Tips on Selling Christmas Treats

Christmas and Valentine’s are our Halloween at The Pastry House. Why? Because we feel like zombies during these seasons of the year! We sleep a bit, and bake a lot! We’ve been doing this for about a decade and we’ve learned some strategies on how to make things a little less difficult. And so I’m sharing these learnings to you to save you some sleep and sanity during this busy time of the year especially for bakers like us!

1. Make a short list of your best sellers. For sure you’ve got a lot of goodies in mind to sell. You’re so excited to see each of them in pretty Christmas boxes being distributed by your customers to their friends. But you’ve got to focus on your best selling pastries. Why? For one, you have limited time to bake so it’s better to bake in large batches. And you can only do that if you only have a few recipes to put inside the oven. If you also have a small team to help you out (that may include hubby, kids, and your helper), you don’t want to tire them of washing the mixing bowls over and over again. You also have to grab this opportunity to market your best products. These must be the products that you have mastered for months or even years. Now is not the perfect time to practice on perfecting a new product because you might be wasting your time and energy on something that might not sell because you missed an ingredient or an important step…only because you have not yet memorized how to make it awesome.

A short list is short, like 3 to 10 products, but still depending on the time you have to bake and the amount of help you’re gonna get.

1. Make an order slip and distribute weeks before the holiday. Do not just post your products on your Facebook page or on your blog or send SMS to your customers. While these might get you orders, it’s best to make a FORMAL ORDER SLIP that can easily be understood and filled out (use the power of tick marks and encircling). Distribute it to your customers, friends, and in offices (Pro tip: Offices are the best markets to sell goodies) and set a deadline when they should return back the slips so you have ample time to set your schedule for buying ingredients/packaging materials, baking, and delivery. As my gift to you, I’m sharing an order slip template that you can download, fill out with your products, and distribute. You’re welcome. ;)

2. Set dates for the delivery. Guys, it’s Christmas time and we all deserve to celebrate the birth of Jesus! So set the dates of your delivery and do not accept last minute orders if it would make you skip Noche Buena because you were too tired to celebrate with your dear ones. As another gift for you, the second worksheet in the order slip template is a form for the summary of your orders so you can easily monitor how many recipes and products you have to make per day.

3. Go social. Aside from the order slip, make a visual list of your products and post them on your social media pages/accounts. Make sure to use pretty pictures with a touch of Christmas to make them more inviting. For more tips on how to take pictures of your pastries, read my blog post: How to Take Pretty Pastry Pictures Using Your Camera Phone.

1. Know your limits and get help. Once you have received all the order slips, summarize the number of recipes that you’re going to make and make a schedule. Analyze if you would be needing additional help to deliver your orders on time.

2. Prepare the packaging materials before baking. You may want to start your baking marathon with the preparation of your packaging materials. Fold the boxes, prepare the ribbons and the gift tags and write the names of the people who ordered on each of the packaging so you will know if you have enough materials. This will also help you have a visual check on the progress of your production later on.

1. Buy extra ingredients and packaging. Make sure that you have more than enough ingredients in your pantry. We have experienced looking for butter and eggs at midnight because our estimates for the ingredients were incorrect...and we don't want you to experience that nightmare.

2. Start baking the products with longer shelf life. DO NOT START BAKING THE NIGHT BEFORE YOUR DELIVERY DATE. PLEASE. If you have ample of orders, don’t think that you have super powers to finish all in one night of baking. Start baking those products with longer shelf life and keep them in the fridge or airtight containers to retain the freshness and flavor. These products include cookies, brownies, fruitcakes, and food for the gods. Do not store those with short shelf life like those pastries containing high amount of dairy such as cream cheese. Put a best before date on each box if possible.

1. Keep your cool. You may feel grumpy because of lack of sleep or tiredness but please set aside your negative emotions. Remember that you are doing this for Christmas, and Christmas is the happiest time of the year. Whenever you feel something negative, take a short break first then go back to the kitchen with a smile. Succumbing to negative emotions may just lead to bitter tasting desserts. Eeeewie.

2. Drink multivitamins and minerals. This season also spells STRESS for us bakers. We have to bake a lot and attend to a lot of parties and reunions. So make sure that you still take care of your body by eating healthful food (no stress eating please), drinking lots of water and fresh juice, and of course, take your maintenance meds and multivitamins and minerals. We don’t want to celebrate Jesus’ birth in a manger err, a hospital bed, right?

3. Treat yourself. After the baking marathon, give yourself a gift of pause. Stop baking and working for a while and let your mind and body recover from all the pressure you faced. Get a massage, spend time with good friends, or buy yourself something inexpensive but will make you happy (a new apron perhaps?). But most of all, remind yourself that you did everything out of love. You want others to have a sweet Christmas so you helped them get that by baking for them. And you wanted to earn more so you can give more to your family. All for love, my dear chef…because that is how we roll!

Enjoy baking! <3