If you are anything like me you have a long passion for baking! I always dreamed of having a bakery and once I decided to take the step of starting a home baking business I had to first decide what I was actually going to sell.
I love to make everything from cakes to eclairs but actually narrowing down what I was going to sell in my business came down to 3 things.
How profitable is the item?
There are a few things that go into profitability. How long it takes to make and the profit margins. I can decorate 2 dozen cupcakes in an hour for about $4 each for $96 total. I can assemble and decorate 3 number cakes in an hour for $90 each for a total of $270.
A 24 person wedding cake (for the sake of comparison to the cupcakes) that is a simple frosted cake with flowers would take me about an hour to assemble, frost, and decorate at $7 a serving would sell for $140. All of these would have the same bake time as well.
You can see that the number cakes and the wedding cake would be the most profitable for the same amount of work. This is what lead me towards custom cakes.
What will your business model be?
You have to decide what your business model is going to be. Do you want to sell a large amount of lower-cost items or would you like to have fewer orders that cost a lot more? Either way is fine! But that will help you narrow down which items to include in your menu and which to leave out.
When I first started my business I offered apple pies for thanksgiving. Never again. The process is way too long for the amount that I am able to charge for an apple pie. It took a long time to make crust from scratch and peel and slice all the apples by hand (if I continued to make them I would have invested in equipment to make it faster).
And for all of that work, I can not charge $100 for a pie. It is just not possible! Meaning I would need to sell a lot more pies than I would cakes.
Do you actually enjoy making it?
I hate making cake pops. I just hate them, I hate eating them, I hate making them. They are just not my thing. Would they be profitable? YES!! Would they reduce waste? YES!!! But no I refuse to make cake pops.
Hopefully, someday I change my mind about them. But for now it's a no. You do not need to include everything in your menu just because everyone else who sells cupcakes also sells cake pops. This is your business and if you don’t like making them don’t sell them!
Is the item related to other things you plan on selling?
Are they sisters? If so, then yes sell it in your home baking business. If not, I would leave it out. For example when I first started; my menu had macarons, apple pies, cakes, cupcakes, eclairs, brownies, chocolate covered marshmallows and more. Even writing this I’m shaking my head!!
Chocolate covered marshmallows are not sisters to macarons and eclairs. Apple pies are absolutely not sisters to eclairs either. Niche it down at least to a family that go together. This is important because similar items will have similar ingredients and processes. Which makes streamlining your business so much easier!
I have created a flow chart for you to help narrow down what you want to include in your menu and what you might want to leave out! You can download it for free below!
I hope this helped you clarify what you want to sell in your home baking business and what you might want to leave out! If you have any questions make sure to drop it below and I will get back to you asap!
Happy Baking!!
Kwincy!
