Speaker 1Recently, I've been doing about 2,000 to 2,100 in sales on a Saturday.
Speaker 2How long does the line get? We're talking like 100 people?
Speaker 1I would say so, yeah. I've been selling out by nine, which is amazing.
Speaker 2How old are you?
Speaker 1I'm 20.
Speaker 220. What if you could make $2,000 in one hour every Saturday morning from your parents' front porch? Well, today I'm at Little Bit Bakery, which is her parents' front porch. Angela, 20 years old, making $2,000 in one hour every Saturday morning with a micro bakery. She started seven months ago. She wasn't a content creator or an influencer. She just published what she did to the internet, and people showed up in droves on her doorstep. So today I'm going to ask her, how can we copy you? How can we make bread, cookies, cakes, sourdough from our kitchen and sell it on our doorstep and make thousands of dollars a week? Let's dive in. All right, Angela.
Speaker 1Hi.
Speaker 2Good to meet you. Nice to meet you, too. Tell me about Little Bit.
Speaker 1Yeah, so I have a home bakery. I run out of my house. I just started it this past September, and every single Saturday I roll out this cart, and I stock it full of goodies, and people just come and purchase.
Speaker 2Okay, and how old are you?
Speaker 1I'm 20.
Speaker 220? 20, yes. So is this your parents' house or your house?
Speaker 1It's my parents', yeah. So I still have it at home right now.
Speaker 2Well, that's amazing.
Speaker 1Yeah, thank you.
Speaker 2And so you bake everything in your kitchen, and on Saturday morning people are expecting it, waiting for it, and you load it up. Do you man the booth, or will man the booth, or do you just leave it out?
Speaker 1Yeah, usually I'm here. I'm usually running back and forth restocking. Okay. Because I bake everything, and I stock as much as I can, but I bake so much that I have a line of back stock right behind my front door. Yeah. And so usually I'm running back and forth the entire time, and I also have pre-orders right behind the cart. Okay. And so people will walk up. I help them find their bags and stuff like that. So I'm here. Okay. But it's fairly honor system-based still because I trust them to add up the pricing and all that stuff.
Speaker 2Have you had any theft issues that you know of?
Speaker 1I only had one where a person took a pre-order when they didn't pre-order. It was partly my fault. Okay. Okay. Because I have a QR code that I can check. I just took their word for it. Yeah. And so they took it, but that's the only issue I have had. Other than that, everyone's been really honest, and sometimes I make more than what I should because people give me tips. And it's been really awesome from the community.
Speaker 2Was that pre-order theft? Was that purposeful? Yeah.
Speaker 1I think so. I can't say with 100% certainty, but I think it was.
Speaker 2Reminds me of Chipotle. I joke that the shelf at Chipotle is the free shelf.
Speaker 1Yeah.
Speaker 2My kids thought it was for a while. Like, that's the free shelf. I'm like, God, no, that's theft.
Speaker 1Don't do that.
Speaker 2So are the pre-orders for, like, the mega fans that have probably tried it before, and they want to be sure that their thing is there?
Speaker 1I would say so. I have a lot of the same people who pre-order every single week. Right now, I have the issue of I have so many people trying to pre-order at once that it can be hard to get a pre-order in. Yeah. And so usually, I've had people message me, like, as soon as it opens, because I think I have about 800 people waiting to pre-order at once. Which is a lot. And so I'm trying to find the balance now of how many pre-orders I should do and how much I should have for walk-up. Because whenever I originally wanted to do this, I wanted the experience of people walking up and buying, but people also like pre-orders. And so I'm trying to find a good balance between that. But a lot of the same people do pre-order every single week.
Speaker 2Do you have any data on your pre-orders on how far they're coming from, of those 800 people?
Speaker 1I would say the furthest that I've had is from Rockwall. I would say most of them... 30, 40 minutes? Yeah. I would say most of them are probably within 15 to 20 minutes. Yeah. But I think the furthest has been Rockwall.
Speaker 2I'd be interested. I'd be interested to see if you were to require a zip code for pre-orders. You know when you go to a store and they're like, what's your zip code? And you're like, none of your business, but here it is. Do you know why they do that?
Speaker 1Honestly, no, I don't.
Speaker 2They're doing that because they're trying to get data on where they should open their next location. And so if they're seeing a cluster of people shopping there that live 20 minutes away, they're like, we're going to open our next store 20 minutes away. That's smart. So you can do the same thing. Not that you're looking to scale and take over the world. Right. But if you saw for whatever reason, 70% of my pre-orders come from 20 minutes away this neighborhood, like maybe it'd be worth trying to add another location to that neighborhood. Yeah.
