[Music]

as a bakery consultant it's my job to

examine businesses in terms of their

potential for success versus failure and

I've been noticing that there are a

handful of things that keep popping up

so for those of you who are in the

bakery business or considering getting

into the bakery business here they are I

encounter far too many bakeries that are

not taking the time to cost out their

products we absolutely must know how

much it costs us to make a thing not

just so we can sell that thing at a

profitable price but also so we can

adjust the recipe or packaging to

position the product strategically

within the marketplace if you are not

sure how to do this then check out my

latest book which is full of solutions

I am surprised at how many bakers in

business are still using supermarkets to

buy ingredients and supply shops for

buying packaging because when it comes

to manufacturing we should be seeking to

avoid buying our supplies at the retail

level we want to be higher on the supply

chain purchasing stuff and bulk from

distributors or better yet from the

source itself the goal is to cut out as

many middlemen as we possibly can

at the very least we want to compare

costs so we know for sure that if we are

buying at the retail level we're doing

so for reason because that's where a

particular ingredient is the cheapest

[Music]

it's really hard to launch a business

without any investment capital without

capital we can't afford to buy the kinds

of equipment we need to achieve

production efficiency without capital we

can't afford to purchase ingredients in

packaging in bulk which helps to lower

our cost of goods if we can't reach a

lower enough cost of goods then it's

impossible to turn a profit at a fair

market price I once worked at a bakery

that through all kinds of things out

they threw out their cake tops which

could have been used to make crust or

crumble or pops they threw out the

buttercream that got scraped from the

finish of the wedding cakes which could

have been used to make fillings or

trifle or samples so many valuable

things went into the trash it was just

one of many reasons why that bakery did

not turn a profit throwing out food is

the equivalent of emptying your wallet

into the trash sometimes I meet business

owners who have tons of things going for

them they have a smart concept and

plenty of experience they might even

have a decent chunk of financial capital

so they get ahead of themselves and dive

headfirst into branding trademarking and

packaging a single product line that has

not been market tested widely enough to

justify such a big investment ideas are

a dime a dozen especially nowadays when

we all have access to the internet that

is saturated with recipes and gimmicks

and designs even if you are innovative

enough to come up with a great idea it's

only a matter of months before someone

else will be selling it and blogging

about it being a successful business is

so much less about having good ideas and

so much more about finding ways to

execute your ideas swiftly and

effectively while keeping up with a

rapidly evolving industry

sometimes I work with bakery owners who

have a fabulous concept which they also

know how to execute but they haven't

taken their local demographic into

account for instance they want to make

custom cakes but the median income where

they live is not at a high enough level

to support that sort of business part of

the work involved with starting a

business entails researching your

surrounding cities and towns looking for

what's in demand and meeting that demand

sometimes that process involves letting

go of some of your most darling ideas

because that corner of the market is

already saturated or simply not in

demand I see a lot of people getting

into business because they love what

they do which is a great reason to go

into business I mean that's the dream

right to do what you love for work but

too much passion has a way of making us

blind if we love it so much that we look

at it with moodily eyes then we are more

likely to encounter disillusionment down

the road when it comes to business we

need to harness as much objectivity as

possible

[Music]

once we turn a hobby into a job it

becomes work which means it stops being

quite as fun it's fair to say that

there's a grieving process involved with

letting a hobby go it's a pretty big

sacrifice when you think about it I call

this Baker's remorse I see it a lot

around the two to three year mark

because they're used to thinking as a

hobby some people make the mistake of

avoiding all the business aspects of

running a bakery that aren't fun if you

are suffering from professional Baker's

remorse my suggestion to you is to find

a new hobby getting to create and

sharing your creations is probably what

you used to love about baking so try

looking for new avenues of expression

for yourself there are so many other

creative things you could be doing make

time for those things always do art for

yourself

[Music]

[Music]