I've got it! Car dealership. Serious. Maybe not exotics, but decent, reliable, cheap beaters for the college kids aught to sell rather well. This is something I've considered in the past, but I know I would have trouble securing the money for such a venture.
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Sept. 23, 2010 3:57 a.m. Derick Freese HalfDork
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Sept. 23, 2010 5:47 a.m. RandyS Reader
My wife and I own a very successful retail bakery. We do high end occasion cakes (wedding, groom, anniversary, corp event, sweet 16, etc). Think Ace of Cakes on TV. In operation for almost 7 years now.
Great location in affluent area of Roswell, GA. 20,000 unique customers with 6000 repeat customers a year. Several celebrity clients. 80-120 cakes a week depending on season. No competition in area.
Non-compete lease with just renegotiated super low rate. Full production facility build-out with about $250k of equipment. 6-9 staff depending on season.
A bakery is mostly a recession proof business. While numbers were slightly down the last 15 months they have still been steller compared to most other businesses. People will still buy a wedding or graduation cake even in this economy.
Not really looking to sell but if the price is right I'd do it.
Couple of years ago I put it on bizbuysell just to see what the market value might be. Lots of home hobby decorators answered who had no idea what running a successful business means. PM me if serious.
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Sept. 23, 2010 9:02 a.m. SVreX SuperDork
Nice stuff. What are cakes like that worth?
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Sept. 23, 2010 9:03 a.m. dyintorace SuperDork
RandyS wrote:
My wife and I own a very successful retail bakery. We do high end occasion cakes (wedding, groom, anniversary, corp event, sweet 16, etc). Think Ace of Cakes on TV. In operation for almost 7 years now.
Great location in affluent area of Roswell, GA. 20,000 unique customers with 6000 repeat customers a year. Several celebrity clients. 80-120 cakes a week depending on season. No competition in area.
Non-compete lease with just renegotiated super low rate. Full production facility build-out with about $250k of equipment. 6-9 staff depending on season.
A bakery is mostly a recession proof business. While numbers were slightly down the last 15 months they have still been steller compared to most other businesses. People will still buy a wedding or graduation cake even in this economy.
Not really looking to sell but if the price is right I'd do it.
Couple of years ago I put it on bizbuysell just to see what the market value might be. Lots of home hobby decorators answered who had no idea what running a successful business means. PM me if serious.
Very cool story. Congratulations. My dad used to live ~1/2 mile from historic downtown Roswell and I always loved that area. And my wife and kids love Ace of Cakes and Cake Boss to boot.
That said, we're not looking to move to GA. Regardless, I appreciate the insight.
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Sept. 23, 2010 9:05 a.m. MrJoshua SuperDork
There are lots o cake makers here, no exotic car dealers though. (Josh wants a Ferrari!)
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Sept. 23, 2010 9:18 a.m. jrw1621 SuperDork
I know nothing of the food business but a concept that I have seen work seems to be combining Hooters with breakfast/lunch.
Good breakfast and lunch, close about 2:30pm. -
Sept. 23, 2010 11:03 a.m. RandyS Reader
SVreX wrote:
Nice stuff. What are cakes like that worth?
We are a custom job shop. There is no set price. Depending on design our cakes sell for a range of $25 and $3000 with an average ticket of $80. We typically do 4-5 $500 cakes a week
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Sept. 23, 2010 11:04 a.m. RandyS Reader
In reply to dyintorace:
We are right there. Where woodstock rd coming out of historic downtown Roswell intersects with Crossville (near the high school)
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Sept. 23, 2010 11:09 a.m. Tom Heath Webmaster
RandyS wrote:
My wife and I own a very successful retail bakery. We do high end occasion cakes (wedding, groom, anniversary, corp event, sweet 16, etc). Think Ace of Cakes on TV. In operation for almost 7 years now.
Great location in affluent area of Roswell, GA. 20,000 unique customers with 6000 repeat customers a year. Several celebrity clients. 80-120 cakes a week depending on season. No competition in area.
Non-compete lease with just renegotiated super low rate. Full production facility build-out with about $250k of equipment. 6-9 staff depending on season.
A bakery is mostly a recession proof business. While numbers were slightly down the last 15 months they have still been steller compared to most other businesses. People will still buy a wedding or graduation cake even in this economy.
Not really looking to sell but if the price is right I'd do it.
Couple of years ago I put it on bizbuysell just to see what the market value might be. Lots of home hobby decorators answered who had no idea what running a successful business means. PM me if serious.
My wife is in a similar line of work, but it sounds like you might be in a better area for it. Her best business comes from Orlando, but there are a lot of bakeries between here and there.
Here's some of the work from the shop my wife works in...
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Sept. 23, 2010 4:01 p.m. pete240z SuperDork
I was going to suggest you get into the "industrial hose" business. There are only 5000 people fighting for the same steel mill and refinery business.
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Sept. 23, 2010 8:56 p.m. xd Reader
For all you guys who contacted me I will write something up tonight or tomorrow and email it to you sometime this weekend.
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Sept. 23, 2010 9:11 p.m. neon4891 SuperDork
A friend and I have considered reopening his family bakery. Branding is there, and it was very sucsessfull before his grandfather retired...
Only hitch is we would need a new building
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Sept. 24, 2010 2:22 a.m. Derick Freese HalfDork
Do you cake people ever have anyone order wrecked-by-design cakes?
