9 Ways to Make Your Home Bakery MORE Professional | Avoid THESE Bakery Mistakes | Fail Friday Ep. 24

At home bakery businesses have to go the extra mile to legitimize their businesses and create a professional environment since we don't have a visible storefront. In today's Fail Friday we will be delving further into customer service and how to create a professional environment that will comfort your customers and will, in the end, make your at home business a success!
Welcome to FAIL FRIDAY! Showing you all the fails and fixes you need to perfect your baking every Friday. Comment down below to ask for help and your question could be fixed by Friday!
I am Ashleigh from Sweet Dreams Bake Shoppe!
Follow me: / sdbakeshoppe
Like me: / sweetdreamsbak. .
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[@lrb1651]

Thank you for mentioning the professionalism of making sure words are spelled correctly and things make sense! It's wise (and professional) to read what we've written before hitting 'send'.

[@SweetDreamsBakeShoppe]

Definitely!!🥰💕

[@besharpdesserts]

Hi Ashley! I have a question about pick ups! So I find it a little awkward when customers pick up cakes. I always show them their cake before I take the money. Sometimes I do this on the tail gate of my truck and sometimes on the railing of my porch.. I had a customer come into my house once and I felt very uncomfortable!!! What is the best way you have found cake pick ups for home bakers to work the best?? Thank you much!

[@SugarMagicbyCristina]

no wonder your videos are always so organized, I always forget that you're a teacher! really enjoyed listening to your tips

[@SweetDreamsBakeShoppe]

Hehe so sweet of you to say!! 🥰🥰

[@HigherCallingCakes]

Thank you, Ashley! This was helpful. I’m autistic and communication is a big challenge for me (digital and in-person). I worry about coming across as unprofessional and cold. It’s a bit of a gray area between professionalism and being true to myself. Looking forward to the trial and error ahead haha. “They don’t know that they like restrictions/boundaries…but they do.” 😂 That was gold!

[@KingdomMusicCitizens]

You are my twin! I also tend to not do business with companies or business owners with poor grammar and usage! I appreciate all the tips and I incorporated what I could right away, such as replacing "Hi" with "Hello [name], ..." Thank you so much for all the tips including presentation and follow-ups! New subscriber!🤗💖

[@FromChelseaLea]

My auto correct turned damp into damn. I didn’t notice. The lady laughed 😂

[@eatmorecookies901]

I have a small baking business from home, I make sugar cookies, cakepops, cream cheese cinnamon rolls, etc. I have a dream and wish it can come true. I want to have an actual business and make everyone’s life sweet. I’m nervous to actually open a professional business, I have not been to a bakery/culinary school. I’m not sure if I should do that first or to just make my dream come true. I’m thankful for your videos, I love everything you do and thank you for sharing your secrets!!!!!

[@joanparsley2332]

Excellent advice. Your videos are always on point. I love your videos because you have a plan, are organized and get what you want said. There's nothing more annoying, to me, then a person being cutesy and talking too slow or not know exactly what they plan to say. Of course, being a teacher I'm sure has been a great help in that regard. Kudos to you Ashleigh.

[@SweetDreamsBakeShoppe]

So glad you enjoyed it, Joan!! Thank you for your kind words. 💕🥰

[@joannsitton4415]

OUTSTANDING EXCELLENT ADVISE!! I have a business background and started a commercial bakery. I, too, have been frustrated by the texting/facebook/Instagram generation not understanding professional behavior. Thank you. JoAnn

[@misslilly7379]

Great video! Thanks for sharing.

[@hkoo7042]

hi, Ashely I really love yours tips. They are super helpful. Especially me as a person who is not good at to interact with people. Here is a question : should I ever ask my customer their budget? Like for now first question i ask to a customer is : date, number of serving and budget. Just because I found most of people in my area (Ottawa) have no idea about customize cake. And they all give me a $300 dollar cake picture. After I told them the price they are super shocked and said it is over their budget. And most of them their budget for a small cake is under 100$. I found it is waste my time by a lot. So after a while I decide to ask them their budget and talk about other details later to let them know what type of design will match their budget.

[@SweetDreamsBakeShoppe]

Definitely asking prior to and having rough guidelines of the types of cakes you offer in those ranges is a great way to save your own time!!

[@KingdomLifeDec]

I haven't seen this full video, but have seen a couple of your teachings, and i LOVE YOU GIRL!!! THANK YOU!! FOR SHARING YOUR TIPS AND ALL. I Revently JIST STARTED IN FEB AND i you have already confirmed many of my own wise decisions 😄,before going crazy and buying the whole whilesale baking supply store😄. Thank you again!! Now dotn know if youve done a vid on this,if you have please provide link if possible. When working with WHIPPED CREAM, A STABILZED ONE. HOW DOES ONE BEST APPLY FONDANT ACCENTS VERTICALLY ? IF ITS EVEN POISSBLE. THANK YOU!!

[@SweetDreamsBakeShoppe]

Thank you so much for your kind words! I will look into my videos and see if I have covered any of those and will get back to you 🥰

[@jaquetta6123]

Thank you! I'm about to get my Channel going even though I don't have much baking experience.

[@SweetDreamsBakeShoppe]

Good luck to you :)

[@Suzq21678]

How do your customers get their orders? If I was doing 10 orders a weekend isn’t that a lot to deliver or a lot of customers to come by my house in a weekend? I don’t want to annoy my neighbors…

[@tnewsome9121]

I have proof read since third grade, to the point in which I can't send any correspondence without proofreading.

[@SoeyKid]

hey! thanks for the video :) How would we refuse to send photos..like how would we say no? I'm new and always struggle with this!

