Em's Bakery

The beginning's of a baker.

[emily-d-baking]

Week 13: A great (and Insane) week

This week was quite the blur. I had 2 custom cakes ordered and 3(holy cow!) markets to attend. I was at the bakery constantly this week trying to get everything done and still I had a bit of a rude awakening Friday night. This was the first of the 3 markets and I almost completely sold out of product. An hour into the market my dad was put on sale duty and my mom and I started baking up a storm so that I had product to sell not only that night but the next morning and night. We stayed until 10:00pm and I was back there by 4 am to start again. by 7 am, I had my cousin set up at the 2nd market to sell and I went back to baking. My kitchen became very cramped Saturday as I had 4 people helping me out in this tiny room. By some miracle I was ready by 3 pm for the 3rd and final market and even got a short nap in before set up at 4 pm. Needless to say I moved a lot of product and I am excited to calculate my profits for this week. I am also exhausted and would very much like to go to bed. Now I need to figure out how to improve my efficiency so that I can make the same amount of product in less time. Good luck to me. 

[emily-d-baking]

Week 12: I am done.

I have mentioned several times that I hate technology and it hates me. This week is no exception. I was pretty much done writing my tumblr post when the site crashed and I had to reload making me start from scratch. Also, apparently my professor never received one of my projects and it has disappeared from my phone, laptop and cloud storage except for a glitchy format where my voice talks over itself. So knowing my luck I am going to have to remake it. Business cards can still not be printed and I have decided to take the file to staples to print for me because I give up. This week sucked. I got behind really quickly with a slew of last minute orders, a customer not showing up for there order 3 days IN A ROW, and a coworker taking the week off at my other job. I managed to get all my orders done in time but now I am exhausted. Yesterday I started at 4 am and went to 10 pm with baking, selling at the farmers market and covering a shift at work. Then I started again today at 7 (on sunday) to complete a $75 order for 11 am. I am working myself into the ground but at this point I don’t see any other option. Business is thriving and I am dying. 

[emily-d-baking]

Week 11 Groove

This week started off rough with the power going off for over 48 hours following a nasty storm Sunday night. It resulted in me emptying my fridge and freezer and for a stressful day off. Into the second day with no power I went back to my bakery and brought ingredients and tools home so I could bake there where I had power. Once power was restored late Tuesday night, I went back to baking and things went smoothly from there. It rounded of quite nicely with a grand total of 1 leftover pumpkin pie and the rest being sold out. Next week, I start some new flavours and then hopefully get into even more of a groove. Book work is getting mostly organized and my latest challenge is printing business cards. Until next week! 

[emily-d-baking]

Rising Cases, Falling Croissants

What a week. This week went a lot smoother then last week simply because I knew what I was doing. I knew where everything was and how to do it in the space I had with only a few hiccups here and there. One of these hiccups was my poor croissants. I forgot to put them in the freezer after the initial rising so they were out longer then they should’ve been. So when I took the dough out of the freezer the night before to start the rising, they had already rose to long. So of course they collapsed on me. Resulting in small, dense croissants that leaked butter everywhere. Not having time to make a new batch, I packaged them in twos and sold them at half price. Thankfully they’ve (just now) sold out. Although I will be baking less next week to reflect a recent drop in sales, I think I will make the same amount of dough so that I have spares in the freezer for such occasions. 

In other news, as the week continued Covid cases kept rising and now my sales show it. The market was empty this morning and I think I am lucky that I sold as much as I did. With only a few things left, I added them to my social media stories and have already had two pick ups of product. I am going to try to push online sales more this coming week. 

I settled into a bit of a routine this week which was much better for my mental state. I’m sure knowing what needed to get done helped too. I still have things that I need to do but it feels less overwhelming. 

I’ve learned a lot but there is still more to learn. Bonne chance until next week. 