Speaker 1Well, I've thought about doing maybe like a pop-up market. And so if I knew where my pre-orders are, then I'd always do a pop-up market in that area. So that's a good idea.
Speaker 2Was Hobby Lobby involved here?
Speaker 1Oh my goodness. All my display stuff. It was 50% off. So that's whenever I went.
Speaker 2Oh, every time my wife goes there, like, yeah, I spent $400, but it was all 80% off. Okay. So you got a cash box. Yes.
Speaker 1Yeah. So I have my cash box. That's just one method of payment that I take. I also do Venmo and Zelle. So they're good. They're good to scan the QR code. If they pre-ordered, they check out on the site. So it's already paid for.
Speaker 2What do you use for payment processing on the site?
Speaker 1It's a site called Hotplate. And so they're able to just put their card in and then I can just directly transfer it to me. It's a really good site for a lot of bakers use it.
Speaker 2Okay.
Speaker 1And so they can scan the QR code and usually they'll step to the side as they pay. So the next person can come up.
Speaker 2What's the most popular way of payment in person?
Speaker 1I've seen that Venmo is probably the most popular than Zelle and then cash.
Speaker 2Yeah.
Speaker 1In order. So.
Speaker 2Well, that's good because there's no payment. There's no processing fees with that, right?
Speaker 1I think if you want it instantly, there is. But if you like one to three days, there's none, which that's what I usually do. So I don't have any fees.
Speaker 2Okay. What do you think that you're best at making? Like not what's your best seller, but what do you think you're very best at?
Speaker 1Probably the cinnamon rolls, I would say is, I would say is my best seller too. But also one that I'm like, I take pride in my cinnamon rolls.
Speaker 2They got to be moist then. Oh, yes. Like I just can't do dry cinnamon.
Speaker 1No, not at all.
Speaker 2Are you the type that like pours cream all over it? I do, yes. Oh, it's like 8,000 calories.
Speaker 1Because I tested it too. And it makes such a good difference. I'm sure. A good cinnamon roll, I don't think needs it. But I'm like, it just makes it so much better. So it's really good. Yeah.
Speaker 2To me, it's like, it's kind of a bummer that you're really good at sourdough and cinnamon rolls because those are like the hardest two to make, isn't it? Cinnamon rolls and sourdough?
Speaker 1I would say sourdough definitely because once you get it down, you have it down. But it's just a whole rabbit hole of its own. And so it's a lot of, I think, learning. And so in some order to do this, definitely test your sourdough, get it down and get the routine down before selling it.
Speaker 2Stretch and fold, stretch and fold. Oh, yes.
Speaker 1And so I would say definitely get that down first before selling it. But once you get it down, it's really nice.
Speaker 2Yeah. How do you cut your cinnamon rolls? Do you use like, my wife uses dental floss. She's like.
Speaker 1I've tried that. It just takes so much time for me. Like I just, and so I found that I just, I just.
Speaker 2Okay. And you don't like bend them all up or whatever?
Speaker 1No. Yeah. Of course not.
Speaker 2What do you sell your sourdough loaves for?
Speaker 1Usually my classic loaf, I'll do 12. And then my specialty ones, it ranges from 13 to 14.
Speaker 2Okay. And people. People don't flinch at that?
Speaker 1No, I actually started at 11 for my classic one. And then I recently went up to 12 and I didn't have any problems. And so I made them a little bit bigger. So that's why I went up to 12, but no one said anything.
Speaker 2Do you do like the lava rocks with water method or like the Dutch oven method?
Speaker 1I started out, cause everything I did, whenever I first started, I did in my home oven. And so for sourdough, I do two loaf pans. But now recently I invested in a bread oven.
Speaker 2How much was that?
Speaker 1It was about 10,000. Woo. Yeah. So it was.
Speaker 2Does it like spin them and everything?
Speaker 1It doesn't spin them, but it cooks evenly. Yeah. And so, and then it has this steam thing. So I pour water in and it like releases steam. It's very cool.
Speaker 2So you don't have to pull it out and like it, it saves you time too.
Speaker 1Oh yeah. And it cuts down the time in half too. Cause in my home oven, it would take about an hour. This takes about 35 minutes. Wow.
Speaker 2And how many loaves can you fit in there?
Speaker 112, which is great. I would do six before and then it would take an hour. Yeah. So this is 12 and about 35 minutes.
Speaker 2Okay. So someone starting from zero, what's the game plan?
