While starting a bakery business isn’t easy, managing the business to make it a success can be more difficult. That’s why you need the following tips on how to grow a bakery business.
Update Your Plumbing
Updating your plumbing system should come to the top of your mind when figuring out how to grow a bakery business. This is because the system supplies clean water to facilitate the daily operations of your business. It also helps to eliminate waste from your commercial premises, creating a clean and safe work environment for you, your employees, and other business stakeholders.
A safe work environment will boost employee satisfaction and productivity as they will be less disrupted. In a nutshell, a well-maintained plumbing system can mean the continuity of your bakery business, while a poorly maintained system can bring it to a halt.
That is why you should hire commercial plumbers to conduct regular inspections and updates to keep the system running efficiently. When finding a reliable plumbing company, be sure to hire an insured and licensed company to handle the repairs. In addition, make sure that the plumbing professionals from that company are well-skilled and experienced.
To get the best:
- Advertise your need for a plumbing company in a local newspaper or social platforms, then shortlist the applicants.
- Visit each company’s website and choose the ones with the most positive customer reviews.
- Contact them for a one-on-one interview
- Stick to the company with the best reviews and most certifications and who can prove their competency by explaining how well they will maintain your plumbing system.
If all the candidates meet the above requirements, choosing the one with the lowest budget will be wise.
Renovate Your Roof
If your bakery business premises feature old roofing, it’s high time to replace it with a new one.
A new roof will improve the curb appeal of your business and attract more traffic than a business with sagging or missing shingles.
Additionally, it will enhance the interior comfort of your business, improving the safety of the employees and boosting their productivity.
Another advantage of renovating your roof is that it will lower the risk of damage from the elements and reduce insurance premiums, leaving you with free money to plan how to grow a bakery business.
Finally, replacing your roof will improve the value of your property. That means your property will fetch a higher closing price than it would have with an old roof should you decide to sell it. If you can’t afford to replace the roof, repair any leakages, damaged shingles, defective flashings, clogged gutters, and other roof damage.
If you aren’t good at roof repairs and remodeling, don’t hesitate to hire commercial roofing services providers to help you.
Offer Catering Services
Offering catering services is another strategy to consider when planning how to grow a bakery business. In practice, the service involves preparing food and offering it to various events, including any corporate events, social gatherings, weddings, birthdays, and concessions among other events.
Though there may be various ways to advertise your catering services, we shall stick to marketing your baked goods locally and creating an online presence. Marketing your baked goods locally may take any form, including:
- Offering free meals in a community event
- Renting a booth to allow potential customers to taste your products at a local event
- Advertising with the local press
- Issuing business cards in a networking event, etc.
- Asking friends, relatives, and well-wishers to recommend you to event owners and businesses offering complementary products
- Networking with local businesses, especially the ones offering complementary goods
- Offering free samples to visitors and passersby
- Differentiating your baked goods from the competition
The idea is to establish goodwill with your community and get your brand in front of every local consumer.
On the other hand, creating an online presence means establishing online visibility so that target customers can find and purchase your baked goods online. It is the best way to reach a wider audience and expand your business.
Below are various tips you need to implement to establish your business online:
- Create a professional website, capturing everything about your bakery business
- Retain and hunt out new customers on social media
- Build an online store and integrate it with online delivery platforms
- Asking for customer feedback online and using critical remarks to perfect your baking skills
Maintain Your Parking Lot
Another important factor to consider when planning how to grow a bakery business is the condition of your parking lot. Well-maintained parking will create an impression that you take good care of it and your business to potential customers.
That means your customers create a positive perception of your bakery before they even step into it. And the chances are excellent that you will enjoy more conversions.
Additionally, a well-conditioned parking lot will be devoid of cracks, free of debris, potholes, cracks, etc., offering a smooth and safe surface for customers to drive and park their vehicles. In essence, elegant parking will trigger a personalized feel among your customers, urging them to frequent your business.
Finally, a well-maintained parking lot defines the landscape, crosswalks, and parking spots and reduces ground hazards. This reduces the number of accidents in your business backyard, which would otherwise be a liability to your business. To enjoy the above benefits, hire a sealcoating company to inspect your parking lot, conduct asphalt repair, apply a seal coating on the asphalt parking lot, and restripe it to elongate its life.
Upgrade Your Kitchen
Before closing a deal, most individuals, retailers, and wholesalers may want to tour your bakery to assess your proficiency in the baking field. And your bakery kitchen, where the entire game happens, will be their main target.
That said, you should redesign how your kitchen layout, surfaces, appliances, and other elements complement each other to form an effective cooking space that appeals to everyone. After all, you want to win as many conversions as possible. The following are tips on how to grow a bakery business by upgrading your kitchen:
Mind The Kitchen Layout
Your kitchen layout should comfortably accommodate the oven, hob, fridge, and other appliances and give you and your workers ample working space.
