The Birth of a Bakery

Of course, just when it couldn't get better...

2008-01-13T21:46:34Z

MORE EXPERIENCE POINTS!!!

Yes, a former employee has filed an unemployment insurance claim against me. Whee.

She only worked for us for 5 weeks, and between that length of time and the fact that she quit rather than was fired should have been sufficient to DQ her claim against us. But based on the conversation with the Unemployment Insurance Agency (UIA) rep it certainly sounded like her stance was something like, "I quit a perfectly good job to work for this place, and it was intolerable."

However, some interesting information was on the claim form that made it look like she misrepresented herself. Things like being fired when she said she quit, overstating pay rate or hours. Plus, she told me that she does private catering out of her home and none of that income appeared, and she also neglected to report the income for her trial period for which she was paid as an independant contractor.

Anyway, I was told by the UIA rep that if I respond even with a simple letter stating that she quit (even though they know that already) the burden of proof goes to her to prove that the environment was somehow completely unworkable.

Now, this also happens to be an employee that told me, "I don't want to work that hard." So, yes, she was being pressured to work faster and more efficiently. On the night she left, she'd also informed me that she was planning to sell baked good through the meat store that is *literally* two doors down from my shop, and I did tell her I had a problem with that. After she left, the bread guy whose shift overlapped with hers told us she'd been talking for two weeks about quitting to start her own shop or going back to her previous employer.

Further, I deeply believe that during her last week with us she stole about $500 in equipment and supplies--the most noticeable items being spatulas, glaze, frostings, real vanilla and chocolate. All of these items disappeared during that week, and although I can't prove it was her, she was the only employee with the opportunity to do this without being seen, and she had a use for them. But all the existing advice says to leave this out of anything to do with the claim because I don't have hard and fast proof. Grrr.... I hate it when someone proves foodservice adages like, "Good locks make good employees." That sucks, but having run my own business, I've found it's true.

And to add further injury to an already ridiculous situation, in reviewing our own records regarding her pay, I found that there was a miscommunication between myself and the payroll service about her last 2 week period. She worked 52 regular hours, but the payroll service paid her for 62. $90 extra, which of course she never mentioned. The payroll service initially gave me a "sucks to be you" response when I called about, but then I called a supervisor I'd spoke with on another occasion when when had a problem, and she promised to credit our account.

Bad news...

2007-12-18T08:18:06Z

One bit of bad news at the bakery...

Our linen service, Domestic Uniform, is suing us.

Now, we had longer-term contracts with several services. This included linen, credit cards, pest control, and payroll service. Now, the circumstance with the other services is that we let them idle while we were in negotiations with the guys buying the bakery. Why? Because I knew we had contracts, and we had 3 potential buyers for the business within the first few days after we closed. So, if the service providers didn't want to just transfer everything to the new owner, we were planning to work out something with the new owner to just carry things over. This could be tricky with things like payroll and credit card services, but we'd figured out a couple ways to handle it.

In the mean time, the *most* simple service for us to continue on with the contract on... the linen service, shows up to make a delivery. The driver has been delivering early in the day to avoid me because he knows I'm not happy about a billing problem... they've been overcharging on several items for months. So, he talks to Wolf, who tells him that we won't need linen that week, and that yes, we are closing. The guy does not clarify if we will still need linen (which we did--I had 20 cakes still on the docket for the month, plus we were doing clean up work,) and rounds up every item he can find, loads it on the truck and tells Wolf that this is what they do when a business closes.

I came down later in the day, and noticed that all the linen was gone. I was actively peeved because I needed towels to work on orders for that day. I asked Wolf if the guy said anything about the contract. Wolf was surprised to find out we had a contract. I was a little disgusted because it just didn't sound right, but I honestly thought that the delivery guy just chalked it up to "good riddance" because literally every time I saw the man I brought up the incorrect billing, and he'd either promise to do something (and show up with the same wrong bill next time) or tell me to call customer service, who would forward me to someone in the Saginaw office who was never, ever, ever there. Wolf didn't and wouldn't pursue the problem--he just paid whatever bill was presented, so the guy was delivering at times he knew Wolf would be in and I wouldn't. (One time he even showed when Wolf and I were gone and asked the girl on counter to pay him in cash out of the till. She was smart enough to say no, thank god.)

