Links to things we talked about: 

Free customizable Canva templates for labels: https://carolinebower.myflodesk.com/labels

In this episode, Caroline Bower shares a detailed, week-by-week guide to starting a bakery from zero, based on her own experience of running a successful bread business for a year. From understanding cottage food laws to bulk baking and creating an effective ordering system, Caroline covers everything needed to lay a solid foundation in the first month. She also discusses marketing strategies, essential tools, and tips to ensure profitability and compliance right from the start. Don't miss out on Caroline's recommendations and the free resources available in the show notes!

00:00 Introduction and Episode Overview

01:15 Week 1: Laying the Foundation

03:46 Week 2: First Bakes and Initial Sales

12:33 Week 3: Expanding and Streamlining

17:14 Week 4: Scaling and Market Presence

21:37 Conclusion and Final Thoughts

Download the FREE Guide and Checklist, Your First Steps to a Successful In-Home Bakery at https://www.carolinebower.com/checklist to begin building YOUR thriving microbakery!

Caroline Bower Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carolinebower_sourdough

Hello. I am so excited for this episode! Today, we are talking about everything that I would do in the very first month if I were starting my bakery again from zero.

This is episode is going to move fast and be jam packed with information.

It has free Canva templates that are sized for thermal labels, as well as links to the supplies that we're going to talk about in this episode. So it's a free resource. It's just an easy little one page and you can grab it from the show notes.

Here we go week one, starting my business from scratch. Here's how we're getting started.

The next thing I'm doing in week one is reading or listening to the audio book of Profit First. This is one of my favorite business books ever. I think I've listened to it probably four times.

This book will change the way you think about your business finances. And it'll ensure that you're setting yourself up for profitability from day one. This is one thing that I really encourage you not to skip. The way that the author Mike Michalowitz explains business finances and gives you a strategy to prioritize paying yourself and setting aside money for profit from the very beginning is an absolute game changer.

The third thing that I'm doing in week three is setting up separate bank accounts. From the very beginning. You want to make sure that you're keeping your business and your personal finances separate.

So set up a separate bank account. I do my business banking through square. All of the money comes into square. And I have separate accounts in there.

You do what works for you. But no matter what you do, make sure that you're separating your personal and your business finances. This will help you keep everything organized in ensure that you're prepared when tax season rolls around.

Week one was all about setting the foundation. Now week two, we're going to start baking. And making the very first sales.

They post on social media, they get a lot of interest. They take some orders. And they're committed for four or five or six loaves or more. And then they go to mix them up and realize that. Baking in bulk is a whole different animal than baking one or two loaves at a time. So I highly recommend that you practice bulk baking. Whether that's in a large bin or even in multiple bowls. Before you commit to selling anything.

After I have practiced bulk baking.

The next thing I'm doing is posting a conversational post on a local group, not on my personal Facebook page, but in a local geographic specific group, whether that's specific to my neighborhood or my town. Look in the guidelines of local groups, try to guage the groups that have a lot of activity and a lot of people commenting on other posts. And then check in on their guidelines on when it's okay to post or what you can and can't post.

But what I would do. And this is really what I did do, and it was super effective. Is share a little bit of my story. Something like this new hobby of baking is getting out of hand. I'm having so much fun with it, but we're running out of freezer space. What do you suggest I do with my extra loaves?

Like I said, this was my strategy and how I got started. And I think it is one of the big reasons why I have been successful because that initial, conversational post brought in so many people.

And so I have this loyal, initial customer base that feels really connected to me, they feel like they've been a part of my story from the very beginning.

You can go back to my episode three about pricing, but don't underprice yourself just because you're getting started. I set my initial price when I was very beginning, my very first two loaves, I priced a little bit low, but moving forward, everything in the future, I priced at my regular price and I did not offer a discount just because I was getting started.

The next thing you'll do is go and take about $10 from the five loaves that you sold and go buy more ingredients. Keep your costs low. Don't spend a lot in the beginning here. This will help you maintain a good, healthy profit margin and manage your expenses effectively.

The next thing that I would do. Is invest in a couple of bannetons with liners.

So I recommend spending the money on actual baskets in the beginning, rather than spending money on dollar tree bowls.

Just an investment that'll pay off in the long run by improving the quality of your bread and saving you money on replacements. Even if you're only spending $10 at the dollar tree. You can spend. 20 or $30 from Amazon to buy baskets and not have to replace them in a few weeks or a couple months.

They're free to set up. And they just take a Fee out of the customer's total. You can either absorb that fee yourself or include it in your customers total or split it.

But these will help you manage your orders, set your inventory limits. Communicate with customers, make everything so much more efficient and effective.

The next thing I would do is set up an account with Project Broadcast, which is a website that allows texting.

This is what I did and absolutely a highly recommend, rather than having people message on social or text my personal phone. I set up a Project Broadcast account, which gave me a local number. And made it so that customers can text that number rather than my actual personal phone.

It also gave me a way to opt them into my list.

They won't see it right away. But with that text list? They're much more likely to see it and be able to get their order in quickly.

