Hello, my name is Serena. I am 25 and live in Yonkers, NY. I am currently a realtor and debating on if I should make the switch into opening my own bakery. I love baking, and I am very good at it.
But..this is why I am writing; I have a work and educational background in finance. I never worked in a bakery in my life and do not have any schooling in the field either. So, my question is.. is the passion enough for a successful business; or must I go to school for it? This is the only thing holding me back. I have the basics down and am an extremely fast learner but feel unprepared w/o the schooling behind me. Please, any advice would be greatly appreciated!!!

Thanks!

I would say go for it if you feel you have the talent and your friends and family agree :) I've seen plenty foodnetwork biographies revealing restaurant owners or foodnetwork stars that didn't have any formal training.

Running a bakery is a business that you have to love and at the same time really have an understanding of order forecasting based on customer trends to succeed in. If you over bake, you have to discount the goods to move them. If you under bake then you miss out on sales. Is running a successful bakery worth working 12-14 hours a day (7 days a week) for the first few years? How will this impact your family / social life? You have to be really dedicated to be happy doing it. I have worked with people who love it and hate it. From my experience, those who hate it didn't understand the amount of work involved before they went in. On top of being a world class baker, you must also be able to juggle the books. Because of the way a bakery goes through inventory, you will have to deal with a lot of vendors which means bills, checks, stocking, etc... You have to have a really solid system in place to keep yourself from getting distracted from your main purpose which is keeping your customers really excited about your treats, in fact they can't live without them. On top of all that, you have to have skilled help, because even if you are the best baker in the world, your growth will be limited by your output. And skilled help isn't cheap. How many cupcakes do you have to sell to pay for:

(1) Baker - 8 hours - $11-12 per hour
(2) Helpers / Cashiers 5-6 Hours - $7-10 per hour
All utilities + Rent

A bakery is not a business for the faint of heart, but it is rewarding for those who can handle it.

Get a job for 6 months at a bakery before you dedicate your life to it. Learn and Succeed. Good Luck!

Nicely put :)

Hi Serena,
I'm right there with you. My passion is to own my own bakery and that's all I can think of. I worked in a very successful bakery for 2 yrs and actually got an apprenticeship there. It is well worth the effort that you have to put forth. It's just getting started is the hard part. If you love what you do, it makes life a lot easier. ANd like someone else posted that there are tons of Food Network stars that have never had any training and are very successful because of their passion. I started a home based bakery business in May 2008 and I'm getting too many orders to work out of my home due to space. It helps if you do wedding cakes because that is where you are going to make a lot of profit. Last week I got at least eight calls for wedding cake orders and it's only my Mom and I. And that's only with a blogspot website and only word of mouth advertising. Basically what I'm saying is that if it's your dream, go after it. Then maybe we can visit eachother's bakeries once we are up and running. Feel free to email me if you want to keep in touch. Maybe we can offer some pointers to eachother.

christiesweettreats@hotmail.com
http://christiesweettreats.blogspot.com/

Vilmarie Budde

Although finance background is good for your business the question is how much baking have you done and is it from scratch or box if it is either your best bet is go to school and take classes meanwhile bake from home and get peoples input and you can even sell it and see how you do