Baking For Business Podcast

#Ep 58: 10 Unique Places For Hosting Wedding Cake Tastings As A Home Baker

May 31, 2023 Chef Amanda Schonberg Episode 58
Baking For Business Podcast
#Ep 58: 10 Unique Places For Hosting Wedding Cake Tastings As A Home Baker
Show Notes Transcript Chapter Markers

Looking for the perfect spot to host your wedding cake tastings without a brick and mortar location? I've got you boo! In this episode, I reveal 10 alternatives for home bakers to help you conduct your tastings with confidence. 

In this episode you will learn:

  • Tips to build relationships with establishments 
  • Places to host your tastings for free
  • Additional ways to use the spaces you find to create revenue as a home baker


 Whether you're a home baker or have a mobile baking business, this episode is packed with insightful ideas and resources to help you host your tastings.

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Speaker 1:

Hey, sweet friends, my name is Chef Schaumburg. I started my baking business with the bottle of DeCerono and one Bundt Cake Man. Fast forward to today, from news to magazines, speaking on national stages and more. I can truly say that baking has changed my life. So now, as a bakery business coach, i get to help others have the same success. I've helped hundreds of my students across the world in my global membership program create six-figure businesses, mainly from home. The Baking for Business podcast is an extension of that, from actionable tips to valuable tools and resources that can impact you as a business owner. I truly believe y'all. We would never have been given a gift if we couldn't profit and prosper from it. So come on, darling. What are you waiting for? Hey? what is going on? sweet friends, and welcome back to the Baking for Business podcast. As always, i'm so excited to have you here Today.

Speaker 1:

We are going over 10, can't even believe it, but we're going to get through them. We're going over 10 places to host wedding cake tastings. If you are a home baker, maybe you have a trailer or a truck. You just don't have a official brick and mortar location, but you want to conduct tasting. So today I'm going to be sharing with you 10 places that you can actually host those tastings. So attracting bridal clients is another thing all in itself. In fact, all this week, with my one-on-one students and my group coaching membership, we've been talking all about booking more brides, and so one of the questions that I get asked often a lot is well, i bake from home, so I'd never really take on brides because I don't know where would I host the tasting or where would I meet with them, and why you can meet virtually on Zoom. A tasting is also an experience, and you want to provide that experience for your client, because setting an experience is really part of what helps you to close the deal, and so today we're going to go over 10 places that will allow you to do so, as always though I won't say as always, because it hasn't been always, but the new portion that we did add to the podcast, which you guys seem to enjoy, is a parable or a scripture, and so today's comes from looking at my phone where my notes are comes from Luke, chapter 6, verse 45, what you say flows from what is in your heart. That's really deep If you think about it. What you say flows from what is in your heart. You know I'm big on affirmations and I love the Lord The new school people call it affirmations. However, the book is full of affirmations, but when you think about it, what you say flows from what is in your heart.

Speaker 1:

One of the biggest things I hear people say in this industry all the time is they won't pay that around here, right. So why do you say that? Because in your heart, you feel you're unable to actually attract your words or attract what it is that you desire. If you can't see something possible, then your mouth really speaks what's on your heart. But here's the thing about it Fruit reveals the health of a tree, just as your tongue reveals what's in your heart. So when you say something and it necessarily doesn't align with the word or it doesn't align with what you believe, you have to be mindful of that, because words are powerful. Your words have the power to create life and death, and that's not just in your life, but that is also in your business.

