For all of you who have a home based bakery business, how do you advertise?   I have a small home based business right now I have been making cakes and cupcakes for friends and family, but I want to expand my business.. I do have a Facebook page. I was thinking about going to local farmers markets or even taking cupcakes and cookies to local business.. Any suggestions? Thanks

Hi There! Building up your social media is your best bet(Instagram/Facebook), followed by introducing yourself to your community. In the months before we opened our retail/wedding cake shop, we made little 2 tier cakes and took them around to all the country clubs and hotels in Cleveland to make an impression on the event coordinators.  
Good luck to you in your expansion!

Marianne

White Flower Cake Shoppe

It depends on what you're making and who you want to sell to. Are you interested in getting into weddings, or are you aiming for the specialty birthday and party cakes market?

 My business is basically cookies, birthday cakes and cupcakes/shower cakes/graduation cakes, basically all occasion cakes.

You could try farmer's markets if there are affordable ones in your area. Things that you can package individually like the cookies would be good there. If you're looking to do birthday cakes and special-occasion cakes and cupcakes, but not weddings, you might want to see if there's a family-type magazine that's local to you and that's popular. There's one here that's read by a lot of parents of younger children so if that's what I was doing I would try an ad in there. 

For pete's sake, don't hire someone to do your facebook page for you. If 8 yr olds can figure it out anyone can.

If you want to use targeted facebook ads you can really drill down and target them so that only people in your area, female ages 25-45, with children, pregnant, in a relationship or whatever can see them. You don't need to hire a consultant to do that for you, it takes ten minutes to do. That might help you get your name out to the people who you're selling to,

I operate my business in Alabama using a cottage food license. I advertise with word of mouth,  facebook, and I go to two Farmer's markets a week now that it is summer time. The Farmer's market has done wonders as has really putting myself out there through social media.