Before setting up this new business, I searched high and low for information. I wanted to create an outstanding business plan for the bank. It was really difficult to find numbers on opening a small bakery. Pretty much impossible. Other bakers from other cities really helped us out – but there was nothing concrete about what we were seeing. We looked at some businesses – but they didn’t really match the exact model we were trying to create. And those that did were not very profitable, and I didn’t want to believe what I was seeing.
So I have been pretty straight from day one and started the blog – and started posting on Facebook. Not as a way to complain about the perils of opening a bakery. Not to have people feel sorry for me, or even proud of the accomplishments if we make it. Just to help guide others ALL along the way on what is working and not working. Hopefully to inspire others to take a risk and persue their passion. Open their own business. Contribute to the world.
If you follow me, or are a friend – you KNOW to get financing what I put on the line. I didn’t have to at my stage of life. I could have taken the easy road and looked at retirement in 15 years no problem. But I REALLY wanted to do something that might make a difference to the world. If you have known me for years – then you also know it wasn’t that long ago I could have declared bankruptcy, had major financial issues and personal battles. But then again, many who have known me for years don’t hear me complain very often. Its’ not my style.
Why did I do this when I finally got myself on the road to being in a good place. Why take a risk? I’m not doing this to double down on my stake in life. You know why I am doing this – as stupid as this sounds to some of you?
I dream of helping others.
I dream of making their dream come true. To own their own business. To pursue a passion for what they do in life, and not go to ‘work’ every day until they die.
That’s where the story begins….and this story hopefully never ends but becomes an ever reproducing thing with many of the people I hire going on to own their own bakeries, cafes, whatever!! If I don’t make a dime but see people really happy about what they are doing – I will FINALLY feel like I have contributed something valuable to this world.
So – on to my RANT…
I am learning I have to not worry about what people think.
We are facing critics of our bread prices, our quality, our hours, our size – a million “you know what you need to do’s”.
I just want to show them the math and help them realize – you put your house on the line, work 15+ stressful hours per day, and we are not gazillionaires with a 100,000 square foot supercenter. We have limited resources and it takes back breaking all night labour in a bakery just to make a little bit of stuff! We aren’t Superstore or Safeway….
We are a small business with 1000 square feet with under 10 employees.
Our
prices are higher because we bake from scratch, and we want to pay our bakers what we think they are worth (which is only around the $20 per hour mark)- not what abusive conglomerates think they are worth (which in many stores is under $15 per hour!).
And even at that – and after hugely long shifts, and selling out every day – that just pays the expenses. This is a high volume, high risk, low profit business done for the reward of having someone LOVE that sourdoughbread, for the OMG look when someone bites into your coconut macaroon, or tells a friend they just HAVE to try that VEGGIE bread….We could have taken the easy way out, but we want to break the rulz.
Its’ our motto.
We don’t want to compete with other little bakeries. We hope to help them out. We hope to educate the public about a better product, to steal the thunder from the grocery store and coffee chains. And yet some of our first and worst critics have already been other bakers. Don’t they get it?? My god – they should for what they had to go through to open and stay open! Hello – let’s work together! Let’s help build each others reputations – let’s offer neighborhood bakeries with passionate bakers. Lets’ make sure they can get the local support and pay the bills and maybe even make a decent living!
I had to clear my mind. I LOVE what I do – and I am NOT afraid of hard work. I am really quite in my zone, finally running out of time to have my mind thinking of a milliion new projects to start.
Hot Racks Bakery hopes to become a local owned (and not by me – but by the bakers I hire and hope to help become owners of their own!) neighborhood bakery offering passionate products – amazing NEW recipes with loyal followers. My idea is not to be rich, but to help others realize their dreams.
Now maybe a few critics will understand what we are about and pay the extra buck for bread, find a way to be understanding when the product isn’t always perfect (but be good enough to help us get there instead of blasting us in public). Maybe they will bring back small business opportunities and get to know the local neighborhood trades people working all night to bring them a fresh bake.
Smile!!
Warren aka Money Racks