Marketing Strategy For Baking Business

One of my favorite business books of all time is The EMyth (Gerber) mostly for its fable-like nature with tremendous business lessons. They hit me so hard that to this day I am thankful for learning them. Mainly the book is for a person in the role of the business owner & the lessons of a baking business that can be applied anywhere or for any business.

Forget Marketing Your Bakery If You Only Run The Business

The protagonist is a business owner named Sarah, a small business owner who operates a pie-making business called "All About Pies." Throughout the book, Sarah's experience is used to illustrate the challenges faced by many entrepreneurs who are passionate about their craft (in Sarah's case, making pies) but find themselves completely overwhelmed when it comes to running, managing, and growing a business. The Marketing strategy for her baking business, jokes aside, is not something you can come up with at this point. She needs to find the time just to find more time… and that is where our story begins.

At the beginning of the book, Sarah feels overwhelmed, frustrated, and trapped in her business. While she loves making pies and started the business out of that passion, she's bogged down by the operational aspects, facing long hours and feeling like she's lost control of baking and any strategy in the business. She’s constantly chasing her tail.

With the guidance provided by Gerber, Sarah learns about the E-Myth and the importance of working "on" the business rather than "in" the business. She's then (and the reader is) introduced to simple concepts of systems, standardization, and the distinctions between many common misconceptions in business. As the narrative progresses, Sarah begins to implement these principles, transforming her pie business into a more organized and scalable operation where she can now come up with a marketing strategy per se or walk away from her baking business.

What’s great about this book is that it is so simple. 

Running a business or coming up with a marketing strategy for a baking business doesn’t have to be difficult, Gerber surmises. All you need to do is get out of your way and let other people start doing the work.

Getting out of your way

We, as solopreneurs especially, are constantly in our way. Here are some examples of it and maybe you can relate to some of these statements.

I need to run a marketing campaign  I will learn to do it myself and run it

I need to grow the bakery I will look into how to do that

I need to grow sales I have to do that

I need to bake more pies I need to approve everything that is done 

I need to learn how to make signs I need to learn how

I need to design & print flyers I need to buy software and printers.

What we learn is that you cannot do everything. Yes, in the beginning, you may be looking at your budgets and say I can’t outsource (whatever) to a company because of the ill-begotten “I have no money” issue.

But until you learn that there are people out there who can help you while you work on the business, you will never grow. Or find peace.

Renowned author and psychologist Dr. Benjamin Hardy recently wrote a book about this phenomenon in “Who Not How”. In it, he speaks about Dan Sullivan’s proven techniques to get entrepreneurs to think in terms of “who” can do something for them not how the entrepreneur can get it done. Having as many “who’s” as possible, greatly reduces stress and makes a business more manageable.

In the same sense, Sarah's journey in the E Myth exemplifies the transformation of a typical technician-turned-entrepreneur. The technician is the person who, in this case, is great at making pies and starts a company that sells pies. 

We find that making pies and selling pies are 2 different things.

Let’s remember why most people go into business. Everyone says to Sarah at some point, “You should open a bakery! Your pies are delicious”. She dreams of that future, finally takes the plunge, and BOOM, the Baking Business is REALITY.

So she does. Not only does she make pies, but she:

• Bakes as early as 3 am
• Opens, and takes catering requests
• Organizes her day
• Sells at the counter
• Takes customers' requests and fulfills then
• Serves the food
• Does her books
• Cleans up 
• Goes home at 10 PM

(Starts the same cycle all over again the next day, 7 days a week)

While this might sound like fun to a person working a 9-5, trust me, this gets irritating quickly. You may have a terrible boss currently or a career that is going nowhere but there is no one worse than YOU being the boss and making yourself do everything 90 hours a week for what works out to be $10 an hour. Freedom be damned! Your Baking Business (really any business) is doomed long term.

You can’t even get to a marketing strategy for a baking business if you can’t run your bakery correctly! It needs to run without you otherwise the marketing you do will only compound the issues you currently have regarding fulfilling orders. Sarah might have faced challenges in her business but she became an enlightened business owner who understood the principles of creating a business that could operate independently of her. Through her story, you can see how Who Not How and how you need to work on your business not in it, will ultimately help you grow your business, your marketing, and your sanity.

Author: Daniel Powers Jr., the founder of Real Brave™, serves as the chief inspiration to thousands of students in the Real Brave music instruction program. He's also the visionary behind PracticePad™, an online platform for live one-on-one music lessons, lesson tracking, and scheduling. Beyond his entrepreneurial pursuits, Daniel leads a non-profit organization that provides formerly homeless children with access to music education, making a profound impact on their lives. His unwavering dedication to music, innovation, and education continues to inspire individuals to reach their fullest potential while creating positive change in communities.