When it comes to bakeries, there are a wide variety of choices. Anything from a trendy artisanal bakery with an adjoined café to the simple baker baking bread for your local restaurant or supermarket.
The consumer trends, though, are for healthy and ethical alternatives. Gluten-free, vegan or locally sourced are all items that customers want to see on your menu.
With that in mind, here are some tips for anyone looking to buy their dream bakery!
Essential skills
There are a few skills that it is advised that you have if you are going to buy a bakery. Of course, it’s
not the end of the world if you don’t have these skills as you can always hire staff to fill your blind spots.
However, a passion for baking is certainly advised. Aside from that, you will need to be detail oriented and you should have some experience running a business or at least be business minded.
Running a bakery will mean operating on tight profit margins, particularly at the start. You will need to be on top of inventory and sales if you want to make sure that your business is a success.
Something that you should also be prepared for is early mornings and a lot of pressure. Remember that you don’t have a lot of time to sell your baked goods before they are no longer fresh. Therefore, there will be a lot of pressure!
Choosing a bakery
The funds that you have access to will be the biggest determining factor when it comes to the bakery that you will be able to buy. You don’t want to buy a business that overextends you with bond repayments.
The location of your bakery will also be important. High footfall is significant for your sales. This will allow you to sell directly to customers.
You should also look at the delivery capability of the business you plan to buy. This will extend the number of customers that you will be able to reach.
If the business that you are looking at buying doesn’t yet have a delivery service, this should not rule it out. Instead, it gives you an option of how to expand the business and increase sales once you take it over.
Get to know the area and whether there is enough of a market for you to grow the business once you have bought it.
Before you buy
When you are looking at bakeries to buy, you will need to do a thorough due diligence so that you can determine why that particular business is for sale. If the business has not been making money, you will be able to get it at a reduced price, but you will need to have a clear plan of what it is that you will do differently.
Get to know the staff, they will have the option to stay on after the change in ownership and so you should have a clear idea of who your team will be.
Make sure that you have a well-defined strategy of how you are going to run and market your business once you take it over. A clear and focused plan will go a long way to ensuring it’s a success!
