Starting investments
200 - 300%Markup on goods
1 monthPayback period
from 10 000 rub.Revenue
Home-based cakes are a great idea for their moms on maternity leave, as well as for anyone who likes to cook beautifully and tasty. In this article, we decided to answer the basic questions of beginning cake makers and give them an incentive to action.
There are many attractive points in the business idea of baking cakes to order. Firstly, a cake is an indispensable attribute of birthdays, anniversaries and weddings, an off-season hero of any holiday or celebration. Secondly, baking cakes can even be organized in your own kitchen, since most housewives already have everything necessary for baking. Thirdly, baking cakes is creativity, and creativity helps us to express ourselves, to develop, finally, to feel needed by society, giving something to others and receiving something in return. We will not reveal the big truth, but the only thing that is required of you in order to start your home-based business on cakes is to correctly direct your culinary passion and creative fuse in the right direction.
Home business equipment on cakes. We conduct an audit in the kitchen
Let's start with the equipment. If you are not a stranger to the kitchen, you can breathe a sigh of relief. For baking cakes, you already have everything (or almost everything). You can, of course, be tempted by professional units and spend a lot of money on some kind of confectionery oven, or you can just look at the kitchen shelves and see what is on them.
You, for example, already have a stove and an oven, and among the kitchen utensils there are probably bowls for kneading dough, a mixer, pots, knives, and more. For a home-based business on cakes, most likely, you will have to buy only specific things - molds, irons, mastic tools, dyes. Do not forget that almost everything can be saved. For example, you can buy used molds from grandmothers in the secondary markets, and instead of tools for working with mastic, a children's set for modeling from plasticine and even a manicure set are perfect. In order for you not to forget anything, we’ll provide a complete (but not strictly required) inventory list with approximate prices ..
Equipment for baking cakes *
Cake Baking Equipment | Amount, rub. |
|---|---|
Set of pots | 3799 |
A set of bowls for kneading dough (6 pcs.) | 899 |
Mixer and whisk for whipping proteins and grinding yolks with sugar | 1200 |
Kitchen scales and measuring utensils (beaker) | 1499 |
Set of baking dishes | 4499 |
Kitchen knives + knife for string cutting | 3199 |
Cutting boards | 559 |
Pizza knife for cutting cake layers of different diameters and removing excess mastic | 359 |
Sieve for sifting flour, starch, cocoa | 299 |
Rolling pin for rolling cakes and mastic | 249 |
Silicone paddle for mixing / leveling | 229 |
Confectionery spatula | 179 |
Culinary brush for greasing baking | 149 |
Baking paper for lining the bottom of the mold | 29th |
Turntable to align the cake | 1299 |
Iron for mastic | 179 |
Equipment for decorating cakes | |
Plastic and metal molds for jewelry | 290 |
Set of pastry plungers | 270 |
Border notches for mastic | 209 |
Tongs for mastic | 309 |
A set of tools for working with mastic | 179 |
Texture (figured) rolling pin | 260 |
Set of silicone molds | 2000 |
Mats for forming and drying mastic products | 1800 |
Wire for flowers and stamens from mastic (it’s also floristic) | 79 |
Pastry bags and nozzles | 350 |
Food Coloring Set (powder, gel, pearlescent, flickering, etc.) | 2000 |
Food markers | 955 |
Total: | 27 326 |
* The prices for the relevant products are taken from online stores, the data is current as of October 2017
As you can see, even with the complete absence of all this, you can easily meet the 30 thousand rubles. If funds allow, you can automate the process somewhat by purchasing, for example, a dough mixer or a food processor, but then investments can increase two to three times. Much of the list can be purchased in hardware stores, dish shops or in large supermarkets, and for mastic inventory you can look at specialized stores for home baking lovers or order everything through AliExpress and pastry shops online. We don’t think it’s necessary to explain how to find such stores - Google will help you. As for the ingredients, everything that has a long shelf life (flour, sugar, etc.) is best purchased in bulk at wholesale stores. Perishable products are best purchased directly on order.
