With the advent of COVID-19, many home bakers have started selling their creations online for side income. But often these aspiring entrepreneurs jump straight into the business without any idea of what they're getting into.

Here are the three most common mistakes new players make when trying to enter the market.

Failing to adapt to scale

Not establishing a strong marketing presence

Not building a good order flow system

1. Failing to adapt to scale

Even the most capable home bakers can underestimate the difficulty of transitioning from baking as a hobby to baking for income.

While most of the skills are transferable, it is important to have a plan for how to scale up your operations for production.

When starting out, it can be helpful to place limits on the number of orders that can be placed per day, smoothing out demand and ensuring that you don't get overwhelmed by orders.

Once your business starts expanding, consider upgrading your cooking equipment, or hire more staff. Do take note, though, under the home-based small scale business scheme, you cannot hire additional workers outside of your family.‍

2. Not establishing a strong marketing presence‍

Marketing is the first contact any potential customer has with your business. Without consistent marketing effort, there is no way for you to gather and build additional customers, stifling your business.

New bakery businesses often start off with an initial burst of activity and enthusiasm, supported by friends and family, only to slowly trail off in their efforts.

Always remember that customer engagement is an ongoing process, and it takes time to grow a critical mass of fans that will induce organic growth.

For some ideas of how to engage customers, try posting limited time drops or coupon offers, or encouraging customers to tag your media account in exchange for a discount on repeat orders.‍

3. Not building a good order flow system‍

Home bakers who first start out often make use of Google forms, phone orders, or even social media DMs to take orders.

While this may work as a temporary solution, in the long run it is highly inefficient, leading you to spend more time tracking down orders and chasing payments than actually baking and selling your goods!

On the other hand, some businesses choose to dive straight into Shopify, Wix, or other selling platforms which may be confusing overkill for small businesses, and do not necessarily fulfill your needs.

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