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Should You Take Custom Orders in Your Microbakery? | Episode 32

Nov 12, 2024
7 min read

Updated: Aug 13

Listen on Apple Podcasts or watch on YouTube


You have just finished a long baking day. You are finally sitting down, and your phone lights up with a message asking for a custom batch of your cinnamon rolls for a family celebration this weekend, which is two days away.


Everything in you wants to say yes. This person values what you make, they came to you, and you do not want to leave them without dessert for a big occasion.


Before you answer, let's figure out whether it is the right yes. Because a custom order that does not fit your capacity or your process turns into a very fast recipe for overwhelm, and the person paying for that is usually you.


Custom orders are flattering, and that is exactly the problem

When you are new, a custom request feels like proof that the work is good. Someone noticed, someone wants more, and someone is willing to pay for something made just for them.


That feeling is lovely, and I never want you to lose it. It just makes a poor decision-making tool.


The real questions are whether you have the capacity for it and whether you have the experience to deliver it well. If you are still working out your own processes, saying yes to everything leads to stress, and often to a product you are not fully happy with. A rushed timeline and an unfamiliar recipe usually show up in the finished box.


A gentle no, said with integrity, can serve everyone better. You can refer the request out to another local baker who is a better match for what they want. A clear, respectful note keeps your reputation intact and builds real community among the bakers in your area.


If you say yes, build the system first

Plenty of food producers have entire businesses built around custom work, so this absolutely can be made to work. It just has to genuinely fit your business model and your capacity.


Here is what needs to be in place before you accept your first one.


Write a custom order policy. Define what you will take on and what you will not. Maybe you accept custom orders on cookies and scones and never on your sourdough loaves. Maybe you opt out of anything that requires recipe development or an unusual amount of hands-on time. There is real power in a clear no. A firm, specific no is every bit as useful as a yes.


An example of the wording: I am happy to accept custom orders for sourdough cookies with at least a week's notice. I do not take custom requests on my sourdough loaves.


Set a minimum. Decide the smallest order that makes the work worth your time, whether that is six cookies, a dozen, or two dozen. A minimum means that when a customer wants a special flavor, they are ordering enough for you to run a full batch, so you are not left with extra product that has nowhere to go.


Set a lead time. Seven days, ten days, two weeks, whatever you actually need to get ingredients in, test the recipe if it is new, and fit the bake into your week. Write the number into your policy and hold it. Breathing room is the whole point.


Price it for profit. Calculate the cost of your ingredients for that specific order, including any special spices, flavors, or inclusions, and add the extra hands-on time and anything like delivery. Then tell the customer up front that custom orders are priced higher because of the extra time and ingredients involved. Put that sentence right in your policy so nobody is surprised at pickup.


Say what you do not do. If someone asks for a flavor you have never made, you can kindly explain that you offer the flavors on your menu, or that you would need time to develop the recipe and the testing cost would be reflected in the price. Clear communication up front is what keeps the surprises out of your week.


Three things that make custom orders run smoothly

  • Use templates. My notes app is full of them. Any time I catch myself typing the same thing twice, it goes into a note so I can paste it instead of writing it again. Build one intake form that spells out your lead time, your minimums, and how pricing works, plus fields for flavor, quantity, and pickup date. Send the same form every time and you have everything you need from the start.

  • Collect prepayment before you deliver. I learned this one the hard way. I handed over an order without taking payment first, and getting paid afterward was like pulling teeth. It was miserable. I only had to make that mistake once. Learn it from me instead.

  • Schedule custom bake days. Rather than letting one-off orders interrupt your regular flow, pick a day of the week or a couple of days each month that belong to custom work. Your signature menu keeps its own protected time, and the custom orders get real focus in a block you already planned for.


My own policy, in case it helps

I do not accept custom orders at all.


I do not have the time or the capacity for them, and I have never sat down and built a real system for them. Without a system, a one-off request is exactly the kind of thing that slips through the cracks. That has happened to me before, where someone messaged me about a one-off and it got lost.


So every single order comes through my pre-orders in the Simply Bread app. I publish at the same time every week, I rotate the menu, and I tell customers ahead of time what is coming. They are always welcome to suggest or request a flavor, and I genuinely consider it. A lot of those requests end up on a future menu rotation, which is one of my favorite ways to plan a menu! What I say no to is the one-off custom order.


When I was first getting started I said yes to a few, and the stress far outweighed what I was paid for them. It was not worth it for me.


If my schedule ever changed and I revisited this, I would build a very clear ordering process with everything in writing, so customers know exactly what to expect and I know exactly what I owe them. And I would require a healthy ten to fourteen day lead time. Any time I doubt that I can deliver an order with excellence, the answer is no.


Donation requests are a different question

I get requests fairly often from community organizations running fundraisers, asking for a loaf or a tray of cookies. I usually say yes to those, with one condition: I get to decide what I donate, and it has to fit whatever I am already baking that week.


If I am putting a basket together for an auction, I use what is already on the schedule and simply make a little extra. I have one coming up where they asked for mini desserts, and since I already have scones prepped and frozen, I will bake off a sampler tray of minis. That is an easy yes, because it costs me almost no extra time and there is nothing new to forget.


I do write it down, though. The baking is the easy part. Remembering that the commitment exists at all is where these things fall apart.


If you are a year or two in, audit the yeses you already gave

Look back at the last three months of custom work you took on. For each one, write down what you charged, how many hours it actually took including messaging and shopping, and whether it pushed anything else in your week off schedule.


You will usually find one or two categories that pay well and fit your rhythm, and a long tail of requests that cost you more than they returned. Put the good category into a written policy with a minimum and a lead time. Take the rest off the table.


That is how custom work becomes a real revenue line instead of a series of favors.


Final thoughts

If people are starting to ask you for custom orders, sit down with the question before the next message arrives. Decide now whether custom work belongs in your business, and get clear on your yeses and your nos so you are not deciding at nine o'clock at night with a tired brain.


If the answer is yes, write the policy, set the minimum, set the lead time, price it properly, and communicate all of it up front. Do that and custom orders become the fun, creative part of your week instead of the part that wears you out.


And if the answer is no, that is a completely legitimate business decision. Mine has been no for a long time now!


Cheering you on,


Caroline


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