Hey Bestie! At the time of this writing. I’m currently sweating and walking the dog in the early mornings to beat the heat. But I know the season is turning soon, which means the holidays are upon us! My favorite time of year, full of all things cozy, delicious food, friends, family, and of course, baking! Add while bakers should love the big baking season, most find themselves overwhelmed, stressed, running behind and not having fun at all. That is not a recipe for a fun holiday home bakery season, and it doesn’t have to be that way. Today we’re covering the 9 things you can start doing today to prepare and execute on an enjoyable and successful holiday baking season. Trust me, you will thank yourself later if you take action now!
Hear me out!
Listen Bestie, I’ve bene coaching home bakers for years and I know that the vast majority who could benefit from this blog post, won’t even open it. So if you’ve made it this far, congrats, you’re already setting yourself apart from most of the rest. I full appreciate that bakers start their businesses mostly due to their love of baking and not for their love of business planning, strategy, marketing and cost optimization to increase profit margins. I get it, I really do. But the sooner you take interest and action on the business side of your bakery, the more success you’ll have AND be able to bring more joy and revenue to your business.
I happen to LOVE baking and behind-the-scenes business, in fact I could talk business strategy for days. I won’t bore you with that, but I will spill the tried-and-true steps you can take to grow your business, revenue and joy around it all. I’m Your Baking Bestie for a reason and I’m here to help!
digestible bites
See what I did there? Pun intended. We’re breaking down the 9 actions you can take today, into actionable, digestible bites. But if you want to go deeper on any of these specific steps or strategies, I’ve got you. You can find my 3-part holiday planning series HERE. That will bring you to the 3rd part and the 1st and 2nd are linked there as well so you can easily read the whole series.
1. decide on your strategy
We’re talking operational strategy here, Bestie. Pre-sales, custom orders, DIY cookie kits, market events, corporate orders and events venues are all great options and demographics for your bakery strategy. And let’s be honest…most home bakeries focus on pre-sales and custom orders to residential community members. While that can be great, that leaves whole subsets of your market that are left out and underserved. Far too often, bakeries are all competing for the same customers, using the same strategy and wondering why they aren’t growing as fast as they’d like. This is your opportunity to take the road less traveled and grow in your own wide-open lane where no one is competing with you.
I go into much greater depth on the pros and cons of most of these different strategies HERE. But let’s just touch on a couple while we’re here. Nearly every community has different events centers and venues where they host all kinds of events. Give them a call and see if they’d be interested in seeing a portfolio of your work to be on their approved vendor list. Many venues are always looking for new and different vendors to delight their customers. And the best part is that they basically promote your work for you when their customers are planning their events! And you know what else? People hosting events like this have a budget planned and are commonly prepared to spend more for unique and amazing treats!
Similarly with corporate orders…they are a whole demographic that is hosting employee and vendor events, parties and celebrations. They need delicious treats too! I go more in-depth on how to become the go-to bakery for corporations HERE too. Make samples, dripping with your labeling and start connecting with businesses now! Almost every business or corporation is planning numerous celebrations or employee appreciation activities during the holiday season. Go grab their business!
Bottom line…make a plan for how you want to operate this holiday season. Maybe you’re already established in this regard and that’s fine, but it’s worth considering if what you’re already doing still makes sense.
2. Bust out that calendar
Now that you have a strategy, start deciding on fulfillment dates for the holiday season. These are basically your deadlines that will serve as the base for our next step. For example, if you’re offering pre-sales for Thanksgiving, decide on your pick up/delivery date(s) now. Same thing for Halloween, Christmas, etc. Mark these dates on your calendar.
Maybe you’re participating in a market event or craft sale? Mark the dates of when everything needs to be ready.
Also consider vacations or other non-bakery obligations you have planned over the holiday season. Ensure you’re taking those into account for your bakery planning deadlines.
3. Let’s reverse calendar
Okay this is my happy place and Besties who have implemented my reverse calendaring strategy have reported much less stress, higher profits and much more joy for their businesses. I go into much greater detail with examples of exactly how to implement this HERE. But essentially, it’s a method used to work backwards off of your deadlines to create an actionable plan for every day or week leading up to it. No more stressing, trying to figure out everything you need to get done each day or week. You’ll create your fill schedule now and can then simply execute.
This planning method works beautifully for pre-sales, customs, markets, really any operational strategy can benefit from reverse calendaring. Many bakeries also enjoy higher profits along with their lower stress since they are much more efficient in their time management and can support more orders with less work.
Seriously, behind having a good strategy, implementing reverse calendaring is a game changer and I can’t recommend it highly enough.
4. Start planning offerings
Now that you have a strategy and an action plan to execute, let’s start the fun part! If you’re participating in markets or doing pre-sales, what do you want to offer? start looking at trends, cookie cutters, color palettes, etc. Doing to offer DIY cookie kits? Decide on cutters, icing colors, sprinkles, and all your details. Go ahead and order your cookie cutters, STL files, or start printing your cutters! And here are a few pro tips!
