Please help me.  I will be putting in my two week notice at my bank job on my birthday (5.13.13) in preperation for my Sweet shops grand opening June 1st.  I plan to give away mini cupcakes and pound cake samples.  For sale in my cases brownies, cupcakes, buckeye candy, a couple decorated cakes and a couple pound cakes a german chocolate, red velvet, banana bread and cookies.  Please give any advice for promos, store designs, mistakes that youv'e made with your business etc.  I want/need/and pray that this works.  All that we have around town here seems to be cupcake shops.  Since I do much more I want to really wow my customers to get the orders in.

Thank you in advance!

LaDawn

Congratulations Ladawn on taking this huge step in your career! 

Customers look at so much more than what is in the cabinets when assessing a business.  Do you have an overall style for your shop ie vintage/shabby chic, clean and modern, funky/geeky? If not, decide what is your style, your cakes (which sound delicious by the way) should be displayed on interesting plates/stands, signage should all be in the same font and clearly displayed etc.  When people walk into your shop is it going to make them feel good?  We use our senses of sight and smell before we even decide whether we are going to buy something to eat.

You said you do so much more - well show them.  Make up some dummy cakes, don't be shy - show them how clever and talented you are, give them something to admire and tell their friends about.

Use Facebook to get people talking about you and sharing your page.  Do more than  just put up photos of finished cakes.  While these look beautiful, show people that you are baking cakes fresh in your kitchen, post photos of cakes cooking on racks, buttercream being beaten in your mixer, decorations being made that kind of thing.  People love seeing behind the scenes in kitchens as well as the yummy finished product.  They also like to be reassured that you are baking your products not just buying them in frozen from some large anonymous company.

A successful business is so much more than the products you sell. Customers like to feel they have a relationship with you, after all they do come to see you to buy a cake for all the major and minor events in their lives.  So sell yourself, let them all know that Ladawn bakes great cakes and they can trust you and the products you make.  Good Luck.