As for the billing issues... this place seems to have a continual chain of "call that guy" "no he's not in" set up. There was an issue earlier in the year, and after asking the driver about it... they were charging me double the price for our mat--they had it as a 10' mat rather than the 5' we were contracted for... and literally I had to call for over a month, and the issue was never resolved until I finally refused to pay the full amount and paid short, then *they* called *me*. Go figure. This same thing was happening with regards to an environmental charge... we were billed $9, and contract said $4... and it sounds like peanuts but $5 every two weeks for months adds up, and when you're making money $.10 at a time on a bunch of small items, that's a ton of work that money represents.

So, long story short is I assumed they just flushed the contract in a big goodbye and good riddance sort of thing. Which was just as well. I wasn't happy with them, and if they were willing to bow out of the contract, I didn't see any reason to pursue them, because coordinating delivery times when we aren't open to the public and hounding them about the charges was going to be a pain.

We even found a pile of linen that the guy had missed, and *we* called *them* and asked them to pick up their stuff, which they never did.

Two weeks pass, and I get a phone call on our home line as I'm doing some paperwork in the office. It's Wes Swisher, a collections attorney for Greenberg, Grant and Richards out of Texas and Florida. He hits me from out of the blue and I'm shocked. I was expecting a bill or a call or something. Not a collections lawyer threatening to go after me, the new owner of the business, and also threatening to go tell all the business' suppliers that the bakery doesn't pay its bills, all kinds of stuff like that. The call ended up in a shouting match and I finally hung up. This guy was massively rude. But then, he probably graduated pretty low in his class to end up being a lawyer with a bad telemarketing job.

All the other services were pleased as punch when I told them that no, the business didn't go under, we are [personally] just relocating, and yes, please bill us for another month while we handle the transition because the new owner would like to use all the same services. Every other business was glad to either just continue service under the existing agreement or waive contract termination fees for bringing the new guy on board. Not these guys... when I calmed down, called the service (useless except that I found that the driver entered "Closed due to downturn in the economy," in their internal records for our account... patently untrue. We were closed to the public, but I still have contracts for business extending into next August... and we were closing to the public because of Wolf's relocation, and we'd even posted a sign to that effect.), called my cousin, Dan, who just graduated from law school and is pleased as punch to have my business for transferring the business, and then called this Wesley Swisher back to basically tell him that if the linen company wants to continue the contract, we'd be glad to finish it out and include the cost to us in the rental agreement to the new owner. Simple... they can drop it and go away peaceably, or if they want money they have to bring linen.

No dice... this guy insists that we cancelled the contract (which he'd made the point earlier had to be done by certified letter to the company) and had to pay the remaining value on the contract or else be sued for breach of contract. I told him, no linen, no money. The driver screwed up. He didn't speak with the owner of the business. They also never attempted to contact the owner. Plus, they didn't bring the linen they were contracted for... they were certainly in breach of contract. Not to mention there were verbal contracts made which was also not fulfilled. For instance the sales guy that wrote the contract promised, "If anything's not right, just call us, and we'll do everything to make it right, and if we can't, then you're free to go elsewhere for your business." This was in direct conflict with what is in the contract, but it did agree with the cover letter that the service sent when service started, which stated, "We are proud of the level of service we provide, so if you ever feel the need to let us know how we are doing or have questions or concerns, again, contact Denny Soloway." So, Wesley says his client will *not* go away without receiving any money, and suggests we settle for $300. (Rather ironic... the lawyers' web site indicates that for accounts under $750... which we are--$600... their fee is 50%. Of course.) I offered him $50 for his time today. He told me he'd advise his client but he could file this in small claims for about $40.

So, I pull out the contract. Took a bit of digging, but I found it. There are good parts to being a pack rat. I'd pushed for a two year agreement rather than their standard five year, and the rep had signed and initialed that change. Also, the contract states a 4'x6' rug, which on the bills appears as a 5' rug, but it is written in at the 10' rug price. So the guy was either overcharging, or made an honest mistake, but regardless the price and the service did not match up until 3 months later when I really raised a stink about it. Plus, it clearly states that the environmental fee is $4, and for months they've been charging more than double that.

So, to start with, the contract's validity is sketchy. They certainly weren't adhering to the stated pricing, anyway and the contract only allows for a 7% annual change. But ultimately, even if none of those pricing problems and customer service shananigans constitute breach, then how about taking the word of an employee of the bakery (the bakery is a sole proprietorship... the only one with any decisionmaking authority, especially with respect to suppliers, was ME...) that we didn't need extra linen and interpreting that as we're closed for good and never coming back, and not delivering more linen when the contract says you're supposed to show up every other week?