- It’s not about what YOU want to offer…what does the CUSTOMER want? You may not love some new trend, but is it something would be a huge success for you if you offered it? Might be worth considering.
- During this step, don’t just plan the next holiday. Start planning for all of them! Imagine the weight off your shoulders if you have your designs all planned for Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas and more!
- Resist the temptation to offer 20 different options. Listen Bestie, I know there are SO many fabulous things you could create. But make it easy on yourself AND your customers by limiting the number of options you’re offering. If you offer to many options, customers glaze over and don’t order anything. Make it SIMPLE and easy to see your offerings and make ordering decisions.
5. Pricing for the holiday home bakery season
Now that you have offerings planned or at least narrowed down, start making decisions on pricing. Perhaps you’re offering individual cookies, 2-piece sets and also cookie platters. Start calculating your costs now and decide what your prices will be.
And Bestie, please don’t just look at what Susie is charging. If you’re going to run a successful business, you need to know how to determine your own pricing based on your costs, your time and your skills. Knowing what others charge in YOUR area can be a gauge for what the market is familiar with, but that still shouldn’t dictate your pricing. Maybe she rolls her cookies 1/4″ but you roll yours 3/8″ thick? Her dough costs are half of what yours are! Or maybe she buys expensive ingredients or packaging. There are SO many variables that you don’t have insight to, so please don’t jus follow suit of another baker when it comes to one of the most important pieces of your business.
If you need more guidance on determining pricing, my pricing guide HERE should help.
6. Boxes, ribbons and bows, oh my!
Speaking of packaging, it’s one of the expenses that vary greatly from one baker to the next while also having a huge impact on your profit margins. I always advocate for a happy medium when it comes to packaging. If you’re a professional bakery, ziplocks and press n seal are simply not options. I’m sorry if that sounds harsh, but it’s the truth. You may think it’s good enough and that your customers don’t mind, but it makes a world of difference in how your business is presented.
On the flip side, all that super expensive packaging is just eating up your profit margins or driving away potential customers due to higher prices. You also don’t need all that custom packaging for every holiday, unless you’re able to get really great deals on it and know you’ll use it all this year.
I always encourage home bakers to find boxes that you can use year-round and dress them up with ribbons, bows and cute labeling. This way, you can keep your costs much lower and simplify inventory management. I have some great quality packaging recommendations in my Cookie Packaging category HERE.
7. Getting ahead on samples!
You’ve decided on a strategy, designs, packaging, pricing and now it’s time to actually start baking and decorating. Phew! Depending on the strategy you’re using, samples or sample photos are commonly necessary. I’ve got great news…you can make Christmas samples for photos in September. 😂 Even better? You’ll thank yourself in December.
If you’ve followed along this far, first of all, congratulations because you’re serious about a phenomenal holiday home bakery season! But also, you have made all the decisions and can either make your samples or schedule when you will make your samples way before they are needed! Build it into our reverse calendaring and you’ll be thankful when it’s time to start promoting!
8. Inventory management
Every holiday season, there is at least one product that is completely sold out and bakers are melting down, looking for alternatives in the hot seat. A few years ago it was Genie’s Dream meringue powder that was basically unavailable all holiday season. Last year, it was our favorite cookie bags that SO many Besties rely on.
So this is your fair warning! If there are certain products you can’t live without, check your inventory and stock up now! Don’t wait to be in that position, asking for alternatives because your favorite is on backorder. Again, you’ll thank yourself later by getting ahead on supply inventory and the products you rely on!
9. Drafting Marketing
If you’re at this stage, you are REALLY prepared for a fabulous, efficient, joyful baking season! You have made all the biggest decisions, have an action plan for every day or week and are feeling on top of it all. What an amazing feeling, right? If you really want to get ahead, you can start drafting your social posts or graphics you’ll use during the holiday season. And don’t forget to consider AI for helping to generate great posts and hooks to stop the scroll!
You’ll be so thankful that your sample photos are ready and marketing is drafted when the time actually comes to start advertising!
Are you ready for a successful holiday home bakery season?
I hope this was helpful and that you’ll take action on these steps to set yourself up for success, Bestie! That is all I want for you! For most businesses, the majority of their annual revenue comes from the holiday season and home bakeries are no exception. I beg of you, please seize this opportunity to set yourself up for a joyous, wildly successful holiday home bakery season you will love.
And honestly, I encourage you to implement many of these same steps to plan and execute for a successful 2026! But let’s just focus on the holiday season for now.
If you have any questions or want to discuss any of these steps more in-depth, our Bestie community is the best place to do that! If you’re not already a member, you can find it HERE.
And lastly, make sure you’re subscribed to receive my free weekly newsletter. Chock full of freebies, recipes, product recommendations and big things planned for the holiday season ahead! Happy Baking, Bestie!