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How my first ever bake sale was a complete disaster and why it was the best thing for my business

3/2/2018

9 Comments

 
how to start a cake business from home
starting a food business semlep

This is a picture of me at the very first bake sale I did nearly 7 years ago. I was still working in my day job but redundancy was on the cards and for the first time in my life I was unsure of what the future held.

If you're a baker, you're probably always wondering if you could run a baking business from home and that's what I'd been doing. I'd done the basics, got a food hygiene certificate, had an inspection from my local EHO and sorted out insurance but I wasn’t sure if I would be able to make it work as a full time business, or if this should just stay as a small part time thing I did to earn an extra income.

​To test the water, I signed up to do a bake sale at the local country fair. I wanted to see if anyone outside of my friends and family would be willing to pay a proper price for my baked goods.


nila holden cupcakes at bake sale

It was the Easter holidays so I took a week off work and baked and baked - cupcakes, cookies, cake pops - the lot. The weather was lovely so my husband took the kids out for day trips so I could get on without too many distractions. I planned out my stall, made some signs and got some business cards printed.

how to set up a cake stall

​On the weekend of the show I roped in all the family to help out with setting up my gazebo and manning the stall. We had glorious weather and the crowds were out in full force.  I was so excited and a little bit nervous too.
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how to start your cake business from home

​The first morning passed by with a few customers stopping by the stand and all saying the right things - oooh and aaahhing over the cupcakes, cookies and cake pops. And then they’d walk on by.

​The afternoon was even quieter. The hot dog stand a few stalls up was heaving,  massive queues building up with customers eager to part with the best part of £6 for a sausage in a bun and a few onions. But no-one was interested in cupcakes. I couldn’t understand it.
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how to scale your food business

That night I got home feeling really crushed. I’d been so diligent in carefully planning out what products I’d make, I’d spent a lot of time designing and making beautiful floral cupcakes, cookies for the kids and cake pops too.

​They were all packaged with lovely tags and ribbons and the stand looked good. I’d put ingredients labels and best before dates on everything. It looked professional.  So what was I doing wrong and why was no one buying?
Day two dawned and we headed off early to get everything set up again. Again we had beautiful weather and the organisers popped round with encouraging words as they were expecting big crowds.

​The day started slow, but I had a few customers stop by and pick up some treats. Then a particularly grumpy looking woman came up to the stall and had a good look around and walked off muttering “£1.50 for a cupcake?? I can get 2 for 70p in Asda…”

using events to grow your baking business
The rest of the day went pretty much the same way. Packing up time arrived and I was bit flabbergasted. What was I going to do with all that stock I’d made? It was all wrapped so it would be fine but only for a day or two.

To my surprise the manager of the on site cafe popped over to have a chat. He too said how pretty my products looked - and then he asked how much stock I had left over and if I’d consider selling it to him at cost price to resell in the cafe. I was caught off guard but luckily my husband who’d helped me plan everything stepped in and suggested a price which the manager was happy with.

​He went off and came back shortly with the cash to pay for the stock and a couple of helpers who loaded up a trolley with the cupcakes, cookies and cake pops and off they went. 

how to sell cupcakes from home

​Thanks to this little stroke of luck, I just about managed to cover the costs of the stall and my ingredients. Nothing more. Not the greatest start to my cake business venture.

For a few weeks after the fair I felt really down and despondent.  I wasn’t sure I even wanted to start a food business because the short shelf life was always going to be an issue. The ‘two for 70p in Asda” in particular stuck in my mind.
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​​I didn’t realise it all the time but in truth it was a pivotal moment in my start up journey. It taught me some really crucial lessons, and I would end using up what I learned from this experience to tweak and develop my business and product range.

So ultimately it was a really valuable lesson - learned the hard way - without which - my business might never really have got off the ground.

So what did this experience teach me:


Know your customer
It taught me that I didn’t really know or understand my customer. Before the bake sale I hadn’t really done any work to think about who my ideal customer might be, what they liked, why they would buy my products. I went into it very much in the mindset of "well everyone likes cake don’t they?" I was lulled into a false sense of security by the fact that my family and friends raved about my bakes. That’s not the best basis for your customer analysis and they are probably not going to be representative of your target market.

Know your product
It taught me that I hadn’t quite found my perfect product yet. After a lot of reflection and soul searching I realised that I would have to give up on my dream of owning a cupcake business because I would need to sell A LOT of cupcakes on a regular basis to make any real money and this wasn't practical. Sounds obvious now doesn’t it?