Craftsmanship. How to become a baker of cakes “from God”
Your first task is to learn how to cook cakes well and tasty. Previously, confectionery recipes could be passed on from generation to generation, and everyone could not learn the sweet secrets, but today this knowledge is publicly available. Confectionery art is taught both in the format of schools and in the format of individual lessons. Group course offers usually start at 1, 500 rubles. per person, individuals are 3-4 times more expensive. For those who want to attend master classes from professionals, but cannot afford a lively presence, there are online schools for pastry craftsmanship. Interestingly, today, students of remote courses are no longer invited to be just passive observers. Mentors give them homework, take tests, answer questions. Cons of home-based business on cakes are also there. We must not forget that for such teachers, master classes are, of course, business. Therefore, there is a risk that you sign up for some basic course for 6 thousand rubles, but then you will be told that it would be foolish to miss the last opportunity to attend the best and most advanced confectionery course for only 60 thousand rubles.
The most budgetary and easiest option is to climb the Internet and start learning everything yourself, because the necessary information is in the public domain. Read the recipe or watch the video and repeat for those who already succeeded ... What could be easier? Video hosting sites like YouTube have some great pastry channels where they teach you how to make cakes step by step and at a fairly high level. Even watching a couple of videos a day, but doing it constantly, you can gradually answer yourself many of the questions that arose at the beginning. One of the most popular video channels on this topic is “I-TORTodel” by Victoria Igamberdieva, “Cooking Secrets”, Swetlana Lk, “Toniny Tortiki”, Cakes StepByStep. You can also be inspired by an example or take an interest in cooking experience with simple mummies who have achieved success and turned their hobby into a mini-business. You can also find useful information: on russianfood.com (more than 3200 cake recipes), eda.ru (almost 1000 cake recipes), 1000.menu (about 850 recipes), kuharka.ru (almost 600 tips and recipes for decorating cakes, desserts and pastries), lovelytutorials.com (a collection of master classes of various pastry chefs on cake decorating), foto-receptik.ru (275 cake recipes from mastic), povarenok.ru (75 cake recipes from mastic).
In other words, for those people who really want to learn something, there is no shortage of information. All bakers “from God” were once mere mortals. You can master all the wisdom in baking cakes for free and on your own only if you have the desire and the ability to self-organize. Best of all, if you conduct the first experiments at your home, slowly and honing your skills step by step. Do not rush to sell immediately, without really learning anything. In order not to blush in front of people and not to discourage yourself the desire to move on. Get more firewood, but let no one but the closest people know about it. Oh yes, do not forget to photograph successful attempts. They come in handy for your portfolio.
Cost price. How to calculate the price of a cake
For baking cakes to order, you do not have to draw up a business plan according to generally accepted canons and standards. It will be enough to learn how to calculate the cost of cakes and set a margin that will allow you to extract the desired profit. In simple terms, the cost of a cake is the cost of all the ingredients included in it + the price of packaging and other consumables. To calculate the cost, you will need to know the amount of ingredients. The disadvantage is that many of the ingredients you will need to translate from teaspoons, tablespoons and faceted glasses to grams and kilograms. To make calculations easier, keep translation tables like this one close by:
There are a lot of similar tables on the Internet, a translation into weight measures can be found for any product. An easier option is to purchase a kitchen scale. The only thing is, if you weigh what cannot be weighed without dishes, do not forget to subtract the weight of the dishes from the resulting figure. Please also note that the weight of the finished cake will always be different from the weight of its ingredients, as baking will dry out.
What extra charge do you make on your cakes? Experienced cake makers advise you to safely multiply the cost by 2-3 times (extra charge 200-300%). That is, if the cost of a conditional cake is 1000 rubles, then the price of 2000-3000 rubles is normal. Remember that the cake includes not only the ingredients, but also the light, gas, water spent on its preparation, and most importantly - your time and your work, which should also be rewarded. The second criterion for setting the price is the price of competitors. The price should not be higher than that of other cake makers.
How to calculate profit? Which one do you want? 30 thousand rubles a month? Then you need to sell 15 conditional cakes with a cost of 1, 000 rubles at a price of 3, 000 rubles. 50 thousand rubles? Then you need to sell exactly the same 25 cakes. This is elementary mathematics, elementary school. Of course, all cakes will be of different sizes, weights, and costs, but it’s not difficult to outline a rough plan. As a rule, most often cakes weighing more than 2 kg are ordered from private traders. You won’t make much money from the production of cakes and mini-cakes.
