How to Start a Bakery Business in the Philippines

culled from:wikihow.com

Are you planning to put up a business? Why not try a bakery? It is profitable, can be started at home and allows the owner to grow the business gradually as his capital, interest and knowledge of the business increases.

With bread being the country’s second staple after rice, the bakery business is one of those ventures that is sure to bring multiple returns with just a minimal investment. By taking the time to learn the craft, you too can start your own bakery business and potentially make good money out of it.


Filipinos love to eat bread and the business minded should keep this in mind. Pandesal is the usual breakfast fare most Pinoys can’t do without before starting their days. Snacks are usually a few slices of bread taken with coffee, softdrinks or fruit juice. An aspiring bakery businessman should therefore have these two products in his list and expand from there.

In fact, any true-blue Pinoy should be able to recall a morning of eating hotpandesal with his or her family, an afternoon of eating siopao with friends, or the surprise of opening his or her lunch box at school and seeing a large, puffy, creamy ensaymada.

In the Philippines, breads are not just for eating. They are a tradition.

Steps

1

Study the business 

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   Before you put up a bakery, you must first learn how to bake. Many people make the mistake of putting up a bakery without first knowing how bread is baked. It is not enough that you hired bakers to do the work, you must also know the baking process so that your bakers would not give you a run-around.
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   A month of training is enough especially if the training program you enroll in has plenty of hands-on activities, meaning you are asked to bake and not just sit and listen and watch the demonstrations. There are a lot of training centers and culinary schools offering baking courses.
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   But the best baking courses are offered by the flour mills themselves. And more often than not, these courses are offered free of charge to prospective bakers as part of the company's marketing efforts. So get in touch with any of the local flour mills and ask for their training schedules.
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   Like all other businesses, the owner must be hands-on in running the bakery – from sourcing of ingredients, marketing, product development, and choosing the locations. Just like kneading dough, getting your hands dirty will let you feel the texture of the dough which will tell you if it is too soft or too dry. “You have to work hard for the bakery to succeed and grow. If you will let the bakeshop just run on its own, nothing will happen. But if you are hands-on, you will know what will be good for your business
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   Look for a good location
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   A food business like a bakery depends on high human traffic. Look for a location where people congregate like a market, near a school,hospitals, entrance of residential areas or maybe inside which consists of minimum of 2000 houses, a bus or jeepney terminal or even a tricycle terminal and put up your bakery there. Foot traffic areas consists of 400 cars. The people that populate your area are your target customers.
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   Suit your products to your customers
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   If your bakery is in Tondo, then your products should suit the people of Tondo. Do not produce pastries like apple streudels or Italian Rye Breads or Belgian cookies because these products are not the type that people in Tondo consume. These products are for the shopping mall crowd. Try producing pan de sal, Monay, tasty breads, ensaymada etc. These are bakery goods that people in Tondo are familiar with and regularly consume. Also, these are products they can afford.
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   Start small
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    It is better to start small especially if you are new in the business. If the business grows, then it will be easy for you to expand, rather than start big and downsize later. Suit the type and size of equipment you will buy to the volume of products you want to produce. remember, you should not produce more than you can sell.
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    Buy the right sized equipment
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    Do not get a mixer with a one bag of flour capacity if your oven can only take in eight plantas or 160 pcs of pandesal at a time. One bag of flour normally produces 1,880 pieces of pan de sal weighing 25 grams each. Get technical help from equipment dealers. Do not just deal with one. Get the best offer and technical advise you can get.
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    Maintain product consistency
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    Make sure that your bread tastes the same today as it did yesterday and as it would tomorrow. Customers return to buy bread when they like its taste. Do not give them a different tasting bread when they return because they will either complain or not return anymore.
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    Probably the most important aspect of any retail business is the quality of your products. In the bakeshop business, quality bread is equal to patronage. “Not only are our bread affordable, they are also made of good quality. From the ingredients to the process, make sure that your breads are made in the best possible way
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    Be good to your employees
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    Take good care of your employees and give them the right salary. If your employee is happy, they will take care of your business and make sure that your customers are happy too. A happy customer will always return and buy more. And you are assured that your business will grow.
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    A happy employee is more likely to create more sales and give better service compared to one that is grumbling. “You should always learn how to manage your people. Make sure that they follow the rules and regulations, especially the procedures on how to handle the products. As we are involved in food production, we are conscious of the sensitive and delicate nature of our business. Proper management of people will ensure that there is also efficient movement in the work area,”
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    Consider your Pricing
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    Products must be competitively priced but must also give you a decent profit margin. Because you are selling low-value products in quantity, it can be easy to think that pricing is not that important, but every peso must count. Remember Filipinos are barateros, they will prioritize Divisoria first before going to Greenhills.
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    Innovation
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    Learn from your customers: catering to peoples’ needs is essential if you want to beat the competition. Keep a note of what you sell each week and ask people for their opinions. Develop new products based on what is successful. Constant innovation is important as you’ll need to keep people interested and – by extension – coming back to you
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    Anybody who is serious in his venture knows the value of innovation. In a saturated industry such as bread-making, innovation will set apart a business from the rest. “While our competitors are always [monitoring us and our products], we continue to innovate with existing products to make them new,”
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    Good Service is the key to Success
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    Producing better and innovative products is not enough. Service must also be topnotch. “If people see that your staff are wearing proper uniforms, observe cleanliness, and offer good service, people will keep coming back to your bakeshop. Sometimes, if all products are the same, the customer will choose a store that has the better service.