This past May I had a predicament. I was planning on going to Florida with my friends, however, I had no money saved up. I was determined to make some money for the trip but I didn’t know how. I was unemployed at the time so I didn’t have many options. One faithful day changed that for me. We were having an end-of-year food day in AP English and I decided that I would bring bread. I wanted to try to make an old apple bread recipe my mom used to bake. When I brought it to school the next day, people absolutely destroyed my bread. The bread was completely gone! It was so good in fact that people said they would pay me to make some. That’s when the idea of starting a bread business developed into reality. The next day I brought bread to school and it was completely sold! Then the next day I brought even more and it also sold out! For a week this continued until the school year ended and I walked away with 300$ for the trip! 

When summer started business slowed down a bunch. I stopped cold turkey when school ended but picked up business a month later. I would go around town and make deliveries and also sell at local businesses. I would go to chick-fil-a and sell bread to customers and employees. I would also go to Game x Change and sell to the staff. I even made muffins once and sold them to a friend. The business was still slow but I made enough money to make profit. Until the middle of July, I kept this up until I had to go to a few summer camps. I actually brought bread with me and shared it with my friends. Then when school started, I got hired at Game X Change. This change in my life caused the business to stop. Once I left Game X Change, I needed a source of income again. So I started the business back up in December and I’ve been baking bread ever since!

How does one start their own bread business you may ask? I recommend first learning how to bake. Before I started the business I had been baking for 2 years at that point. I would walk into my pantry and look up a unique bread and make it at home from scratch. It was one of my main hobbies during quarantine. Secondly, I recommend saving up 200$ for ingredients and supplies. The supplies that are required are bread pans, food scales, a whisk, a wooden spoon, spray oil, and tin foil. For the bread pans, I normally use aluminum pans and steel pans. If you want to save money, try to focus on buying disposable aluminum pans. The food scale needs to be able to weigh in grams to accurately determine the size of the bread. The whisk and spoon are used for mixing the ingredients. The spray oil is detrimental to keeping the loaves in one piece. Finally, aluminum foil is great for wrapping bread.

Once you have all the supplies, figure out what recipes you want to sell. Try looking in an old cookbook or look around on Pinterest. Once that is decided, now it’s time for ingredients! I recommend shopping at Walmart or sam’s club. Both stores sell ingredients in bulk for decent prices. Once all the ingredients are decided, it’s time to bake! Make sure to use a convection oven because you don’t want the bread to be unevenly cooked! Finally, wrap and label the bread for the day. Now, you have successfully created a bread business, go sell!