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Microbakery Q&A: Bookkeeping, Menus, Markets and Packaging | Episode 79

  • Apr 24, 2025
  • 6 min read

Updated: 3 days ago

Listen on Apple Podcasts


Some of the best questions I get are not the big strategic ones. They are the ordinary Wednesday ones. How many loaves do I bring to my first market. When do I finally hire a bookkeeper. Can I take that flavor off the menu when it is somebody's favorite.


I answered a whole hour of those questions live, and I am putting the real answers here. Grab a pen, because most of these are decisions you can make today.


When it is actually time to hire a bookkeeper

I did my own books for a long time, and I will tell you plainly that it was never my strong point. At tax time I would lose a solid day or two organizing everything I had not kept up with during the year.


I finally hired a bookkeeper in January, and the reason was not that the bakery got big. It was that I had more than one stream of income, the podcast alongside the bakery, and I was working toward a brick and mortar.


Here is the order I would put it in for you.

  • Separate your business money from your personal money first. Nothing else works until that is done.

  • Then open a QuickBooks account, or something like Xero if you prefer it. QuickBooks is the one nearly every bookkeeper already knows.

  • Link it to your business bank account so transactions pull in automatically, and categorize them as they land. That is what gives you real reports instead of a shoebox.

  • If you are small, you can absolutely do this yourself. A spreadsheet works too.

Hire it out when you have multiple streams of income, or when your books have become the task you avoid week after week. Avoidance is expensive in a way that never shows up on an invoice.


The Square and QuickBooks trap

I use Square as my point of sale at the market, and for the first several months I used Square banking too, because it felt natural to keep the money where it landed. Square integrates with QuickBooks terribly. It was a headache for me and harder still for my bookkeeper when she came on.


Keep Square for taking payments if you like it, and move the money out into a regular business bank account for everything else. Other banks link to QuickBooks far more cleanly.


Marketing to your own neighborhood without selling

Neighborhood Facebook groups are still one of the most powerful local tools we have, and Nextdoor works the same way because it is hyperlocal. The trick is how you post.


Post from your personal profile, not your business page, and tag your business page in the first line so people can click over and follow you. Then start a conversation instead of a sale. Something like: I love baking sourdough for my family, I have a few extra loaves this week, what should I do with them?


Every single time I have shared this strategy, the same thing happens. People give you ideas, and then people ask how they can buy. That is when you hand them your Simply Bread or Hotplate link.


Door hangers work too, especially with a cookie or a small loaf tied on in cellophane. And if there is a little cafe near you where you could pop up on the same Saturday morning each month, people start to know where to find you.


Rotate your menu instead of cutting anyone's favorite

The version of this question I hear most often is: I need to scale back, but every single item is somebody's favorite.


Rotation is how you keep both things true. My own menu is a handful of staples plus a couple of rotating flavors. The staples are my regular sourdough, my sandwich bread, my seeded sandwich bread, plain focaccia, herbed focaccia, and chocolate chip cookies. Then depending on my capacity I add one sweet and one savory inclusion loaf, and those are the ones that change. Last week it was jalapeno cheddar and cinnamon raisin.


I like to plan the month before it starts and post the whole rotation, so customers can see their favorite coming and plan for it. Three staples is a good rule of thumb, plus one to three extras depending on what you can genuinely handle.


Build that around your current capacity, not the capacity you wish you had. You will grow into more.


How to decide what comes off

Two tests, and you can run both this week.


The first is your numbers. Look at your profit margins and find the item that eats time and ingredients without paying you back.


The second is how you feel on bake day. When I was starting out I offered a rye. I loved that bread. Two to four people ordered it each week, so I mixed it by hand in a small batch, and I noticed I was putting it off and dreading it every time. That was my answer, and it came off the menu.


Dread is data. You can always bring something back later, hype it up properly, and let more people order it so it earns its place.


How much to bring to your first market

The rule of thumb I use is ten percent of expected turnout. If the market expects two hundred to three hundred people, twenty to thirty loaves is a reasonable number, plus a few cookies or scones on the side.


Start on the low end. Selling out is a good outcome. Use it: thank people publicly, tell them you shared twenty-five loaves with the community this week, and get them onto your list so they know how to order next time. When new people see those posts, they decide they need to try your bread too.


Then bring twenty-five, then thirty. When you bring thirty-five and do not sell out, you have found your number. Showing up at the same market again and again is what builds the regulars who make that number reliable.


Payments and packaging, boring on purpose

For payments, I use Square for cards, including tap to pay, and I take cash. That is it. If somebody asks about Venmo I can pull up a code, but I do not advertise it. Fewer options are easier for you to manage and easier for a customer standing in front of you.


For packaging, professional and consistent matters. Expensive does not. I use brown window bags and one white thermal label with my branding and product information on it. My bags run about sixteen or seventeen cents each and the labels are a penny or two. Bakery boxes can push close to a dollar, so use them where they earn it.


Pick one bag color and stay with it. A consistent label does more for how professional you look than fancy twine ever will.


While we are here: do not let logo design hold up your launch. I rebranded not long ago, changed my labels, even dropped a word from my business name, and nobody batted an eye!


If you are further along: decide your sourcing line

Get clear on where you stand on organic, because this is where margins get made or lost. For me, one hundred percent organic flour is a firm line, which makes flour sourcing simple. Other ingredients I buy organic when the margins support it.


Costco covers a lot of my organic staples. Azure Standard has good pricing, though their drop days are hard to predict. Restaurant supply stores like Restaurant Depot are excellent on King Arthur flour, high fat butter and fresh herbs, and many will let you in on a day pass. Check for a local co-op that can special order bulk sizes, and look for a grain mill near you.


If you are going fully organic, price higher and say clearly that you are selling a premium organic product. The right customers will find you and tell their friends.


Final thoughts

Almost every question on that call had a real answer that fits on one line. Separate the accounts. Post from your personal profile. Bring twenty-five loaves. Take the rye off the menu.


The reason they feel heavy is that we carry them around unanswered for months. So pick the one that has been sitting on you the longest and settle it this week. Then come tell me what you decided, because I love hearing it.


Cheering you on,


Caroline


Keep going

If the money questions are the ones weighing on you, start here.


Links to things you might like!


 
 
 

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