So I highly recommend setting up a Project Broadcast account. It's $18 a month. For me, it's been well worth that. Investment. And if you use my code down in the show notes, You'll get half off of your first month. If you want to try it.

That is week two. Now we're moving into week three. So you have your initial sales under your belt. Now it's time to ramp up your marketing efforts and expand your reach.

I just know I have a set bake day. That can be one larger bake day or two smaller bake days or whatever feels manageable to you. Just set a consistent, predictable schedule. That'll help you manage your time effectively. It'll help your customers know what to expect. And it'll ensure that you're always prepared for orders. So you don't have a random one slipping through the cracks because you took it outside of a regular schedule.

The next thing I'm doing in week three is posting a huge thank you post. After this first sales, I'm sharing a message to the same group that I posted that conversational post last week.

And this post is just a thank you. It says something like "y'all blew me away. Thank you so much for your support. I'm so thankful. I'm so excited."

So it's not salesy. It's completely focused on gratitude, but it is, it has that little link in it at the end.

Because people are going to read that and they're going to think, wow, this girl's onto something. And they'll get excited about it and , they're going to want to be part of it too. So including that link down at the bottom, just say, Hey, if you missed out or if you want to order, here's the link.

The next thing I'm doing in week three is investing. In a couple of large food, safe plastic tubs. I use bus tubs. Just any sort of dough bin for mixing and bulk proofing your dough. It's going to make a huge difference. If you've been using bowls up to this point, Using tubs instead allows you to be so much more efficient because you can mix more at a time. You can put lids on them.

In the free download that I mentioned that's down in the show notes. I have a link to some affordable food grade best tubs that you can check out.

The next investment that I would make. And I put this in week three, but if your sales don't quite support it yet, that's okay. Just put it on your radar and and invest as soon as you're able to, but that is a thermal label printer. Thermal label printer is one of my very favorite business investments ever. It is an ink free printer.

So you never have to change the ink it's based on thermal. So it just uses heat to print onto your labels. And it's fast. It's professional. It's easy. I make my labels in Canva. And then just print them out when I need them.

And I've been happy with it. So you might want to try that if you feel like labeling is frustrating or taking a lot of time. That [00:17:00] free download down in the show notes has a customizable Canva. Template for those labels in two different sizes. So you can check those out if you want to.

That's the end of my week three.

In the final week of starting my bakery from scratch week four. I am focusing on scaling my operations and making a splash in the local market.

So I'm starting out by getting business cards printed. These are not expensive. I like to just design mine and Canva and order straight through Canva.

I recommend putting a QR code on them that links to your order page and social media. It just makes it easier for customers to reorder and to connect with you online.

You can even stick a business card. In the bag with your customer's orders when they're picking up and let them know that it's there so they can share with friends or stick it on their fridge, that they know where to find you next time.

So keep things exciting. Keep customers engaged by offering something brand new and hyping it up on social media. You can bring in a little bit of scarcity to say something like. There's a very limited quantity. So make sure you order quickly.

But generate some buzz around a brand new flavor.

So up to this point, I've been having customers pick up their orders.

So the next step is going to be getting out to reach new people who wouldn't find me otherwise who maybe are not on social media.

So I'm going to bring a small amount to an established local market. I have a podcast episode about markets of this. If you need some pointers, if you want help finding a good market. Go back to the episode about selling at farmer's markets.

But to wrap up a really good first month, I'm going to get out in front of brand new people. I'm going to share about it on social media. This is also a great way to reach the people who have been following you, but maybe your pickup time doesn't work for them.

So I'm bringing the small amount of items. I recommend baking whatever you feel comfortable baking at your current capacity. That might be 12 to 20 loaves of bread.

So the market has a lot of benefits. It gets you out in the community, connecting with people that you wouldn't otherwise. It generates some buzz and excitement about you a lot of people will start talking about you and that kind of generates some new momentum.

And for. For most bakers, the experience of going to a market, once you get past the initial

But once I'm there and I'm set up and able to just sit down and breathe, it is a relaxing, fun, energizing experience to speak with customers, to get feedback about what they're loving, to get to know them, to hear what they're looking for. It's a great experience. If markets feel aligned for you and are accessible in your area, highly recommend.

You'll be glad you did it in your first month, rather than backtracking and trying to do any of that.

Once you already have a lot going on or a lot of orders coming in.

Don't forget to grab the free one-page download from the show notes. It has customizable label templates for Canva, for the thermal printer, as well as some Amazon links to the supplies that we discussed in the episode.

Thank you so much for joining me today on the Bread Winner podcast. I am so honored that you spent some time with me. If you found this episode helpful, it would make my day if you would screenshot it, share it on social media so I can reshare it and we can all get connected. It really, truly makes my day when you all share the episodes that are resonating with you.

I'd love to hear your thoughts come on over and connect with me on Instagram. I'm Caroline Bower underscore sourdough. And let me know if there are any topics you'd like to hear about in future episodes. Until next time. Thanks so much for being here. Happy baking.