Speaker 1I would say the first thing I want them to know is, they don't necessarily need a cart and they don't need a ton of expensive supplies. Like if you love to bake and you have a good product, that's the first thing that you need to start with. In the video that my sister sent me that inspired me to do this, she just had like, you know, a plastic table, one little mat. She sweeped off the area. She just set up stuff for pickup. So you don't need a cart. You don't need all this. Just get down your recipes first and love your product that you're going to sell and start there. I know I use Nextdoor. That was like my first really hit that I did with social media just because, Nextdoor focuses a lot on the locals and people directly in your neighborhood. So I would start with that and just word of mouth with family and friends and start there. See if they like your product and see how that workflow is and then just advertise on social media. But if you have a good product, that's what you need and people will come back for that.
Speaker 2If someone had to choose, if they were forced between really just perfecting one item, cinnamon rolls, sourdough, whatever, and starting with four items, like four popular items, what would you recommend they do?
Speaker 1I would say definitely sourdough. I would say sourdough, cinnamon rolls, and I think cinnamon rolls are a very trendy thing right now. Who doesn't love a good cinnamon roll? So sourdough, cinnamon rolls. I would definitely go the bread route if possible. So even English muffins or bagels, just because those are things that people come back and need every single week. So whenever I did custom cakes, it was more of a special occasion. And so it's harder to get like, you know, consistency, but people come weekly for bread and that's kind of a staple to have in our pantry.
Speaker 2But in your experience, is it more important? Is it more important to really nail one recipe or to give people a little variety if they had to choose?
Speaker 1I would say nail down one recipe because I know I follow a lot of people. They just do sourdough and they just do a lot of it because again, everyone wants that and it's kind of a need for them. So I would nail down one thing first and then just slowly grow from there if you want to.
Speaker 2Okay. So what are you seeing trending right now? Sourdough is still trending. It's been trending since COVID. Cinnamon rolls are kind of newish on the way up. What else? English muffin, bagels, are those?
Speaker 1I've seen bagels. I've seen giant cookies. Which? I'll do cookies on the cart too. That's more of like a fun thing I'll do and I'll rotate the flavor for that every single week. I would say that's the main thing. Okay. At least from my point of view. Giant cookies. Giant cookies, yeah.
Speaker 2Like bigger than crumble?
Speaker 1Maybe. I don't know if mine are like as heavy as crumble, but I make them like really thick. Oh, yeah. So I like those type of cookies.
Speaker 2Me too. A little undercooked in the middle, but crispy on the outside. Yes, yeah. Okay. What do you do about weather?
Speaker 1I've had that happen a couple of times. In the past, I've been able to move it to Sunday because usually I kind of watch it during the beginning of the week and if it's 90% chance, like I'll just go ahead and change that and push it to Sunday. What's nice is because I started doing pre-orders that even if it's it does rain, they can still pick up their pre-order and I have those sales set. So I'll usually have them inside. If they come, I'll hand them to them so everything stays dry. But that's why I always recommend people doing some type of pre-order because again, it's a consistency that you get every single week. And if it does rain, you already have those sales. And so you can worry about them, keep theirs dry inside. I have had rain before and I had the cart and it was a light sprinkle. People still lined up, which was so incredibly amazing from them. So they had their umbrellas and they had their little chairs out. And so that's cool. Yeah. It's, it's been awesome. But I think that's where pre-orders really helps because you have those sales set. How long does
Speaker 2the line get? Are we talking like a hundred people? I would say so. Over a hundred? Maybe 80 to a hundred. Yeah. That's crazy. It's yeah. Do you have any bearing on how many of them are
Speaker 1from this neighborhood? I would say most of them maybe aren't from this neighborhood. I have a few that are on the street that'll come in line. I would say a lot of them are from neighboring neighborhoods. Okay. Yeah. I don't know exactly how many like from this one though, to be honest.
Speaker 2Okay. What do you charge for all of your, like your big items? So 12 bucks for sourdough,
Speaker 1cinnamon rolls? I usually do. So I'll do some singles, which I'll do five for a single and 15 for a three pack. Okay. Muffins? Muffins. I do $8 for a two pack. And then I have cake slices, which that one I started at seven, I up to eight because butter is so expensive. Yeah. And cookies, they're a quarter of a pound. So I'll do five for those. Five bucks for a cookie. Okay. And then I'm trying to think of what else I'll do. Bagels, I do four pack for $9. That's pretty good. English muffins, I'll do four pack for eight. And do you like boil the bagels
Speaker 2and everything? I do. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Do you like making bagels or are those kind of difficult?
