If you’re passionate about baking, you’re in luck! People love baked treats; muffins, cookies, cakes, you name it. This is especially true for us in the UK and our collective sweet tooth has creative a massive, competitive market where bakers can turn over a handsome profit. Baked goods have seen a surge in recent years, spurred by the raising cultural relevance of baking, the healthier options available and the easier ways of finding gluten, dairy and allergy free products. Today, the British baking industry is worth over £3.5 billion, sales of baking supplies are experiencing an unprecedented boom in retailers such as Lakeland, Marks & Spencer, and John Lewis.
This boom has resulted in many people wanted a slice of the action. Skills in baking can be picked in a variety of places and, with some person flair and creativity, you can stand out in a competitive market. Baking has the advantage of appealing to a market of millions, so it’s time to make your mark!
Getting Started
As I previously said, the first step of the process is developing your skills in baking. One of the key components of being a successful baker is working thoroughly on your timing skills. These will help ensure anything you make is baked to best quality, and should become instinctual the more practice you get. Try not to overcomplicate things as you’re starting out, however tempting it may be. You want your first recipe to be simple and help you get a feel for the baking process. Pick something classic, without too many ingredients, read the instructions carefully and give it a go.
There’s also plenty of resources to get your started with recipes and tips for baking, such as YouTube cooking shows which are uploaded frequently and can be easily followed for reference. Cook books are useful very useful and can be found in abundance on Amazon, eBay, and in second hand shops.
Once your skills are up to standard, you’ll need to come with a brand to represent your work and make it easy for people to commission work. This could just consist of a name you use to represent your baking work, or a logo to decorate your website and social media channels with; wither way, you want something that will stick in people’s minds.
Opportunities
The best opportunities to make money and sustain yourself from baking is to always be mindful of the time of year. Unsurprisingly, many of the biggest calendar dates in the UK are celebrated with some form of baked goods, whether it’s spooky cakes for Halloween, Christmas treats, baby shower biscuits or birthday chocolates to commemorate a special day. Take advantage of this fact and bake seasonably appropriate goods to ensure you’re capturing the attention of potential buyers. Don’t forget there’s also weddings, baby showers, bar mitzvahs and much more for you to take advantage of.
Knowing a good opportunity can sometimes be as simple as knows what a person likes. Get the impression someone has a sweet tooth? Let them know of your awesome baking skills, as you never know what opportunities can result from traditional avenues such as word of mouth.
There’s also a wealth of opportunities online, primarily on social media sites with people searching for bakery services or even posting updates with their need for baked goods. Have a social media profile ready, with example of your work and contact should they like what they see. Always be pushing yourself out there, as being bold will ultimately work in your favour.
Commissions
If you keep working on your skills and taking advantage of every opportunity to bake something new, you may get a commission from a customer. This involves baking something, usually to specification, for a special event in a particular timeframe. The pricing of a commission will usually depend on a number of factors, such as the difficulty of a project or the length you’re being given to do it.
Take the commission seriously, do your best work, and you’ll be well on your way to establishing a working relationship which could bring your more profit in the future. There’s a string chance that your customer will want more baked goods for various other events, as well as for the same event next year. Make sure they retain your contact details so they can order again with ease.
Fundraising
Of course, when I talk about making money from baking, I also refer to raising money for charity and other good causes. Bake sales are a very effective means of fundraising; as we’ve established, the British are very fond of baked goods, and for a good cause there’s no better reason splash out on a slice of cake. As such, you’ll often see a variety of baked goods stalls at fairs and fundraisers.
Use your skills for good, and you’ll be rewarded by the god of baking with good karma, which translates into more contacts, a better professional reputation, and the broadening of your skills to help you keep your output fresh, creative, and tasty!
