Is Bakery a Profitable Business

Do you love baking?
Are you thinking about how you can use your baking skills to make money?

Some days ago, I met Betty who is in baking business and this is what she told me.

“I started a baking business and earned Ksh.2,000 in profits on the first day.

I went on to earn almost Ksh.300,000 a month in profits while baking from home.

In 2012, after trying my hands in the online writing world and feeling like I failed, I decided to start a baking business because I needed to keep living and paying my bills.

I wanted the side hustle money from baking because I know people love to eat.

I took my mum’s mandazi recipe and started baking mandazi with less than Ksh.5,000 shillings.

I borrowed the startup capital from a friend. He gave me Ksh.10,000.

I figured I must spend less than Ksh.5,000 so that I remain with the rest and not borrow again.

Instead of spending a lot of money on starting up the mandazi business, I bought a few packets of baking flour, baking powder, a kilo of sugar, a mandazi frying pan and cooking fat. Yes, I started with fat.

I spent about Ksh.2,000. I also bought plastic bags to use for bagging my mandazis.

I carried samples to give to my customers who included local shops.

On the first day of making and selling mandazis, I earned more than Ksh.2,000 in profit.

I said, “Look at what God does when you decide on doing something”.

In the beginning, I wasn’t sure if baking was what I wanted to do. My mind was set on just starting a business.

At the time, alongside my mandazi business, I was baking small gift cakes for family and friends from home. Then a friend decided to challenge me to bake for her child’s birthday.

I didn’t have any special equipment for a professionally baked cake, but I took the challenge nonetheless. I pulled it off. Those who attended urged me to turn my skills into a business.

I decided to get serious with baking business and I started with around Sh.80,000. Getting started wasn’t too hard since I already had the requisite baking skills.

I used this capital to acquire some equipment and started baking from home. I started with mini cakes, cupcakes, muffins and loaf cakes.

This worked in my favour as it took less than six months to get regular customers.

When I started, I would pass samples of my cakes around. This helped my brand to build customer confidence and reputation. Today, my business specializes in all types of cakes, pastries and snacks.

These range from birthday cakes and corporate events snacks to wedding cakes.

If you want to succeed as a baker now, start with a niche market. A niche market means starting with a particular product.

I started the mandazi business baking and selling mandazi only.

Ask what do people love eating and you can bake and sell? What can you be known for as a baker?

When a customer eats your baked goods, they want to taste something unique and not everything everyone sells in the market.

Starting from a niche market doesn’t mean you are not exploring other options.

I started with mandazi, added cookies and later cakes. The more variety of products you make, the more money you make.

A baking business is a visual business, keep that in mind. Customers will eat with their eyes before opening their wallets.

Take time to package your goods in appealing ways. Use social media to your advantage with your baking business by taking customers behind the scenes.

Show customers what you do when they are not seeing.

Is Bakery a Profitable Business?

How beneficial is a bakery business?

Can I make a living out of starting a bakery business?

How much money can I make from a bakery business as a profit?

These are some of the common questions entrepreneurs that want to join the bakery business ask.

A bakery business is a good place to start for anyone who wants to make good money from something they love doing.

The food industry has a wide customer base and you are highly likely to get a large and steady income flow from sales conversions.

A bakery business is very lucrative and you will smile back at this moment when you made your decision to start a bakery business in a few months.

*What is a Bakery and How Does It Work?*

To start, a bakery is a shop in which bread and other baked goods such as cakes are baked and/or sold.

When you start a bakery business, you will produce and sell flour-based food baked in an oven, for example, cakes, cookies, bread and pastries.

What Bakery Business Can I Start?

There are four types of bakery businesses you can start depending on how scalable you want your bakery business to be.

Home-based bakery business

This type of bakery business usually operates online.

You can start your bakery business activities from your home kitchen on a small budget with the recipes you have created and then sell the final product to your customers.

Retail bakery business*

This type of bakery business is a walk-in storefront where people will walk into your physical store to buy your baked goods. They can also sit in and dine.

Custom cake shop

Here, you will be dealing with custom orders only where your customer will order a cake that they will later pick or be delivered to them on a set date.

Commercial bakery

This is also known as an industrial bakery business.

This type of business involves large capital costs and the production of baked goods is done on a large scale.

You can pick the type of bakery business that appeals to you most and start your bakery business.

How Do I Start My Bakery Business?

Do you love baking? Do you feel excited at the idea of baking something from scratch and creating delectable, mouth-watering and deliciously beautiful baked creations?

Do you get inspired to bake when you are happy, excited, sad, stressed or even bored?

If so, you have a passion for baking.

Starting a small bakery business is a profitable business idea you can explore especially if you have a passion for cooking.

A bakery is also a good business idea because baked goods are quite popular and move quite fast. Baking also requires little to no formal training

Turning what you love doing into a profitable venture can really be enjoyable given the excitement it comes with while operating it.

Timothy Angwenyi
Business Consultant

Justine Nyachieo
Business Man & Mentor

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