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What a $5,738 Month Looks Like in a Sourdough Microbakery | Episode 103

  • Oct 2, 2025
  • 7 min read

Updated: 3 days ago

Listen on Apple Podcasts


September was one of the fullest months I have had in this business. I was still baking out of my home kitchen while building out the brick and mortar space. My husband traveled for two weeks. We homeschool our kids. It was a lot.


I am not burnt out, and I want to be clear about that, because a few listeners worried after my last episode. I am protective about boundaries, I say no on purpose, and I guard my sleep where I can. That is what makes a month like this survivable.


Every month I pull back the curtain on my own numbers so you can see how effort actually turns into revenue in a real microbakery. Here is September, including the parts that did not go well.


The September numbers

Gross revenue for the month came to $5,738, and it came from four places.

  • Market one: $1,789, sold out

  • Market two: $1,592, sold out

  • Popup at the new bakery space: $1,201

  • Workshops: $1,330, which includes tickets sold in September for October classes

  • Retail shelf sales to workshop attendees: $98

Going into the month I had set a target of about $1,800 per market and $1,200 per popup, and I had planned on two popups. I only did one.


Both markets sold out, which sounds like a clean win and is really a note to myself. On the first one I was eleven dollars short of goal, which means I should have brought one more loaf. On the second I hit my capacity for the week and made a deliberate choice not to add pizza crust or English muffins, because the extra hands-on work would have cost me sleep before market day. Rest won, and I stand by it.


Remember that $5,738 is the top line. Ingredients, packaging and overhead all come out of it, and my overhead is climbing fast now that I have a commercial space. My revenue targets have to get bigger to match, which is exactly what happens when your fixed expenses grow.


What saved the month was a second revenue stream

I did not run that second popup, and I still landed close to my monthly goal, because workshops brought in $1,330 to fill the hole.


That is the whole lesson of September. When one channel drops out, another one catches you. If every dollar in your business arrives through one door, a cancelled market or a sick week takes the entire month down with it.


Workshops are now a permanent part of my numbers. I am running two most months, and I have three on the calendar for October.


You do not need a commercial space to do this. When I taught workshops before, I taught in other people's homes, in my own home, and in a rented room at a local business community space. Bakers I know have used a neighborhood clubhouse or a church kitchen. Look at your community center too.


A few things that make them work:

  • Start with beginner classes. They fill fastest and they build the trust you need before you try anything more specialized.

  • Let word of mouth and your existing customers do the selling. People ask me for these constantly and then they tell their friends.

  • Once you have a flow, they get easy to repeat, which is what makes them worth the setup work.

If workshops are something you want to explore, go listen to Sourdough Workshops: How Kala Hembree Has Taught Over 1,800 People to Bake Bread | Episode 29. She walks through her whole strategy.


One seasonal item at a time

My menu in September was almost all staples. Original loaves came back as my top seller now that the weather is turning, followed by sandwich loaves, then cookies and focaccia. English muffins made one appearance at the popup.


The single seasonal thing I added was apple pie scones, made from my usual scone base with apples cooked down in cinnamon and brown sugar folded in. One new flavor, not four.


That restraint is a business decision. One announced special creates real demand and gives your customers a reason to come this week, and it does not blow up your prep. Five specials give you chaos and a lot of leftovers.


I will also say this: when I notice I have no desire to try a new flavor at all, that is my signal that something is off and I probably need rest.


The hire I should have made months ago

I had an assistant until February, when she stepped away to build her own microbakery, and I never rehired. I told myself I was too busy to train someone, which is the exact backwards logic that keeps you stuck.


A potential assistant came in for a paid working interview on the Friday before my second market. Three hours of packaging and rolling cookie dough, and I slept a full seven hours before market day, which does not always happen.


If you are anywhere near hiring, do the paid working interview. Two or three hours of real work together tells you how much you would need to teach and whether you actually work well side by side. You both learn something a conversation cannot tell you.


Asking for help was the theme of my whole month. I leaned on my mother-in-law for overnights with the kids. I said yes when a friend offered. None of that came naturally, and all of it was necessary.


The scary email is worth sending

I put together a sample Welcome Home basket for a local realtor, a fresh loaf, a jar of olive oil, nice salt, and a little printed blessing with her logo on it. We have not settled the terms yet, but we are meeting to work out something that makes sense for both of us.


That kind of outreach is the part I avoid. Sending an email that proposes a partnership feels risky because they might say no, and I will sit on it for days. This month a friend asked me point blank whether I had sent it, and that was what finally got it done.


The worst outcome is a no, and a no is not a verdict on you. Other businesses have their own goals to serve. If you have a wholesale idea or a local partnership you have been sitting on, ask a friend to check on you this week.


What did not work

Trying to do everything myself. I hung and painted wainscoting for the first time in my life, hung wallpaper, did a lot of painting, and built enormous Ikea shelves. It was fun and it was also work I could have hired out, and that energy had better uses. My business coach pointed it out and it was harder to hear than it should have been.


Scheduling a Wednesday daytime workshop during a market week. My dough days are Wednesday and Thursday, so that class pushed everything back and I was still making granola and crackers on Friday, which is normally my catch-up day. Watch how a new commitment lands against your existing production rhythm before you put it on the calendar.


What October looks like

Two markets, three workshops, and my first ever wholesale order. A local pumpkin patch texted asking to buy muffins for their concession stand, and since Texas now allows cottage bakers to sell wholesale, that was an easy yes. Muffins prep ahead well.


One of the three workshops is not filling. It was a themed sourdough pumpkin class, requested by a customer who then did not buy a ticket herself. If it does not sell I will either cancel it or switch it to a beginner class, and I am not taking it personally. A special request is not the same thing as demand, and beginner classes are what people actually want from me right now.


If you are one to three years in

Pull your own month apart the way I just did. Write down every revenue line separately, not one lump sum, and then look at how much of your month came from a single channel. Anything over about two thirds is a risk you should be actively working on.


Then ask which one new stream fits the business you already have. Workshops, a wholesale account, a subscription, a standing corporate order. Pick one and test it this quarter rather than trying to build three at once.


Final thoughts

September taught me the same lesson twice, which is that help is available long before I am willing to ask for it. It also showed me that one added revenue stream can carry a month when a plan falls through.


Watch your numbers, keep your menu simple enough to actually execute, look for a local partnership worth building, and ask for help sooner than you think you need it. I am still learning that last one right along with you!


Cheering you on,


Caroline


Keep going

If you like seeing the numbers behind a real microbakery, here are a few more months.


Links to things you might like!


 
 
 

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