Thank you for sharing this! I've been contemplating starting a micro bakery (now isn't a good time since I'm currently managing a kitchen full-time lol) and this has been some of the best advice I've seen. Were there any specific programs you uses for managing finances? That's always been the scariest part for me. Thank you!
Thank you for this!! Very informative and interesting.
I am in the process of setting up my own micro bakery and this was super helpful. I wasn't sure about offering delivery. This has given me the confidence to say that I won't offer it. Thank you!
How exciting! That’s so kind of you to say. I’m so glad you found the article helpful ❤️ wishing you the best of luck on your micro bakery journey. Exactly, you can always offer deliver down the line.
So what are you doing now? I want to join the micro-bakery movement like you, but I don't think I have the bandwidth right now as a graduate student.
Instead, I'd like to bake 4-6 loaves a week and give them out for free. The only "cost" would be that would have to share a meaningful memory of their favorite meal, which would get shared on my substack @tablefables. So maybe i'm more of a nano-baker!
I think I can do this weekly, but more importantly, do you think people want this?
As a baker, were you able to build meaningful relationships where these types of stories were shared? How did you actually determine lower cost of lower SES folks?
Thank you so much for reading and for your kind words. I think graduate school can be a great time to experiment with operating a nano or micro bakery. It sounds like you are already doing it! I started the micro home bakery when working full time for the University of Texas at Austin while also working on growing my portfolio as a food writer/recipe developer. It started part-time for me and then morphed into a second pretty much full time job if you started adding up all the hours I was spending on baking, orders, communication, etc.
I would start by asking yourself how much time and energy can you allocate to the bakery on top of all of your other responsibilities as a student/scholar/researcher, teaching assistant, family obligations/ health etc.
Things tend to get strangely more complicated after graduate school. Also, a lot of graduate students I know had to supplement their university income with other work so if you don't have to work additional jobs at this time, the bakery could be a great opportunity to develop your entrepreneurial skills. Just the business aspect of running a bakery which for a humanities PhD student like me was definitely a big learning curve. I'm still learning.
Okay, I love what you described! I say keep doing it. It sounds like a wonderful project, and yes I do think people want this. This is where being more closely in communities outside of the university or in addition to the communities you have fostered at the university. It's funny, I talk about this more in previous posts, but I started this whole journey by sharing my baked goods in the faculty and graduate student lounges, and things sort of grew from there. I need to send you the link to that read.
Honestly, I wish I would have incorporated that aspect of social meaning into my bakery more intentionally, instead of just trying to bake for as many folks as possible, it's hard not to get caught up since bakeries rely so much on volume. If you can afford to slow down and incorporate actual human stories that's beautiful.
There are many ways you can approach your last question. I know some bakers who have a google form with questions. I also use to offer a pay it forward option, where folks would buy a loaf and we would donate it to folks. Another local bakery here in Austin has a similar model, Mariela and her amazing bakery COMADRE PANADERÍA, she calls it pan pari pa la gente. Folks can also email you. Coming from an academic background can actually be helpful here because you have probably been exposed to diversity scholarships/fellowships, you can ask similar questions you would find there or whatever you personally feel you need to make it equitable. I tend to take people at their word so I don't ask for a form just an email.
I just absolutely love what you are doing the way it is now. It is this beautiful intersection of community, food, art, memory, and writing. I personally love collecting stories and have done that primarily through my work as a food writer/food historian/sociologist, but I love how you connected it to the baking! If you can keep this important aspect as you scale up your bakery, I do think it would help build meaningful relationships. For me, a lot relationship building came from interpersonal interactions with my customers, especially when doing bake sales to raise funds for different causes, such as #cheesecakeforukraine when the war first broke out in 2022 or the horrifying storm we had here in Austin in February 2021. I say keep going! I can't wait to read some of those stories on your substack!
You are so kind to write such a thoughtful comment. This is why I love substack.
it's funny because one reason i'm baking so much is because I've been baking a lot for my classmates and faculty as well! I'm realizing that with bread, it would take the same time to bake 4-6 loaves as it would with 1-2 loaves depending on how I can put everything in my oven. I see people doing 17 hour bake days, and that will. not. be. me.
Like you said about capitalism and bread, they really can't go together, especially when the bread being baked is sourdough. Because sourdough takes time, it's inherently inefficient and therefore anti-capitalistic at its core. So I'm in full agreement with you.
I like your idea of baking for a cause. I'll mull over these thoughts and see where it takes me. Thank you again for your insights.
I could see you teaching this workshop to high school students or community college or even educators in renewing certification. Also, that may be for another time, another place, just a thought. It's definitely great information for the business world.