Speaker 1I honestly, it's not my favorite process just because it's, it takes a long time to shape them and it's just a process of its own to do that. And so I don't like it, but that's a favorite for my pre-orders too specifically. And so I do them to help them. So. Is there an item that you
Speaker 2used to make, but you phased out and why? I don't want to say I completely phased out of bagels,
Speaker 1but I have started to alternate them with English muffins. I was getting a little tired of doing them every week. English muffins are a little bit easier. So I've started to alternate that just to go not do them as much, but there isn't really anything that I have that I've completely stopped
Speaker 2yet. Okay. And what are your profit margins like on all these? Recently I've been doing about
Speaker 12000 to 2100 in sales on a Saturday and that includes pre-orders and walk-up. Okay. And then usually my ingredients is about 300 per week. Packaging is about a hundred. I would say about 500 for that. And then I pay myself about 800
Speaker 2per week. Okay. So call it on a Saturday morning, $2,000 revenue, 500 of that in hard costs, packaging and ingredients, and then you pay yourself and you still have money left over to grow the business. How many hours on a Saturday morning does the fulfillment of all this, not the making of it, but how many hours do people spend picking up their pre-orders and
Speaker 1standing in line? Usually all for the walk-ups I've been selling out by nine, which is amazing. I don't know. Eight. Oh, wow. Yeah. So, which I don't know if it, it'll always be like that. I think social media is at its height too, which is a big factor, but right now it's been at nine for walk-ups. And then after that, I usually go inside and I take a huge nap because I'm up so early. When do you get up? Usually two 30 to three. So it's in between that. So it's, I always look forward to that nap. And so I'll go inside, I'll take a nap and then I'll have my pre-orders set out. Of course, if the weather's good and they can come pick up. Oh, you're napping. Well, I'm napping. Okay. And so I know for walk-up purchases, I need to be present a little bit because this is specifically for Texas, but you can't have a farm stand and leave it completely unattended. And so I, I need to be out here at least. You're refreshing item. But at least for pre-orders, because the transaction's already
Speaker 2made, I can go inside and they can just come pick up. Okay. Do you make everything that morning or
Speaker 1do you make other stuff beforehand? I would say most of the stuff I do Friday. So sourdough, cookies, muffins, Friday's my primary bake day. And then some things are just best in the morning. So cinnamon rolls and then scones specifically all always do in the morning.
Speaker 2Okay. So if you have a $1,500 profit morning, right? Just hard costs are 500. How many hours would you say you have to spend in total to make everything and fulfill everything
Speaker 1to make that 1,500 in profit? I'd say 60. Like it's a lot because usually my work day, it starts after my nap because usually I need to put my menu up and I have to get my pre-order site set. I usually have to do like my online ingredient stock all after on Saturday. And so then that's when it all starts over. Yes. And so it's, it's a lot. Cause then Sunday I'll go get the ingredients and I'll start labeling. And I think that's one thing that can be very underestimated on how much time that can take is packaging and labeling. And so, and then just the prep work involved, I like to pre-measure everything I can. So I would say about 60 hours. A week is what I usually put myself as. Does that include time spent growing your business, like posting and. You know, after you say that, maybe a little bit more than 60.
Speaker 2It's hard to account for that. Right. Cause it's like scroll time is just like.
Speaker 1Yeah. Yeah. That's a good point. Maybe a little bit more. It's that, but at least like in the
Speaker 2kitchen time, honestly, maybe 60. And shopping and stuff. Yeah. Yeah. It's hard work.
Speaker 1It is. It's great that it's something I love to do. You know, it can be tiring, but usually after on Saturday, it's such a good feeling, like talking to everyone and it's such a good experience. I'm like, okay, I'm ready to do it again. So I'm usually tired, but it's such a good feeling overall. Like you really enjoy what you do. I do very much. It's hard finding a balance between how much to make and not burning yourself out. Cause you never want to do that. Yeah. So I'm trying to watch myself there. Cause I love to bake, but I got to limit myself at some point, but it's a blessing. It really is to be able to do this.
Speaker 2I mean, it's all worth it once you see their reactions, right? Like if, if that didn't exist in this business, probably wouldn't be worth it. But like knowing that you're having such a visceral effect on people and what they love to eat. Yeah. Feels really good. Yeah. And I think
Speaker 1one of my favorite parts is cause usually I'll start stocking up the stand, maybe around seven 30 and there's usually a line that's already there starting to form and people will be talking and like, Oh, like, where'd you come from? Like, where'd you see her from? And that's my favorite part is like hearing people talk. Yeah. And like people leave and they're like, Oh, it's nice to meet you. They're talking to you. And so that's my favorite part is I'm getting to meet people, but people are also being able to meet people too, which is fun. That's awesome. So what other
Speaker 2opportunities exist in this space? Have you thought of selling drinks or prepackaged stuff?