Speaker 1:

If you say things like they won't pay that around here, guess what they won't. And it's just because that's what you believe, it in your heart. But here's another thing about it Aside from your heart, you also have your head, and so it's up to you to use your head, to take what you're feeling And I'm never saying what you're feeling is irrelevant But sometimes you have to say where is this coming from? Is this faith or is this fear? And a lot of times it's fear, because there's nowhere in the Bible that says thou shalt be broke. There's nowhere in the Bible that says they won't pay that around here. In fact, when we look at Proverbs 31, when it talks about a prosperous woman, she went out into the fields and she made her wage. It says she went out, made a nest, she didn't sit, she didn't complain, she went and found the people. And so now that's a whole another story in itself, because I always think that the Bible can really really, really help us relate to business and can help us relate to operating our business. And that is your word of the day. So just be mindful of what comes out of your mouth, because even if you're filling in your heart, that's not what the word of God says for you. It's not what God has for your business, and you were born to do amazing things. Abundance is your birthright. So hope you enjoyed that parable and work from the day And let's get into 10 places to host your cake tastings.

Speaker 1:

If you are a home baker, so space number one, which is really my favorite, is office space. Even as a home baker, I have a office and I waited till my sales were at a certain amount when I was doing wedding cakes. I also use my office for other things. I've used my office for photo shoots and different things like that. You can use your office.

Speaker 1:

If you're looking into getting office space not just for cake tasting, you can also start doing pop-ups from your office, which is amazing, especially if you're a person that's in a city. I know people will say all the time get out in farmers markets to get your treats and your baked goods out there. But what if they're in a farmers markets in your area? So not only can you use your own office space for tastings, but it can double as pop-ups and it could triple if you're a person that teaches classes. So that's just a little bonus for you off the top. It's also so much more less than actually stepping into a brick and mortar because you're just renting the office space, so you don't have much space to decorate. There's a table, there's chairs, you set the scene for your client, and that's that.

Speaker 1:

So tip number one is office space. If you feel that you know the revenue's there, make sure you're making a profit check with your bookkeeper or your CPA first. Anytime you make, money moves, but it could be time for you to get your own office, honey, and if that's the case, then that's one of the places for you to have a cake tasting. Now, if you're like chef girl, i'm not there yet, then the second spot is for you, which is what I currently use now, and I love co-working spaces. So if you don't want to pay for office space monthly or you don't want to make that commitment, there are other places that will allow you to rent by the hour, or you can rent by the day. You can rent a room or particular hall, or you can rent a conference room, depending on however big you feel that you need the space to be. So co-working spaces is number two. Those are wonderful places because, again, you set the scene, it's just you and your client, there's a lot less distractions and it just makes for a really nice space to host a tasting.

Speaker 1:

That's not in your home, right, because as home bakers, we don't want to be open to allowing everyone to come into our home. That's also not the safest choice, even if you have a beautiful home, beautiful kitchen most of us are women and it's just not safe And we've learned that over time from incidences that I wish would not have happened in our community. So I never want to put someone in a position to where you're not safe, and so that's why today, that's really why I'm sharing these 10 places for you to host your cake tasting. So that is number two, co-working offices, and so you can always look in your city and see if you guys have any of those.

Speaker 1:

Number three would be wedding venues. So if your bride is getting married at a particular venue, that venue normally has space, there's chairs office. So if you deliver to that venue a lot, then you want to strike up a relationship. I mean you should be building relationships in business anyways, because your net worth is usually equivalent to your net work. So you always want to be networking, you always want to be connecting. That's ABC, always be connecting with community. So that's kind of like the ABC is a building a business, because you can't do it alone. So if that bride is getting married at a particular venue, reach out. Hey, our bride has chosen this venue. This is her name. We're doing the cake. However, we are a licensed and insured cottage baker. Is it okay if we swing by and kind of have our tasting there? I could drop off some extra samples for you guys too, just kind of butter them up. But we just don't want to bring that particular client to our home. We feel this is a safer space, and that's one that I've utilized in the past also, and usually people have no problem. But then it's just all about relationship building and asking.

Speaker 1:

The fourth place is a coffee shop, but not just any coffee shop. It needs to be a locally owned coffee shop, and here's why Starbucks, pjs, dunkin, those places are busy as hell, not to mention that also, if they have an expanded menu, they have food, they have other options and stuff like that. So you kind of don't want those smells going around when you're conducting a tasting. Plus, this is important to this person You don't want people walking by you. Oh, my bad. Okay, i'm sorry. You know you're trying to cram in. Starbucks can get crowded at a particular place in day. So therefore we're going to ditch the big chains.

