement.
- Advertise in newspapers and shoppers: Make sure to advertise your business. You should take out a larger ad the month of May for graduation, in May and June for weddings, or when a big event is going to take place. Place ads in the high school paper, or if you have a college nearby, you can advertise in any paper they may have and on the bulletin board. Before you do think about what discounts or specials you can offer for these events. Make sure you specify that all orders need to be in by a certain date, this could prompt buyers to take action and order from you.
- A Business Website: You should create a website for your cake decorating business. Make the site informative and easy to navigate. Show samples of your cake decorating skills, and mention how unique your business is, if you are flexible, and what type of cake decorating you do. You may or may not want to put prices on your website, sometimes it is better to have them call you and you can quote them a price, according to their needs. When you advertise, make sure you include your web address in your advertising.
- Look for Distributors: One way to expand your business is to find other businesses who are willing to advertise your cake decorating business. Coffee shops and restaurants will probably be your best bet. This will give your business more exposure and save you from having to open a store of your own. In exchange for this service they would receive a commission on each order you receive from their establishment.
- Barter with local party and event planners: You can strike up a bargain with local planners to show your portfolio to their customers. In exchange you can recommend them to your customers. Get included in their list of vendors, and they may have you making and decorating all of their cakes.
- Offer Free Products for fund raisers, church activities, local events and festivals. Get involved in fundraising for local charities, school, church, and business events. By offering a free cake for these events, you will be gaining a great deal of advertising exposure. Make up brochures and hand them out when you are in attendance.
- Real Estate Offering: Contact local Realtors and offer a special on housewarming cakes for their clients. Realtors often give a gift to clients when they sell a home. When you make cakes for these occasions, make sure to place the cake in a beautiful cake box imprinted with your business name, address, phone, and web address. You can also include a discount coupon if they order a cake within a certain time frame.
- Referrals: Tell everyone you come into contact with about your business. Carry business cards with all of your information on it. Give them 2 or 3 cards and ask them to pass them along to others who might be interested in using your talents. You should also ask customers for referrals. Offer them a discount on their next cake if they can drum up new business for you.
Starting A Home Based Cookery Business - Catering For All Tastes:
If you are a good cook and like cooking, why not build on your skills and knowledge and start your own business doing something you already know you enjoy. The first thing to do is decide what sort of cookery you want to undertake on a business basis.
Can you envisage yourself having a career running a full catering business? If so, you could choose to offer a general catering service or one specialising in organising buffet meals or wedding breakfasts only. You might want to create a niche business offering multi-course gourmet meals, vegetarian extravaganzas or ethnic feasts.
Perhaps your interest is in baking. If you can reliably produce delicious cakes and pastries, a bakery business might be more to your liking. You can make a career out of baking and decorating cakes to your own designs, you could even specialise in one type of cake eg cheesecakes or wedding cakes.
Maybe your passion is jam-making or pickling or bottling fruit. These types of homemade goods produced with fresh natural ingredients are far superior to the preservative packed factory manufactured varieties and are enjoyed by everyone who appreciates food that actually tastes like food.
Don't overlook the possibility of running a lunch delivery service. If you live reasonably near to offices or factories, you could start a sandwich/snack delivery round. Fresh homemade sandwiches are in a different league to the bland offerings available in many commercial outlets. Workers usually only get an hour or less for lunch so they will appreciate the chance to save time and effort by having lunch delivered. As well as sandwiches, you could offer home baked pies and cakes. The sandwich round could easily be run part-time in addition to other catering jobs.
If you are already involved in cooking for your family and friends, you probably have most, if not all, the basic equipment needed to start up a catering related home business. If you intend to specialise in baking and decorating cakes or selling homemade sandwiches, your initial outlay will be comparatively small. You will obviously need to budget for ingredients. Also, you will need to buy suitable packaging materials and have funds to pay for any fuel you will use to make deliveries.
It is worth the extra expense to have items such as sandwich bags and cake boxes printed with your details so that customers will be reminded of your name (or your company name) and can recommend you to friends or phone you to place repeat orders. If your ambition is to offer a full catering service, you might find that you need an additional freezer, fridge or microwave oven. You might even find that you need a dedicated vehicle to use for your business. A business loan might be the best way to cover any large expenses.
After brainstorming the possibilities, it is time to sit down and draw up a formal business plan. This will be necessary if you intend to apply for a business development loan or seek a grant for start-up capital. Putting your plans down on paper will also help you to clarify all the details and turn a bunch of ideas into a real project.
Before you cook anything in a professional capacity, it is essential to find out what is required in your area in the way of insurances, and certification to enable you to prepare food on a commercial basis. You need to make enquiries of your local Health Authority who will provide you with the regulations and inform you what inspections are required. You don't want your business to get closed down on a technicality, so make sure you do your homework on rules and regulations in advance.
Whatever size or type of catering business you are planning, you will need to set aside a budget for advertising. As in most lines of business, the best way to grow a catering business is through personal recommendation but this takes time and you have to have some customers to start spreading the word in the first place. You must advertise to get started and to keep your business growing. Advertising can consist of many different things, eg having fliers delivered, press releases and classified advertisements in local newspapers, classified advertisements in targeted magazines. Have stationery and business cards printed with your business details, post advertisements free on notice boards in shops.
Make sure you tell everyone about your new business. This includes friends and acquaintances who can spread the word but you should also make contact with people in related businesses to see if you can make a mutual recommendation agreement. For example, if your speciality is baking wedding cakes, it would be useful to form an alliance with the local florist, local dressmaker and (obviously) any local wedding planner.
Take a short business course on the Internet or at your local college. Even if you intend to employ an accountant or have a qualified advisor, you should know at least the basics of business management and your tax liabilities.
Finally, make sure you give yourself a continuing education on all food-related subjects. Subscribe to professional magazines and take evening classes to learn new techniques and recipes. Trends in food change and you need to keep up to date with those trends as well as learning about new discoveries relating to nutrition.
