So I open the local paper this morning and find yet ANOTHER story about a mom who started a baking business...something I've wanted to do from home FOREVER.

She thought of a unique idea. I need a unique idea!
I've racked my brain trying to think of something that is creative, yet not complicated. Something that people would want.

I love to bake, and I'm really good at cookies (cut-outs, chocolate chip, etc.) and brownies.

Do any of you creative minds have any ideas that involve these things - the items I said I'm good at baking???

I've had a few ideas, but I guess they're not unique enough. This is frustrating, but I won't give up.


Please Help!!

:) Thanks :)

The real truth is, there are really NO unique ideas. It is what you do with it that matters.

Many people are successful using the same idea but with something special added onto it or by building their brand. Do you make the BEST chocolate chip cookies? Can you make them in a way people can't get them anywhere else? Can you offer delivery? Bulk? Unique flavors?

ALso, I would start asking what people want! Talk to people who purchase baked goods and ask them what needs they have that aren't being met by current offerings. What do YOU find missing or annoying in what is available today? Stop trying to guess and go out to your future customers and ask them! :-)

Hang in there - you'll find it!


Julie Lenzer Kirk
Author, The ParentPreneur Edge: What Parenting Teaches About Building a Successful Business" (Wiley)

One local car dealer orders several dozen cookies every week. He has them delivered to the new car buyers as part of a follow-up program.

You might try checking with businesses who might be interested in doing the same.

He could even send out a postcard to his customer, asking their preference for chocolate chip cookies, brownies, and an alternate without chocolate.

It doesn't hurt to ask.

Of course if you are baking commercially, your kitchen will have to be inspected just like at a restaurant.

It could also tie you down, as you are the baker, and would likely stay busy 52 weeks per year if you get just a couple dealers needing cookies every week.

Dennis Bevers

Have you ever thought about working from home while making a difference in other women's/mom's lives. It's not baking, but a great opportunity. :-) If you are interested visit my website:
http://womenearningwages.com







Linnea R.
Womens Dream Team

Cup cakes are the rage... actually stores in NYC that just sell them! Maybe you can be the "chocolate" place. Everything has to have chocolate in it!

Everything Chocolate.

And don't budge from that, no matter what!

Hi, I bake pies in the summer here. It is very profitable,but it only last for the summer when the tourist are here. In the winter I am out of business. The locals don't want to pay for homemade baked goods, they would rather go to the grocery store and buy baked products there. I have tried to sell in the winter with no luck. I also have tried cakes and bundt cakes rum cakes, cookies, with no success.:( It is almost like the towns all close down for the winter.
So I am also looking for something to do in the winter here. All the internet work at home things are all scams and don't work, I don't want mlm.
I have tried marketing baked goods online, did not work. Payed for alot of ads,lost money on that. and the shipping was alot also.

Good luck in your area, it may be different there, and not a tourist spot only in the summer.
If you come up with any ideas, please share! :D Need a winter job!

>All the internet work at home things are all scams and don't
>work...
>If you come up with any ideas, please share! :D Need a winter
>job!

You painted internet work at home with a "broad brush", eliminating any possibility that even 1% was possible and profitable. Just because you found nothing that worked for You in Your situation, doesn't mean there aren't others who have found success via the net.

Maybe, somehow you missed out on eBay, but some PowerSellers are earning thousands of $ every month with auctions.

Maybe, you only considered online "jobs", which would be closer to your statement.

But to claim that no internet work at home opportunities requires you to prove a negative. Your assumption about the internet prospects would be the same as you claiming because no one in your market buys cakes and pies in the winter, than no one can sell cakes and pies in the winter. You have only seen part of the market, both online and off.

I happen to be in an industry that does a considerable chunk of business via the net. And the company I am affiliated with has some dealers generating 90 to 100% of their sales volume via the net. I only average around 10 to 20% of my volume online, but that makes for an extra measure of profit.

Please don't discourage everyone else searching for an online opportunity from any hope of success, just because your limited experience turned up nothing worthwhile.

I've been selling promotional advertising via my website for nearly a decade. How long have you been searching for online income?

I hope you find something that will work for you during your off-season.

