Cake Decorating Business Question?!
Cake Decorating Business Question?
Would you be interested in a Cake Shop / Bakery that also gave you an option of helping decorate the cake for your loved one's special occasion? Sort of an interactive mini-lesson?
Also, would it be appealing to offer organized decorating lessons in the evenings taught by a Wilton certified instructor?
My wife and I are trying to think of some interesting twists on the traditional Cake Shop.
Answers: The success of your ideas -- outside of public interest in them, of course -- depends very much on what kind of facilities you have. Your production kitchen has to stay free of any 'casual visitors', or not only will the health & safety folk otherwise almost certainly have apoplectic fits, but your own staff in the production kitchen will likely be hampered and certainly distracted likewise. Equally, you can't have visitors having access to, never mind handling your production equipment, for obvious reasons of hygiene, quality control and, of course, safety. So you'll need a 'visitors' kitchen quite separate from the heart of your business, which means additional investment equipping it, and extra effort, staff costs etc, maintaining it, cleaning it etc, after visitors have gone.
The evening classes, outside of production hours, obviously bring fewer worries like these in their wake, but you will still have to calculate the extra burdens of changing your production kitchen's normal set-up to one more suited to teaching, and then putting it all back again together with an additional full cleandown, after each evening class. Not to mention the (in)famous moment -- which most certainly will happen at some time -- when your production kitchen suddenly needs to run on into the night for last minute commercial reasons on an evening when several classes are booked..?
Even if at first it's just you and your wife in the kitchen, such basic things still apply. You'll need to investigate these fundamentals thoroughly so as not to find yourself 'caught out' when you're already too far down the line to change course easily.
Hope this helps some of the way a least. Source(s):
prof. patissier Install a drive up window... no just kidding... try having a computer generated view of each and every cake you design available for each customer... in the initial meeting with the customer, design the thing on the computer so they can see exactly what they are getting... maybe a twist on your plan is to have a social gathering of new customers to take them through the process of designing the cake and baking it... serve some samples to present your product !!! It's a great idea. I would research and make sure of any insurance issues and issues with space or health board concerns. Other than that It's a fantastic idea. I find that many people love being able to say that they helped create a masterpiece. I own a bakery and like the idea. Except maybe the decorating for loved ones occasions. Usually people who buy a cake for loved ones aren't the type who would like to assist in decorating. They simply want you to make them a nice cake that they don't have to worry about fussing with. But I would love to visit a bakery and be part of the action in other ways. Maybe decorating cupcakes or cookies?