How to Sell Homemade Desserts to Restaurants
If you have a passion for baking and people with a sweet tooth have told you the desserts you make are delectably delicious, then consider marketing your sweet treats to area restaurants. Baking out of the home allows you to keep your overhead low as your business begins. Then, move to a larger commercial kitchen as your business grows.
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Instructions
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Contact the state food safety board and obtain a license. Each state has certain requirements for commercial kitchens that sell food to the public. Even if you are baking out of the home, the state considers you a commercial kitchen, since you are selling food to the public at-large. To obtain a proper license, you may have to have your kitchen inspected by a member of the department and you may need to pass a food safety test as well. Additionally, check with your city or county food commission as some local municipalities also require licenses as well as business licenses. You also will need to contact your insurance broker to discuss the different types of insurance you will need, including liability insurance.
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Determine what desserts you want to sell. Keep your focus on just a few items to start so you're not overwhelmed. For example, if you're famous for your chocolate pie among friends and family members, offer a chocolate pie as one of your items. It's better to offer a few excellent items, then trying to offer too many options that are only moderate at best.
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Price the cost of making your desserts. Create a master list of all the ingredients used for the totality of the items you are offering. Some desserts might share ingredients such as flour, sugar and eggs. Others may be specific to a dessert, such as special type of dark chocolate. Calculate the cost associated with each ingredient. For example, if a bag of flour is $2 and there is one-fourth of a bag in your chocolate pie recipe, then the flour cost is 50 cents ($2 / 4 = 50 cents). Repeat this process with each ingredient until a price is determined. Based on the price of each dessert, determine how much profit you want to make. Remember that the restaurant must still make a profit on your desserts, so if a cannoli costs $1 to make and you sell it for $2, the restaurant will probably mark it up to $3 or $4 depending on the dining style of the restaurant.
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Create marketing materials for your desserts and home-based business. Purchase and build a website as well as maintain social media pages dedicated to your business. The website should include information such as the products you offer, prices, delivery schedule and any miscellaneous information that is engaging, such as prizes or contests you've won for your dessert recipes. Additionally, create a logo and slogan for your business so that you are easily identifiable amongst other bakers. If you don't know how to design a logo, hire a graphic artist to assist you.
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Contact local restaurants and schedule a meeting. Speak with the food broker or manager of each restaurant, and tell him the dessert items you are offering. Try to match the type of desserts to the restaurant. For example, you'd sell homemade cannoli to an Italian restaurant and not a Japanese restaurant. Send along the promotional materials you created, such as brochures and links to your website and social media pages.
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Allow the food broker or manager to taste each dessert. At the meeting, explain your process of how you make each dessert. Remember, the attractive thing about your desserts is that they are homemade. If the manager simply wants something baked in a factory, there are plenty of options. Most importantly, the items must taste terrific. Provide ample samples for him to taste.
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Receive orders for your desserts. Repeat the process of contacting restaurants until you receive orders from multiple locations. Deliver the orders to the various restaurants and keep an open dialogue with the managers as to which desserts are having the best responses.
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Tips & Warnings
As you become more successful, expand the variety of items you offer. If you need additional kitchen space or staff, rent space from a commercial kitchen and hire workers experienced in baking.
References
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