Speaker 1So at least for food, there are some restrictions. So I work under the Texas cottage food law. So for me, everything has to be prepackaged and Texas is a little bit more lax. Like there's a good variety that you can make. I've seen people do, it can't be raw milk, but I've seen people do like pre-bottled coffees. Some bakers had them like in addition to their baked goods. So you can do that as long as it's prepackaged labeling is all good. And it'll vary per state, just the rules. So people can always look that up, see what they can do. But I've seen coffees. I've seen non-food things. I know there is a girl, it was really cute. She was doing flower bouquets. Oh, cool. And so, yeah. So she had a gardener in her backyard and she put things together. She had pre-orders going. I wish I knew her name and her business, but she put those out. People would come pick up. I've seen people do little libraries in a way. I don't know exactly like how they sold and like what that looked like as far as sales, but they would do little library setups and stuff. And so I think if you create just a fun environment, I think that's a good thing. That's half of the battle is getting a really fun niche. And I don't want to say aesthetic, but just a good experience people can come to. I think that's half the battle. And of course, just having a product that people want and would come back for.
Speaker 2Yeah. So you've been doing this for like seven months from your front porch. And how many social media followers did you have when you started this?
Speaker 1When I started maybe Instagram, I think I had about 3,000. Because again, I did custom cakes. So I had a little bit of a customer, like a small one from that. And then TikTok.
Speaker 2But that's still like a different audience, right? It is completely different. Like for a wedding, they're probably not lining up to get a bagel.
Speaker 1Right. Yeah. Completely different. And then TikTok, maybe 1,000. And then Facebook. I don't even, honestly, I don't really keep track of my Facebook.
Speaker 2So effectively, you didn't have an audience. Like you have one now because you just published what you've done because it's awesome. But people don't have to start with an audience to be successful here.
Speaker 1Yeah. And I think like once you have it built, and I always encourage to film like the building process of it, like invite people on that process because it makes them feel a part of it. I think, you know, it brings them into the story. It makes it more personal. So film everything as you're building it and just start posting. Like one video for me is what just turned everything around. So you don't have to start with anything big.
Speaker 2What was that one video?
Speaker 1It was on TikTok. It literally took me 20 seconds to do. I didn't put much effort into it. I thought nothing of it. I just, I think I was down the road and I was walking towards the porch bakery cart. And I think it was just POV, you found a porch bakery in Frisco. Yeah. I didn't think of anything. I just posted it. Overnight, it did really well. And so...
Speaker 2Like millions?
Speaker 1Maybe a hundred percent. A hundred thousand. But you didn't have any followers. Yeah. Yeah. It was all local.
Speaker 2That's like the most targeted hundred thousand you could get.
Speaker 1And it's funny because that day, I think that was my second week I was open. And it was, I think I had like three people come that entire day. So I was very discouraged. I was frustrated.
Speaker 2This was after you got all those views.
Speaker 1I was open. And then three people that entire day, I posted it. I reopened on Sunday because I had so much stuff left over. And I didn't realize the video did so well. And so then people started coming. I'm like, why are they coming? And I didn't realize the video did well.
Speaker 2Because you're used to just posting and like, they just didn't do well. Right. And this one just did.
Speaker 1Yeah. And I didn't know that because I had my phone off. And so like, I didn't realize this video did so well. And people were like, oh, I saw you on TikTok. I'm like, okay, that's kind of weird.
Speaker 2Yeah.
Speaker 1And then eventually I'm like, oh, wow, that video did well.
Speaker 2Do you sell out every week?
Speaker 1Mm-hmm.
Speaker 2Like no matter what?
Speaker 1Mm-hmm.
Speaker 2How long has that been the case?
Speaker 1Probably since October. The time I sell out varies. Like now it's really, really fast. Mm-hmm. I think in October, November, it may have been around 11. 11 or 12. I'm very blessed to say I've been able to sell out every single week.
