Escoffier On Line

Hi my name is Faith I'm a culinary student well this fall i will start my classes anywho my future goal is to open up my own bakery or like a sweets shop or something along those lines.. my question is what classes do i need to take to reach this goal like i know the pastry classes but like what business type classes should i take so i have the knowlage i need to open up my own business
thanks in advance
~Faith

Hi Faith,

Basic business and an entrepreneur class would be helpful but school is not what you need.

Experience and a lot of startup money is what it takes to open up a bakery that succeeds.

A friend with a BA in Business (pastry was a love he followed after finding he hated the 9 to 5 of business) was the Executive Pastry Chef at a 4 star hotel for 8 years doing about 12 million dollars a year in production (lots of big high number high end banquets) He then went to work as the exec chef/manager at a smaller private bakery business (around 2 mill a year) and worked there as chef and general manager for 6 years.

He opened up a moderate size bakery with his own and family money and struggled for 2 years, but now is doing very well.

He came very close to running out of money (including second mortgage on his house) but eventually his product caught on and he clicked. ( a couple of spots on local TV helped a lot)

He struggled because it takes a lot of time to establish a clientèle. It's also very difficult to compete with the bake shops in the big chains and supermarkets, even though the product is mostly frozen mass production stuff baked on site. In all but the most exclusive markets cheep crap for minimal bucks is the product of choice for the masses.

Keep the dream, work in some great places and learn on someone else's dime. If still into it work your way up to Pastry Chef, save your money. After a few more years then figure if this is really what you want to do. If it really is for you the time will fly by.

Best of luck!

Cheers,

G