[@SweetDreamsBakeShoppe]

I think I would just say it’s your policy and you would prefer if customers view your work in person upon pickup. :)

[@christineshadd1929]

Hi! I'm new to your channel and I'm sooooo happy I found it! Such great advice and tips! Thank you for sharing your gift🌻

[@SweetDreamsBakeShoppe]

You are so welcome, Christine. Glad to have you here :)

[@anaidadcruz1355]

Hey, I am well aware that my text is not as formal as you think it should be (lol). You made my work much easier. These points you highlighted is really deep and insightful. I would love to have these points as a rule book for my startup and anyways, Thankyou so much.

[@SweetDreamsBakeShoppe]

Hehe 🥰💕

[@susanf2399]

Fantastic advice! I’ve just recently found your channel & I’m loving all the videos. They are all so helpful. Thank you so much :)

[@SweetDreamsBakeShoppe]

Thank you so much for watching and I'm so glad you're finding it useful :)

[@SX-sv6vo]

Excellent tips! I will definitely put them to use!

[@SweetDreamsBakeShoppe]

I’m so glad you found them useful! 🥰

[@itayue1052]

Wow thank you Ashleigh! A great tips that for how to be more professional as a homebaker! The follow up and interaction isss definitely important!

[@SweetDreamsBakeShoppe]

You are so welcome. Glad you found it useful 💕🥰

[@kathyberger6650]

Food for thought! Thanks Ashley! ❤️

[@genesisfernandez7481]

Thank you for these tips!!

[@SweetDreamsBakeShoppe]

You’re so very welcome!

[@kimchi8022]

Great video once again! Would you ever consider a live Q&A on youtube in the future? :) One question regarding taking a deposit, is there a specific e-transfer site or app that you recommend? and if a customer does not have that specific e-transfer app or website, how should you approach a situation like that?

[@SweetDreamsBakeShoppe]

Yes! Was thinking about one later on today!

[@kimchi8022]

Oooo! That would be amazing :)

[@cherylspencer8707]

LOVED this video- thank you! xx

[@SweetDreamsBakeShoppe]

You are so welcome, Cheryl :)

[@camisewalls719]

Great awesome advice !!thanks so much for your knowledge

[@SweetDreamsBakeShoppe]

You’re welcome, Camise!! 💕

[@oakvillelife]

Thank you ver much for the informative video. Do you have info about if home bakery have to be registered & get inspected by city order to sell product from home kitchen? I heard registering business name and getting inspection by city are two diffrence things.

[@mysticarts8787]

Fantastic advice ssooo very helpful thanks

[@SweetDreamsBakeShoppe]

You’re welcome! 💕

[@kevinranawake6558]

hi ashley in the next video can you please please make a watercolour drip cake for my birthday please

[@SweetDreamsBakeShoppe]

I will definitely keep a watercolour drop cake in mind for an upcoming vid. Thanks for the request and happy birthday to you! 🥰🎂

[@kevinranawake6558]

@@SweetDreamsBakeShoppe okay thank you so much ashley make it a watercolour buttercream cake please

[@mariaflores8686]

I’m really happy to find you

[@SweetDreamsBakeShoppe]

Lovely to have you here, Maria!

[@gillaandreasardon3328]

Thank you for this informative video

[@SweetDreamsBakeShoppe]

You are welcome! 💕

[@Globalfoodbook1]

Interesting! Thanks for sharing

[@SweetDreamsBakeShoppe]

You’re welcome 🥰

[@iliquify]

how do you handle customer(s) that are late or has an emergency and cannot pick up the items?

[@SweetDreamsBakeShoppe]

That’s more up to your discretion. If you can clearly tell it is a legitimate emergency and you have that flexibility to allow them for a different pick up time then I would do it. If they’re late, I just charge them or if they’ve already paid I go about my day as usual if it’s passed the agreed upon time by 15 minutes.

[@mecheleclasson]

If you take a 50% deposit, how do you get around people not wanting to work with cash because of covid?

[@SweetDreamsBakeShoppe]

You can always finish up the payment with e-transfer or some other payment service :)

[@ITSJUSTDARION06]

Love it

[@SweetDreamsBakeShoppe]

🥰

[@mecheleclasson]

Hi Ashley, people continuously ask for price lists. I find this very difficult with both cakes and cookies as every cake and cookie has different amounts of work. How did you deal with this?

[@SweetDreamsBakeShoppe]

You can offer base pricing, but things are done by quote if they are custom always--at pretty much any baking establishment I've seen!

[@eastcoastlockdownbullies]

I didn't take a deposit. And she canceled when I contacted her to pick up her custom cake.

[@SweetDreamsBakeShoppe]

Oh that is the absolute worst!! Did you explain to her that you had already made it?

[@eastcoastlockdownbullies]

@@SweetDreamsBakeShoppe Yep. It's still in my fridge. I'm just going to pop off the custom fondant figures and use it as a practice base to photograph for marketing before my kids eat it. lesson learned.

[@GirlArmy21]

OMG nooooo photos before delivery. They can't visualize. The client will want to change something....alot.....it will drive you nuts!!! I post photos of their cake after deliver never before!!! And a deposit for bigger more detailed cakes for sure.

[@SweetDreamsBakeShoppe]

Definitely! Took me way too long to figure this out. 💕

[@princezzpuffypants6287]

Is someone a Lilo and Stitch fan? Butterfly626 lol

[@SweetDreamsBakeShoppe]

😂😂

[@hmtigiriss]

This was great! Thank you!!

[@SweetDreamsBakeShoppe]

You’re so welcome!