Speaker 2If you could wave a magic wand and make everything, like scale was not a problem, but you stayed here. this location maybe you're hiring people or whatnot if two thousand is your base how much
Speaker 1more could you make if you never sold out yeah i don't know that's hard to say maybe three thousand and yeah you know see where that goes um but you need to hire someone but i need to hire someone have you thought of doing that i mean i don't want to deal with payroll taxes and so that's one thing but there's some mornings where i'll ask my mom to help because i have so many cinnamon rolls and i have to package them by eight and so i'll hire her for like 30 minutes and so i track that you know because i'll pay her sometimes my friend will help me roll bagels and so i'll pay them whenever they help they don't expect me to but from a business standpoint i want to see what that looks like just expenses wise but they do help a little bit which is awesome so when it
Speaker 2comes to payroll taxes if you use companies like gusto there's like nothing to do you sign up for gusto and you don't worry about anything you pay them like 12 bucks a month per employee so if that's like kind of your hesitation yeah it shouldn't be like it used to be but there are tech companies now that yeah just manage all that headache yeah okay so someone wants to start this business what are the five
Speaker 1steps to doing so i would say first look at just your state's laws on cottage food know what you need to have because that's you don't want to mess with any of those things so find all the regulations regarding that second nail down your product so just do your recipe research have a good product that you love and that you know other people are going to love you want your product to be where did you get your recipes i kind of pull from different people like highly rated bloggers
Speaker 2and then you kind of make it your own and then i kind of make it my own and then i kind of make it
Speaker 1my own because i've been doing baking for quite a while so there's some things i know like okay i like this instead of that yeah and so i'll just kind of take it and sit together so yeah find your recipes nail down your product i would say start especially word of mouth give stuff to family and friends have them taste test it get feedback and just have them start sharing it like i think family and friend people just sharing about it that can spread a lot a lot more than people think and then just have some type of setup again it doesn't have to be a cart get a table start setting things up and then you can just start doing it and then you can start doing it and then you can start up create your schedule create a routine and then behind all of this post everything behind the scenes creating the recipes setting up the cart and that can be it's not hard but it can be annoying
Speaker 2to like kind of right switch up your flow but you're proof that it's definitely worth it yes
Speaker 1social media has changed the game like it's it's very crazy how local it can get to yeah because again that one post it it attracted so many people within my own time so through every single step of the process start posting about it just make it more personal to people and so they can know what
Speaker 2about ingredients
Speaker 1where do you get those i usually get mine from sam's and bulk bulk is always going to be cheaper
Speaker 2you don't need to go to like a restaurant supply company or no i'm probably going to have to start
Speaker 1doing that for my flour because i use so much of it and i can get bigger bags and sam's but you can
Speaker 2just get it from what type of flour to use for your sourdough usually bread flour what like protein
Speaker 1like percentage do you know actually no i don't know that off the top of my head yeah do you think
Speaker 2it matters how old your starter is or do people overblow that yeah it's like i have a thousand
Speaker 1year old starter it's like it tastes the same chill out active it's it's okay yeah have you ever thought about selling your starter i have i do sell some of my starter i'll have like a little table okay and i sell it with an instructions card that's free money oh yeah that's literally free like yes so i just put that up for five bucks with an instruction card in like a little mason jar i think it's like a five ounce plastic bottle okay not bottle cup so that's just an easy thing that you can do as a starter especially if they know that you make so much sourdough and like you kind of have some consistency behind it yeah okay i think i'll want that
Speaker 2starter i think someone needs to sell a starter like an ultra premium starter very expensive like like yeti like who would pay 500 for a cooler when they're 50 like a 50 starter but that has it's the highest quality like the most organic filtered water and that's no part of the starter has ever touched plastic so like no microplastics yeah because it heats up and like that's where microplastics break down is in yeah when it heats up so i think people would buy that yeah oh yeah that would be cool that's random so get compliant step one step two start testing recipes see what you like don't like step three give it away uh for free to your friends and family or charge your friends and family usually i would give them away
Speaker 1especially if you're testing i would just start giving away so you can get feedback yep once you're
Speaker 2confident in your product yeah then don't be afraid to sell to your friends and family and to ask them to share it right and then this isn't really a step this is all along the way like even when you're researching the compliance stuff like document don't create necessarily but document what you're doing even if it seems boring right okay so after friends and family six foot folding table on the front yeah posting on next door facebook group local facebook groups right just some type of setup that's all you need okay and then at a certain point you can scale up
Speaker 1you can throw that together in your garage yeah and once you get a customer base i would start doing pre-orders as soon as young okay just because that's going to make it easier on you it's not as much guesswork and so you can have just that consistent pre-order base so as soon as you start getting people who you see coming back start pre-orders and that's going to help you a lot how much money
