You’ve got your home baking business up in running with all the right permits and wonderful smells are starting to waft out of your home kitchen. You’re starting to make a few sales directly out of your home, but you want to expand your reach and start selling products out in your local community.
Where can you sell your home baked goods in California?
Here's a list of 6 places where you can legally sell your homemade goods:
Straight from your Kitchen
Chances are if you are already running your home baking business, you are already making sales directly out of your home to friends and family. This is great because you don’t need to go anywhere to set up shop and the customers all come to you.
You can take this one step further by setting up a space in your home in a more professional manner. If you have a spare room or area, you could dedicate it to showcase your products and create a place for people to enjoy your home baked creations in a café style. The options are endless and how you want to showcase your space and products is completely up to you!
Farmers Market
The local farmers market is a great place to target new customers who might be interested in your home baked products. The people who frequent these markets often appreciate the quality of local products but might not know about your business yet.
Find out when and where the local market in your area is, and go along one day to see what’s there and if it’s something you’d like to be involved with. Then simply contact the organizers of the market to discuss how you and your business can get involved!
A Food Stand
You don’t have to wait for a market to create a stand to sell your goods – you can set up a stand whenever and wherever you like. Depending on what products you have, choose a place that people who are likely to buy your goods are going to be.
The destination best for your business will depend on your target customers. It could be a street corner, in front of the shopping center or nearby the school. Brainstorm places you think would be a good place to set up a stand and see how it goes!
At Special Evens and Venues
It can be a good idea to make the most of local events in your area, as well. There are often a lot of people at these events, who just may be looking for quality home baked products and eventually become regular customers.
These can be a great way to give your business a boost, as there will often be many new customers that come to buy your products. It can be a little stressful at times during the busy periods of events, but is worth it for your business!
Phone and Internet Orders
You can also make the most of the Internet to make direct sales to customers. Setting up a website is a great idea to increase exposure of your business and you can also create an online order form. Customers pay online, then you receive the order and you start baking and deliver or arrange pick-up.
If you prefer to speak with your customers, simply leave a phone number and they can contact you to place orders. Both phone and Internet orders make it easy for customers to buy your products, helping to grow your business.
“Class B” Permit Extras
If you have opted for a “Class B” permit, you have a few more options as to where and how to sell your homemade goods, because you can also make indirect sales.
This means that you are able to sell your products to retailers, who will sell your products to customers on your behalf. This may include the local grocery stores, cafés or restaurants. These businesses may also include your products as ingredients for foods on their menu to serve to their customers.
There are many places where you can sell your home baked goods and grow your business. It’s exciting to find new customers and make more sales as people appreciate the quality of food baked in the home kitchen!