Competition. How to surprise the sophisticated with a cake
"Little houses." They “sit at home in their kitchen and try to order an oven” .... “They don’t have a sanitary book, they don’t have special equipment.” This is “the absence of any control over the production process” ... Some mature confectioners, interviews of which can be found on the network, in their own words can demotivate you. But try to respond less to them. Despite the huge competition, anyone can stand out with their confectionery and make money on it. Even not very versed in catering, not aware of SanPiN standards and not having a network of pastry shops. To understand how you can stand out, you need to do two things. The first is to see what offers are in your city. The second is to see what offers in your city are not yet available. Paying attention is not on the assortment of large pastry shops (although knowing their cakes and prices will not hurt either), but on what private traders offer. It’s best to search through social networks. A simple request with the word “cakes” and the name of your city will provide a lot of food for thought. For example, the query “cakes Moscow” in the social network “Vkontakte” gives 1838 answers, “cakes Krasnodar” - 414 answers and even “cakes Pyatigorsk” - 34.
But do not rush to despair from such a beating! Surely half of these groups are dead. Their number illustrates well the number of failed attempts to start a business. See what quality is offered in the largest and most active groups: this is what you should strive for. Here, at the same time, you can see the methods of doing business in social networks, but more on that later. Please note that no one is already offering custom Napoleons and sour cream. Most often these are all kinds of children's and wedding cakes: romantic and funny, bright and stylish. A huge number of stories. Someone makes chocolate portraits, someone sculpts pastry trees, someone produces edible Disney cartoons ...
No matter how regrettable you are, all the cake ideas have already been invented. On the one hand, this is good - there are many examples for inspiration. A good selection with 300 ideas for decorating cakes from the portal “1000 ideas”. On the other hand, you can’t invent anything radically new. If you do not believe me, try this experiment. Go to any Internet search engine in the pictures section. Type the phrase “cake in the form of ...” and then substitute any words that come to your head: “piano”, “iron”, “elephant” and so on. Whatever request you make, someone has already come up with all the cakes. Moreover, the peculiarities of the business on cakes are such that the client himself sometimes acts as the main creative inventor, sending you a photo of a cake in the form of a cap or a pink laptop with a request to bake exactly the same and no other. Here we are smoothly approaching the fact that the idea itself does not at all guarantee you 100% success without a lack of skill, willingness to take on any order and, of course, without the right approach to promotion.
Promotion How to advertise yourself for free
After you fill your hand in the preparation of cakes for your family, begin to switch to acquaintances and friends. Surely by this time recipes and photographs will appear in your portfolio that are not ashamed to show. Be sure to create a group or page on Vkontakte, Odnoklassniki and Instagram and try to fill them out regularly, keep active, invite friends. You can publish not only your own photo reports, but also photos of cakes from other masters, inspiring ideas. Try to lead communities not too trite - people like a lively approach, lively emotions, observation of the process. Remember that the main thing is your customers, so put phone notifications about incoming messages, try to respond to orders as quickly as possible. Over time, you will realize that social networks can become your starting point for much more. Many cake makers through social networks begin to gather an audience for their own master classes, hold promotions with free tasting, post training videos, and hold contests with reposts. Remember that in the name of your accounts you must use the word “cakes”, “cakes to order” and so on, so that you are sure to be found in the search.
Pay more attention to the page on Instagram. Up to 80% of your customers will most likely come from there. Food photography is one of the most common types of blogging on this social network. Learn the basic principles of food photography. Check out some of the best pastry instagram accounts. As a rule, photos of food with a natural light source are popular. In the light of lamps, any food looks plastic and unattractive. The composition of the frame, angle, and background are also very important. Here is some good material on how to properly sell food through Instagram, from which you can come up with some useful ideas. Also, take a good look at the tips for creating profiles on Instagram - a lot of articles have been written on this topic.
Many people decide that the most important thing in starting a home-based cake business is to create your own website. And it is desirable that the site design looks richer and more expensive. But you need to go to this step only after carefully considering the consequences. Otherwise, there is a risk of getting what the majority receives - a lot of money spent, a slanting-curved page that Yandex and Google bypass (which means your customers don’t see it), periodic blockages, and a whole bunch of technical problems unfamiliar to you, that distract you from your main occupation.