Speaker 2do you think you'll make this year from this business i don't know honestly i don't know i mean 2000 on saturday morning are you selling anything throughout the week at all i still do a
Speaker 1few custom cakes i'm starting to leave that aspect of my business but i had cakes booked like last year yeah through june and so i'm finishing those up so there's like a little bit of money coming in from the side there but other than that it's mainly my saturdays i mean two to three thousand a week
Speaker 252 weeks you could gross over 100 grand this year yeah which is as a 20 year old it's crazy from home yeah doing something you love yeah posting about it on social no paid marketing right you've probably
Speaker 1never spent a dime on marketing i think the only time i did was when i was doing custom takes on facebook because i just i wasn't getting many people yeah and so i needed it but now for this
Speaker 2you don't pay for marketing so tell me about licensing yeah that's probably the most common
Speaker 1question i get and it's not as much as people would think so i operate under the texas cottage food law each state's going to have a set of cottage food laws that you're going to have to follow it's not just a texas thing not just a texas thing yeah the it'll vary per state but texas is you have to have the correct labeling there's a few restrictions on what you can sell you have to have like a food handlers or food managers either one of those will work and then for texas specifically you can't just leave it unattended i think most other states if you want to set up a stand and leave you're perfectly fine to do so which is really nice so you can go inside take a nap um continue to bake more if you want it's interesting because texas is so business
Speaker 2friendly but it feels like most states have more friendly kind of cottage food laws yeah the one
Speaker 1about the farm stand that that really caught me off guard because i was expecting them to like not have that but i know for us some states require inspections and some other things texas doesn't but it's all different so just do your research first and you'll be fine do you need a food handlers permit yeah so i have a food managers one of those will work too um they both work but yeah i got mine in 2020 and then renewed it how hard was that it's honestly not bad i had to do it again for like the coffee shop and those jobs so i i i'm kind of used to like all those regulations or questions i'll ask but it's not hard at all i think it costs maybe twenty dollars to do one so and then you just take a little test okay yeah i think it lasts like three years okay
Speaker 2okay i think it's relevant to note that there's like 250 homes in your neighborhood right that's like a thousand people right it's crazy to me you don't need to live on a big busy road you don't need to live in like a mega neighborhood right like this is enough to
Speaker 1have a really good business it is and like again i would say a lot of them come from like 15 minutes away and so it doesn't need to be everyone within your neighborhood you don't like you said you don't have to have a big one so people will drive you know if you know your product is good but if you just set the scene have something that people will come back for you don't need anything
Speaker 2crazy yeah yeah do you ever get people just driving by seeing this seeing a line and just
Speaker 1saying man let's get in line actually i don't know you wouldn't really know right i'm not sure i know whenever i first started it would be just a lot of passerbyers at the very beginning now i'm not too sure it stinks though because i think if they see the line sometimes i sell out like before then so that's kind of hard but i think at the beginning it was a lot of passerby because my granny actually lives along the street and so i put a sign she let me put a sign on her front yard because there was a lot of traffic there okay so i just pointed it to my house yeah
Speaker 2i mean there's like a psychological phenomenon that happens when people see a line you think like a line but what they think is like that must be really good yeah i need to get in that line right i used to live in this neighborhood in houston that had 6 000 homes so this one that's 250 6 000 in houston that's like every neighborhood there's like 20 000 people in the one tight-knit neighborhood and i just remember thinking when i lived there i got like really into barbecue and i thought like i just did the math i'm like all right if i got five percent of the homes in this neighborhood to buy barbecue from me once a month yeah that's a six-figure business right right and it's like people don't really think like that but just selling to your like we did hundreds of years ago yeah like you could have a big business there you can and i
Speaker 1think there's so much that you can do from your home that like a lot of people don't realize and i know for food there's the guidelines so again it's going to vary per state so just look at that but there's so much that you can do from your home and it's really amazing because you don't have the overhead costs and you don't have to deal with all of that and i think it's fun having it within a neighborhood you know with your neighbors where you know you're providing for them and just making it a fun different thing that not every neighborhood has and so i think there's so much that people can do from the same yeah i mean i've talked to people that do sell
Speaker 2pizzas from right or a barbecue or like pre-packaged meals right or like woodworking stuff cedar planters for gardens or garage shelves or a handyman that just serves that neighborhood like there's a direct correlation between the proximity of people to the business owner and their loyalty and their willingness not just to spend money but to spend more money than market rate right right because if someone goes to a farmer's market a half hour away and they see sourdough for 12 bucks they probably won't buy but because of the fact that they they live near you and they have an affinity to you and they're following you on social media like they'd probably pay 15 you know like there is a correlation there yeah um have you seen any other kind of neighborhood front porch businesses that are successful that you can think of i've seen a lot of like bakeries
