My First Five For the past couple weeks, I’ve been in a baking craze, more than usual. I went on a scone kick last week (more on this later), and baked six different kinds of scones in one week. And then on Thursday, in an effort to use up all my fresh fruits, I baked a blueberry peach cobbler and some cherry streusel muffins, all in one night. The problem with living alone is that there’s no one else around to help me eat all these baked goods. I’m not complaining, I like my baked goods, but I can’t (and shouldn’t) be eating all these sweets all the time. So I always end up looking for someone, anyone, to give away my goods to: friends, neighbors, and when I run out of those, random people in the hallway, like the mail lady or people checking their mailboxes (I live on the 1st floor, right across from the mailboxes, it’s prime real-estate, I tell you!) Last Thursday when I was Tumbling about my dilemma, Jamie replied, “…hmm…if only this were the type of thing people like to buy…OH WAIT! THEY DO.” She’s right! The idea has been floating around in my head for a while now too: what if I just start selling these stuff instead of trying to find people to give it away to? Well, I finally decided to do it. The first business idea I had was for a baked-goods delivery service for the people in my building. People sign up to get fresh baked goods delivered to their door three times a week. But I wasn’t sure if a.) people would be interested and b.) how much to charge for the service. So I decided to come up with a much simpler idea that I can execute quickly, and by quickly I mean, right now! After I came back from my baking class today, I brought home a bunch of chocolate cupcakes. Instead of piging out and eating them all myself, like I normally would, I decided to set up a pay-what-you-want bake sale. The idea is to start promoting Caroline Bakes to all my neighbors. I made signs with my logo, so that people would become familiar with it. It’s also a way of doing market research. I want to know if people are interested in my baked goods and how much they’d be willing to pay for them. The market research portion of my plan didn’t really pan out, since I only had one customer, and that was only because my manager told her about it. She was willing to pay $2 per cupcake, but she only had a five on her, and she wanted to take an extra one for a friend. I told her it was fine. I needed to get rid of the cupcakes anyways. So that was how I made my first $5 on my baked goods. It’s a sad figure from a business stand point. But it wasn’t about the money. That $5 marks a shift on my perspective. Until now I never seriously consider selling my baked goods or that people would be willing to pay for them. I bake for myself, because I enjoy it, but this might be the start of something exciting. I’m still pretty solid on my stance that I don’t want to open up a bakery or run a baking business. But it’s pretty exciting to try to figure out what exactly I can do with this whole baking thing. Even if it’s just a small side project like selling baked goods to the people in my building, it feels so rewarding. The thought of doing something I totally love and people wanting to pay me for it, it’s crazy, isn’t it? P.S. I definitely think the cupcakes are worth more than $2 each, I have a figure in my head, but I want to know what you guys think. How much would you pay for the cupcakes? ——————————— » Get the Recipe: The Richest & Moistest Chocolate Cupcakes (with Chocolate Ganache or Buttercream Icing)

My First Five

For the past couple weeks, I’ve been in a baking craze, more than usual. I went on a scone kick last week (more on this later), and baked six different kinds of scones in one week. And then on Thursday, in an effort to use up all my fresh fruits, I baked a blueberry peach cobbler and some cherry streusel muffins, all in one night.

The problem with living alone is that there’s no one else around to help me eat all these baked goods. I’m not complaining, I like my baked goods, but I can’t (and shouldn’t) be eating all these sweets all the time. So I always end up looking for someone, anyone, to give away my goods to: friends, neighbors, and when I run out of those, random people in the hallway, like the mail lady or people checking their mailboxes (I live on the 1st floor, right across from the mailboxes, it’s prime real-estate, I tell you!)

Last Thursday when I was Tumbling about my dilemma, Jamie replied, “…hmm…if only this were the type of thing people like to buy…OH WAIT! THEY DO.” She’s right! The idea has been floating around in my head for a while now too: what if I just start selling these stuff instead of trying to find people to give it away to? Well, I finally decided to do it.

The first business idea I had was for a baked-goods delivery service for the people in my building. People sign up to get fresh baked goods delivered to their door three times a week. But I wasn’t sure if a.) people would be interested and b.) how much to charge for the service. So I decided to come up with a much simpler idea that I can execute quickly, and by quickly I mean, right now!

After I came back from my baking class today, I brought home a bunch of chocolate cupcakes. Instead of piging out and eating them all myself, like I normally would, I decided to set up a pay-what-you-want bake sale. The idea is to start promoting Caroline Bakes to all my neighbors. I made signs with my logo, so that people would become familiar with it. It’s also a way of doing market research. I want to know if people are interested in my baked goods and how much they’d be willing to pay for them.

The market research portion of my plan didn’t really pan out, since I only had one customer, and that was only because my manager told her about it. She was willing to pay $2 per cupcake, but she only had a five on her, and she wanted to take an extra one for a friend. I told her it was fine. I needed to get rid of the cupcakes anyways. So that was how I made my first $5 on my baked goods. It’s a sad figure from a business stand point. But it wasn’t about the money. That $5 marks a shift on my perspective. Until now I never seriously consider selling my baked goods or that people would be willing to pay for them. I bake for myself, because I enjoy it, but this might be the start of something exciting. I’m still pretty solid on my stance that I don’t want to open up a bakery or run a baking business. But it’s pretty exciting to try to figure out what exactly I can do with this whole baking thing. Even if it’s just a small side project like selling baked goods to the people in my building, it feels so rewarding. The thought of doing something I totally love and people wanting to pay me for it, it’s crazy, isn’t it?

P.S. I definitely think the cupcakes are worth more than $2 each, I have a figure in my head, but I want to know what you guys think. How much would you pay for the cupcakes?

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» Get the Recipe: The Richest & Moistest Chocolate Cupcakes (with Chocolate Ganache or Buttercream Icing)