[emily-d-baking]

Weekly Update

This week has been wonderful and horrible at the same time. I’ve made a lot of physical progress in my business and revenue is rolling in. However, when it comes to technology I tend to be hopeless. This is making it very difficult to print menus, business cards, logos, and especially do my accounting. This is becoming a huge block for me and slowing me down significantly. It is also putting a lot of stress on me as I get very frustrated and upset. I am one of those people where I always come last and it is starting to take its toll on me. I feel like I am accomplishing nothing and going nowhere. Yet my business seems to thrive so I know that can’t be true. My product and branding is definitely paying off but I can’t know for sure cause I can’t figure out my accounting. I’ve got a lot to figure out so this is short and sweet this week. Till next week. 

[emily-d-baking]

Status update

Well. November 1st. I got the keys to my kitchen today and will be spending an ample amount of time there in the foreseeable future. I spent all day today cleaning and will do the same tomorrow. Everything needs to be ready by Tuesday because the health inspector is coming. The oven was installed last week and it works great. I’ve done a few big shopping runs and now have the majority of my non perishables and cleaning supplies as well as packaging. I ran into a few problems this week trying some new recipes but I tried them again yesterday and it worked out which made me really happy. All in all the venture has had a promising start. I’ve learned to nag people more to get things done and to always keep track of timing. I also learned that I need to schedule time for myself. I experienced some burn out this week finishing my full time job and really pushing my start up. I was so exhausted that I took a night off to recuperate. I am busy busy busy. A lot of new beginnings this week so we will see where I end up next week. Until then. 

[emily-d-baking]

General Update

Wow. I have come a long ways in the past two months. I started with a vague idea with little direction and now have an actual business that has the potential to create profit and even more than that; Change. I recently posted an advertising/fundraising video to my Facebook page that has generated a huge amount of positive feedback. I’ve gathered a following and have received some orders. I’ve even had a request from my local newspaper to do an interview. There’s nothing better than free publicity that will raise money for the community. The largest challenge I have come across is time management. Finding time is hard and keeping on top of things can be even harder. Writing everything down has become essential for me as things are added to my plate. There is a lot to keep track of and remember as I figure out how to operate a business in an efficient manner. Something I have learned is that there is a time for research but there is also the need to act. If you keep putting things off until you know more, you will never start anything. All in all, I am excited for the future and what it may bring for me and my business. 

[emily-d-baking]

Happy Tummies, Happy Communities!

Hello everyone! I’ve done it! I launched my fundraising campaign and already the response is incredible. I have received so much positive feedback and have already collected 10 custom orders. I am more excited now than ever to make this a full time effort in November. More updates to come!

Want to see the video I posted? Check it out on my Facebook page: 

https://www.facebook.com/emsbakery01/?view_public_for=108409194372382 

[emily-d-baking]

Finding the money

Business is money. People giving and taking money to be exact. So it comes as no surprise that one of the things every business needs for start-up is money. Seems simple enough right? Wrong. 

There are many places you can source to cover start up costs such as banks, venture capitalists and even the government. Its important to find what works best for your business. I’ve done some thinking and these are the sources that will work best for me and Em’s Bakery: Personal Investment, love money and bank loans. 

Personal Investment to me is a no brainer. After working 2 or 3 jobs at a time for the past year, I’ve built some equity that has (relatively speaking) no where to go. My personal investment also shows my commitment to my business to others. This finance sourcing is simple, quick and easy. It will always be my go to method (so long as it is viable). 

Next is love money, A.K.A money loaned from spouses or parents or family or friends. This option is also quite good for me seeing as roughly 80% of my family has owned and operated a business at some point in their life. They know business and they know money. If they won’t invest in me then surely no stranger will. I’m also no stranger to working with them although it is challenging at times. 

Lastly, going to the bank for a loan. This method also fits quite well for me though requiring more time. I would have to set up meetings with several banks, go over my business plan with them individually, wait for offers and then decide what offer to accept. In addition to this, the interest rate on the repayment is almost definitely higher then the rate my family would give me. 