Given that... what happens next?

Wesley has indicated that he has filed this case in small claims in Bay County. Just today I believe I heard a process server trying to get in downstairs. I wasn't awake but some idiot was beating on the door downstairs and honking a car horn. I didn't think a *whole* lot of it until about 10 minutes after the noise stopped, I received a call from Wesley on the bakery line asking for my address... and I told him that maybe his client would have that information and hung up on him. There were three more calls with no message immediately after that, and I suspect those were him as well. I've been advised by my cousin to do nothing at all to make this guy's job easier. So, fine. I can do that.

But what is this case going to be in court? A big he-said, she-said argument? God I hope not. Because the plain fact is that if the driver would have talked to me, if their customer service person would have called me, or if they would have written me, I would have told him to keep bringing the linen if they were going to hold me to contract. I had immediate need of it, plus I knew I had future needs and further we were already talking to 3 prospective buyers for the business at that point. It's an easy thing to just increase the rent by $60 a month and include 1 year of free linen in the rental agreement.

The sad reality of this whole thing is that I think Domestic Linen is after money for nothing as much as money for services. Trying to rope new food service businesses into 5 year long contracts then retaining collections lawyers to pursue the failures, even as little as $600, is pretty slimy considering 80% will go under in 5 years, the vast majority in the first year. The little bit of searching I've done on google always pops up a case or two on the first page of any search on "domestic uniform"... I think these guys spend a lot of time in court, and everything I've experienced is echoed in documents from other cases. And most of those are in the thousands.

Shameful.

And I feel disgusted that I even got involved with them, and I kick myself for not telling them it's a month-to-month or forget it.

Good news!

2007-12-18T05:59:00Z

Well, two good things happening at the bakery recently.

One is that a customer has decided to take over the bakery. We're selling the furniture, fixtures and equipment at a reasonable rate, and working out a deal to rent the space. This should cover the majority of our outstanding debts and give us a small revenue stream. Plus, the bakery doesn't just die... it gets to keep going. This is a very strong positive all the way around.

Just means that it will take a bit longer to get back to CA than expected, because the training process and getting all the business stuff figured out and done is taking longer than expected. Plus, this means I'll be moving in the dead of winter. Joy.

If I get stuck in a pass, Huckleberry is the first to get eaten. I'm just putting that out there so no one ends up surprised.

The second good thing is that yesterday I did the most beautiful cake of my career thus far. The lady got a bargain, and I think she knew it when she picked it up. But it was one of those rare instances when the customer just turned me loose. She said she wanted a castle cake, she wasn't picky about what it looked like other than pink and purple, and she didn't quibble about the price. I just got into it, and designed the cake I'd want, and it turned out beautiful. Ah... joy. I will post pics as soon as they're developed.

Blues

2007-11-17T21:43:06Z

Feeling awfully depressed today and I have a tooth that is positively aching.

Mom called last night and I don't think she meant to, but she really hurt my feelings.

Also, have put my finger on the worst part of running a business with family... it really brought out the absolute worst in people that I really care about.

Bakery is closed...

2007-11-04T07:10:33Z

Well, Wolf got the job offer and accepted in Palo Alto.

We decided that it does not make sense for me to try to run the bakery during what should be peak season with minimal help. Additionally, we felt that posting a "closing soon" notice and expecting employees to continue showing up and doing a reasonable job was probably not realistic, either.

The final straw was our most senior employee screwing up $70 of product making a batch of chocolate cake, and yet insisting that he followed the recipe to the letter, despite the fact that it did not fit in the mixer that it always does and he had to switch to a larger machine... and the batter was waaay too thin--at first sight, I knew it was f'd... and half was baked off by then--like rubber, and shrinking as fast as it was cooling. When repeating the batch, instead of completeing the job assigned, he did the minimal up to his scheduled time, clocked out and left a note telling us the rest of the batter was in the refrigerator. (Wolf and I stepped out for 2 hours to visit family as we'd been out of town for several days.) The upshot his whole shift was it cost roughly $40 in labor, $110 in raw materials, plus overhead to bake SIX... yes, *SIX* layers of cake (2 sheets and 4 eight inch rounds.)

