Three Main Reasons Why Most Home-bakers Struggle With Increasing Their Sales

If you’re a baker or bakerette that loves creating amazing baked goodies and you have decided to start using that skill to generate an income – you can relate to this issue.

Most small baking businesses start at home and later grow into a bakery shop outlet. The secret to having your cake business grow from a home baking business, into expanding to a bakery outlet, increased profits. The only way to increase your profits is by first increasing your monthly sales. This just basically means that you have to sell more cake daily, weekly and monthly in order to increase your sales. The best way to increase sales; especially in a highly competitive industry such as the baking industry – is to market your baking business successfully. Unfortunately, most home-bakers don’t really focus on this aspect of their baking business; therefore, increasing their sales becomes very difficult. This creates quite a challenge for them and they’re not able to progress and grow from their home baking business set up. Today I want to state the 3 main reasons why home-bakers struggle with increasing sales and what they can do to turn that around. Click here if you would rather watch the video.

The third most common reason is that home bakers don’t have a specific target market

Just like in any business, you have to know who your target market is – your dream customers. This is a specific group of consumers who are looking for the types of baked products you are offering in your small baking business. Your business cannot cater to everyone; you won’t be able to satisfy your clientele. Make sure you know who your market is, where they shop, what their income is (helps with pricing), where they live, etc. This will help you market to them at the right time, in the right place and effectively – in order for you to increase sales. To give you an example; if your clientele is brides-to-be who are shopping for wedding cake vendors – you might want to collaborate and network with event planners, attend and participate in wedding fairs and shows, etc. If your target market is retail shops who sell to consumers; the best marketing strategy might be to give samples to all shops in your target location to see if they will sell your products (e.g. scones or queen cakes). Know your target market and you will be able to market effectively which will increase your sales.

The second most common reason is a lack of creativity in marketing

The baking industry is very competitive; you may have 3 to 5 competing baking businesses in your target location. You need to present your business in a unique way that will have customers choosing you over another baking business. One of the ways to do that is by being creative and innovative when marketing your baked goods. There are various ways you can do this in your business e.g. running competitions (especially online and on social media platforms) – this helps you create awareness for your baking business. It also gets potential customers engaging with your baking business as well. You can also choose to have small cake tasting events in your local neighborhood; this will not only gain followers for your business, you will also have a higher chance of getting an order from any cake tasters attending your event. You can also choose to collaborate with another business that may compliment your baking business e.g. an event planning business, a photography business, etc. Get creative and innovative and you will start engaging potential customers who will buy your baked goods!

The most common reason home bakers struggle with increasing sales – they don’t have a marketing plan

Most home bakers don’t think that they need a marketing plan in their baking business. This could be because they don’t think their business is large enough. The only way to increase sales is by being deliberate in your marketing. You can’t just market your small baking business once a month and think that that will be enough to bring you customers for that whole month. It has to be a constant activity. For it to be effective; it has to be a well-planned as well. The best thing to do is to have a marketing plan. Just have a few activities planned that you test over time on their effectiveness and do them over a period of time to attract customers. An example; if your target is middle income individuals who order cakes for occasions in Nairobi, and are online at least 5 – 7 hours a day. You can choose to post pictures of your cakes online at least 2 – 3 times a day on social media (find out which platform your target customer is on frequently e.g. Facebook, Instagram, Whatsapp, etc.) You can also choose to run a sale, contest or just a fun online activity which will have potential clients interacting with your baking business – this will lead to sales as well. Make sure you have a written plan on what you will do weekly and monthly to market your business. Review your plan after every month; track where most of your customers are hearing about your business and then making purchases. Make sure to focus on those areas that are effective and are bringing in sales.

I hope that has shed some light on how you can increase sales as a home baker who wants to grow their business. If you have any ideas that you have found work for your small baking business, feel free to share below.

P/S: Watch this video for tips on how to market your small baking business.

We have various resources for Home Bakers and Small Bakery shop owners looking to start and grow their baking businesses. Click here for helpful E-books for Starting up and Cake Pricing.

Click here for details of our 90-day Access Online Costing and Pricing Course

Click here for details of our 90-day Access Online Social media Marketing Course

If interested, you can get more details on our Baking for Profit Online Mentorship Program for Bakers.

Happy Baking ^_^

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