I am hoping to carry on my business after the course and ideally far into the future so it is more than likely that I will utilize all three at some point in my venture. For these beginning months though, I’ll stick to my own equity. 

[emily-d-baking]

Coming together

You never really realize how much there is to do when starting a business until you start doing it. I have certainly stayed busy with my two jobs and the start-up for Em’s Bakery. I am getting very excited to start operations with the end date of my full-time job fast approaching.  

I’ve done so much research to date on sourcing ingredients for my bakery. I don’t think the search for the best product will ever end either as I will continually consider price and quality of my ingredients. At the moment, the best supplier I have found is Wholesale club. They sell most items at a discounted rate when purchased in bulk quantity's making it ideal for my bakery. Although I just found out that one of my friends worked at a catering company and she has some more suppliers for me to check out that are less mainstream.  

I’ve made my first sale! With a custom order of 1 ½ dozen Gluten-free Peanut Butter Cookies. Once I move into my certified kitchen on November 1st, I can begin increasing production. I have decided to start a marketing campaign October 15th to build awareness about my business and hopefully increase sales in November. It is going to be a “Happy tummy, Happy community” campaign where 50% of my income will go to the Tavistock Assistance Program. I will create a short video explaining this and share it on my Instagram and Facebook page (once I make one). I will also share it to the community Facebook group and ask friends and family to share it as well. I’ll share it here to so you can also see it. This will hopefully increase sales in November (when the campaign will run) as well as December for the Christmas season.  

Before I get into my kitchen, I need to get my food handler certificate. As far as other licensing and permits go, the kitchen I am moving into is already certified so I don’t have to worry about that.  

I pretty much have all the big things lined up, so I’ve started looking at little things. I’ve begun to gather my tools together. This is no small project as bakers need an endless list of tools including spatulas, whisks, and measuring spoons. Not to mention all the cleaning supplies I will need because flour gets EVERYWHERE. And a clean kitchen is a happy kitchen. I am wondering about purchasing some larger containers to store my ingredients but have yet to determine if this is necessary. I digress.  

As excitement grows, so do the nerves and doubt. I know that I am a very strong and capable person and I certainly know how to hustle, but doesn’t everyone starting a business think that? Only time will tell of my success. Until then, I will follow my ambition and work until I can’t work anymore.  

[emily-d-baking]

Creative Advertising

Advertising is all about grabbing people’s attention and what better way to do that then with creativity. I tried doing a creative advertising exercise by Kyle Gracey (Creative Director at Ogilvy and Mather). I spent a lot of time thinking about a paper clip and making it into something new. Here is my end result. I hope you enjoy. 

[emily-d-baking]

Marketing Persona

What is a Marketing Persona? Well its a composite sketch of a key segment of your audience according to Ardath Albee. Want to know who my audience is? Check out below for my marketing persona. 

[emily-d-baking]

Getting Competitive

Time is absolutely flying by for me. As I’ve been working through my business plan and moving forward with my bakery it has been very helpful to look at what everyone else is doing. What works for them and what doesn’t? Will it work for me? Well, today I did a more formal analysis of my local competition. Specifically the other bakery vendors at the Farmers Market where I will be setting up shop. 

The first booth I looked at was Dianna’s Country Bakery. Her website experience was minimal as she didn’t have her own website. However, I did find her booths page on the Stratford Agricultural Society's website. It had a lovely description but had many grammatical errors making it rather difficult to read. She also had a video uploaded of her bakery on the page witch increased the page experience quite beneficially. Her social media presence was non-existent so the rest of my findings were based on her page from the agriculture society and my research that I conducted at the market this morning. Dianna’s Market Positioning is a Country/home-style baking as she makes baked goods and canned goods that are priced in the low to mid-range. (I.e. 12 cookies for 6.00, loaves for 6.00, pies for 10.00, tarts 6 for 7.00). Dianna had one online review of 4 stars but anyone I have talked to about her products only has good things to say. Dianna’s Strengths come out when you talk to her in person. She is very friendly and her booth gives off a comforting home-like feeling. Her Weaknesses of course come out in her minimal online presence. 