I'm not saying I closed the bakery over this one incident. Hardly. But, I found myself imagining what it would be like during the holidays, with Wolf gone, everyone wanting time off, me not wanting to add employees because we would be closing in a matter of months anyway, and then what happens when I really need something and a situation like that happens? It would all fall back to me. I just couldn't expect that the follow through would be there.

Sounded like a crappy way to spend Thanksgiving to me.

So I just said that was enough, and we posted a sign with a picture of Marlon Brando as the Godfather on it, explaining we'd received an offer we couldn't refuse.

We've received several calls from our better customers expressing both sadness at the bakery leaving and well wishes for our future. The jerks, regardless of their minimal patronage, have not changed their tack.

bakerslife @ 2007-10-25T02:55:00

2007-10-25T08:04:38Z

Well, Wolf has an interview in Palo Alto next Tuesday. (Yes, we are trying to get in touch with Bay area friends to coordinate time together! Must see baby! Must see others! Must go to City College! Must stop in to make contact with potential employers! Time is rapidly filling up!!!)

That leaves me in a quandry. Do I shut down the bakery when he leaves? Or do I do my best without the help until the end of wedding cakes contracted for next summer?

Here are some other variables to consider.

-Our bread guy is leaving Oct. 31st... we trained him from pot washer to pretty capable (yet underproducing) bread guy, and now he's leaving to go work at a bakery in North Dakota.

-I have 1 cake next weekend, 2 the following weekend, 1 the weekend after, then specialty cakes are finished until 1 on January 2nd, and then the next doesn't happen until April... which is an every week thing until mid-July.

-My old boss, Elizabeth, at Copenhagen Bakery needs help right now. She had an employee decide to take 8 weeks off during November and December, and wants to just replace him outright. The job probably only pays $10-15 an hour.

-Fall is supposed to be a crazy-busy time for bakeries in general.

-My employees work at their convenience. If they have something better going on, they typically tell me that they need X dates off, and they just take them, approval or no. I expect this will get very bad during the holidays.

-The new guy, Brandon, is going to school at Delta, the local community college, which gives student almost the entire month of December off, and he's expressed interest in working full time or more if possible to save up some bucks for his next 2 years' tuition.

-Mom & Dad are willing to help out, but both are in their 60's.

-We have a new employee we are trying out that has grocery store bakery experience. She's nice, bright, and she seems competent and conscientious. She is from a trustworthy family that my parents have known for a long time. But, on the down side during the try-out she was pretty slow, and she will need to un-learn a lot of the techniques from the mass market breads, and re-learn artisan techniques.

-I could find some commerical kitchen space in SF and charge $10-$20 per slice, no one would bat an eye. I could do special-order-only work, fill in lulls by teaching classes, and only schedule for the times I don't need to be buttoning things up in Michigan. Further a former fellow culinary student might be interested in sharing the rent on the commercial kitchen space.

-The owners of one of the bakeries I worked at are interested in selling, and at a reasonable price for someone who won't run the business into the ground.

-Kathy's Kreative Kakes (I don't like that name...) has been rumoured to be for sale about since forever. Established high-end and corporate clientele including stars and athletes and big big companies.

-Noe Valley bakery needs a decorator. I've seen this position posted freshly about once every month or two since I left... clearly they're still having problems and I doubt they really understand them. I could work there in the evening (12:30-9:00), and Copenhagen in the morning (4am-12:00) and I'd still be able to get more sleep than I have any day this bakery has been open. I don't know if I'd be able to work there after the experience with my internship, but I think we could work something out if I was blunt about what the problems were and probably still are, and made it clear that I would report to no one except Michael and that I won't accept much horse crap (throwing pans at me and such qualifies as horse crap even in a tough kitchen.) Also, their tiered cakes look terrible, and I could bring some elegance to those products for them. In fact, I might want to ask for a percentage on wedding cakes because I truly would be bringing knowledge and skills they just don't have in house.

-My boss and I had always kicked around the idea of running a place together... and we work really well together. I wonder how serious she was?

-As long as I am here, every spare moment will be consumed by the bakery if I let it. Forget other jobs, forget developing a social life, forget not feeling a constant level of stress. We have countered that this week by changing hours... we dropped another day, and won't open on Sunday or Monday until 10 am, and we'll close by 4 pm those days. Based on sales, that time represents an approximate loss of $550 in revenue, and saves us about $250 in labor, $250 in raw materials, about $100 in electricity. Plus, there's a good chance those customers will just come in a little later or on a different day, which will help with some economy of scale on those days.