Speaker 1:

Go to a locally owned coffee shop When it's locally owned. We're right back at that connection thing. You can foster a relationship with the owner. You can speak to them hey, this is my. You know my name. I'm a locally owned business. Most of the time they won't even charge you. You can also ask them hey, what is your downtime? Right, because we know from the restaurant industry well, i know, as being a chef within the restaurant industry between 11 to 2, it's always very busy because this is when people are on their lunch break. Most people take a lunch break at 11, 12, 1, they're just out, right, but after 2, traffic kind of dies down. That's when you want to schedule your tasting, because moms are either picking up their kids, people who work the early morning shift like to go in at 4 or 5, they're generally clocking out. So you want to schedule tasting That's actually another tip for all of these but within a time to where business is slow. So that way your client feels like it's just you and them in the room, they're not in some big overcrowded place And while you're there, support that coffee shop. So let's say you treat your bride to a water If they offer Perrier or Fuji or Dasani or any other boot like buy the water from the coffee shop. That way you're supporting that business and you're paying it forward, since they're allowing you to come holster tasting there anyways. And so that is the next one locally owned coffee shops A lot less hustle and bustle and it just is really, really easy place to meet people in public.

Speaker 1:

The next one is rental kitchens. So we do have a farmer's market here, and that farmer market has a kitchen which they allow people to rent. Your farmer's market probably has a kitchen also that you might not know about. Rental kitchens don't also have to be farmer's markets. Rental kitchens can be places such as food halls. We had an amazing food hall here. I hate when it closed, but food halls are like. It's like a place where you walk in and they're almost like mini storefronts. So within this one building you'll see about seven to 10 other little offices. Not a flea market, because whenever I think flea market like you know flea markets always in the country or some rinking area. They're cheap. No, a food hall is a little bit more elevated than a flea market, but kind of that same setting. You walk in, there's multiple booths and stations and usually they have what's called a shared kitchen And so any of these typical rental kitchens.

Speaker 1:

It could be in a farmer's market, it could be at a food hall, it could be a commissary kitchen. I know here in Louisiana we have LSU. Lsu has an agricultural center. That center actually has a kitchen. People are actually allowed to rent space. So look at rented places and you might also run across other locally owned business owners who rent their kitchen. Maybe it is the coffee shop. If they close early, then they don't mind renting that particular kitchen space at night. So look for rental kitchens and other places for you to actually be able to rent so that you can host your wedding cake tasting.

Speaker 1:

Bought is a hotel. Hotels are amazing because they have banquet halls. Those banquet halls are open to the public and you're able to rent them at any time. So do not sleep on hotel banquet halls. Chances are, if you're in your corporate career and you've probably ever gone on a trip with your job, they might have had or hosted that trip at a particular hotel where you got to go to born ass classes all day, all right. So rooms are not just for rent for corporations. You can literally ask them like, hey, what's the size of your smallest room? Because you don't need to When you. When I say banquet hall, i know you think of big halls, but generally they have different sizes, so you don't need the biggest room, you only need a small space. So look into your hotels Banquet halls to see. I know Drury in is amazing. I've had a young lady who I know who's actually hosted classes there and their conference center was really, really affordable. So check out some hotels, see if they have conference centers or banquet rooms that they don't mind renting and you can use that particular spot to host your wedding tations.

Speaker 1:

The next place is the library. You know that big place where you get books. You might not have visited the library anytime soon, but or anytime recently, but I love the library, but now it's all digital so you can get it on your phone, but anyway, the library has rooms that are available for rent. So check your local library and see what are their policies, what's the time, what's the hours And, if so, that's a wonderful setting for you to book your tastings. You're somewhere in the public to meet with your bride, and a big bonus when using the library is it may not cost anything. So who doesn't want to save some money? So check your local library. As always, you just like with the coffee shop, you want to avoid the main library. I know in our state we have like a main library and then we have a little smaller libraries. Find one that's a little smaller, maybe the duck off one, because the main one is kind of like where all the action is, it's the tasting. But, as I said earlier, you also have to provide an experience. So you just want somewhere that's less noisy. So check out your local library system.

