In today's episode, I'll share some insight into investing in equipment to scale your sourdough micro bakery. Whether you're just starting out or looking to take your business to the next level, I'll walk you through assessing your needs, considering your budget, and prioritizing purchases. Get ready to make some game-changing decisions for your bakery, just like I did with my fridge, mixer, and oven. Don’t forget to download the free guide in the show notes to help you kickstart your bakery journey. Happy baking!

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!

Episode 7

I own a successful in home sourdough micro bakery, and in today's episode, we are going to be talking about how to wisely invest in equipment to scale your business.

So whether you're just starting out, or looking to take your sourdough micro bakery to the next level. Making smart equipment choices can make all the difference. So grab a cup of coffee, get comfortable, and let's dive in.

Alright, scaling your business. It's exciting, but it can be so daunting. And as you grow, you will likely find that you are running into bottlenecks that are slowing you down. And they are probably related to things like fridge space, oven capacity, storage space, manual processes, all things that can be alleviated with investing in equipment, but equipment investments can be expensive.

So today I'll walk you through a step by step process to ensure you're making the best choices. for your unique business.

So where are the areas that everything's piling up and slowing you down? How much additional volume do you want or need to produce? For example, are you stuck at 12 loaves per bake day and you want to double that?

Another example would be a mixer. If you are mixing by hand and it's taking you many hours and limiting your capacity. If you were to invest the money in a larger mixer. And that would save you time and allow you to increase your capacity, how quickly. Could you sell enough product to earn back the money that you invested in that mixer.

And then next, ask yourself, how much space do you have? If you're bringing in a new piece of equipment, like a mixer, a refrigerator, or an oven, do you have space to put that? And if not, do you have a way to rearrange or creatively find some space?

So take some time to think through this, write down your answers. This clarity will help you focus on what you really need. Not just what looks cool or what you see other bakers buying.

So not all equipment is created equal and you don't need everything right away.

So here's a list of the primary equipment that most bakers invest in as they begin to grow. And the order of priority, is a little bit subjective, but I'll share what I have observed and what I've seen other people agree with.

So the three primary bottlenecks and equipment, pieces of equipment that bakers typically invest in as they're growing are a refrigerator, a mixer, and an oven.

So I would recommend considering first investing in a dedicated fridge or freezer situation to hold your proofing dough. That way it can hang out there and you can put as much as your refrigerator will hold. You're only limited by the capacity of your fridge at this point.

You do not have to buy a brand new or a super expensive refrigerator. There are some scrappy options. I went with the scrappy option. I bought a 250 upright freezer off of Facebook Marketplace. I found a large one. I think the capacity is probably around 21 cubic feet, and I can proof about 80 loaves in bannetons in there.

And as soon as it exceeds my set temperature. For example, if I have it set at 36 degrees Fahrenheit, as soon as Inkbird, detects that the temperature of the fridge has gone above 36 degrees, it kicks on the cooling mechanism of the freezer itself and turns it on until it drops the temperature to where it needs to be, and then it kicks off again.

So it's pretty energy efficient as the freezer is only running. for a few minutes at a time to maintain my set temperature and it maintains the temperature that I needed that. I can also switch it over to freezer mode. So if I load a bunch of dough in there, I can bump the temperature of the freezer way down to quickly lower the temperature of my dough.

Moving on to commercial mixers. After the fridge, I invested in a mixer. I chose to do that because I felt like mixing my dough by hand was a major production bottleneck. It was slowing me down and my days were not nearly as efficient. I could not mix as much as I wanted to. My clean up time was crazy. And so having a mixer where I can mix 20 or 25 loaves at a time rather than manually by hand mixing 6 10 has been a big game changer for me. If you don't mind mixing by hand, you can hold off on this investment.

It's just one to have on your radar to consider.

And then finally, an oven is a pretty crucial investment as you're growing a micro bakery, especially if you're starting out with just your residential home oven.

And so again, I went over to Facebook marketplace and I found a 250 older double oven, the type that's meant to be built into wall cabinetry. It was an older model. But it still worked fine, and so I invested in the electrician to wire the proper outlet for me. And using that oven doubled my capacity because I was no longer limited to four loaves at a time on the baking steel [00:09:00] in my home oven.

