Let’s Talk about Cake, Business, and Everything in Between
Let’s Tackle Entrepreneurship, but With Cake
Entrepreneurship = Business + Addiction + Cake
Let’s talk entrepreneurship. Let’s talk about capitalism. Let’s talk about addiction.
For those of you who are thinking of a way into an industry that is recession-proof, COVID-proof, economic downturn-proof, and depression-proof, you would need to pander to something that will outlast all those things. This is just one of many, but one thing I know that can outlast and withstand all of those, is ADDICTION.
Let’s talk about some prevalent addictions. We have drug addictions, legal and illegal. We have alcohol addictions, and you have sugar addictions.
Sugar is a very legal addiction, and the reason sugar is better than the first 2 I just mentioned is because it’s not regulated. Sugar can be as addictive as cocaine, but it’s not regulated like alcohol or drugs. Pandering to people’s sugar addiction is just one of a bazillion ways to make sure you’re going to have income coming in at all times.
The case study we’re going to use today is a place called The Dessert Gallery, in Houston, Texas. I have a thing for cake. I love cake. One day, I went in and bought a cake. It was almost $9.00 per slice. Think about it, your average size cake is around 8 slices. So at $9.00 per slice, they are making $72.00 on each cake.
Personally, I’m a baker. I bake, I cook, I consider myself a chef. This is a self-determined title, but I consider myself a chef.
I make a four-layer cream cheese icing, all fresh ingredient carrot cake. It takes me a little while to do it because I shred the carrots, I cut up the pineapple, I put raisins in it, I do it all.
I do all this, and when I buy all the ingredients, including the fresh ingredients, I probably spend about $10.00, not counting my time, right? About $10.00 it costs me to make a four-layer ginormous cake with cream cheese icing, butter, everything.
These bakeries get a discount because they’re buying wholesale. They’re buying the flour wholesale, their sugar wholesale, everything. All their ingredients are wholesale. I would venture to guess that each cake they make might cost them $3.00 tops. Insane right?
If they’re putting some kind of ingredient on top of it like fresh strawberries, or some kind of high-quality chocolate ganache, that might add .25c. So, it’s costing them $3.00, they’re making $72.00 on average. That is an insane amount of profit, right?
Now you have to factor in operating costs, employee wages, etc. But, they make 20 different cakes, they sell cupcakes and cookies as well. They’re open, slinging cakes, cupcakes, cookies, petit fours, all day long—excellent customer service, great setup, beautiful shop, all of that.
So they’re doing it, they’re doing it big. They are making a mad profit.
Sweet Addict
All I’m saying is, people who are addicted to sugar, people who like cake and sweets, are everywhere. People have birthdays every day, there are graduations, parties, celebrations, etc. People also eat sweets when they are sad. Maybe they lost their job or are going through a divorce, sugar can sometimes be their outlet. So many events and celebrations are happening daily. There is a way that you can celebrate any of those events with sugar.
Because sugar is so addictive, you can outlast the market.
You can outlast the economy. You can beat out anything because people are going to go shopping. They’re going to buy their cake, and they’re going to eat it too.
If you want an idea for something that’s going to prevent a lot of the issues that many people have had during this pandemic, people not going out, not being able to go eat in restaurants, etc. People will put on their masks, and they will go into a bakery, and they will buy a cake. They can get it delivered. They will order it, and you just have to be the business owner that can make your customers feel safe and support their addiction.
As you are thinking of businesses to get into, or how to improve your own business, you have to pander to the things that will withstand downturns. My idea for the day is cake. The cake really does make everything better, and if you do it right, I think you have a business that will outlast most.
Good luck with your business ventures!
Eat cake and enjoy.
