I know the subject has been posted before,however I need to ask again 
what is the best way or should I say a surefire way to find new customers? I used to have quite steady cake orders and now I do not, maybe 2-3 cake orders in the 12 months etc... have never any complaints,only complaiments and such.But the deal I think is this...I do not have the same 2 jobs now, that I had for years and we had to move for a year and now we are home and I am only working at night with my husband cleaning(his sister owns the cleaning buisness and he manages it).I used to have friends and friends of friends order and now I have nobody 
so I have put out my buiss cards at the local coffee shoppe and a local pancake house,and still nothing.How can I advertise or sell my cakes better?If anyone has any thoughts it would be great. I have thought about giving free cakes away but To WHO????? and how? HELP TIA 
Desperate for orders,Misty
Join a BNI chapter ... here's the link to New Jersey chapters: http://www.bni.com/Default.aspx?tabid=98
It's a referral organization whose purpose is to learn about each other's businesses and be able to refer biz back and forth. Last fiscal year, my chapter of 22-26 members, referred 2.5 MILLION dollars of business to each other. In the last 6 months, I've rec'd over $12,000 worth of business from my BNI group. Last week, I reminded everyone that Mother's Day was coming and I walked out with 3 orders for cookie arrangements.
Tell them you were referred by Debi in the Greenfield Indiana chapter! 
have you got a website? cause when most people think about wanting cake, they will go online to find out who is local.
xx
vista.com has a really easy to use website builder, they've really helped increase my business.
I'm still trying to talk my husband into letting me quit my day job and just do cakes lol Misty-you know NJ health laws are really strict-absolutely no home baking!
I'm assuming you're not legal/ or have a storefront--it's kinda tough to develop clientele in NJ unless you are legal or have a regular job or situation that allows you to network with co workers so that you can provide cakes to them.
Hate to be a Debbi-Downer but you have a difficult road ahead unless you get legal in NJ...so it's really NOT you or the quality of your work but the lack of being legal that may be holding you back.
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