Do you run a cake business and you want to improve sales or grow? If YES, here are 10 smart tips on how to build, manage and grow a cake shop successfully. Usually, a reasonable percentage of those that are into cake baking operate the mom and pop Business model; it is only few people that run standard cake baking businesses and maybe franchises.
The fact that you are in business whether on a small, medium or larger scale does not mean it is not important to look at ways to scale up the business, because if you scale up the business, you will be able to expand your capacity. In order to achieve all that is stated above, you should know how to build, manage and improve your cake business.
Of course, you can learn these business strategies for a fee from a business school, but because we care for you, we will give you these tips for free. If indeed you want to effectively build, manage and improve your cake business, then these 20 tips will help you achieve your goal.
20 Tips on How to Build, Manage and Improve a Cake Business
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Enforce Discipline
Basically, the first step when it comes to successfully building, managing and improving your cake business is to ensure that every employee carries out their job functions as clearly stipulated in the JD and employee’s handbook. One of the major challenges of building a successful business is lack of discipline.
You would realize that when discipline is not enforced at the early stage of building your cake baking business, your employees will tilt towards levity because they know that they usually carry out their jobs off-station.
In order to effectively manage your cake baking business, when any of your staff members breach company’s policies or display any form of indiscipline, if you have to issue them a query, suspension or even a termination of their appointment, do it.
2. Impose Team Spirit
Another effective management tip that you need to adopt if you want to build, manage and improve your cake baking business is to impose team spirit amongst all your employee; every member of the workforce should be able to work as one. The acronym TEAM (Together Everyone Achieves More) truly fits into the basic requirement for effectively managing any business. Just make sure you encourage any activity that will promote team spirit in your business.
3. Never Compromise Excellence
One major tip you need if indeed you want to build, manage and improve your cake baking business, is never compromise excellence at any stage of your business. Excellence in terms of services and products is what will keep your cake baking business growing.
People are always willing to pay premium for excellence, so whatever line of business you are involved in, please make sure it is a business that produces quality products and renders quality services.
4. Enforce Accountability Across Board
Another strategy that you would need if indeed you want to successfully build, manage and improve your cake baking business is to ensure that you enforce accountability across board in your company. Since you might be working basically with people who will be working both in-station and off-station, make it clear that everybody including you as the head of the business is expected to be accountable to the whole team.
Nobody should be expected to do things and get away with it. If any employee is running late to work or won’t be able to make it to work or to deliver cake to a client’s location on time, they should make it a point of duty to call their supervisor or manager and inform him / her on time.
5. Invest in Education and Training
If your employees are well-trained and educated, you are likely going to struggle less when it comes to managing them. The dynamics of running businesses keeps evolving with time and it takes a person that invests in training and re-training to be able to catch-up. If you desire to successfully build, manage and improve your cake baking business, then you should be willing to spend money in training your employees.
6. Enforce Saving Culture
Another effective management technique that you would need if indeed you want to successfully build, manage and improve your cake baking business is to enforce saving culture. Let it be clear from the beginning that a certain percentage of the profit you make from your business monthly is saved.
If you do this, you will be able to prepare the mind of your employees and even family members to know the limit of financial request they can make. Enforcing saving culture in your cake baking business positions your business to cash in on other investment opportunities when they come.
7. Adopt Effective Succession Plans
Adopting effective succession plans is yet another good technique you would need if indeed you want to successfully manage your cake baking business. Truly, a successful cake baking business is one that is positioned in such a way that the leadership of the business can be passed across from one generation to another.
You will need to adopt an effective succession plan so as to be able to pass across the leadership of your business to your children and then from your children to your grandchildren.
8. Hire Qualified Workers
Another tip you would need if indeed you want to successfully build, manage and improve your cake baking business is to ensure that you hire qualified workers. The truth is that if you have qualified employees manning various positions in your company, you will find it easier to manage them; they will know what is expected of them and how to get things done.
9. Adopt International Best Practices
When it comes to successfully building, managing and improving your cake baking business or managing any type of business, there is international best practices to follow. So, if you want to successfully build, manage and improve your cake business, then you must ensure that you adopt international best practices as it relates to your line of business or industry. You can always review journals or publications that will bring you up to speed.
10. Establish a Training School
You will realize that most successful corporations would not assign duty post to a new employee unless the employee passes through their training school. So, if you want to successfully build, manage and improve your cake baking business, then you should ensure that you establish a training school where you hatch your workforce to be able to conform to your organization’s corporate culture.
Please note that this management technique is applicable to organizations with the capacity to employ over a dozen employees per time.