Another booth I looked at was European Pastries. The owner, Eileen, I know more fondly as the cinnamon bun lady. Eileen’s Website Experience was non-existent as she too did not have a website. She did have a page on the Agriculture Society’s website though and it had a short and simple description. Even this was extremely difficult to find (Perhaps due to the name of her company) and I would not have found it had I not known it would be there. But then with some more digging, I found a Facebook page! She had 98 people following her social media account and she provided lots of info as well as good pictures. Her posts mostly regarded business posts and were sporadic in nature. Eileen’s Market Position is a focus on food for the body and soul. She sells art in addition to her baked goods. For reviews, Eileen had 94 likes on her page and of course her fame as the cinnamon bun lady. Her Pricing is also in the Low to mid-range (I.e. muffins 3 for 5.00, cinnamon buns 1 for 3.00, bread 1 for 4.00) Eileen’s Strengths are having social media and the content of that media. Her Weakness comes out in the initial search as her generic name makes it difficult to find them online and a general lack of branding. 

Last but not least is Van Straten Bakery. This is the largest bakery of the three and the only one I have not met personally as they have an employee who runs their booth at the market. Their website experience matched the other two though in being non-existent as they also didn’t have a company website. Their page on the Agriculture Society's website was brief however they were featured in a local blog. They didn’t have Social Media accounts however they were mentioned in a grand total of 3 hashtags. Their Market Positioning relies heavily on their Dutch roots with their many specialty baked goods. Their Pricing was low to mid-range (i.e. 6 tarts for 4.10, 13.50 for cakes) Van Straten had the most online reviews with 7 five-star reviews and 1 two-star. People genuinely seem to like their products. Their Strengths most definitely come out in their Dutch baked goods and Dutch roots appealing strongly to an area full of Dutch immigrants and descendants(myself included). Their Weakness comes out again in the online presence. 

After doing this analysis it has become clear to me that I could target a younger market as well as develop a stronger following through the use of social media and a website. 

[emily-d-baking]

Wondering how to pitch your company to investors? Me too. Try making a message map. They can give you a quick 15 second pitch (try reading the red and yellow) or a little more in depth (add the green). Here was a practice map I did for Gay Lea Foods Co-Operative. 

[emily-d-baking]

Strengths and Weaknesses: Make or Break

I’ve always liked to think of myself as an entrepreneur but do I really have the skills that are needed to make it in the business world? Or will I break before my business takes off? Well, today I’m analyzing three entrepreneurial skills to find out. 

The first of these skills is financial planning. I would consider this a strength for a few reasons. I have always been good with (and liked for that matter) numbers. I find it quite easy to keep track of money, though I’ve only ever really managed my own. I have worked very hard these past couple of years so that I can afford to attend college (because no, my parents won’t pay for it) and that certainly took planning to manage my expenses while saving up. I also took 2 years of accounting in high school and found it rather fascinating to try and project incomes and expenses for an imaginary business (lame, I know). 

The next skill is negotiation which I believe to be a weakness. There is no need for the highway if things don’t go my way. I often do not even voice my stance as I place the happiness of others above my own. Now don’t take me for a pushover though as if a decision needs to be made I will make one. I negotiate rarely. So rarely in fact, that the only example I can think of is playing moderator between family members. I am told I do this quite well but I don’t think this is attributed to negotiation so much as it is to people management and a levelheadedness the rest of my family seems to lack. 

This brings us to our last skill of people management. I am a very empathetic person and as such find it very easy to know what people need and what they want. This makes it easy to manage them as I can determine where they fit best and where they will be most effective.  

Whether I make it or break it has yet to be seen but I think my entrepreneurial skills are certainly in my favour. The rest will come with practice.