Tips for opening your own bakery
If you’ve always wanted to open a bakery, why not make that dream a reality? Perhaps you’ve baked delicious cakes for your friends and family for years and it’s time to turn your favourite pastime into a thriving business.
In this article, we’ll provide our tips for opening your own bakery, from understanding the market and planning your strategy to legal documentation and industry regulations.
Know the market
The bakery world is a competitive market and one that needs careful reviewing to ensure there’s a gap for your business. You should examine the local competition, analyse trends and identify opportunities you can capitalise on.
Competitor analysis can help you understand your unique selling points (USPs) and locate your target consumers. Do some research in the local area to find out what customers want so you can work out how to meet those needs to give yourself the best chance of making a running start.
Plan, plan, plan
Once you’ve scoped out the initial appetite for your bakery business, it’s time to put pen to paper and craft a strategy. This should be a comprehensive outline of how you will set up your bakery, covering every aspect and leaving no stone unturned. Your plan should include:
- Your business model
- Budget
- Venue
- Pricing strategy
- Marketing, branding and promotion
- Website and online presence
- Funding
- Growth strategy
Your plan should work to a timeline that suits your schedule. While a business plan is where things must start, though, the planning never stops. You’ll need to think about baking times, when to stock inventory, how to organise staff and everything in between – always as far in advance as possible to maximise readiness.
Registry and insurance
As with any type of business, it’s important to make sure your operation is set up properly before you start serving your community.
Pre-launch considerations might include determining the appropriate level of shop insurance for your plans, to establish your layers of protection before coming into contact with the relevant risks. Knowing your bakery is better able to bounce back from unforeseen circumstances can give you some extra peace of mind, especially during the potentially stressful time of launching your business.
It’s also a legal obligation to register your premises with the local authority’s environmental health service. This must be done a minimum of 28 days before you begin trading.
Rules and regulations
While there aren’t too many complex regulatory hurdles to overcome before you open your bakery, you’ll still need to comply with food safety and hygiene rules as established and administered by the Food Standards Agency.
Food preparation, storage and serving methods must be hygienic to protect customers, safeguard the overall reputation of your business and maintain high food quality.
If you use eggs and dairy on site, you’ll need a food premises license. Depending on your menu options, the council may ask to carry out an inspection before you’re granted a license.