But by no means any business is what it seems at first glance, and confectionery dreams are not an exception. To make the business profitable and pay off, you need to make a lot of efforts and provide a lot of «pitfalls.»
With illusions, novice businessmen will have to say goodbye already at the stage of preparation for the opening, after all the confectionery so desired for you, it may be completely unnecessary to other townspeople. Therefore, before undertaking the opening, study the market.
Fragrant croissants, bright cakes and breathtaking cakes, hidden behind the glass of the cafe, delight the eye and heart. The very thought of a beautiful cozy confectionery evokes a sense of celebration. That is why there are many willing to open such a place to work in an easy atmosphere and get good money for it.
Where to begin?
There are two possible ways at once. The first of them is to order a full-fledged marketing research in a specialized company. This option is suitable except for those who are not limited in money: the price of research is quite high. For example, in Orenburg it is about 90 thousand rubles. For this money, you get a full report of existing competitors, including the products they offer and price policy.
Those who have every kopeck on their account, it is better to resort to the second path of studying the market – to do everything yourself. There are no special difficulties in this. To begin with, you need to identify similar points in the city and bypass them, personally buy products in them and try it, and also get accustomed to what others are buying.
It will not be superfluous to look into big supermarkets, where there is own production of baking and confectionery. This will allow you to better understand what people are buying and in what volume.
After such a campaign you should have an idea of your target audience.
It is best to pay attention to such an audience as mothers with children.
The fact is, in recent years there is a demographic boom, many children are born. Over time, they grow up, but there’s nowhere to go with them. Therefore, any business, one way or another focused on children, is quite promising.
After you have decided on the portrait of your buyer, the question of pricing will be much easier to solve. The price of products, and all the other nuances of business, will depend on what format of the confectionery you choose. And here again two options are possible.
The first is confectioneries of the lower price segment, which offer an assortment for each day: the most popular types of products.
The second is the premium confectionery. In such establishments the price tag is higher due to the use of more expensive ingredients. And they can be expensive for a variety of reasons, for example, because all products are only natural-no ready-made mixtures used in conventional confectioneries-or because these ingredients are rare for Russia.
Investment size
Investments in this business can vary considerably depending on the format of the confectionery. Opening a full-fledged cafe-confectionery, designed for the average consumer, will cost no less than 3 million rubles. This amount includes renting a room in a sleeping area, carrying out repairs, as well as buying equipment: a refrigerator table, a freezer table, several plates for 4 comforts, an induction cooker, two showcases for baking, a showcase for bread, a coffee machine.
Selling bread in a pastry shop will allow «luring» more customers – people often buy cakes, going to the store for bread, but directly for sweets are less.
Prices for such equipment will vary greatly depending on its type and supplier. According to experience, the cost of the most necessary – about 650 thousand rubles:
- 217 thousand rubles for a shop window,
- 64, thousand rubles – for a refrigerator table,
- 77,7 thousand rubles – for a table-freezer,
- 168 thousand rubles – for «induction,
- 122.6 thousand rubles – for the stove.
How much you spend on purchasing consumables depends on what kind of confectionery you plan to cook and sell.
Where can I get money?
Obviously, not even 3 million rubles are «hidden» by every novice entrepreneur. Therefore, before anyone who wants to open their own confectionery, the question arises: «Where can I get money?». And here you can go in several ways: borrow from relatives or acquaintances, arrange a loan with a bank or apply to various institutions for supporting entrepreneurship for a grant.
From personal experience
To open a confectionery, you have to take a loan. The likelihood that you will be given a grant, when you are just going to open a company, is very small. The support fund should be contacted when your business is already working. A free grant will make it easier for you to repay the loan. Keep in mind that getting a grant is a rather troublesome business: you need to prepare a lot of documents, come to the commission and prove to her that you want to work, that you are the best and that you have grandiose plans. All this takes a lot of effort and time, but still brings results.
Advertising budget
An important item in the launch phase is advertising. Although in today’s realities, you do not necessarily have to invest huge amounts in advertising campaigns on TV. The main thing that should be emphasized is social networks. In them, your confectionery must be present. More often, moving in social networks, you can do «little blood.» For example, you can negotiate with local media personalities who in their accounts will praise your cakes, getting in return some gifts from you.
