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Have you ever considered selling cookies from home? If you're looking for a way to raise money for your family, or you want to donate to a worthy charity, starting a cookie business is one way to do it. Selling homemade cookies is an easy business to start, because who doesn't love the taste of fresh-baked cookies?
There are numerous cookie business success stories that you can learn from. Learning from others can help guide you when writing a cookies business plan. Or you can work with a template to help you figure out how to get started.
That's a good question to ask yourself. Like any business, selling cookies from home takes some planning and budgeting. But, if you love to bake cookies, starting a cookie business is a great idea.
Pricing anything to sell at retail or even wholesale can be tricky. Pricing homemade cookies to sell takes a calculator and some comparison shopping. You can start your research by looking at online competitors with homemade cookies for sale. Check prices they are selling their cookies at. Other places to learn from include local farmers' markets, outdoor shows, and even your local grocery stores and bakeries.
There are a lot of variables when it comes to selling cookies for profit. Things to consider include:
And answering these questions and others should be a priority before you start baking and selling. Start by asking yourself as many questions you have about pricing, then make a list and research answers.
You can examine the pricing issue by determining:
Once you've done your pricing research, you can create your own cookie pricing calculator so you have a chocolate chip cookies price list that will drive a lot of customers to your homemade cookie business to buy cookies.
Don't forget that each cookie flavor will probably have different costs because of the ingredients used and the time it takes you to bake them. This includes allowing time for decorating sugar cookies, adding toppings to special cookie recipes, and extra time for personalized cookie orders. Any type of custom cookie orders may require an additional charge.
Popular cookie flavors to consider making are chocolate chip variations, oatmeal raisin, peanut butter, sugar, snickerdoodle, gingerbread, and shortbread cookies. You can test out recipes on your close friends and family until you settle on your own recipe. You should also test how well the cookie recipes freeze, and which type of packaging works best for freezing.
In today's market, many people prefer to shop online for food, including cookies. If you are going to sell your cookies online, you need to know how to sell cookies online as well as how to start a cookie business. While there are many channels where you can sell homemade cookies online, the best way is to set up your own cookie business website, like shown on Castiron. Once you have a website, even if you start by selling just one cookie flavor, you can use other channels (like social media) to sell and promote your cookies by posting a message and adding a link to your website.
Any business you start needs a lot of research and preparation. You can compile the information you need to create a business plan as you learn how to sell cookies from home. To learn more about a business plan and other important elements that you need to start your business, read How to Sell Baked Goods from Home: The Beginner's Guide.
Before you actually start selling cookies, it's important to learn what type of license or inspection you need to sell food you make at home. To get the answer, you need to go to your local and state government websites. Every state has their own requirements for food businesses, and your local city or county government may also have rules you need to follow. These requirements may also add to the cost of running your business.
While you may want to learn how to sell homemade cookies and make a small fortune, learning how to sell homemade cookies online is like learning any type of business. You need to plan carefully, and learn the ropes, and after a few bumps in the road, you will discover what works for you and your company.
Once you know which cookies you want to sell, how you want to sell them, and have a plan for pricing, baking, and storage, the next step is promoting your cookie business online.
There are many channels you can use for promoting cookies online. One type of channel is social media. If you are on social media or you want your business to gain followers this way, you have to decide which social media channels will offer the biggest benefits for your business.
If you already have a following, start there. If not, then choose the social media sites that have the type of people as members who like to buy homemade cookies online. For instance, if you choose Facebook and Instagram, here are some questions that you need to answer in order to promote your cookie business.
Just because your business is online, doesn't mean you can't promote it offline. You can set up booths at local events, hand out menus, attend in-person meet-and-greet events, or donate cookies to raise money for a local cause to promote your online business.
Every cookie you sell or give away should come with some kind of promotional material or swag with your website on it. These don't have to be expensive. You can print out menus, brochures, order forms, or stickers at home to include with the packaging for cookies. You can design personalized t-shirts to wear promoting your cookie business. With a computer and printer, there's lots of ways to create promotional materials at home.
QR code generators make it as easy as printing a custom code for your business that you can print on business cards, posters, or t-shirts. All your customers will have to do to visit your website is scan the code!
How do you decide which are the best cookies to sell? Top selling baked goods may be different in your regional area than in other parts of the country. You may already have developed recipes that locals love. The answer to which are the best selling cookies is different for everyone.
According to a Better Homes & Gardens survey, in the U.S. chocolate chip cookies are the favorite cookie by far at 40%, while the second favorite is peanut butter cookies (26%), and the third favorite is sugar cookies (25%). Some cookie favorites are seasonal like pumpkin-flavored cookies.
Seasonal flavors give you an opportunity to experiment a bit and see what your customers want to try. For instance, you may want to combine two favorites, and make pumpkin chocolate chip cookies during the fall. Or change the shape of a favorite, like square or flower-shaped chocolate chip cookies. Another option is to make your own cookie fillings or toppings. Why not create shortbread sandwich cookies with homemade jam?
When you research to see what type of cookies people are willing to pay a higher price for than what prepackaged cookies from the grocery store cost, you will be on your way to success. And like most skills, learning how to bake, create recipes, and how ingredients change a recipe are learned through experience and some trial and error. Practice really does make perfect when it comes to baking, and also when starting a homemade cookie business.
If you're looking for ideas of easy to make desserts to sell online, cookies are a good choice. But before you start baking, you need to establish your business with a business plan, website, and what you need to earn a profit. Take the time to set up your business the right way, so everything runs smoothly. And in case you hit a snag, have backup plans to handle any issue.
Not all online cookie businesses are a success, but you'll have a lot bigger chance of success with your plans in place, solid research into competitors, and the confidence that your cookie recipes are the best on the planet.
To learn more about how to set up your cookie business online, visit Castiron.
The Cake Whisperer
My business would not be the same without my Castiron website! It is an easy setup with lots of customization and tons of support! I am so glad I set up my shop last year before the holidays — it really helped increase my sales!
The Whimsical Cookie
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Castiron provides me a professional site to my customers increasing my credibility and value while giving me the tools to effectively market and manage my business in an easy, user-friendly manner.
Wesley's Treats Hallie's Sweets
Castiron has made my cottage bakery shine, and my business easy to manage. As a platform they care about my business as much as I do.
Explore our tools for free during a 14-day free trial. Start building your website, create your custom order forms, even start taking orders and payments... then decide if it’s for you.
Easy to start, created specifically for local, handmade food: Castiron’s website builder was created to help you grow. Create a website in minutes with our templates, sell where and how your customers want to buy, and look professional without being technical. Keep customers coming back with email marketing tools, customer records, and more.
Food entrepreneurs, this is your moment. Your community is more and more conscious about what they buy and where it is from. They want food made with love. With ingredients they can pronounce. And they want to support their community while doing it.
Castiron is the best fit for your food business because we're not a one-size-fits-all tool. Selling local food is different from pre-packaged warehouse products. Whether you sell cooking classes, need local pick up, utilize pre-sales to plan inventory, or need a fully custom order form — we got you.
No code required. Add pages, sell your products, build order forms, and show off your beautiful work. We'll handle the tech so you can focus on growing your food business.
Never track down a payment or oversell products again. Real-time inventory tracking and secure payment processing make life easier for you and your customers, and our order form builder makes managing custom requests a breeze.
With our marketing tools, your email marketing can go on autopilot. We make it easy to promote your latest products, announce custom order availability, and stay connected with customers.
