How happy are you these days with the bakery you run?
The hope is your bakery is head and shoulders above the competition. If it is, you could have some good profits already in your wallet and more on the way.
That said, what are you doing and what more should you be doing to set your bakery apart from the competition?
Bake Your Way to More Sales and Revenue
As you go about assessing where your bakery is at these days, be sure you are focusing in on the following:
- Freshness matters – Imagine if all too many of your baked goods were stale, not looking appealing to folks and so on. Do you think you’d be in business that long? Make sure freshness and look are always staples in how you run your bakery. Without them, you could find yourself on the outside looking in before too long.
- Who you work with – If you are not making some or many of the baked goods on the premises, those you work with are key. So, make sure any bakers, vendors and so on that you have deals with deliver the goods so to speak over and over again. When you have wholesale bakers and others involved in the process, you want the best out there. Anything short of that could be a victory for the competition. When working with others, make sure they offer top products at competitive prices.
- Top-notch staff – Like many businesses, first impressions matter a ton. That said, be sure the staff you have at your bakery makes a good first impression with customers. It only takes one bad encounter for some customers to decide they will not again do business with you. So, impress upon your team how important it is to please customers. That saying that the customer is always right of course is not always true. That said, you have to believe it is true and go the extra mile. This would be for each person walking through your door, buying from you online and so on.
- Having a solid brand message – Long before there was the Internet, many relied on word of mouth to get the job done. With the web and social media, it is easier to some degree for businesses to reach out to the buying public. Even with such resources at your disposal, be sure you do not drop the ball. It is critical that you use all the online resources possible to get your bakery’s message out. Keep in mind that many consumers live on their phones almost 24/7. As a result, do all you can to touch base with those that are customers now and could be customers before too long. Your website, social media platforms, online store and more can and should all work in your favor.
As you review how your bakery is setting itself apart from the competition, the hope is you like what you see.
At the end of the day, you want the competition in the rear-view mirror as you taste success.