As a rule, it is social networks that lead to the customers’ confectionery: in the morning you «hang out» a beautiful photo of the muffin in the Instagram, and in a couple of hours they come to you to buy it.
All other advertising channels require testing: they can work in your city, or they may not work. For example, some confectioners have a very good effect on advertising on the radio, but the placement on television and distribution of leaflets and flyers with shares like «Buy a cake and get coffee as a gift» did not work.
Expenses of the confectionery
Investments in the business of a confectionery are quite large, but in profitability it will not be possible to go out immediately. Therefore, at first, and possibly in the future, the entrepreneur will want to save on current costs. To understand what you can save on, you need to know the main items of expenditure.
First of all, the owner of the confectionery will have to spend monthly on rent, payroll and utilities. By the way, the costs for the last article will be quite large: for the operation of furnaces, freezers and shop windows, a lot of electricity is needed. But it is possible to save money on it. To do this, first of all you need to work with the staff, adjust it to the economy and rational use of technology.
A big article of financial losses is connected with the write-off of products. What is written off, as you know, is no longer for sale. But the problem is that not only «non-standard» or overdue goods can be written off, but also quite good products and finished products. But they will not go to the trash, but go home to unscrupulous sellers and confectioners.
To minimize this possibility, it is necessary to closely monitor the issue of product write-off. To do this, you will constantly analyze sales, watch seasonal surges or recessions, maintain a special calendar-calendar, based on the work of last month, last week and last year. Such a schedule should always be before your eyes. Only such scrupulous control allows you to save on write-offs.
Step-by-step instruction
As already mentioned above, in order to open your confectionery, you first need to analyze the market. This will help determine whether your city needs a confectionery in general and what it should be. After the analysis was carried out, it is already easier to choose the format: economy or premium. Keep in mind that the premium confectionery is not so much for expansion. If you work with an economist, you can build a whole network over time, then one or two institutions with premium sweets will suffice for a million-strong city.
After you analyze the market and choose the format, you need to start looking for suppliers of equipment and raw materials. Equipment suppliers need to be selected at both prices and reviews. For the latter you can always apply to the forums of entrepreneurs, it will help to gather the necessary information. Even if after reading you have some questions, you can always write a message to someone from the discussion to clarify how this or that device behaves in production.
Tip
It will not be superfluous also to contact the equipment repair companies. The conversation with the master will help you to understand which equipment manufacturers require repair most often. The most «non-persistent» models are better not to acquire: the costs of repairing them can cover all profits.
As for raw materials, here again everything depends on the chosen format of the confectionery. In the economy it is better to work with ready-mixed compounds. Such «powder» products are produced today almost for everything: biscuits, bread, cheesecakes, etc. Cook from such mixtures faster and easier, your confectioner has almost no chance to spoil the product.
Premium segment provides work with «live» products, and this implies additional complexity. Confectionery products require strict observance of proportions and recipes and do not tolerate any experiments or connivance. Accordingly, the probability that a completely natural cake will be spoiled by too much baking powder or not enough whipped eggs is much higher than when working with powders.
It is preferable for beginners to work with finished mixtures.
Very many people start with this, and later they switch to natural products, because confectioners by vocation work so much more interesting.
Whatever you choose – powders or natural products – you need to choose the suppliers of raw materials for approximately the same criteria. The first thing that is important to pay attention to is the composition. The more natural it is, the better the quality of the products. The second is the taste. Before buying a large batch of powders or milk, it is necessary to taste the products. If you decide to make a «fashion» institution, where everything is prepared from farm products, you need to visit the farm and assess its condition, see in what conditions animals are kept or grown cereals and fruits.
It will not be superfluous to begin looking narrowly at the staff for the confectionery. You will need both a confectioner and sellers. And the latter are no less important for the case. The seller must follow the labeling of products, the period of its validity. He also monitors compliance with the temperature regime and removes the products in the refrigerator.
For the seller it is necessary to register the whole algorithm of work and communication with clients from A to Z: he must know the range and pass certification for this knowledge, he must know the «cliche» – certain words of communication with the guest, especially those who came for the first time.
In addition, the seller must understand where he works. Yes, yes, and it’s not just the name of the confectionery. He should know the main features of your confectionery, understand how it differs from others.