I could now do four loaves per oven, so a total of eight at a time.

This was a super helpful investment because it immediately improved my sleep quality. I was getting so much more sleep and I could bake more at a time in a little bit less time. So I was able to offer more product at markets and offer more product to my porch pickups, thus boosting my revenue.

After a few months with that Facebook Marketplace oven, I did decide to invest in a brand new double oven. I stuck with the double oven, but after a lot of research, I landed on a different brand new model that is a lot more efficient. With my original older model, I tried baking two trays of bread, so eight loaves at a time.

For me, that is super efficient. It has cut down tremendously on the amount of time I spend baking. And I'm happy to stay with this for a while. I am allocating money for a bread oven because the efficiency of that certainly will pay off in the energy savings and just not having to shuffle the loaves around and deal with steam.

But for now, this option is about a third to a quarter of the price of a bread oven. And I'm super happy to stick with this double wall oven for a little while. I just have it freestanding in the room adjacent to my kitchen. It's raised off the floor a few inches on a wood pallet and it works wonderfully.

But just know that if you are stuck baking just a few loaves at a time in your home oven, there are other options that you can consider.

Another bottleneck is storage solutions. This is a lower investment, so something that maybe you can consider earlier on, but this can look like shelving, ingredient bins, cooling racks .

So I have found that as my production increases, I need to add additional storage, specifically cooling racks a little bit at a time to make sure that I am keeping up with my production.

And then down the road, you can look at things like a dough sheeter or, a proofing box or a speed rack, things like that, that also increase production and efficiency, but can wait a little bit longer depending on the priorities of your business.

So you've identified the equipment that you need, you'll move over into the research stage. We've talked a little bit about this, but there is so much information online. Some super helpful comparisons. If you go into some of the sourdough micro bakery Facebook groups and search bread ovens, you'll see some comparisons and a lot of people weighing in with their opinions that can help you narrow down which bread oven you may choose.

As we touched on, consider used equipment too if it makes sense or if it's available. There are some great options. That was what really allowed me to increase the capacity of my bakery. If I had been limiting myself to brand new equipment, such as the fridge or the oven, I would have been stuck for a much longer time as I saved up the money.

But going the used route for my fridge and then my oven allowed me to take that leap much sooner. I went, I found both of those on Facebook marketplace, but you could also look places like Craigslist or the OfferUp app to find some. equipment local to you.

So We brought it all the way back to the place where we bought it and got the money back.

So if you know a little bit about the maintenance records or pay attention to how it's being stored before you bring it on home, that might be a good idea. If you are buying used, don't be afraid to ask for flexibility in the price, unless if they specifically say that the price is firm. A lot of people who are selling on a platform like Facebook marketplace or Craigslist.

build in some price flexibility. So you could offer a little bit lower price and say you're ready to pick it up and you have cash in hand. Maybe even bring a loaf of freshly baked bread and see if they have some flexibility.

Once you have some larger equipment in your home, it's important to consider maintenance as well as insurance. Now I'm not an expert in insurance, so do your own research here.

But you may want to set aside a small allocation of money little by little just in case something happens so that it doesn't blindside you or wipe you out if you find that you run into unexpected expenses.

As we wind down this episode, let's talk a little bit about financing. So this is a completely personal decision. Some bakers choose to finance their equipment. Some of the bread ovens do have financing options and so for many bakers that allows them to get it in their home and get them baking sooner so they can pay off that financing quickly.

Others choose to bootstrap and pay it all in cash at once. That's the route I'm choosing to go, but It's completely up to you and what makes sense for your own situation.

But know that if you are growing slow, that is okay, too.

The final thing to consider as you are investing in equipment is planning out your space . So before you bring in your new equipment, make sure that you have a plan for where you're going to put it. Make sure your workflow makes sense. And there's enough room for everything, enough space for the oven door to open and let you maneuver to get your products in and out.

Make sure that your flooring is easy to clean and you have limited clutter to minimize any sort of safety hazards or inefficiencies.

Like I mentioned at the beginning of the episode, if you are just getting started, I do have a free guide linked in the show notes with a checklist and a guide to help you start a brand new business off on a solid foundation.

If you enjoyed today's episode, make sure you subscribe to the show so you don't miss any future episodes. I drop episodes every Monday and Thursday.