Thank you for sharing this! I've been contemplating starting a micro bakery (now isn't a good time since I'm currently managing a kitchen full-time lol) and this has been some of the best advice I've seen. Were there any specific programs you uses for managing finances? That's always been the scariest part for me. Thank you!
Thank you so much for your kind words, Lia! I’m so glad you found this post helpful.
As far as finances, I used primarily excel and exported sales data from hotplate.
Thank you for this!! Very informative and interesting.
I am in the process of setting up my own micro bakery and this was super helpful. I wasn't sure about offering delivery. This has given me the confidence to say that I won't offer it. Thank you!
How exciting! That’s so kind of you to say. I’m so glad you found the article helpful ❤️ wishing you the best of luck on your micro bakery journey. Exactly, you can always offer deliver down the line.
Thank you! ♥️
This was an awesome read!
So what are you doing now? I want to join the micro-bakery movement like you, but I don't think I have the bandwidth right now as a graduate student.
Instead, I'd like to bake 4-6 loaves a week and give them out for free. The only "cost" would be that would have to share a meaningful memory of their favorite meal, which would get shared on my substack @tablefables. So maybe i'm more of a nano-baker!
I think I can do this weekly, but more importantly, do you think people want this?
As a baker, were you able to build meaningful relationships where these types of stories were shared? How did you actually determine lower cost of lower SES folks?
Hi Hayoung!
Thank you so much for reading and for your kind words. I think graduate school can be a great time to experiment with operating a nano or micro bakery. It sounds like you are already doing it! I started the micro home bakery when working full time for the University of Texas at Austin while also working on growing my portfolio as a food writer/recipe developer. It started part-time for me and then morphed into a second pretty much full time job if you started adding up all the hours I was spending on baking, orders, communication, etc.
I would start by asking yourself how much time and energy can you allocate to the bakery on top of all of your other responsibilities as a student/scholar/researcher, teaching assistant, family obligations/ health etc.
Things tend to get strangely more complicated after graduate school. Also, a lot of graduate students I know had to supplement their university income with other work so if you don't have to work additional jobs at this time, the bakery could be a great opportunity to develop your entrepreneurial skills. Just the business aspect of running a bakery which for a humanities PhD student like me was definitely a big learning curve. I'm still learning.
Okay, I love what you described! I say keep doing it. It sounds like a wonderful project, and yes I do think people want this. This is where being more closely in communities outside of the university or in addition to the communities you have fostered at the university. It's funny, I talk about this more in previous posts, but I started this whole journey by sharing my baked goods in the faculty and graduate student lounges, and things sort of grew from there. I need to send you the link to that read.
Honestly, I wish I would have incorporated that aspect of social meaning into my bakery more intentionally, instead of just trying to bake for as many folks as possible, it's hard not to get caught up since bakeries rely so much on volume. If you can afford to slow down and incorporate actual human stories that's beautiful.
There are many ways you can approach your last question. I know some bakers who have a google form with questions. I also use to offer a pay it forward option, where folks would buy a loaf and we would donate it to folks. Another local bakery here in Austin has a similar model, Mariela and her amazing bakery COMADRE PANADERÍA, she calls it pan pari pa la gente. Folks can also email you. Coming from an academic background can actually be helpful here because you have probably been exposed to diversity scholarships/fellowships, you can ask similar questions you would find there or whatever you personally feel you need to make it equitable. I tend to take people at their word so I don't ask for a form just an email.
I just absolutely love what you are doing the way it is now. It is this beautiful intersection of community, food, art, memory, and writing. I personally love collecting stories and have done that primarily through my work as a food writer/food historian/sociologist, but I love how you connected it to the baking! If you can keep this important aspect as you scale up your bakery, I do think it would help build meaningful relationships. For me, a lot relationship building came from interpersonal interactions with my customers, especially when doing bake sales to raise funds for different causes, such as #cheesecakeforukraine when the war first broke out in 2022 or the horrifying storm we had here in Austin in February 2021. I say keep going! I can't wait to read some of those stories on your substack!
You are so kind to write such a thoughtful comment. This is why I love substack.
it's funny because one reason i'm baking so much is because I've been baking a lot for my classmates and faculty as well! I'm realizing that with bread, it would take the same time to bake 4-6 loaves as it would with 1-2 loaves depending on how I can put everything in my oven. I see people doing 17 hour bake days, and that will. not. be. me.
Like you said about capitalism and bread, they really can't go together, especially when the bread being baked is sourdough. Because sourdough takes time, it's inherently inefficient and therefore anti-capitalistic at its core. So I'm in full agreement with you.
I like your idea of baking for a cause. I'll mull over these thoughts and see where it takes me. Thank you again for your insights.
-hdo
I could see you teaching this workshop to high school students or community college or even educators in renewing certification. Also, that may be for another time, another place, just a thought. It's definitely great information for the business world.