Secondly, in the psychology of people, a site is more than just a collection of pictures. This is your official representative office, a certain administration, the demand from which is increased. The site, as a rule, is started by those stores that have already found their face and stand out among competitors, have well-established mechanisms for interacting with the client. And now imagine that instead of the image of a pastry shop with a hundred exquisite cakes and a designer interior style, the customer will come to your home to order and see the old wallpaper stained and you pulling the cake from the balcony in slippers. It is unlikely that his expectations will be met.
If you already have something to brag about, then another thing. Then you have to create a website on which the catalog of your products, current prices, individual order form, contacts must be presented. When you have something to be proud of, you can add status elements,
Publish faces of satisfied customers, their wonderful reviews about their work, and so on. In the meantime, develop experience, collect photos of your creations, develop feedback from those who have tried them, but don’t start a site better.
Underwater rocks. Are you heavy, the share of cake maker
Baking cakes is not without a fly in the ointment. The most common complaint of those who began to work on order is physical fatigue. Many women admit that they have overestimated their strength. Fulfillment of orders with the parallel education of the child becomes a burden to them. Весь день приходится проводить на ногах возле духовки и плиты, при этом отводя сына или дочь в садик или на секции и кружки. Ноги начинают болеть, нервы сдавать, терпение лопается.
А еще бывает так, что спрос пошел, заказы пошли, а выполнять их не только некогда, но и знаний, оказывается, как-то не хватает. Заказы выполняются впопыхах по ночам, и человек вдруг обнаруживает, что несколько часов проводит за выравниванием торта, с которым он мог бы справиться гораздо быстрее, если бы просто знал как. Тортодел вдруг обнаруживает, что учиться уже некогда, а времени особо и нет. Торты выходят косые-кривые, а клиент оказывается недоволен результатом. Время - это вообще головная боль для всех, кто производит торты. К примеру, большие торты от 3-6 кг дают больше выручки, но заказы на них лучше принимать заранее, потому что есть риск не уложится в срок. А дедлайн здесь строгий: после праздника торт уже никому не нужен.
Много ошибок допускается при общении с клиентами. К примеру, многие тортоделы забывают обговаривать с клиентом условия возврата, когда заказчик, уже съев торт, говорит, что торт ему не понравился, хочет вернуть деньги. Даже если ваш бизнес не зарегистрирован, не следует забывать про элементарную гигиену: чистке ногтей, рук, зубов и так далее. Работайте в перчатках, встречайте заказчика в колпаке или собранными волосами, поддерживайте чистоту на кухне, в квартире и в санузналах, куда клиент может зайти, принимая у вас готовый заказ. Не допускайте ситуаций, когда вблизи заказов свободно разгуливают домашние животные. Клиента это может отпугнуть.
Еще один подводный камень - мошенники. К сожалению, ваша деятельность в социальных сетях наверняка не останется незамеченной. Один из способов развода такой. Клиент заходит в вашу группу и оставляет заказ у вас на стене. Пока вас нет в онлайне от вашего имени в личных сообщениях заказчику тут же отвечает мошенник - называет цену торта и “договаривается” о цене. Клиенту высылаются реквизиты, тот оплачивает предоплату, мошенник сразу исчезает. Потом недовольный клиент пишет во всех пабликах, что ваше сообщество его развело на деньги, а вы - мошенник. Предупреждайте потенциальных клиентов о таких случаях и четко указывайте, к кому именно нужно обращаться для совершения заказа. А еще - никогда не забывайте ставить водяные знаки на свои фотографии, чтобы их не крали.
Открытие ИП. Немного о страхах “тортоделов”
Один из дискуссионных вопросов среди начинающих тортоделов - стоит или не стоит открывать свое ИП, официально регистрировать бизнес и платить налоги государству? С точки зрения закона, конечно, это делать необходимо. Но на практике начиная бизнес на дому на тортах большинство домашних пекарей закрывают глаза на формальности. Пока не наработана приличная базу клиентов и нет стабильного объема продаж, оформлением никто себя обычно не утруждает. Для подобного бизнеса в формате подработки это невыгодно: нужно платить налоги и уплачивать за себя обязательные страховые взносы (в 2019 году это разовый платеж в год в размере 29354 руб.). Конечно, можно легко поддаться страхам, читая советы юристов. Вплоть до того, что вас, например, могут посадить на пять лет в тюрьму, или, например, оштрафовать на 500 тыс. рублей. Но это не совсем так.