Given that the pastry shop is open every day, you will need at least two confectioners and two sellers. They can work according to the schemes «2 working days – 2 days off» or «3 working days – 3 days off». The choice of such a scheme is not accidental. First, your confectionery should have a certain mode of operation. It is important to open up before the working day begins for visitors working on a standard five-day day. Many of them take their children to school by 8 am, and after they look in the pastry shop to drink coffee and have breakfast, while there is time to work. The same applies to work in the evening.
You have to «hook» people hurrying home and decided to go on the road for baking. Therefore, to close at 6 pm there is absolutely no sense, it is better to work until 8-9 pm.
At the same time, the staff is in the confectioner’s shop not only during working hours. Usually, employees come about an hour before opening. This time is spent on turning on and warming up the coffee machine, bringing frozen semi-finished products to the ready, so that fresh bread is ready for opening, put everything in the display case. But immediately after the closure of the staff does not go away, because there are still a lot of things to do: cleaning, closing the cash desk and calculating revenue, etc.
In parallel with the search for staff, you need to choose a room for the confectionery, and the requirements for it again will largely depend on the chosen format.
A place
Confectionery premium segment is the place – in the center of the city, although rent there and more. So you not only «hook» the walking and resting people who are ready to spend money on the sweet, but also those who are ready for some culinary masterpiece to come from a remote area.
More unpretentious confectioneries with the most popular assortment and modest prices are better placed in the sleeping area. A good place is also in shopping centers with good attendance. A particularly good solution is to place such a confectionery at the supermarket outlet.
Also for accommodation is quite suitable and the first floor of a residential building. Confectioneries, as a rule, do not cause any complaints from neighbors. After all, there is no loud music, no alcohol – nothing that irritates the tenants of the house. Although it is better not to open a confectionery in a multi-story building. According to the rules, food production should be equipped with ventilation and extraction. The latter should be put out two meters above the roof level.
According to the requirements of the legislation, the confectionery must comply with the requirements of the SES to the public catering enterprise. However, in practice, no strict requirements are imposed on confectionery companies.
The area of the confectionery depends mainly on your capabilities. For example, we have a small point for the sale of confectionery in the shopping center, which fits in 15 square meters. This is our smallest confectionery. And the biggest one takes two floors: at the first one you can buy cakes for takeaway or you can drink coffee here at the table, and on the second cooking the confectioner is engaged.
Much more important is the condition of the room. It must necessarily have ventilation, water and electricity. To get started, you have to invite SES, which will check the premises for «suitability» for organizing food production. In addition, the SES will have to conclude an agreement on laboratory and production control. This means that officials will take samples of your products and check its safety.
In addition, the premises must comply with the requirements of fire supervision, so this instance will also have to conclude contracts. The confectionery is a fire hazardous production, because it has powerful furnaces. Therefore, a fire alarm must be installed. You also need a second input in case of emergency.
Documentation
Any business requires mandatory registration. A cafe-pastry shop can be registered both as an LLC and as an IP. The second form is still preferable, because it is easier to work with it. LLC, in general, you need those establishments where alcohol is sold, and the confectionery does not.
But when working as an IP you can, for example, refuse from the cash register. At the same time for LLC is required not only the cash register itself, but also a special contract for its maintenance.
For an individual entrepreneur, all costs associated with taxes will be substantially lower.
For example, working as an IP, you can use the patent system of taxation, which will make it possible to do without regular deductions of personal income tax, VAT and personal property tax. Instead, it’s enough to buy a patent and forget about tax hikes for the entire period of its operation. This move allows you to save both money and time.
Also, when registering a business, it is worthwhile to know that, according to OKVED, the confectionery passes as «Production of bread and flour confectionery products of non-durable storage» and has the code 15.81.
Now all communication with SES and Rospotrebnadzor is notified. That is, to open a confectionery, you do not need to get any permits, just tell the health services that you are.
Under the law, verification from the SES or Rospotrebnadzor can come to you only after three years of work, and during this time it is quite possible to have time to get on your feet and eliminate some minor flaws, if they were. But keep in mind, in case of a complaint from visitors or neighbors, if you open in an apartment building, the services will come to you immediately. In case of gross violations, they can cover the institution for a period of 90 days, and this is a huge loss. Therefore, it is better to work by the rules.
