As a baker, you’ll likely be a jack of all trades, as knowing how to make bread, batter and pastry is a must when you’re making goods for the general public.
Whether you want to specialise in particular baked goods, or simply create whatever takes your fancy, you could be the next competitor for Greggs in your neighbourhood.
If you’ve always dreamed of opening your own bakery, it might be your time to shine! Here are five top tips to get you started.
1. Know Your Customers
Getting to know your customers and their regular customers is essential for establishing a rapport and increasing their loyalty to your brand.
Whether you remember their names, and orders, or engage in conversation with all your customers, you will supply them with bespoke customer service that will set you apart from the chain bakeries, with higher quality products too!
2. Invest in High Quality Equipment
If you want to make a high quality bakery, you will need exemplary quality equipment to help you bake the best goods.
Companies like Lawcris supply durable and stylish worktops for your bakery that will last through your daily baking activities including chopping, mixing and rolling. By investing in a reputable supplier with a proven track record of quality, you won’t need to worry about your equipment failing.
3. Advertise Your Goods
Advertising your bakery is a wonderful way to get your brand’s name out into the local community and online for customers to find you.
Whether you use conventional means of advertising through sandwich boards, noticeboards or flyers, or use social media and local online groups to promote your brand, you can attract larger numbers of customers.
To advertise on social media, ensure that you have a series of high quality photos to portray your products in the best light, snappy captions with relevant hashtags and links to further information.
To increase exposure, you could also run giveaways and promotions to encourage likes and shares of your posts. This will bring more customers to your door and increase awareness of your website, which is particularly useful during your business’ opening week.
4. Hand Out Samples
By handing out samples, you can entice your customers to try your products or try a different product to their usual order.
This can help you increase sales, or upsell customers to a new product. You could also have the product you are sampling on a special offer or price so that customers are more likely to purchase it. By advertising your featured baked goods on social media, you can attract an increased amount of foot traffic to your shop, and increase your brand awareness with ease.
5. Assess Feedback and Act
Your customer feedback is extremely important for establishing loyalty with your customers and growing your business.
Whether it’s positive or negative, acting on your feedback can enhance your experience, grow your profits and help you to understand what your customers are looking for from you.
To do this, you can use satisfaction surveys from Smart Survey to build a response to different products and services that you offer.
Do you have any tips for starting your own bakery? Share your thoughts in the comments section below!