Speaker 1:

Next is an event planner. So the venue is a little different, because the venue is where they're having the wedding, but your event planner if that bride is actually working with a planner, that particular planner may have an office. So if you reach out to the planner and you want to be establishing relationships with planners anyways, they might not mind letting you swing by. Of course, butter them up, give them a sample if you got a tall piece of cake, whatever. But hey, this is my client And they told me that you're handling the wedding Well, chances are. Honestly, if you're working with a planner, you will know, because brides don't do anything. The planner would reach out to you And then you would just ask and say, ok, yes, we can deliver, is it OK? Right back to the ABC Always build connections within your community And planners would probably let you use their space in order for you to have tastings. In fact, in my membership we just have an amazing guest speaker, chef Anna, who is awesome. You probably follow on YouTube. She loves all things way for paper, but she actually shared that that's what she does for her tastings is that she goes to where the planner is, and I think that's just a wonderful thing because it's all about connection. So check with your local event planner if your bride is using a planner and see if they'll let you use their space.

Speaker 1:

The next one is one of my favorite culinary schools. So I know you're like well, chef, i didn't go to culinary school. Some of you guys actually did. When I talked to you guys, i'm shocked with some of you guys who are chefs and you don't hide it. You don't tell anyone. That's the story for another time, because you're sitting on your achievements And those things can actually help you get booked. We should be telling people who we are. What we've accomplished is not bragging or boasting. It's just showing people what God has done in your life. So I'll save that tangent for another day.

Speaker 1:

But anyway, even if you're not a culinary student, your local culinary school or even your local community college which has a culinary program, may have a kitchen. My culinary school is always open to me. I've used it in the past. It is amazing. That is one place for you to have your tasting. And if you're a graduate, they love seeing grads succeed. I've visited my college about two or three times a year just to keep good relations with those people. They've recommended me to places for speaking gigs and stuff like that.

Speaker 1:

So if you went to culinary school, reach out to them. On days where they're not using the kitchen, hey, this is what I do now. I have a business. Is it OK if I just use this little table over here? I'll clean up after myself. They're all for it. And if you're just a local, hey, i live here, i know this is our local college. Do you guys use this space? Or is it OK if I meet with my client here? And usually they're very open. So check out your local culinary schools, see what programs they have, Get to know the instructor, talk to that person And let them know who you are and what you do. And they might honestly, because I've done this before too even if you're not a student, they might want you to come and share your business so that you can inspire other culinary students and other people who want to do what it is you're doing in the industry. So it's a wonderful way to pay it forward, y'all okay, we already on 10. All right, let's recap Culinary schools, event planners, libraries, hotels, rental kitchens, co-working space, coffee shop, wedding venue, office space. That brings me to number 10.

Speaker 1:

Number 10 is kind of like a two for one, but clubhouses. So where are clubhouses? Where are those two places? Number one if you live in a fancy or a nice apartment building, your apartment building may have a clubhouse. And if you're like, well, chef, i have a househouse, you may have a relative who lives in a nice or fancy apartment building that has a clubhouse. Start thinking right. That clubhouse is open to tenants, to all people who come there. So don't sleep on clubhouses, because free, you don't have to really pay anything, and it's a wonderful spot to meet your clients. Again, it's another wonderful, amazing spot to meet your clients, where you can create the experience that you want. Whatever aligns with what it is your brand is have the tasting and not have them in their home.