-We have SERIOUS SERIOIUS interest in a wholesale account to one of the few fine dining restaurants in the area. Decent money, easy to plan out orders, easy to finish and deliver by 8 am. High prestige, likely to bring in high end clientele that won't bat an eye at our prices. They are also interested in having us create desserts for them.

-We have a potential 80 loaf per day restaurant order that would start in 3 to 6 months. What they want is really simple to accomplish... would take about a 50 lb bag of flour and 1 active hour of employee time and 30 minutes of oven time to satisfy. Consistency needs to be spot-on... so either the new bread person needs to be very good, or I need to do this myself. Again, easy to plan for, done and out the door by 8 am.

-I have an excellent contact person with one of the local grocery chains. Getting in and selling our product on their shelves would be very do-able and would increase our visibility as well as allow us to tap into the always-buy-food-from-the-grocery-store market.

-We probably can't sell this business for what it's worth. We also probably can't get out of the building what we have into it unless we remove all the equipment and sell it piecemeal on eBay, and only leave a shell. It's possible the building may not be saleable at all... the Michigan economy is in a slump that is making national news.

-The cost of housing in the SF Bay area is adjusting somewhat, but still incredibly pricey. Although Wolf would be making a substantial amount, more than half of it would need to go to a house or condo payment because I really, truly, refuse to ever rent again. Wolf and I will part ways if I have to have another landlord ever in my life.

-I hated the SF Bay area before. People seemed rude, pushy, unfriendly, unwilling to make friends. Moving back here has made me realize that's pretty much everywhere. I guess I just got lucky in Los Angeles because I fell in with several groups of fun, interesting, accepting people, and had lots of friends.

-Many of the reasons I moved back here have proven hollow. We thought we wanted to adopt my nephew, but found that he was spoiled rotten when we got here. I wanted to spend more time with my family... and I have, but I find that communications are not substantially more than when I was living out of state... with anyone except my Aunt Jan and Uncle Dick, who have been awesome--they've been the only ones to regularly come to us for their baked goods. I really have no support network here outside of immediate family.

-Wolf and I are fighting a lot because he hasn't been able to hold a computer-related job here, and I desperately need help in the bakery... making him an employee I kind of have to utilize. It seems he doesn't listen to me or pay attention to the products and he's quite slow. This hurts me on multiple levels... one is that it feels like he doesn't care enough about this thing I've put all my savings plus blood, sweat and tears into to give it his all... also, the work he doesn't get done ends up getting dumped on me... plus he revels in doing random stuff, doesn't care about consistency, which will kill the business given time. Employees tend to use him as a benchmark which sets the bar awful low for everyone.

-Dad and I figured out a general conversion from what I can accomplish to what average local employees can accomplish given the same time, and the ratio is about 3:1. My work generally carries the whole bakery, but I can't do it all myself. So, the other gets done, but at a far, far, far less profitable rate... except for Wolf's case, because like me, he does not get a salary.

It seems like there is greater opportunity in the SF Bay area. Plus, Wolf hates it here, and I also have to say I'm getting sick of being just anchored enough to the bakery that we can't do anything outside the handful of restaurants that stay open late. But on the flip side, this business is *just* starting to turn a bit of a profit, and it seems like we have some very strong potential business coming our way.

Lots of stuff to weigh. Two of the heaviest things are the bickering with Wolf and having friends.

Massive cake weekend survival!!!

2007-10-25T06:55:28Z

Well, with more careful planning than ever, I made it through a 6 multi-tier + 6 birthday cake weekend, and the most any cake was late was 1/2 hour (and there was drama around that, but they were being whiners because it was a massive cake with LOTS of detailed deco and dairy-based filling that needed to stay cool as long as possible.)

But yes, the trick was to get all the cake baked a week in advance (say YAY for the new very cold freezer) and to start cutting the boards and cakes in advance and filling the buttercream cakes 4 days in advance.

I actually didn't have to pull any all-nighters for this feat, but we did desperately need the new guy's help as well as Aaron's help when they were available. I *did* work 15 days straight at about 18 hours per day, but that is SO much easier than pulling 2 all-nighters in a weekend, which happened during our last 3-cake weekend. Plus, the bakery remained open and stocked during regular hours. Not massively stocked... in fact Aaron's absence was blatant, the cold case pastries were lame... but there was stuff available.

