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How I Grew a Microbakery to $45,000 in Year One | Episode 82

  • May 8, 2025
  • 6 min read

Updated: 2 days ago

Listen on Apple Podcasts or watch on YouTube


I started selling sourdough in September of 2023 because I had credit card debt from a previous business that had to go, and because my husband is a firefighter on rotating 24 hour shifts, which made a job outside the house almost impossible to schedule around.


I did not have a business plan or branding worth the name. I carried over the name from my old business, tweaked it into a bread company, and went to see what would happen.


Twelve months later I had brought in right around $45,000. Here is how that happened, with the real numbers, the equipment order, the products that actually sold, and the four things I would do differently if I started again tomorrow.


The Facebook post that started the whole thing

My first post went into a local neighborhood group, the kind of place where people ask for recommendations. It was conversational. I said I had been baking a lot, we had no freezer space left, and I did not know what to do with the extra loaves. I never wrote the words I am selling these.


That post blew up. More than 50 people messaged me asking how to buy bread!


A few days later I followed up in the same group and said thank you for the excitement, I baked more this week, here is the link to order. I went from two loaves to six. That is the whole strategy: use the buzz while it is warm, and give people one clear way to buy.


Two decisions came out of that first week and both of them stuck. I built an order form instead of taking orders in messages, because orders in messages fall through the cracks. And on day one I met a customer for a delivery, decided never again, and switched to porch pickup.


If you are just starting, do that first part better than I did. Set up a real pre-order platform like Hotplate or Simply Bread from the beginning instead of a manual system. I ran manual from September until February and it cost me clean records and a lot of headaches.


Equipment, in the order I bought it

This business runs on economy of scale, which just means you have to produce more with less effort before it pays you well. I could not go from zero to a bread oven, so I took steps and reinvested my earnings each time.

  • Week three: a baking steel, so I could teach myself to open bake and go from shuffling Dutch ovens with three loaves to four at a time. I also picked up large plastic bins from a restaurant supply store so I could mix without six bowls on the counter, a bench scraper, and a couple of Cambro tubs for my starters.

  • February 2024: I had an outlet wired in the room next to the kitchen and added a double oven, a 30 quart mixer, and a used freezer off Facebook Marketplace that I run as a fridge with an Inkbird temperature controller. Four loaves at a time became eight, and my sleep improved dramatically.

  • June 2024: I replaced that first $250 used double oven with a new, more efficient one that let me run two steels per oven. Eight loaves at a time became sixteen.

None of that happened at once, and none of it was a splurge. Each upgrade bought back hours and protected my energy, which is what let me work smarter instead of harder.


The year one numbers

From September 2023 to September 2024 I brought in right around $45,000. The first few months were manual, so some of that is not accounted for as cleanly as I would like.


Texas caps cottage food sales at $50,000, so even with more capacity I was limited by that number. Workshops do not count against the cap, which matters more than you might think.


My biggest single day was my last market in April of 2024 at $1,394. April was a huge month, because the new equipment was working for me and I was teaching workshops.


Here is what actually sold, in order:

  • Original sourdough loaf, over 820 sold

  • Sandwich bread, close to 300

  • Cookies

  • Jalapeno cheddar bread, which I do not like at all and keep bringing back because people love it

  • English muffins

  • Then cinnamon raisin, focaccia, blueberry lemon bread, and a rotating selection of muffins and scones

Two other numbers worth knowing. For Christmas 2023 my only holiday offering was small teacher appreciation variety boxes with a gift tag, and they brought in over $900. Selling them before the holiday rush let me take the rest of December off. About $3,500 of my year one revenue came from workshops I taught in April, May and June, usually to groups of three to five people.


Seven lessons the data handed me

  1. Your hero product matters. One item accounted for over 800 sales. When people know you for one thing, your business has an identity they can repeat to a friend.

  2. Batch friendly equals burnout proof. If a product cannot be made in bulk, it either needs a premium price or it needs to come off your menu. My deli rye never got more than four to six orders, so it had to be mixed by hand, so I procrastinated it, and it became a stressful scramble every week. I dropped it and no one has ever asked about it.

  3. A small menu beats a big one. The vast majority of my revenue came from under ten core products. People like a short, curated list, and they like predictability more than novelty.

  4. Consistency wins trust. Weekly posts in the same Facebook group brought me more visibility than any reel or ad, and I never paid for a single ad. I showed up where my people already were.

  5. Sales peaks are predictable. My best month was April 2024, and it was strong markets plus workshops around Easter. Look at your calendar, find the spikes, and plan for them instead of being surprised.

  6. Workshops bridge slow seasons. Spring workshops are what funded my better double oven and carried me into summer. A few well timed events beat teaching all year.

  7. Document your processes before you need to. Write down how you package, how you make labels, how you pre-measure. It makes hiring and onboarding help so much easier when the day comes.


The four things I would do differently

I priced by guessing. I matched what other people in local Facebook groups were charging, and there are products I now know I was badly undercharging for. Calculate the cost of your ingredients, know your margins, and price so you can actually pay yourself. That is why I built the Profit and Pricing Calculator.


I said yes to too much. There were weekends I did back to back markets and finished spread thin and drained. I do not do that anymore, and I do not take custom orders. I have nothing left to prove.


I would move to a pre-order app much earlier, so my customers learn one ordering method and my list builds from day one.


And I would bring on help sooner, even a couple of hours a week of dish washing. Documenting my systems earlier would have made that hire far less painful.


If you are past year one, run this audit

Pull your sales data for the last twelve months and rank every product by revenue. Look at the bottom of that list and ask which of those items are batch friendly. Anything that is neither a top earner nor easy to batch is eating your bake day, and it either gets a premium price or comes off the menu.


Do the same with your commitments. Back to back markets, custom orders and the pop-up someone talked you into are the same problem in a different shape.


Final thoughts

A lot of bakers get a rush of momentum in the first three or four weeks, and then the novelty wears off and there is a slump. That is the moment most people quit. I had weeks in the beginning with one order, sometimes none, and I kept showing up anyway.


You do not need twelve menu items. You do not need a big audience or ads. You need a solid product, a repeatable rhythm, and the willingness to keep going through the slow weeks.


Your first year is about learning what works for you. Pay attention to your kitchen, your capacity and your customers, and build the business around those three things.


Cheering you on,


Caroline


Keep going

If you are early in this, these three will help you take the next step.


Links to things you might like!


 
 
 

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