Speaker 1i would say i've seen some coffee carts that people are doing i think that's kind of popular right now is doing coffee carts i think that 401 is doing good i haven't seen too many other ideas besides that but i do think you know once people get it going the neighborhood it's a successful and because it makes it very personal like in especially social media if you see them doing all the behind the scenes work and baking and you kind of know who's making your product yeah and i think that's a special thing i want people to know like who i am and that like i care about their products and i'm putting a lot of effort into it and well there's a lot of data
Speaker 2that shows that you know since 2007 when social media came out we've been content just in our homes to ourselves scrolling on our phones but now like we're done with that the pendulum is swinging back towards local community so i think you have that trend on your side you so speaking of coffee cart did i hear you're still working a shift at a coffee shop i am yeah
Speaker 1how do you have time for that i well my last shift is actually this is this month and so i'll be ending soon but originally when i started i was doing like four shifts a week before i started the porch bakery specifically and i was also doing a coaching job so it's just a lot of little things what kind of coaching a volleyball yeah club volleyball but ever since the porch bakery i i just had to cut back and so i went to three shifts a week then two and then now it's just one three hour one mainly because i need to get out of the kitchen and see my friends yeah and so i was like i just need time away to go make coffee and it's fun but now even that three hour time because it's on a pretty important day wednesday and that's i have to prep for dough day so even that it can be pushing it so i'm stepping aside from that but it was fun just to get out of the kitchen
Speaker 2because now i need time away from get out of your kitchen into a different one yes you're doing more dishes there yeah i mean barista is one of the most common job titles in the world is this a
Speaker 1good business for baristas oh yeah i would say so and especially because like whenever i came into this i wasn't expecting it to be a full-time thing and so if you're looking for something on the side where you can continue to do something else make extra money on the side then it's a great thing
Speaker 2to do yeah did you learn skills over there that you were able to apply here not a crazy ton i would say maybe some without even realizing it just like customer service or customer service even like
Speaker 1organizational things like seeing how business organizes things in a kitchen labels things maybe that i'm just seeing a different way of how people do things and i think that's a great way to do it things but baking specifically maybe not but maybe behind the scenes yeah have you ever done a farmer's market i have i did one about a couple years ago and it was good i know for me it's going to vary person to person so for some people farmer's market may be good for them i know for me the fee was pretty high and just the location of where i was in the market which market did you do it was here in frisco yeah it was the fee for me it was about 180 and that's for one day if you go to a farmer's market and you're like okay i'm going to go to a farmer's market and i'm like okay i'm going to go to a farmer's market and i'm going to go to a farmer's market and i'm going to go to a farmer's market and i'm going to go to a farmer's market and i'm going to go to a farmer's market and so they kind of have to spread it out so i could only do like cakes and cookies okay do you remember what you made that day my highest selling one was 550 oh geez so yes you're scraping out a hundred maybe 200 maybe yeah it wasn't much at all and you're loading up the car and you're
Speaker 2yes setting up the tent and the chairs and you're waiting and yeah here you're just you're here yeah
Speaker 1and a lot of people think i could probably have more product at a farmer's market i don't think so because again i can line things up right inside my front door yeah so i don't know if i could fit all that in my car yeah yeah going to a farmer's market so i think i'm able to sell more and i don't have the fee yeah and i just can get stuff right from my kitchen and well here's the thing
Speaker 2like plenty of people do really well with your goods at farmer's markets it's not like there's one way to do it right that's why i love that it wasn't the right thing for you because there's a zillion ways to win yeah right yeah what about hoas do you have an hoa here i do i haven't had
Speaker 1any issues thankfully i never reached out i only do it on saturdays and i do it early just so i'm like out you know the way and i've made i've talked with my neighbors multiple times they're the most supportive encouraging people of all this and so if someone didn't want this like i wouldn't want to do it if they had a problem but they're all so amazing and they've said they're proud of me which is really sweet and so i make sure with them and i do just try and make sure i stay out of the way like a lot of people think that i do this every single day yeah one i couldn't do that yeah i would burn out so quick and it is a lot of mine and i wouldn't want that every single day in the neighborhood so yeah they might feel differently if it were there every day yeah right so i try and get out early if i can't i mean i've
Speaker 2lived in hoas where if my garbage can is out for an extra hour i get a letter yeah some of them are
Speaker 1crazy yes so i'm very thankful so about that yeah hey guys if you're still listening to this it's
Speaker 2probably because you haven't had a chance to take your airpods out you're still mowing the lawn you're still driving what have you if you're still here with me i would really really love and appreciate a five-star review on spotify apple or wherever you get your podcasts it would mean a lot if you want to go the extra mile share this episode with a friend that might have an interest in starting a business it would mean a ton hope you have the best day of your life today
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