Not everything was perfect. In fact, I'm a little worried that I really disappointed one of our regulars. Her cake had marzipan roses on top of each of 3 tiers which would go on a stand. I think she was expecting them to look as realistic as gum paste roses. Marzipan roses never are, and I didn't like the way the realistic style roses were looking, so I did ribbon roses instead, and I think she was disppointed but too midwestern to say so and have me correct them... she just said they looked fine and hasn't been back. Foo.

Also, the banquet center for one wedding cake had it in their head that we were delivering at 2 pm. The couple's contract clearly stated 4 pm for a 5 pm reception because it was filled with our home made custard, which is dairy based and should not sit out for more than 4-6 hours. Well, the mother showed up, and asked the center rep where the cake was, and he promptly pitched our ever-loving asses under the bus by saying, "I don't know... they should have been here by 2:00." So this woman starts freaking out and getting the florist involved. Does anyone call us? No. Wolf called at about 3:30 to let them know we were running about a half hour late. He really should have given a specific arrival time, but didn't. So, we get there and everyone is whipped to a lather about the cake. It was such an easy setup it was crazy... we had it in and up in 5 minutes (it had 4 tiers already stacked, the top just needed to be set in place, and 3 flowers placed around the topper) and we even spent an extra 15 minutes or so putting extra flowers around the base of the cake. During that time, I was told by both the banquet center person and the florist that 1) EVERYONE has their cakes set up by 2pm, and 2) I shouldn't sell people cakes that need last-minute deliveries. The banquet center has taken the extra step of calling some of the brides coming up for us and them that they need to contact me regarding setup times.

Wolf has since contacted both the florist and the banquet center and let them know in his easygoing way that they were out of line. The florist apologized and sent a bouquet, which was a sweet gesture. The banquet center, however, maintained the position that wedding cakes have to be set up by 2pm, regardless. I think I need to write a letter explaining that we carefully consider delivery times, and determine the best time for the given filling and design. And further, that if they're going to be picky about delivery times, I will refer couples wanting the more fragile fillings back to them for refrigeration space and to have them move the cake into place at the appropriate time... leaving it up to them to explain to their customers why I can't just drop it off at the last minute. I mean, really... the banquet center is getting 5 to 7 times what I'm getting for each wedding before the meal is figured in. Either they can play nice and we can all work together, or they'll lose business over it.

Let there be cake...

2007-10-09T05:01:36Z

Oy vey...

Through a minor-ish paperwork screw up, I managed to schedule 5 multi-tiered cakes for this upcoming weekend, as well as 5 more standard cakes.

This wouldn't be a problem if either we had more decorators, or if I could for sure focus only on cake. But prior to next weekend the most I've ever done in a single weekend is 3 multi-tiered cakes and a few other odd cakes.

I'm nervous about this, as weather has been punishingly hot indian summer lately... but we're supposed to get a break from that very soon. (Crossing fingers!)

On top of that, it's homecoming weekend for Central High (my Alma-mater) and two of our employees are both seniors at Central and need time off for the football game and dance.

So... more cake than ever, down two employees.

BUT! I'm doing more planning and preparing than usual, and we're jump-starting cake prep tomorrow. Plus, we'll be test-driving one of our newest employees (who has been very good so far) in a mission critical situation. He's picking up the hours that the guys who need off for homecoming can't work. Maybe I'm kidding myself, but I think we'll manage!

If a bear falls in the back of a van, does Wolf hear it?

2007-10-02T07:44:58Z

Here I finally have pictures of the bear cake disaster recovery.

First, the back of the van...

What a mess.

Next a couple shots of everything after we got it back into the shop.

Me starting the repair.

Finally, what he looked like a mere 1 1/2 hours afterward.

bakerslife @ 2007-09-30T02:29:00

2007-09-30T06:44:21Z

Just when I'm utterly freakin' ready to just slam the bakery doors shut and call it a miserable failure, I have a day like today. It started out bumpy, but once I could just focus on the wedding cake things smoothed out.