Speaker 1:

Now, aside from clubhouses in apartments and rental buildings, you also have clubhouses that are within clubs. If your husband, your husband may be a member of a golf club, that golf club probably has a clubhouse that you haven't even thought about yet And as your wife, as your husband's wife I'm not your wife, but as your husband's wife check out and say hey, honey, you know your golf club. Do they have a clubhouse? or is there an area that could be something that comes with your membership that is accessible to you? Another place is if you belong to a particular club. Let's say you're in a. I know we have here in the city a woman's empowerment club. There are certain socialite groups which have clubhouses and things like that. There's even the country club. Obviously the country club has a clubhouse. So we also have an aquatics club which has a clubhouse. If your child is a member of, like the YMCA or something like YMCA is more like a branch or franchise. So you get where I'm going. But if it's a local gym, some sort of facility or something like that, usually their clubhouse is separate from the area. So again, you're probably sitting on a membership that has a clubhouse that you know nothing about. So don't sleep on clubhouses. Okay, that's 10. Whoa, we got through them.

Speaker 1:

I hope, at all 10 of these places, you find one nugget and you're like aha, aha, remember the guy in coming to America. Just one nugget that helps you. If you found one thing that helps you or blessed you, do me a favor, screenshot this episode as you're listening and tag me, because I'm human. The only way I can put out all this free content is I run off of your love and coffee and donuts. but I'm trying to put the donuts down, but I run off of your love. So if any one of these tips helped you, please tag me or let me know. I hope that you also remember, aside from all these places, to host your tasting number one. Just some tips for you, because someone's gonna be like chef. These places cost money. I get it. So if you're charging for your tastings, nothing wrong with charging for tastings. There are tons of people who do that.

Speaker 1:

What you might wanna consider is batching your tastings. This is something that saved me a lot of time when I got into a particular spot in my business. Sometimes you'll be answering the phone and you'll book a person. Okay, i can do you Wednesday. Okay, i can do you Friday. Okay, i can do you Tuesday. And then you're just doing, doing, doing, doing, doing and you're going back and forth, back and forth. You know you're bringing maybe you bring the candles or your sketchbook or your procrate. You know you're bringing all the stuff and then you're bringing it back home.

Speaker 1:

And I got tired of the back and forth so I said, uh-uh, every time someone reached out hey, we have tastings once a month. Number one what this did was it created FOMO, because if they missed it then they would have to wait until the next month. The next thing is it allowed me to schedule multiple people. So because of that, i can generally do about six or seven tastings per day. You don't wanna do any more than eight. You know, allow 45 minutes, but you're gonna cushion in an hour just in case you get a bride that talks too damn much or in case you're like me and you talk too damn much. So you just wanna factor in time plus in between that time, a little in between those sessions, give yourself a little time to, you know, wipe down the table, tinkle, check in on your hubby, kids, do what you have to do. But when you book them back to back to back, you're only doing it one time per month. You're cutting down on time. It helps you to be a lot more productive in the other areas. When you're operating your home baking business And then if people are all paying for that box, then you can use the revenue that they've given you because they've been giving you the revenue all throughout the month. As you're booking them on this particular day, you can use that revenue and then that's what you use in order to pay for the banquet hall or to tip the coffee shop owner. Please tip if people, if any of these places allow you to do for free which coffee shops, culinary schools, clubhouse probably will tip something, buy something, pay it forward. Just be a cheap-see person. So that's just one of the ways that you can manage your time while you're doing your tastings, all right. So that's it If you're a member of the entrepreneurial community.

Speaker 1:

We talked a lot about tastings and booking more brides this week. So log into the community. Checkouts the class. We had some amazing instructors who I reached out to. I wanted the best of the best to come and teach my students and I feel like I got them. I had two amazing instructors who came important to helping my students book more brides. And even if you're not a member of the community, just continue to work on ways. The tasting is very important, but just remember, it's all about the experience. So think about how you can set an experience and what you can do in order to go above and beyond to please the bride that you're working with so that you can seal the deal. Okay, i hope these 10 places to host wedding cake tastings help to open your mind if you're looking to offer wedding cakes in the future or if you currently offer wedding cakes now. That's it for now. Talk to you later. Bye, for now.

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