Why? Во-первых, серьезная ответственность наступает за уклонение от уплаты налогов в особо крупных размерах, и доказать это довольно трудно. Здесь нужно, чтобы сотрудник правоохранительных органов совершил контрольную закупку на крупную сумму или доказал получение вами крупных доходов. А во-вторых, извините за такую прямоту, вы со своими тортиками никому не нужны. В этом можно убедиться, если открыть любой новостной агрегатор и посмотреть, кого именно штрафуют за незаконную предпринимательскую деятельность по 171 статье. Как правило, это продавцы алкоголя, стихийные уличные лоточники либо продавцы контрафактной незамерзайкой из гаража. Иногда устраиваются рейды по набережным и паркам, откуда гоняют любую незаконную торговлю неприглядного вида, блошиные рынки, либо, например, кальянщиков, которые продают кальяны с пола. Словом, неприятности ждут тех, кто либо торгует “опиумом для народа” либо просто мозолит властям глаза.
А теперь представьте, что будет, если государство массово начнет охоту на декретных мамочек, тихо торгующих тортиками? Параллельно воспитывающих по паре маленьких крикливых созданий, готовящих ужины мужьям, держащих на себе хозяйство. Да не иначе, как народная революция, которая начнется с передач Малахова. Единственный вариант, при котором вы можете столкнуться с реальной проблемой, такой. Какой-то клиент реально пострадает от вашего тортика, например, получит серьезное отравление и напишет злое заявление в полицию. Тогда-то к вам и может прийти проверка. И оштрафует вас... на сумму от 500 до 2000 рублей (административная ответственность). Конечно, несчастные случаи все же встречаются, от них никто не застрахован. Например, наслать на вас проверку может одна из конкуренток, у которой вы своими тортиками уводите клиентов. Как такие проверки проходят на практике и к чему нужно быть готовым, можно узнать здесь.
Задуматься о более серьезном бизнесе стоит в том случае, если вы, как минимум, прикупили дополнительный холодильник, наняли “дополнительные руки” и испытываете острую тесноту в помещении, что явно не соответствует уровню ваших амбиций и доходов. Тогда уже можно открывать ИП, подыскивать помещение под собственную торговую точку или мини-цех, закупать новое оборудование, расширять рынок сбыта. Идеальный вариант - совмещение потокового производства с производством продукции на заказ. Продукцию можно также сдавать на реализацию в кофейни, кафе и супермаркеты. Но помните, что даже крохотное производство потребует вложений в размере от 500 тыс. руб.
1. Проблемы качества. Нужно очень трепетно подходить к исходному сырью! Если в рецептуре написано «животное масло», то это должно быть масло хорошего качества. Ведь не всегда «животное масло» - «животное». На молкомбинатах в него, для снижения себестоимости добавляют и иные продукты, в основном, растительного происхождениям (кокосовое и пальмовое масло в лучшем случае). И так во всем! При этом нужно понимать, что жесткий подход к качеству исходного сырья имеет и обратную сторону медали – повышение себестоимости готового продукта. Балансировать при этом, практически невозможно. Из некачественного сырья, сложно сделать продукт, который купят по второму разу.
2. На домашнем оборудовании, невозможно выйти на… условно «промышленные объемы» производства, другими словами, на приличную выручку. Для этого и существует промышленное оборудование.
3. Сбыт всегда дело тонкое и сложное и количество «заказов» будет носить «скачкообразный» характер, а постоянная клиентская база создается годами. Поэтому… может быть, имеет смысл к сладенькому прибавить что-то иное с элементами мясца? По-научному, это называется «диверсифицировать ассортимент».
4. При проектировании данного бизнеса – особое внимание надо уделить проблемам «транспортировки» готовой продукции. Иногда – это затратно, иногда – нет.
5. And the last, the so-called "illegal business." Actually, it is advisable to do everything possible so as not to fall under the "state radars", but, alas, this is impossible. It should be borne in mind that such activities for the fiscal authorities are of little interest and difficult to prove, but ... you always need to be on the lookout. It is necessary to consult with a lawyer in advance exactly how to answer questions, if the situation turns out in an unfavorable way. If our state were a little smarter, in its legislative part and not only, such a problem would not have arisen. In the meantime, we ... Friends - everything, the rest - the law! Mikhail Semynin
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