What are some good ideas for making a bake sale go smoothly and very successful?!
What are some good ideas for making a bake sale go smoothly and very successful?
Answers:
Offer small samples for tasting, as well as small cups of water and coffee. Customers will stick around longer!
Rather than offering a plate of plain cupcakes, dress them up.
Dress up cookies. Dip half of each plain cookie into melted white, milk or dark chocolate, or drizzle with melted chocolate. Frost and decorate cookies for the season, the occasion or just for fun.
Stand these decorated cookies-on-a-stick in decorated cans or cups, or wrap in cellophane and tie with ribbons.
Package your favorite snack and popcorn mix in various sizes of containers.
Raffle Special Items
Sell chances before and during the event. Or auction off an item; the highest bidder wins!
Be sure to include everything from decadent chocolate treats to items for special diets.
Offer a variety of sizes, single servings to large cakes and pies. Sell cookies and bars by the "eaches" and cookie pizza by the slice!
Spice Up Bake Sales with Variety
Have a variety of prices.
Sell Appealing Items That Don't Require Baking
Make a café mocha mix by layering 1 cup of dry hot cocoa mix, 1 cup of vanilla or hazelnut instant coffee or instant espresso and 1 cup of dry nondairy creamer in clear jars you've collected throughout the year or bought at yard sales. Tie with ribbons for a festive look, and add a note to mix with hot water. Or layer mixes with instant tea instead of coffee.
Plan, Organize and Promote
Turn your bake sale into a social event with live music, craft and food demonstrations and games. Make it a tradition people will know to expect every year.
Hold a bake sale around a holiday, theme or special event, such as Christmas, Valentine's Day, Halloween or a neighborhood block party. It puts people in the mood, and they tend to buy more. Find seasonal items for props to reinforce the theme. Have someone who's good at "propping" arrange the food items.
Decorate the bake sale area with your organization's colors or the appropriate holiday colors. Workers can wear the organization's T-shirts, caps and colors.
Schedule a bake day to prepare for the event. School and church kitchens are helpful.
Arrange a telephone committee to contact each organization member to solicit baked goods.
Bring bags, cash box with plenty of change, price stickers and marking pens.
Keep prices simple for adding and making change by pricing in increments of 25 cents.
Make it easy for customers to carry the bake sale items home. Furnish bags big enough to encourage the purchase of more than one product and a few for the freezer!
Have recipes printed and available for people to take. This is especially important for people who need to know the ingredients because of special diets or allergies.
Promote your bake sale through radio, TV and newspaper.
http://www.bettycrocker.com/baking/basic...
advertise and make sure that it is fresh baked... spread the aroma and the people will come!
Good Food And Good Advertisement,Some Of The Elderly PPL May Even Appreciate A Delivery Option....GOOD LUCK....Some Lazy Ones Too...
What I have found with bakesales is that don't be stingy with the portions. I'm not saying make them huge, but make them reasonable. Also everyone looooves brownies and cookies it seems and it really is how you present the baked goods. The ones that look unappealing, even though they might taste like heaven, will rarely get sold.
Hope this helps!
Lots of reliable people to provide items for the sale, of course. And, upbeat fun people to work the sale. In addition to baked goods, you might also want to sell cans of soda and coffee. Have plenty of plates, boxes, napkins and saran wrap.
Arrange the tables with enough room to allow for a good traffic flow, and casual browsing.
Have your cashiers spaced far enough apart that one person's customer isn't bumping into the customer at the next check out.
Make sure to have LOTS of change - both low denomination bills (you'll break a TON of $20's) and nickels, dimes, quarters. You don't need pennies unless you have oddly priced items that will cause totals of $1.13. Make sure some people bring calculators.
Remember your workers need coverage for breaks and lunch (but try to do their lunches at non rush hour times) And you'll need a set up crew and a clean up crew.
Aside from that, I can't think of anything else.
OH! Make sure that you mark items that have peanuts in them because peanut allergies are getting more and more common - and they can be life threatening.
Have Fun!!
make sure everything it packged, priced and ready for sale. also list the ingreidents for each item. incase there are alergy questions.
make sure you have plenty of change
location good foot traffic sheltered from sun and possible rain parking if needed
advertise local papers flyers roadsigns people on side of the road balloons
organize who will bring what (everyone cant bring rice krispie treats) who is takeing money who is priceing who is keeping watch who is helping customers who is bagging
fun activities cake walk?? bucket sale = you can get inexpensive brown bags with handles about the size of a childs lunch box charge about 6 bucks and let customers fill it up with what they want this is a great way for last day/hour so you dont have to take a lot back home hopefully only empty containers and a full cash box!!!!!!!!!!good luck
happy people hosting it and of coarse good food and drinks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Be clear and up front about the pricing so it's not a guessing game. Also, be fair so don't bundle things and then ask for a higher price leaving people confused or catching them off guard. It will leave a poor taste in their mouths and they won't go spreading the word about your bake sale.
Here are some sites with good tips and plans for a bake sale:
http://baking.about.com/cs/hintsandtips/...
http://www.jcdh.org/default.asp?id=190...
http://www.dvo.com/recipe_pages/cakemixe...
sell 1/2 cakes. lots of people don't want a whole cake
make stuff like fruit crisp and even peanut butter fudge( my favorite) package individual servings of cake. a single person will buy a couple of servings easier than a large quantity.
I also like to buy cookies 3 or 4 in a bag for 50 cents.
Have a good reason for the bake sale. Have good people to work the bake sale. Have people that know how to cook do the baking and creatively package the baked goods. Be sure to include ingredients (otherwise know CPR) and exact price. Have a LOT of money for change and a calculator for everyone working the bake sale. Cookies, brownies, cup cakes, rice krispie treats, hey maybe even donuts. They might need something to drink milk, juice, little water bottles. This kind of thing works for me. Have fun and good luck!
Well, Kids and Cats already answered this question very well. The only thing I can add, is to sell whole cakes, and half cakes, as single persons would not be as likely to purchase the whole cake.
I have an easy recipe for homemade gingerbread, which is what I always donate to a bake sale. It never fails to sell, as many women never bake it anymore. Let me know if you would like to have it.
Variety is the key, along with friendly smiling faces!
Good Luck!
advertise well in advance, so people will know it's happening and where it will be held and the hours it will go on for. Get LOTS of different items to choose from and keep prices reasonable..
Line up volunteers well in advance and let them know you are counting on them to make something for the sale. Don't have ready made food, I think everything should be homemade and make things look attractive, use small bags and throw away type plastic containers. Have napkins there for people who want to eat right there. Sell something to drink too, like lemonaide or ice tea, or coffee.
cookies and brownies
Display and labelling like the price or name. Advertising.
You could advertise, sale good food, and have entrainment.
A lot of advertising, and good bake goods, with a reasonable
price.
They should also be wrapped nicely, they will sell better with
some ribbons and different clear wrap on them.
the prettier the better.
good luck