Invest In The Right Appliances
Ensure you invest in an oven that distributes constant and even heat, a warming drawer for proving dough, and a mixer for preparing the dough. Also, top up your island and working tops with marble or granite worktops to provide a clean surface for kneading.
Replace Any Old Appliances
Old appliances aren’t energy efficient, especially electrical units like fridges, fans, and HVAC systems. Replacing them will cut down the business operating costs.
You need to make the above changes in your bakery kitchen. If you are not adept in kitchen remodeling, hire an interior designer to design and restructure your kitchen.
Upgrade Your Lighting
Upgrading the lighting in your bakery business is another way to take it a step higher. This is because good business lighting can improve employee welfare by reducing eye strain, fatigue, and discomfort, hence boosting their productivity.
Additionally, good business lighting will improve production by reducing the number of mistakes and accidents that would otherwise halt your baking operations.
Over and above that, investing in good lighting will create a warm and elegant atmosphere that invites potential customers.
Finally, external lights coupled with security cameras and a fence create an impression that your business is well protected from burglary and theft, hence a safe place to shop and dine at. Lighting can improve your bakery’s business productivity and sales, especially when combined with other security features.
Below are helpful tips on how to grow a bakery business using the lighting strategy:
- Clean and inspect the lights to ensure that they are in good working condition
- Call a lighting expert to position the lights, especially in the kitchen and store
- Making good use of natural lights
- Painting ceilings and walls with matte, light, and pale colors to avoid reflections
- Replace old lighting with energy-efficient lights
If you experience difficulties installing and maintaining the lights, call an experienced commercial lighting contractor in your locality to help you upgrade your business lights.
Offer Outdoor Seating
As an experienced bakery owner, you would like your onsite visitors to stay longer as they sample your offerings. In addition, visitors will need a place to rest while waiting for their turn to be served. As such, it will pay to invest in comfortable outdoor seating to make their stay comfortable. The following tips will help you achieve great outdoor seating.
Add Concrete To The Seating Spots
Before installing the seats, ensure your visitors won’t get soiled when using the seating facility. Installing concrete is a great way to achieve that.
Since you will be installing the seats in several spots, it is good to hire a concrete trailer to simplify the concrete installation. During the installation, be sure to use edgers to define the shape of the seating area and concrete leveling tools to even out the concrete.
Even if comfy, the seats must be stable to ensure the safety of your visitors. Hire a concrete installation company to do the job if you aren’t good at it.
Add Stylish Furniture
Now that you have leveled concrete spots for installing the seats, the next step is to fit comfy and weather-resistant seats to these spots. The seats must be stylish and not too bulky to allow for easy movement should you decide to rearrange the space.
Decorate The Surroundings
After installing the seats, the next thing is beautifying the surrounding space to make it aesthetically appealing. You can achieve this by cleaning the loose debris, mowing the grass, pruning the overgrown trees, edging the lawn, and arranging flowers around the seating spots to beautify them.
After installing the seats, you should perform regular outdoor furniture maintenance to keep the seats and other beautifying elements in perfect condition.
Upgrade Your Branding
Do you know that your bakery business might be performing poorly due to poor branding? Poor business branding can attract the wrong audience to your business, leading to poor conversions and low sales. However, the good news is that you can amp up your sales by simply upgrading your branding.
Why would you need to upgrade your brand anyway?
Besides attracting the right audience, upgrading your brand will help you match your branding with your latest offerings. This will inform your customers about your new product line.
To implement it, you need to hire a specialist to assess your current branding and how it aligns with your current offering and business values. This assessment will give them insights on developing new branding and lead elements like a logo design for small businesses like yours.
Secondly, ensure your new brand is cohesive across all platforms to create instant brand recognition. Finally, post frequently on your social media pages to attract new leads.
Invest in a New Sign
When planning how to grow a bakery business, you should not underestimate the power of commercial digital signage. Digital signs, especially when installed in high-traffic areas, will expose your bakery business to an unlimited audience. For best results, display your products alongside promotional messages about the product benefits and any price discounts attached.
Additionally, digital signs are more engaging and easily recalled than written or spoken advertisement content. They can amp your brand awareness by more than 47%.
To make the most impact, ensure your digital signs are creatively designed and produced by a renowned signage company. You want your signs to be visually attractive and visible to all your target audience.
Also, position the digital signs in an open ground, where most of your target customers can access them. Finally, ensure you update the digital signs every time you update your product list and prices to keep your customers updated.
Final Words
The above strategies are worth your consideration when planning how to grow a bakery business. Be sure to implement them alongside your strategies; you will see your bakery business grow in the long run.