Can yall give me your ideas on how to attract more customers??? In my county I'm not allowed to advertise openly such as flyers or telephone book ads, or tv commercials or anything like that, strictly allowed Word of Mouth.
Now I've "investigated" the farmer's market and doing bake sales at Walmart and such other places and I'll be starting that next year when things get better with our home, we just moved and need to do alot more before I can be inspected for farmer's market lol.
I'm wondering what else I could do to get my name out there? Currently I sell to friends and extended family members but that's only for birthday parties and although we are a pretty big group there aren't many birthday parties where cake is ordered lol.
I was thinking about doing cupcakes or a CCC for the Meet the Teacher thing at my daughter's school next month the day before school and letting her teacher know I do cakes and would love to be a room mother for cakes for parties and such but I'm kind of worried about that as some kids may have allergies and such....
I have a website, although it's not a .com so I don't get much traffic, I give out business cards to friends and aquaintances but have not gotten any orders. I can't rely on my mother to pass the word around although I'd probably get tons of orders from her office because there are over 1000 people there... but she refuses to help me and support me in this.
So I'm coming to you, my CC family, to get some advice, tips, tricks, help anything! to get out there and get some more business... any ideas are much appreciated!!!
TIA!
Becky
Being there are so many folks at your mothers' office (sorry she won't support your efforts), maybe you can surprise her with a box of cupcakes, maybe a couple of different flavors and icings, for the office. When her co-workers see the goodies come in (if they are anything like the bunch I work with 
) they will be jumping their desks to get some. Somehow you have to get a label/card on each cupcake so they know who made it. If you do cookies, maybe individually wrapped with your name/website on a small label attached to the back to advertise. Good luck with this!
deb
to post a notice on bulletin boards? It isn't the same as passing out hundreds of flyers. I'm thinking about preschools and daycares community centres. What about targeting all of the places that hold birthday parties, bowling alleys, pools movie theatres and ask to do a cross promotion. You could also place a big ballot jar at these places have people fill out there email info for a chance to win there childs birthday cake. Then you have names as contacts for possible future cakes from the ballots. Anyway I hope these ideas make sense. Good luck
Thanks for the idea and incouragement Deb 
.
I took one of my Candy Corn cakes in to her office at halloween time when I went to the school with the other two. Anyway I had it in a nice plastic container and brought a knife and spatula from home she said they had plates and forks. I left it on her desk cause she was on the phone and the only thing she said when I asked what people said about it was they thought I bought it from a bakery and they couldn't believe I had made it so perfectly lol. It was a great boost to my self esteem but her comments after that killed it that quickly...
I'm not sure if she'd let me do that... I mean they are all older women and I've thought about taking something to the other office (they've recently split to two locations one a block from my home where she is and one about 2 miles down the road) where I know some more of the people personally from visiting her at work... but I'm worried someone may not like it or get a hair up there lol and complain... and I don't want to hear any more crap from her 
....
Dad's work... if you can call it that he's retired and only pitches in because the man won't quit calling him 50 times a day... they are a contractor place that sells stone and gravel and stuff like that... they wouldn't place orders 
....
I'm just lost gang
to post a notice on bulletin boards? It isn't the same as passing out hundreds of flyers. I'm thinking about preschools and daycares community centres. What about targeting all of the places that hold birthday parties, bowling alleys, pools movie theatres and ask to do a cross promotion. You could also place a big ballot jar at these places have people fill out there email info for a chance to win there childs birthday cake. Then you have names as contacts for possible future cakes from the ballots. Anyway I hope these ideas make sense. Good luck
That is an excellent idea... but unfortunately constitutes as advertising and I wouldn't be allowed to do so... if anyone from the Health Department saw one or got wind of it I could get into LOADS of trouble!
You could join a womens' networking group... they all band together and give each other referrals.
Sounds like it's ok to hand out business cards, so plaster them all over.
Connect with wedding chapels and photographers. These are usually the first vendors a bride books, so if you can get in with them, you have a great shot of getting those brides to call you.
Connect with wedding planners. I searched Yahoo! and found 3 in your town (and they look like they are within blocks of each other!)
Do you have a local college in town? Get some cards circulated on campus. There's always a party that requires cakes and cookies, plus faculty meetings, business meetings and receptions, fund raisers, etc.
Work up some packages that would make good corporate gifts (gift basket type of things) and in Oct/Nov, take a few samples to some of the larger offices with information on what great Christmas gifts they would make for clients.
Car Dealerships: Oh my gosh what a great customer base! I was doing 100 dz cookies a week for one dealership (3 locations). ALL the car dealerships in my area have some kind of snack in their customer lounge for folks waiting on oil changes, etc. I even had one of the top salesmen buying boxes of 1 dz of my cookies to give to every person who bought a new car from her. So bake up a bunch of samples and start making the rounds!
Brandi - what kind of group is that? I've never heard of it before could you give me some more info on that?
Debi - OMG! great idea on the car dealerships lol. We have so many here in town I can count 6 of them off the top of my head and every single one of them is two buildings for seperates like Volvo and Honda two seperate buildings but all the same company owner.... As far as weddings I don't think I'm 100% ready for that... I'm scared to death lol I've only done one tiered cake and it was my daughters bday party and I was scared to tears starting it. Didn't sleep for days before lol.
I thought I'd get some orders or inquiries at the least after the "Daddy Daughter Dance" at the school but there is another woman there that makes Wilton stuff.... she made over 1000 cupcakes for the event.... and had them on this huge gigantic stand.... out did my two cakes very quickly ...
I've never joined one, but I've been invited to join three different ones in my area. I keep hearing good things about them - but I don't know if that's a road I want to go down (I want to recommend businesses I believe in based on personal experience - not because they are a part of my networking group. But that's just me). If it's something that interests you - maybe you could google "women's networking goup" in whatever area you're in.
Other than that, I'd recommend Catholic churches. Baptisms, communions, etc. are big deals...
Thanks for the info Brandi. I googled it and found a listing but there isn't anything for cake decorators or anything close to my area everything is across the big death trap bridge that I'm scared to death of lol... all the groups were in the big city so I guess that ones out but thank you for the idea
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