Know the size of your market
It taught me that by having a short shelf life product, that I couldn’t easily get to people I was restricting myself to a very local market. And this would make it hard to scale. And local customers weren’t really prepared to pay a fair price for my products.  While this might be okay for a hobby baker just looking to cover their costs, if I wanted to build a thriving business I’d need to come up with a different product that I could ship around the country, the world even. If it had a long shelf life or the product was non perishable, even better.
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Know your sales strategy
It taught me that if doing events was going to be part of my sales strategy that next time I’d need to do my homework before signing up. Where was the event taking place, what was the footfall and buying habits of visitors. What other food stalls would be there. Would there any competition - from an onsite cafe for example? Was this the sort of event that my ideal customer would attend? I hadn’t done any of this research before signing up.

starting a food business uk


So all in all, my first ever bake sale wasn't a complete disaster but if I’d continued making these same mistakes then I don’t think I would ever have got my business up and running. It’s not uncommon to make mistakes when you’re running a business. Making mistakes can be a valuable learning experience. It’s important to take calculated risks in business and keep trying new things. But when something doesn’t quite go to plan, the important thing is to pick yourself up, keep going and learn the lessons.

If you run a business I'm pretty sure you've experienced something similar. So tell me, what’s the biggest ‘mistake’ you’ve made in your business and what did it teach you?
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Let me know in the comments below - I’d love to hear your story.
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If you're a food or creative entrepreneur starting or scaling your business or looking to turn your hobby into a business then do come over and join my members only facebook group Kitchen Table Entrepreneur where I regularly offer support, tips/tricks and training to help you grow and become profitable.

​I look forward to meeting you over there!

nila holden kitchen table entrepreneur
9 Comments
Tracey Fine
3/3/2018 10:54:05 am

Great blog sorry you had to have to go through that at the start. I’ve sat at school fete’s on a stand watching parents pass me by. It’s so disheartening. People say the cruelist things and have no concept regarding the work that goes into this. The first book signing I did a woman shouted out that one of my recipes didn’t work! I’d made it a million times and of course it did. I couldn’t sit there having an arguement with her infront of everyone. She could of missed an ingredient or put the oven on at the wrong temperature. I went on to publish 3 more books. 😊

Reply
Nila
3/4/2018 10:06:53 am

Hey Tracey, OMG can't believe someone would try to call you out like that! Don't get me started on people who can't follow recipes! Congratulations on publishing 3 books BTW that is epic :)

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Michelle link
3/3/2018 11:19:20 am

Too often people try to hide their failures, so it's wonderful hearing you tell your story in such a candid way. After all, it's not through success that we learn, it's through our failures. That's where the real lessons are, so thank you ❤

Reply
Nila
3/4/2018 10:07:58 am

You're so right Michelle. It's taken time for me to realise that making mistakes is a good thing (as long as you learn the lessons!) - not a weakness! x

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Marcy Lamont
3/3/2018 03:37:51 pm

Lovely post Nila, thank you so much. I can't wait to get started to get through the early mistakes as soon as possible.

Reply
Nila
3/4/2018 10:08:37 am

Thanks for reading Marcy, glad you enjoyed the blog post :)

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Samantha Mills link
3/3/2018 10:04:46 pm

Such a lovely blog and to see how you started your journey in to the baking business, failures are what make you stand up and keep on trying, thank you for sharing ❤

Reply
Nila
3/4/2018 10:09:50 am

Glad you enjoyed the blog post Samantha. Get back up and keep trying - I love that xx

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Bisi ira Bordley
6/3/2018 12:37:45 pm

Awesome blog!
What my first outing as a French Vintage Baker at a local festival taught me:
-Not everyone is your customer, focus on customers who spend time to visit your stall, appreciate them for their time and explain your products, ingredients. They might not buy from your this time but they will always remember how you made them feel!
Make every visit to your stall memorable!
-Never judge an event.....I took my Confitures to a local school fete not expecting to sell much but my biggest customers were the kids themselves who loved how I interacted with them. Totally sold out!
-Never price match to other traders.....recipe for disaster.
-Wear comfortable shoes!

Lessons learned
Xb

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    Hey I'm Nila. I make beautiful iced biscuits and I'd like to help you launch or scale your baking business. Welcome to my blog.


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