To do this, you will need to conclude an agreement with the stations of pest control and deratization. On it, the confectionery will be processed from insect pests and rodents.
Another important document is a garbage collection agreement. By the way, contracts for waste disposal and pest control may already be concluded by your landlord. In this case, you do not need to make out additional documents.
Documents are also needed for the equipment. It’s about the maintenance contracts for the furnaces that you contract with the suppliers. Similar contracts will be needed for ventilation and fire alarm systems.
Check-list of opening
- Market analysis,
- Analysis of competitors (monitoring of assortment, prices, etc.),
- The choice of format (economy or premium),
- Search for rental options,
- Estimation of a place of rent, calculation of the traffic,
- Conclusion of the lease agreement,
- Registration of IP and registration with the tax inspection,
- Formation of the menu and assortment,
- Credit arrangement,
- Search for suppliers of production equipment,
- Conclusion of contracts for the maintenance of production equipment,
- Search for suppliers of trade equipment,
- Search for suppliers of raw materials,
- Negotiations with suppliers,
- Conclusion of the contract for ventilation maintenance,
- Room metering for a design project,
- Creating a design project
- Drawing up an estimate of construction (list of necessary furniture, building materials),
- Search for a construction team,
- Buying building materials,
- Ordering furniture and interior items
- Repair work,
- Installation of fire alarm,
- Notification of SES and Rospotrebnadzor,
- Conclusion of contracts with the service of disinsection and deratization,
- Conclusion of a solid waste export agreement
- Development of an advertising campaign for the opening,
- Development and coordination of the signboard, its installation,
- Development of shares, discounts and other marketing activities,
- Search for an accountant on outsourcing,
- Search technologist,
- Search for confectioners
- Search Sellers
- Interviewing, selection of candidates,
- Scheduling shifts,
- Drawing up and sending an application for goods,
- Festive opening.
Is it profitable to open
The price policy in your institution will depend on two factors: the average price level and the cost of production. As a rule, if all the confectionery is produced by your own institution, you can make a «cheat» 4 times. Although this figure can be increased, reducing the cost of production through the use of substitutes. For example, instead of mango purée, you can use a tinted and flavored apple puree. But it’s better, of course, when the products are really what they are for.
It is worth immediately preparing for the fact that the confectionery is a business for the soul, and not for quick earnings.
Investments in the project are quite large, and the payback period can be very long – about 5-7 years. The fact is that the equipment breaks down quite quickly: the showcase has not yet managed to recoup itself, but it already requires refilling with a freon.
To make the confectionery of the economy segment profitable, you need to make purchases about 100 people a day with an average check from 80 to 200 rubles. To work «at zero», attendance should be about 70 people a day. These indicators are valid for the most popular products – coffee and cakes. They do not take into account the sale of whole cakes, for which the picture is quite different.
Tip
To increase profits, you need to make the offer more diverse. You can do this through additional sales through the online store, sales of coffee and tea with you or ready-made gifts in a beautiful box. In addition, a good increase is given by master classes for children, on which kids can paint gingerbread or decorate capkeys .
Ironically, the confectionery business is associated with a certain seasonality. For example, in spring the share of sales with yourself is growing. Hard candy can happen during the posts, but the growth in revenue falls on various holidays and the summer season of weddings. The latter allow you to make good money selling large cakes entirely.
In addition to the long payback period, the business of confectioneries is connected with other «pitfalls». Confectionery products require very strict compliance with the technological map. When the confectioner begins to improvise and deviates from the standards, it turns out to be quite serious losses for business: the cakes are not baked, the cream does not beat, etc. As a result, the consumption of food wasted.
For the owner of a pastry shop this means the need for constant monitoring. The confectioner should know that you are at any time aware of what he is doing. Of course, it’s impossible to personally «stand over your soul» for a whole day, so it is important that the employee himself be responsible. In addition, you need a good technologist who will map correctly. Assistance in monitoring will be provided by surveillance cameras and inventory of balances.
As for the latter, in production, it must be held once a month. At the same time, it checks how the product is stored, what it is quality, whether there are markings on it, etc. Inventory of sales should be even more often – daily.