11. Operate Open Door Policy
Another tip that you need to adopt if indeed you want to successfully build, manage and improve your cake baking business is to operate open door policy; you should keep your doors open for suggestions from members of your team (your employees) and your clients.
With that in place, you will be able to get suggestions that will help you manage your business effectively. Please note that you are not expected to use all the suggestions that you receive. What is expected from you is to screen and vet the suggestions that you get and only make use of the ones that suis your business or style of management.
12. Attend Related Refresher Courses
To be on the top of your game in terms of successfully building, managing and improving your cake baking business, you should be able to attend refresher courses on management.
This would to a very large extent expose you to things you need to do to effectively manage your business successfully and things you need to avoid. When you surf online, you would get information on available management seminars and short courses organized by top notch Business/management Schools.
13. When the Need Arise, Hire Consultants
Although it might be expensive hiring consultants to help you successfully build, manage and improve your cake baking business, but when the need arises, it will do your cake baking business a whole lot of good. The truth is that in order to build a successful cake baking business, you would at a point in the lifecycle of the business bring in consultants to help you run the business.
14. Reward Excellence
If you want to get people to carry out assigned tasks with open heart and pay attention to details, ensure that you reward excellence; it is one management tip that you would need to adopt if indeed you want to successfully build, manage and improve your cake baking business.
Rewarding excellence might not be massive and expensive. It could be recognizing an employee, celebrating an employee or giving out tokens in form of appreciation to an employee that go the extra mile to get things done for the organization.
15. Have Regular Meetings with Your Workers
Having regular meetings with your workers is yet another tip you would need if you want to successfully build, manage and improve your cake baking business. Part of what you need to do is to ensure that you create time for office meetings; a time where challenges, feedbacks, projections and relevant issues are discussed.
The meetings could be daily, once in a week, twice a week or once in a month. The bottom line is that there should be consistent meetings in your organization.
16. Craft a Clear – Cut Vision Statement
In actual sense, a business cannot be successful if there is no clear-cut vision statement and besides, you will agree that no one can effectively manage what is not clearly defined. In essence, one of the tips that you would need if you want to successfully build, manage and improve your cake baking business is to craft a clear -cut vision statement for the business.
Crafting a clear – cut vision statement for your cake baking business and ensuring that all your employees buy into it is the basic foundation you need to be able to effectively build, manage and improve your cake baking business. Just make sure the vision is not just written and placed in strategic places in your office, but let it be in the heart of all your employees.
17. Work with a Common Goal
Ensuring that every member of your workforce work with a common goal is yet another effective management technique that you need to adopt if you want to successfully build, manage and improve your cake baking business. As the manager and leader of your cake baking business, you should work together with your staff to set a common goal for the business if indeed you want it to succeed.
Just ensure that the goal you set is easy to understand and interpret. For instance, you could set a goal to become the number one cake baking business in the whole of your city, state or country. The rule of thumb here is to set a goal that is measurable, achievable, and realistic and time based.
18. Set Annual Corporate Goals
Another management tip you would need if indeed you want to successfully build, manage and improve your cake baking business is to ensure that you always set annual corporate goals for the organization.
Since the success of a business is tied to growth, the best thing to do is to set annual corporate goals of the percentage increase that you expect from your business. Setting corporate goals for your organization would help motivate you and your workers to put in all the effort and expertise required to make it grow.
For instance; you could set a benchmark for the increase and a time frame you expect from a particular target. The truth is that building a successful cake baking business requires that you sometimes take drastic decision so that you can safely guard the future of your company and of course your investment.
19. Review Your Management Styles Annually
Reviewing your management styles annually is yet another tip you would need to successfully build, manage and improve your cake baking business.
The truth is that no matter the management style you adopt, it is highly important to at least review the method to see how effective it was, and if it indeed suits your personality et al. Part of what you need to do is to go on a retreat with some of your key management staff and then critically examine your management methods.
20. Place Your Business on Autopilot
It is now trendy to find corporate organizations and even medium to smaller businesses running on autopilot. When a business runs on autopilot, it means that the business needs little or no supervision in other to achieve results. But before you can attain this height, you would need to deliberately document all the processes involved in producing your organization’s products or carrying out services as requested by your clients.
As a matter of fact, there might be need to hire experts of help you put processes in place that will make your cake baking business run on autopilot. The truth is that running a cake baking business on autopilot is one of the best tips when it comes to successfully building, managing and improving your cake baking business.
In conclusion, no business becomes successful if effective management systems are not put in place. The above management tips can be adopted by anyone who is managing a cake baking business or any other business no matter the industry that your business belongs to. These are tips that have been proven to deliver excellent results year in year out and it can work for your cake baking business as well.