The 3 Main Challenges of Opening a New Bakery

If you’re a self-taught baker like myself and are considering opening a bakery, there are a lot of great challenges in front of you. Long working days of 14+ hours are going to become the norm, and chances are, you’ll be impeded by the lack of equipment, money, and skilled bakers that can properly run your bakery when you’re not there. However, if you’ve saved up a decent amount of money and have the right bakery equipment for the type of products you want to make, things will be significantly easier.

For instance, if your main attraction/product is going to be making some sort of special biscuits, cookies or doughnuts, you can make your life much easier by purchasing quality biscuit manufacturing machines, dough dividers, a depositor, and a filling machine. All of these are biscuit manufacturing machines that serve a very specific purpose and when you combine their uses together, you get a seamless cookie or biscuit producing operation. Moreover, you’ll need some general baking equipment like a mixer, a food processor, and a proofing cabinet.

Furthermore, you’re going to need a couple of essential baking supplies. While the baking equipment will do most of the heavy lifting, the smaller baking supplies will save you a lot of time and money on a day-to-day basis. Some of the supplies that should be found in any professional baking drawer and shelve include: measuring cups and spoons, rubber and metal spatulas, pan extenders, baking pans, cooling racks, dishers, mixing bowls, ingredient bins, dough boxes, baking mats, sifters, bench scrapers, decorating supplies and baking molds.

Even if you buy all of the aforementioned equipment and supplies, you’re still going to need to hire and train staff. The size of the bakery and the number of different products you want to produce will determine the number of people you will need. If you’re running a retail bakery, you’ll need front-of-house staff that will be in charge of taking orders and working the cash register, and a couple of more workers in the back of the house, preparing and baking your products.

Your bakery should have two bakers with experience and formal training to oversee the entire baking process, and you may need to hire some workers that don’t have the experience for washing dishes, packaging products, mixing ingredients, and performing other tasks that don’t require much expertise.