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In this week's Baking it Down Podcast - Episode 278 - Cost Creepers, the Cookie College is comin' up with Blueprints (more on that soon), and the first 14-day Blueprint focuses on accurately pricing your bakes profitably - the key word being: profit.

One of the most insidious threats to your profit margin is sneaky overhead costs (also called indirect costs). These are the line items in your budget that are needed to make the sale but aren't directly related to that specific order - the Canva subscription to make the graphic that you posted to the Facebook ad that brought in the website lead that you added to your CRM software.

These costs are necessary for running a cottage bakery, but they can also grow out of control. That subscription to an STL library you never use can be just as dangerous as that website subscription that just increased in price (lookin' at you, Square).

And we're not telling you to hit the cancel button 100 times. We're challenging you to cut back the creep. What do you really need? What do you use so often that it may be worth the yearly upgrade for the discount? What can you sell to buy back some cash flow? What can you invest in to increase those margins?

💸 Software and Subscriptions

These are the sneakiest overhead costs because of auto-renewals, rate increases, and forgetfulness. That cutter box subscription? Maybe it's not helping you plan a set that resonates with your audience. That graphic subscription? Is there a plan downgrade that still fits the bill? That Canva subscription? Can you join a grandfathered team and get that price down? Always check back on these - I like auditing them at least twice a year and seeing if that subscription still serves my purposes.

💸 Business Expenses

These expenses are required to keep the business above board - your LLC renewal, that CPA's yearly invoice, your PO box, and the farmer's market fee. Don't forget - some of these can still be shopped around. Your insurance could be increasing year over year, and another company would love your money... I mean, business.

💸 Shared Utilities

As home-based businesses, we share the air conditioner literally with our families - some of that needs to be covered by the business and the rest by the home. Same with electricity, water, internet, trash, phone plans, gas - you get the point. These costs can fluctuate, but taking an honest look at whether your pricing covers these types of costs is important for creating a profitable business.

Once you take an honest look at your costs - overhead, labor, ingredients- and add in profit, you can see what needs to give and what needs to double down. And that's what we're doing with the Profit Blueprint - 14-day spreadsheet walkthrough that leaves you with an honest look at what your dozen actually makes you.

👂 Snag this podcast on any major podcast player (Spotify, Apple Music, Audible, Amazon Music, or watch it on YouTube) by searching for Baking it Down Podcast - Episode 278 - Cost Creepers.

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In this week's Baking it Down Podcast - Episode 277 - First Timer Follies, we're wrapping up our New Baker's series, talking about first-timer mistakes you don't have to repeat if you snag yesterday's episode.

When you're new to any industry, it's easy not to know what ya don't know - and that's what this beginner podcast series is for: to help new bakers miss the missteps when just getting started, saving them time (and tears).

You can reference the series here:

• 🎧 277. Baking it Down - First Timer Follies
• 🎧 276. Baking it Down - How To Turn Down Orders When You Need Orders
• 🎧 275. Baking it Down - Big Shoes Battle
• 🎧 274. Baking it Down - Allow Us to be Your Personal Yodas
• 🎧 273. Baking it Down - Content Cookies for Beginner Bakers
• 🎧 270. Baking it Down - The Right Foot when Getting Started
• 🎧 269. Baking it Down - Sugar Cookies as a Side Hustle

🙅‍♀️ Don't overbuy cookie cutters

Corrie said a big impulse when you're first out of the gate is to snag each and every cookie cutter, dreaming of a certain style of baker you want to be, typically centered around a specific aesthetic.

But it's your skill set and your client base that determines which cutters you'll find yourself reaching for most. So start with purchasing simple shapes and plaques - these are versatile shapes you can use again and again.

Oftentimes, bakers will end up never even touching the very cutters they spent their early dollars on - and that's a profit problem. Take notes from the folly of your elders - not every cutter is worth the squeeze when you're just getting started!

🙅‍♀️ Don't jump on trends

Trends are as awesome as they are a risk - you can make quick money, sure, but you can also be stuck with an endless supply of Labubu boxes or Target crates. Let the more established bakers snag those trendy sales - they have the audience for it and the skills for quick turnaround (before the trend dries up). Focus on popular (repeating) holidays at Christmas or Halloween that are guaranteed to come back in style year after year (and use up that extra pumpkin-shaped packaging).

🙅‍♀️ Have an order intake form in place

With Google Forms being free and Jotform being essentially free for new bakers, you don't have to learn that you need an intake process in place by missing an order or spelling a name wrong.

Take a lesson from every baker before you and make a form that gets all orders coming in to one place rather than managing texts, emails, Facebook messages, and Instagram DMs (it's only a matter of time before you miss some important detail that will force a refund or catch a bad review).

🙅‍♀️ Don't offer everything

You may feel like offering everything everyone wants will get you every dollar they have. Fun surprise - it actually works the opposite. Analysis paralysis + loss aversion + expiring ingredients = offering everything when you're just getting started can be bad news for profit margins.

Start with the basics, master that, grow the customer base, then add the cake pops + bronuts + sourdough, etc. When you're just getting your sealegs under ya, it's not the time to be adding more boats to the fleet.

👂 Snag this podcast on any major podcast player (Spotify, Apple Music, Audible, Amazon Music, or watch it on YouTube) by searching for Baking it Down Podcast - Episode 277 - First Timer Follies.