Can You Really Make A Living?

Business By kcampeau Updated 24 Jan 2017 , 1:26am by me_me1

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kcampeau Posted 23 Jan 2017 , 7:26pm
post #1 of 4

I need help from experiences bakers on if I can really make a living from caking.

I have calculated my monthly operating expenses for just me including legal kitchen space, operating costs, paying myself etc. to be $5,000 per month. My fear is I can sell maybe 2000-3000 per month - not anywhere near $5000 to properly make a living. I charge the going rate in my area of $2.25 per cupcake, $3 per Wilton serving for buttercream (more for tiered cakes) and $4 to start for fondant (again more for tiered cakes). 

How do you book/complete enough orders to make a decent living wage! I am honestly panicked I will never be able to properly pay myself.

Any advice or ideas?

3 replies
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JustOneMoreCake Posted 23 Jan 2017 , 10:28pm
post #2 of 4

It's a good question.  People ask me all the time if I'm interested in setting myself up to sell my cakes but, especially since I don't do the artistic decorated kind, there's really no way to make a profitable go of it. 

One idea I did have was to have a dessert equivalent of fountain soda for restaurants.  Costs them pennies per serving vs the $1-$3 it sells for.

So maybe there's something you can make very very cheaply to subsidize the stuff that costs much more to make. A cookie that costs 25 cents that you can sell for $1 but only in batches of at least a dozen. And sell them B2B so it's a steady income stream.

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vlasko Posted 23 Jan 2017 , 10:32pm
post #3 of 4

You'll want to seek professional advice.  Don't forget you'll also need to purchase a BOP insurance policy (business owners package) for general liability and business personal property.  Find an independent insurance agent who can gets quotes for you through more than one carrier.  If you hire employees, you'll additionally need workers compensation insurance.  

With regard to income, only a minority of small businesses are profitable the first year, whether it's a salon or a bakery.  You'll need to determine whether you can afford to "wait" to become profitable, and if so, how long you can give your new business to become profitable.

You could also think about going into business as a partnership with someone else.  One cakery near me is also a coffee shop and hires a barista and has seating.   So they're serving basic cake/cupcakes and cookies to the coffee customers along with acquiring specialty cake orders at the same time.  They're also located near a college with students coming in for coffee and cupcake, etc, so that probably helps them be profitable.

If you are proficient at making chocolates, given their long shelf life, that could also help to attract customers for your primary cake business.  I've also seen that.  


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me_me1 Posted 24 Jan 2017 , 1:26am
post #4 of 4

I'm currently slowly building up my cake business while still working full-time in another profession entirely. My home kitchen has been registered with my local council and they inspect every six months and I have all my insurance in place. My next step is to drop a day of work at my full-time job so I can then spend that time on the cake business.

At the moment, I'm appreciative of the safety blanket that the full-time job gives me which gives me the extra income to spend on cake equipment/supplies that I might not necessarily absolutely need but are nice to have. It also means I'm not worrying about how many cake orders I've got scheduled and how many more I might need to drum up that month.

On the flip side of that though, it also means I'm pretty time poor at the moment. Lots of different approaches to weigh up.

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