Dennis

You are right, I should not of said ALL internet work at home. Sorry about that. I quess I am not a very good sales person, and need to find something that doesn't envolve selling.
What I was talking about was the surveys and things like that.
I also think it is my area, people don't like to spend money on anything extra here. I run a padprinting machine for a company, and we only charge $20 for setup fee, and we have lost alot of orders, because people don't want to pay for the set up fee! So in the winter they also are very slow.

Tina,

I don't do the decorating like you do with pad printing, but I do sell promotional advertising on a full-time basis.

Just today (Dec 14th) I received an order for 8 embroidered jackets from the local library. When I was finally able to leave my home office, I called on 3 buyers at a local hospital. I had 15 quotes for one, and will get the ones that receive final approval next Thursday.

One of the buyers just placed a repeat order for 500 plastic medallions.

And the third one approved all 6 orders on the spot - 1000 Tote bags, 1000 pencils and pencils sharpeners, 1000 ToothBrush Kits, 1000 color-changing stadium cups, and finally 1000 keytainers. I left her with a couple choices of wash cloths, and will order her a couple samples.

That still leaves 5 more items that I have to prepare quotes for another upcoming event.

Oh yeah, I had to stop by the local Chamber of Commerce and drop off a catalog with a new employee who will be ordering Tote bags next month.

I still have two buyers I need to meet with that want embroidered shirts for one and bamboo back scratchers for the others.

And these customers are paying set-up charges, PMS ink match charges, additional charges for 2d color, 2d location, and even 4-color process images.

The Promotional Advertising market is hot in SW Louisiana.

Good luck at finding the right opportunity or business for you and your local market.

Dennis Bevers

Hi, I was in London last summer and in a park there were alot of people doing all sorts of creative things to earn money; one girl was decorating cookies with a pastry-bag and a really thin tip. The cookies looked like cutout sugar cookies, the unique part was the decorations, the swirls and curls and flowers she created on the cookies with the white frosting were beautiful, she put each finished cookie in a cello bag and closed it with a ribbon and sold it, it was almost artwork. I'm sure the cookies could be personalized with names etc. I suppose it all depends on how creative you are. Anyway, it's an idea.

HI there

There are a number of things you can focus on:

BE ORGANIC!
Use all organic ingredients and sell to speciality shops.

BE WHEAT FREE:
Every kid has allergies, play on THAT.
DO school cookies, preschool events, high school shows, even teen center snack shops, beach snack bars, etc.

Add a UNIQUE ingredient.
COFFEE Cookies- caffinee for the morning!
Ginsing cookies- stay healthy

Name it something special,
100 calorie pick me up!
Cookies for snack= smart thinkers!
EAch cookie contains __ vitams and Minerals.

BE CREATIVE!

GOOD LUCK

Hi there,

Just because you would be selling the same product as other people, doesn't mean your business can't be great. Don't look at it from the product angle, but from a marketing angle. Let me try to explain.

Two ladies set up stalls side by side at the local markets. Both sell similar cakes and cookies, and the quality of the actual food is almost identical. Yet somehow, more people are buying from Mrs A, than from Mrs B. Why? Because unlike Mrs B who has displayed her cakes and cookies on/in the standard take home containers/plates, Mrs A charges a little more and you get to take home your cake on a funky plate, or perhaps the cookies are sold in a clear plastic tube with a ribbon around it stacked on top of each other, instead of on a plate.

Like I said, if your talents are in the kitchen with baking, then don't try to change your idea, just find another way to market it.

One example is baby baskets. Gift baskets for new borns are pretty common, but one day, someone decided they could roll the clothes and bibs and blankets into things that resembled bouquets of flowers. They then put each item on a stick to form a flower, wrapped tissue paper and a ribbon around it and voila! - Baby Bouquets was born.

Hope this helps.

Something that someone was doing here in my neck of the woods was fresh warm cookie delivery business.
They would make cookies fresh then deliver them warm fresh from the oven in a pizza typ box. Businesses loved this. They had people coming in from other states or having a company meeting or a party they would order these cookies.
I can't give details as I am unfamiliar with the working of it but I know the delivery area was within a reasonable range.
They also didn't make the cookies absoultey fresh per customer. That would not be practical. From what I knew they made cookies fresh everyday but they would warm them up right before they would take them out.
Just an idea and maybe it got the gears turning on something that may work for you.

I think personalized cookies with the base icing then some lettering or a logo or something might be something too. Just like promotional items you make and sell promotional eatables.
Thanks for reading.
Ray