Starting your own bakery is a good idea, particularly in circumstances where a market is not adequately catered for or where existing bakeries are inefficient and produce poor quality goods. Quite obviously, starting your own bakery from scratch gives you more freedom of choice in all aspects of the business. You can decide the initial scale of investment and there will be no need to pay for “goodwill”.

However, a strong element of caution is incorporated here. Most people are capable of starting a bakery but not all have the ability, resources and determination required to be competitive in the long run. Experience shows that starting a new bakery is usually 2-3 times more expensive and a lot harder to establish than the owners first thought.
There may be a higher risk; and returns are often below expectation. You must be prepared to work hard. Starting from nothing, you will need to build customer confidence, establish lines of credit and supply and train or find competent staff.

Today more than ever, bakery operators must develop a wide range of management skills. As a participant in this learning program, you will develop a clear idea of the management skills required to run a bakery. You will also gain a great deal of other useful information ranging from how to assess a good location for your business, practical hints ranging from contemporary production methods to bakery/shop design and successful selling techniques.

In the short time available to work through this learning program, it is not possible to cover all areas in detail. To suit the particular type of your bakery, many additional skills will have to be acquired on-the-job. However, this package is a useful stepping-stone that will be of valuable assistance to you when investigating important issues in more depth.

I recommend that you keep this learning package as an important reference and I also wish to encourage you to further build on your knowledge/skills by seeking advice from professional bakery advisors and accountants, by undertaking training courses, by on-going learning about your market and your competition; and by regularly reviewing your own performance.

Fred Pfister, April 2010

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