Started my own business!

b_girl · Posted: May 16, 2013 6:16 am Post subject: Started my own business!

I've always loved baking and everyone always seemed to love the tarts that I baked, so I decided to open my own business! It's just a side business right now... maybe one day it'll make me enough that I won't have to work full time (I'm a software developer), but for now, I'm happy with the way it's going.

I've been in business for about 2 months now and get about 1-2 orders per week. I'll even be supplying tarts for a wedding in early June! The bride wants tarts instead of a cake - so that's a massive order of 150!

I set up my own website, which I'm pretty proud of too: www.simplytarts.com

On mothers day, I made a delivery to a mom who hasn't seen her daughter in years (her daughter lives in NZ). She was so happy she cried. That's when I knew for sure that this is really what I want to do.

Anyway, I'm pretty stoked about it. It makes me happy.

jgriffith · Posted: May 16, 2013 7:01 am Post subject:

Congratulations and good luck!

eeven73 · Posted: May 16, 2013 7:18 am Post subject:

Yes, congratulations.

Manage your cashflow and know your costs.

pet575 · Posted: May 16, 2013 7:39 am Post subject:

Good luck!!!!!

Partyb · Posted: May 16, 2013 7:56 am Post subject:

Sounds a bit like a porn site! lol
Best of luck. You should expand into cupcakes.

pyrocasto · Posted: May 16, 2013 8:05 am Post subject:

Dead God those things look good! Good luck with the business, sure are making me hungry!

b_girl · Posted: May 16, 2013 8:30 am Post subject:

lol... and yes, they are good! I'm hoping to have something in place in regards to national & international shipping within the next year Smile

eeven73, thanks for the advice - I'm trying to keep as much detail as I can in regards to expenses and income.

Thanks everyone Very Happy

jt09 · Ladies Man Joined: 16 Jan 2003 Posts: 22083 City: Austin

FlyZone CR · Posted: May 16, 2013 12:55 pm Post subject:

Awesome! Doing something that you like is the most important thing there is.
Good luck!

E.J. · Ladies Man Joined: 15 Jan 2003 Posts: 7597 City: Mogadishu

Excellent & Congratulations!

jryoung · Ladies Man Joined: 19 Mar 2004 Posts: 7664 City: Man Jose

I wish I was a better baker. I was really good at getting baked in college....that made me happy too.

Nor*Cal · Ladies Man Joined: 12 Jan 2003 Posts: 9479 City: Sac

Chattwake · Posted: May 16, 2013 5:04 pm Post subject:

How much shipped to 37379? I want a gross. Serious question.

Chattwake · Posted: May 16, 2013 5:06 pm Post subject:

Shoot you're in Canada? Duty free?

Okie Boarder · Ladies Man Joined: 03 Mar 2008 Posts: 10056 City: Edmond

Congrats.

So, which one are you?

b_girl · Posted: May 17, 2013 4:16 am Post subject:

lol.

Chattwake, to my knowledge it would be duty free. I haven't quite figured out how to ship them internationally without having them break into a million pieces. If I ship them frozen they'll survive, just need to find somewhere that will do frozen food shipments for a reasonable price!

Rhawn · Posted: May 17, 2013 6:06 am Post subject:

Congrats. This should be required reading for any new SMB owner.

http://www.amazon.com/Myth-Revisited-Small-Businesses-About/dp/0887307280

There is an audio version as well.

Bambamski · Posted: May 17, 2013 11:48 am Post subject:

A very wise man, I think it might have even been Confucius himself that said this.

Man who puts cream in Tart, NOT always baker.....

I thought that was appropriate for this thread.

Good luck with your business. My wife makes the BEST Cream cheese filled tarts known to man... Freaken love them...

b_girl · Posted: May 17, 2013 12:00 pm Post subject:

Thanks.

I did quite a bit of research before starting things up, in regards to costs and what I can/can't do... have myself all registered with the gov't and everything. I definitely make sure I can afford to do things prior to doing them (like international shipping, for example) as well as research all the legalities behind shipping food!

Cream cheese tart sounds interesting... I'm working on a maple walnut one right now... and will be "releasing" a pecan one shortly due to a high volume of requests for it, lol.

Bambamski · Posted: May 17, 2013 12:07 pm Post subject:

my wife used to Cater with my mom. (MOm used to own a restaurant) So i've helped make 1000's of tarts back in the day.

The three most popular tarts were always the Caramel, Lemon and Cr Cheese tarts. With the Cream Cheese going two to one over all the others...

They're heart stoppers for sure. PM me if you want the recipe.

b_girl · Posted: May 18, 2013 4:47 pm Post subject:

I've had a couple requests for lemon tarts lately too, I've got an old recipe of my grandma's to try out for that one.

Thanks Smile

My skor tarts are the same, sell more of those than the others - they're my favourite as well. (for you Americans, I don't think you have skor bars, but it's the same as a heath bar)

RampageWake · Posted: May 19, 2013 6:42 pm Post subject:

Looks delicious, but you misspelled flavor on your website Surprised

jgriffith · Posted: May 19, 2013 7:19 pm Post subject:

Tbonez · Posted: May 20, 2013 6:18 am Post subject:

Spend a great deal of time on your products packaging/look. My wife is a photographer. She is really talented but was only busy in the spring and fall. I encouraged her to change the look, feel and presentation of her product. It completely changed her business. She went from being busy a few months of the year to turning people away the entire year.

If you are honest with yourself you know that anyone can make a good tart but not everyone can effectively sell their tarts. Most every baker puts their product in a plain white box. Come up with really good colors, put your product into a fancy box, have a logo, make women want to buy it. Why not put your product in a black box with pink ribbon or cardboard color with a blue ribbon. Its sounds ridiculous but it sells. You can turn and everyday product into a gold mine based upon how you present it and sell it to women.

Good luck..Im super envious of anyone that gets to run their own business.

b_girl · Posted: May 21, 2013 7:08 am Post subject:

Yup, I'm in Canada... therefore it's flavour, not flavor. Wink

Once I pay off what I had put into it to begin with (which should be within the next month or two at this rate), then I will look into getting better packaging. Right now I do go with just the standard white box with my business card attached to the top, but for the one mothers day delivery I made, I added in a hand written card (the text of which came from the daughter of the mother in question). I'll also spend more time looking into different shipping methods.

PS. I don't think that better packaging sounds ridiculous at all!

flixmaster · Site Owner Joined: 30 Oct 2003 Posts: 7488

The only way to solve the Canada/US shipping problem.. Open up a shop here in the US. FedEx and UPS seem to always be a pain for me when we ship outside the USA. US postal is easier but your product would be destroyed by the time it made it here to the US.

Good luck with it.

b_girl · Posted: May 23, 2013 5:06 am Post subject:

lol. Thanks... definitely not in a position to be opening shop in the US at this point... I'm just based out of my home right now Smile