Charles Nwaoguji
Perhaps you have always loved bakeries, but don’t like to bake. Perhaps there is an opportunity in your town for a good bakery and you would like to help make it happen. Maybe you just like good bread.
Whatever your reason, investing in a small bakery can be a benefit for a community and a boon for your wallet. Bakeries are booming and if you can get in on the ground floor of a good one, the opportunity can be very profitable.
With a minimal start-up capital of just N100, 000 you can start a small scale bread production business at home and make an average income of about N30, 000 or N50, 000 weekly.
I strongly believe that bread making is a very good business opportunity for both local and foreign investors wanting to do genuine business in Nigeria because there is the possibility of high return on their investment.
Are you currently jobless or maybe your present job can not support your monthly financial obligations? If that’s the case then, this is the opportunity you have waiting for, because with your own bakery business up and running you will be able to terminate all your financial burden and job insecurity forever. Bread making business in Nigeria does not require much to setup in terms of personal qualifications; in fact you don’t need a Bsc, Msc or PhD certificate and you don’t a need NAFDAC registration to do the business.
All that is needed to start a small scale bakery business in Nigeria is first and foremost some basic knowledge in breading making, packaging, marketing and a registration with the Nigeria bakers Association in your area. You also needs.
Business Plan
Develop a business plan. Everyone always wants to skip this part and get straight to the baking, but it is really and truly important. How much does your product cost you to make, and how much will you sell it for? Where will you sell? How will you market yourself? Is there demand for your product in your area? How much competition will you have? How do the competition’s products compare to yours in price and quality? How long will it take to turn a profit? Your business plan will tell you whether or not your business is even viable. It’s worth it to make a plan, rather than bang your head against a wall for months wondering why your business isn’t working.
Set your prices correctly from the beginning. It’s easier to start at the right level than to start low and then expect your customers to be understanding when you start raising your prices. Work smarter, not harder.
Food Safety
Food safety is critical to your business. If you make someone sick, your business may never recover. Food safety isn’t hard, but it requires diligence in the kitchen. I recommend you keep your kids away from the kitchen.
I believe with a sound practical knowledge in baking and coupled with some creative marketing strategies in place, you are on your way to making huge profit and achieving success in bakery business. Starting a bakery business in Nigeria requires that you have some passion needed to aid you in achieving your set goals and dreams even in the face of challenges, It shouldn’t be money making all through.
In fact, your dreams of starting a small scale bakery business in Nigeria can be killed if you lack the required practical knowledge or you taking advice from the wrong set of people. e.g
If you go to a big bakery owner to make enquirers on bread making before you start, you will certainly be discouraged because all their production processes are machine based and such you can not afford.
Therefore if you really want to start a small scale bakery business then, go and acquire practical skills from a small scale bakery owner. The reason is that most aspect of bread making in a small scale bakery are can done by hand there you will be thought how to do it with your hands.
On like the already well big bakery business where almost every thing you see and hear doesn’t go beyond using different types of machines to make bread. Making bread with your hands is profitable and less expensive, the process is simple but it all depends on the bread recipe you intended to use and the quantity of bread you want to produce per day.
Below are different bread recipes, equipment, Ingredients and cost requirements for small scale bread production.
Coconut bread, Wheat bread, Fruit bread, Chelsea bread, Banana bread, High fiber bread
Equipment requirements & cost Oven, Baking pans, Weighing scale, Mixing bowls and Branded Packaging nylon Ingredients for baking
Sugar, Baking yeast, Baking fat, One bag of flour and Salt
Bread making process
Mixing the baking ingredients together, weighing the mixture on a scale, then kneading the mixture with either with your hands or a machine if you have one, covering the dough and allow it to ferment for an hour. After fermenting, then knock the dough down and knead once again.
Scaling to the desired size. Putting it in baking pans and transferring it into a prepared oven.
Set up a web site and Facebook page for marketing. Quite a lot of marketing on Facebook can be achieved for free or at least very inexpensively. The importance of a professional looking web site, properly optimized with the right key words, cannot be overstated. None of this, however, replaces good word of mouth.
How and where to market your bread is every important because it’s what will determine if you will continue the business or not.
So you must be very creative with your marketing strategies, if you can get your marketing strategies rights then you are on your way to making continuous profit doing the business.
To get your first set of customers you need to encourage your friends and relatives to try your bread. Go to Supermarkets in vicinity with some bread as samples and encourage them to place order. Go to Schools with boarding houses and talk to the school principal about your product, restaurants and staff canteens of companies, Government offices and Ministries.
In fact, the total amount needed to setup a bakery business varies, depending on the available financial resources. You can invest as much as N60million in setting up a machine based bakery, where you will need to have spiral mixers and other very expensive bakery equipment.