Baking is a great way to unwind, and home baking businesses are seeing a soaring preference among passionate bakers and customers alike.
However, many are hesitant to leap into starting a home bakery business due to the fear and uncertainty over skillset, capital, business acumen, and so much more—a fear fuelled by myths about kickstarting a home bakery and what to expect from it. If you’re one of them, let us bust some of those myths for you.
1. It requires a formal course from an institution
It turns out that a home bakery business doesn’t need a pastry/chef/baking course. Suppose you have it, good for you. But it isn’t mandatory. You don’t have to be a master in fondant, gum paste, or sugar work with expensive formal courses.
What you need instead
Is mastering the basics so that you can then add your creative trimmings to it. Try to perfect your minimum viable product first.
2. You need to study entrepreneurship to run a successful business
The internet is teeming with business coaches with readymade plans that can be customised to your particular home bakery business plan. You don’t have to go back to school for a formal, expensive course to be a savvy entrepreneur.
What you need instead
is to spend some time doing research and draw up a proper business plan.
3. If you don’t follow the current trend, you are doomed
Dumbstruck by elaborate cakes that have mountains of fondant work, sugar flowers, and modelling chocolate details? The home bakery business myth that really discourages most home bakers is the idea that until your cake is an art sculpture, you won’t get customers. Wrong!
What you need instead
is quality and flavour in combination with sight to make the cake experience-rich, wholesome, and memorable. There’s a reason we still talk about our grandma’s lamington recipe.
4. You need solid capital plus a fully-equipped kitchen
This myth has discouraged many passionate bakers from stopping and thinking before venturing. A state-of-the-art electric mixer, beautiful branding, and packaging are not the essentials for your bakery’s success.
What you need instead
are the basic baking utilities, focus on the quality, and an aim to build a loyal customer base.
5. Never say ‘NO’ to welcome limitless profits
A home bakery business attracts its fair share of advice and suggestions. Don’t ever stray from your business plan if you are not completely sure. In the same way, don’t give in to the lure of making profits and agree to tackle every kind of customer demand.
What you need instead
is to learn how to say ‘NO’ to orders outside your comfort zone. Do what you love to do rather than work for profits. At the end of the day, if it didn’t taste good, there would be no second orders.
Of course, a lot goes into opening a home bakery, but a fine blend of sheer talent and proper planning works. Follow great bakers, eat the best cake Sydney has to offer to keep your flavour profile on point. Everything else is a myth!
