Tips from those who have opened their own shops?

Question

Specifically a bakery and not by myself, with my sister. We've been wanting to do this for a long time and we both love to cook. I'm taking a class called Entrepreneurship this fall at the local community college, but I want tips and information on how things went from people who have opened their own places. Can you help me by giving me tips and information? Thanks.

Answer 1

Wow what was that guy talking about???

For your business i would definelty look into doing a business plan & taking a quickbooks course so you can do your own books it'll cut costs doen alot. Cupcakes are really popular, a friend of mine opened up a cupcake shop & for advertising at the end of the day she would take the leftovers & drop them buy radio stations buisnesses, Dr offices, then the order started rolling in. Really reasearch all the ingredients and the packaging to buy as much you can in bulk to keep costs down. Maybe even having an armoire/ diplay center to sell other party goods such as Cards, invitations, Candles etc.. Good Luck!!

Answer 2

You have ONE great big bogyman to look out for initially (first 3 years) and that is capital. For purposes of discussion, capital is money you have IN RESERVE.

Why is this so important? Simple. Without money your OUT OF BUSINESS.

Cash FLOW is NOT capital, but it certainly helps. Cash flow is that amount of money that FLOWS through your hands as a function of the business you are in.

[side bar on the business of baking and money]

<<When I was a kid in St. Louis we (da gang) would head down to the Continental Bakery on Forest Park and Vanderventer (Wonder bread) and watch the bread go through its processes. It would start with two people (this was 1958) standing over a moving line of 1.5" diameter by 8" strips of bread dough. Each would reach out and CROSS their hands and grab two pieces of dough strips and "twist" them one time into a stick. This "stick" would travel to a series of bread pans and on into a long oven, through the oven and up into the ceiling of the building where the pans of golden brown fresh bread were flipped upside down and the loves would accelerate down a curved chute and onto the cooling part of the journey and then to packaging. It was at this juncture of "out of the pan" that we would congregate and get a worker to "sell us" a lofe of hot bread. (21 cents)

One evening, I was standing their watching the financial transaction take place and the start and ending process of the loves of bread hit me and I said to the technician, "neat operation you got here. You "twist the bread and bring in the dough" . We laughed about that for years when talking about bread.>>  

You would do well to remember this little ditty when you get into the business-ANY business.

And remember this too, are you a baker or, are you a business person?

Sorry, but you CAN'T be BOTH.

I KNOW, the great love we have for this mythical creature the entrepreneur,and the American Dream are all tied together and it is just downright un-American to say that they cannot co-exist, but they don't-and you need to FIND OUT why they don't exist. Once you find out, THEN you can become the successful person that runs a bakery.

I wish you luck in your new venture but I advise you STRONGLY to investigate the difference between an entrepreneur and a businessman. It could be the difference between your success and failure.

You might START with the book  The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don't Work and What to Do About It

http://www.amazon.com/E-Myth-Revisited-S...

Here is a blurb from a reviewer of the book;One of Gerber's most striking observations is that most small businesses are started by "technicians", that is people who are skilled at something and who enjoy doing that thing. (A technician can be anything from a computer programmer to plumber to a dog groomer to a musician or lawyer.) When these technicians strike out on their own, they tend to continue doing the work they are skilled at, and ignore the overarching aspects of business. Without clear goals and quantification benchmarks, they soon find themselves overworked, understaffed, and eventually broke. Worst of all, they may come to hate the work they do. Rather than owning a business, they own a job, and they find themselves working for managers who are completely clueless about how to run a business- -themselves.