For context, i love to bake. Ive been baking for so long and i thought i should turn it into a business. After much contemplating, i finally started it at the start of this year. Definetly there were some ups and downs but recently, i felt that its all worthless. I dont make profits from my business( 8 months in now), i feel like by cookies lack flavours , i suck at staying consistent and the worst part, i dont get orders. I have never shared this to anyone but its been 2 months since i get orders. Now i feel worthless. I feel like just shutting it down for good or restarting this. Maybe im nit cut out for this. Juggling this with uni has been tough cause i barely have time now. I dk guys , just felt like ranting
Sadly there is too many homebakers out there. So…unless you really do something special to stand out from the rest.
But nowadays you can take orders via delivery platforms,
But many people started and get sales from livestreaming. Others is via word of mouth especially for those going to church. If you are daring enough, you can just rent a booth and giveaway samples.
I also wanted to sell home bakes goods, but i give up the idea, since it can be mentally straining to keep doing this alone at home. I once handled a large order of 80 packets of cookies for a senior activity centre as part of their goodie bag. And i have to bake non stop for 16 hrs and bring them over to the centre, i can see them enjoying and i am happy, but its mentally straining, if i am not wrong i ony earn like $30 to $50 after deducting ingredients cost, But its for charity, so…its ok lor.
But a good idea for you to try to volunteer or make friends with the staff at senior activity centres and ask them let you share your bakes with the seniors and hopefully can pull in some business
Still…when it comes to food everyone has their own preference, and i have a mother who always criticise what i bake as too sweet. And keep ask me to make it less sweet, but as i reduce the sugar the cookies become more powderish and than she say not crunchy enough. End up i have to scold her and tell her you need sugar to make it more crunchy, but she dont believe and start going into dementia mode and start saying how nice the cookies she made in the past which is both not sweet and very crunchy, but the fact is i am the one that make the batter she only rolled the dough, but back that i only sub out 1/3 sugar. And her current expectation is to sub out 3/4 sugar and have the same crunch. Wah…i rather give up and tell her you want go make them yourself.
LOLL i get the mum part! Some older gen ppl can be difficult. Anyways thanks for reaching out. I feel like muslims have the best commimity spirit of supporting each other when it comes to this. Sadly im not surrounded by ppl who wish me well. Anyway your right! What i sell have to be outstanding and of course proper planning needs to be in place so as to not drain yourself. Im working on this business again cos i dont wanna give it up just yet. I think you shld try baking again if you have the time. Could be theraputic. But thiz time ask your friends to try them instead HAHAAHAH.
Actually, they is a lot of ways to promote your business, whether or not you have the guts and money to do it. You can even try giving out free samples on the streets. Just pack a few cookies in a pack and stick a name card with your FB or contact details to it.
Well…the journey of having a perfect bake it define by countless of failures, so it really depends on how supportive people around you are to help you to try and finished up your trial products so that it dont go to waste. While for me, my mother will only nag and criticise me saying it not nice blah blah blah…and bake liao nobody eat bake for what and spend so much money and throwaway wasted. And if i stop baking she will say dont bake buy the ingredients just put there for what. Sigh…
Still…she does help me to think and open up to another market of people. You know…we have people who love cookies but don’t like the Western type of sweetness.
Well…i hope to, but is not a good idea for me to bake and sell now, since i have a dog at home that sheds heavily, so unless i want his fur to be part of the ingredient. If not…hrmm…very hard.
Baking can be therapeutic until you finished and wonder what to do with the end products. I only bake if i wanted to eat. But normally…not sure if its my issue, i rarely eat what i bake.
Man ok. I DID TRY TO GIVE OUT FREE SAMPLES BUT IT BACKFIRED. like tjeu straight out said no. I lowkey felt like crying then. But i know this is part of the journey. Haizz. I also have 2 dogs, i just bake when they are in the room. Of course clean the house abit first then bake. But if its just for me, i dont mind having dog hair in it HEHEHE
Well…need to have very thick skin to promote business.
But since you are in uni, have you tried targeting people within the campus? Go target the big shots like professors and also school admin staff.
And you can try the meet-the-people session in your area. Go ahead and hijack your MPs session; tell them you’re giving free goodies to everyone. They can’t say much also and your MP…will have to swallow it bah, since they eat rice or porridge will depend on your parents’ vote in the next GE. LOL…
Sometimes its good to do some volunteering to build a small network of people from other areas. Can be very good to use for marketing when you need it.
You can try printing custom packaging or packaging stickers, so people cannot say you cannot advertise your business here. Since you can just say it’s your packaging, if cannot use, what do they want you to use to pack your goodies? Ping Duo Duo is a very good platform to get cheap packaging and customs.
I guess you know right…there is some super sicko and fussy people, if they find hair in your goodies they will post online and make you famous in the wrong direction. But ok lor…its somewhat free publicity. Hahaha…
Sadly…with lack of support, its pretty hard to manage a business. I also running business, but selling other stuff more towards the handicraft side. And it’s super competitive on Shopee. And my shop sometimes doesn’t get a single order for 2 weeks. And my house it cluttered with unsold products, and shopee now cracking down on preorders to just 10% and prefers sellers to have stock on hand. So…they pretty much asked me to bring in more stocks, i was like wah liao…i only 4 room HDB and i have over 6000 unsold products in cluttered in my house, and you still want me to bring in stock for other products in my listings? I can only tell them its so much cheaper to rent a warehouse space in china from my supplier, than to keep stock at home. And i pretty much earn between $1 to $5 per order, and here comes my mother who will say earn so little, take up so much space sale for what. Sigh…