Many coffee shops have no oven and no baker, and a pastry case sells coffee, which is why they buy baked goods. Getting in is mostly legwork, done in order. First make sure you're allowed to sell to a café at all: in many places a home baker can sell only to the people who'll eat the food, so café accounts take a licensed kitchen. Then settle your wholesale price, minimum order, delivery days and payment terms before you walk in, because the first question will be price. Pick cafés that don't bake their own and don't already carry what you make. Visit at a quiet hour, ask for whoever orders, and leave a sample box with a one-page sell sheet. Follow up in a week. Offer a short trial order, and turn it into a standing order with the terms written down, including what happens to what doesn't sell. Expect more noes than yeses, so track every café. In the example below, a Milwaukee brownie maker visits ten cafés and comes away with three new standing orders.
The short version
- Check that your license lets you sell to a café for resale.
- Know your wholesale price, minimum, delivery days and payment terms first.
- Pick cafés that don't bake and don't carry what you make.
- Visit at a quiet hour; leave a sample box and a one-page sell sheet.
- Follow up a week later; offer a trial order of a week or two.
- Write down the standing order's terms, including unsold items.
- TaroStack keeps each café as a customer, with its orders and deliveries. More below.
The steps
| Step | What to have ready |
|---|---|
| 1. The license | A license that covers selling to businesses for resale |
| 2. Price and terms | Wholesale price, minimum order, delivery days, order deadline, payment terms |
| 3. The list | Cafés without an oven, in a delivery loop you can drive |
| 4. The visit | A sample box, a sell sheet, 10 minutes at a quiet hour |
| 5. The follow-up | A call or visit a week later, with a trial offer |
| 6. The standing order | The terms in writing, delivery set, the first invoice |
The license question by state is in license to sell baked goods, the price in how to price baked goods for wholesale, and the one-pager in sell sheet template.
An example: ten cafés in a week
Lakeshore Brownie Co., the made-up brownie maker in a Milwaukee shared kitchen I use in these examples, sold to two cafés and wanted more. Wisconsin's home baker rules cover only sales straight to the people who'll eat them, so the café accounts run on its licensed kitchen. Its terms: $2.50 a brownie, a dozen minimum, delivery Tuesday and Friday, invoices paid in 14 days, and unsold brownies the café's, not returned. Each brownie goes out in film with a sticker.
In the week of September 14 the owner visited ten cafés between 2 and 4 in the afternoon, leaving a box of four, two fudge and two blondies, wherever someone was willing to taste:
| What happened | Cafés |
|---|---|
| Visited | 10 |
| Bake their own: no samples | 2 |
| Sample box left | 8 |
| Said no at the follow-up | 2 |
| Still deciding | 2 |
| Trial order, then no | 1 |
| Standing order | 3 |
The three new cafés take 24, 18 and 12 brownies a week, 54 in all, which with the first two makes 114 a week. At $2.50 against $1.66 in ingredients, packaging and labor, the new accounts add $45.36 a week. The eight sample boxes cost $54.56, about $18 for each café won. The café that tried and stopped said its customers wanted something gluten-free; the two still deciding get a second visit in October. How the brownies are wrapped is in how to package brownies for sale.
Get the tracker
Download the café tracker. One sheet: each café, whether it bakes its own, the visit, the sample box, the follow-up date a week later, its status and its weekly order. Beside it, your price and cost, and the totals, the weekly margin and the sample cost per new account fill in. It's an ordinary Excel file with no macros, and it works in Google Sheets, LibreOffice and Numbers.
Where this stops working
Five cafés on two delivery days is a list on the fridge. When one café skips a Friday and another doubles up for an event, the list stops matching what was delivered, and the baking count for Thursday night is a guess.
How TaroStack does it
TaroStack keeps each café as a customer, with its orders and deliveries.
Customers and orders. Each café is a customer, and its orders go in as sales orders for their delivery day.
Delivery notes with lots. Each delivery has a picking list and a delivery note with the lot on it, so a recall knows which cafés got which bake.
Planning. On Standard, the week's orders turn into what to bake and what to buy, as a draft you approve.
| The job | Notebook | In TaroStack |
|---|---|---|
| What each café gets this Friday | The fridge list | Sales orders by delivery day |
| Which bake went to which café | Not recorded | Lots on delivery notes |
| How many to bake Thursday | Added up by hand | Planning, on Standard |
Customers, sales orders, delivery notes and lots are on every plan, from $49 a month; planning is on Standard, at $99 a month. The first 30 days are free, with no credit card. If you'd like a hand setting up, ask, and we'll do it with you.