I routinely scour the internet to see how many cakers are popping up and there are more and more and more. Many of them seem to be illegal but still there are out there on Kijiji, Craigslist, etc.
THe point? I'm getting nervous. I'm spending lots of time and money to get legal and get more practice because I believe I have something creative and unique to offer to this industry and to make money, of course.
For those already in business and those planning to do it, I gotta know -
How do you stay competitive? What do you do to keep focused and stay confident with your biz?
There will always be people doing cakes illegally, and there's not a whole lot you can do about it. But I can tell yuo that you will still get plenty of business. There will be people who will come to you for the fact that you ARE licensed and legal. And word of mouth is a really good avertisement tool. I'm staying busy right now with no advertising other than word of mouth and a Facebook page. I'm not even in the phone book.
On the being legal side, don't think you have to be dirt cheap because someone can order from a non-legal baker for next to nothing. You should get paid more because of that.
HarleyDee - thanks for the response! Glad to know you're doing well on so little advertising. So you don't have a website?
Well I do, but it doesn't get looked at a lot. I just passed 1000 hits, and it's been up for about 7 months (and I look at it a lot to make changes and add stuff, so that counts towards the hits). I try to ask how people found me, and 90% of them have told me, "So and so told me about you. You did a cake for them."
There's a TON of competition here, because its legal to bake from home (like I do...very simple to be licensed) plus of course all the "real" bakeries who are professional as well.
The only way I know is to consistently try to put out a quality product, and keep putting out things that fewer decorators can pull off (sculptured, or whatever) or aren't willing to mess with...and just slowly try to build my reputation.
Luckily there are also bazillions of people in my immediate area so I suppose there are enough customers for everyone! Although I will say my name isn't as "well known" in the area as I'd like it to be, and I'm still working towards that the best I can.
If you are good, and your reputation is good, no need to worry. The craigs illegals can have the cheapo 1.75 a serving brides...I don't want them. So I dont consider them competition. And brides are smart these days..they know to be careful!! So just keep doing what you are doing and dont worry about it!!
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