The 5-tier hexagonal wedding cake that was blocked with flowers was utterly gorgeous. The bride steered me in a direction, but listened to my suggestions, let me know her preferences, and made sure the flowers arrived in time to get them all arranged, and other than that just let me do my thing, and the results were very nice. The delivery went without a hitch. I guess it was a pendulum swing thing... last week was a really bad wedding cake delivery, this week was a really good one. Once I get pics developed I'll either have them here or on Facebook. And woot! Added bonus! A nice photographer that I've met at a couple bridal events who would really like to do a picture book with my cakes in it for me was there doing the pictures, and when I said hello and asked him to make sure to get a good shot of the cake for me, he promised he would and he'd get a copy to me for no charge. Yay professional pictures of the prettiest cake to date! :)

Next week will be a madhouse. 3 wedding cakes... 2 real wedding cakes, and 1 self-pick-up (very fancy standard cake) type, and 1 sculpted cake--a train. I'm going to have to remember to have fun with it all! The following week we have 4 wedding cakes... 2 real ones, and 2 self-pick-ups.

Human nature?

2007-09-23T03:51:35Z

Interesting... today we delivered a wedding cake that the family nearly destroyed and the mother of the bride showed up demanding that we go fix it immediately because the problem was somehow our fault.

Shari warned me that this sort of thing would happen, but I really thought that they would be rare in the extreme. But evidently not so.

I put in probably a total of 45 hours, give or take 5, making a 5 tier wedding cake with two satellite cakes that had trellises supporting dozens of gum paste roses. I'd put in about 30 hours straight including delivery, and it looked really beautiful set up.

When we dropped off the cake, it was for a reception at a polish american hall with a bar that is around the corner. The hall was not unlocked, no one from the wedding was there to coordinate with, and when we went in to the bar, the bartender (who was annoyed that we were interrupting her cell phone conversation) told us to go around to the "other side" and knock, and the caterer would let us in. Well, the caterer was a total prick... he heard us knocking and could see us, but didn't open the door to the hall. When we went around (yet again) and through the kitchen, he screamed at us at the top of his lungs about how he was not just standing around waiting to open the door for us. I had the impression he was drunk and bigoted, plus had a loud, rude mouth. What an ass. Aaron knew him from the area, evidently he was the former owner of the Broadway House--a closed local restaurant. On top of that, the doors nearest the cake table were so heavy that they just kept pushing the chairs we were using to prop them open so that the doors kept shutting and locking us out while carrying cakes. Just ridiculous. And I just had a bad feeling--I told Aaron that I knew this cake was going to get screwed up.

But when we left, it looked utterly beautiful. I also felt that if the caterer was any indication, the art was going to be completely lost on these folks. But whatever... I'd exceeded our contract by a LONG shot. I did think it was fishy that they wanted the cake delivered so ridiculuously early (12:30 pm). It shouldn't be a problem... but buttercream gets softer with heat and it was a little warm... but it tastes best at room temp, so I'd agreed.

Evidently just after I'd gone to sleep, the mother and father of the bride showed up and started messing with things.

Now, when we'd put the cake down, the tablecloth was a bit loose. These heavy cakes often move tablecloths around a bit as they're being placed. This is perfectly normal--if you look at the thumbnail for me, you'll see a little bit of bunching to the left of that cake. After we'd gotten the 3 cakes and trellises with gum paste flowers all set, I saw that the tablecloth had a slight wave in it that actually looked pleasing. It obscured the plainness of the silver cake boards a bit, so I decided to leave it for asthetic reasons as well as not wanting to screw with the presentation of the cakes.

Well, the father and mother of the bride evidently arrived and decided that the wrinkle in the tablecloth was just not acceptable. There was some nonesense about this being retaliation for the caterer being a dickhead, but that's not true... Aaron and I didn't hang around because this man had created a hostile environment--there have been times that I have taken longer to fuss over presentation, but in this case it was clear we were not welcome. Also, this family had huge boxes of plates and forks that the caterer seemed to have the impression I was responsible for, but I tell every bride who asks (and most of them either know better or are going through halls and caterers that know better) that serving is their responsibility--we drop off the cake and can sprinkle a few flowers petals or arrange something simple around the base and that's it. Anyway... the upshot is, dad decides to just pick up one of the satellite cakes so he can straighten the tablecloth. NO, he doesn't just slide the cloth from underneath, he picks up the cake which has a wire trellis loaded with EXCEEDINGLY delicate hand made, hand tinted gum paste flowers on it, and which is connected to the top 2 tiers of the main cake. The trellis evidently then began to fall, so dad drops the cake and grabs the delicate, fragile flowers with his hand. At least this was what I got from the bits and pieces the other guests and family members told me.

So, he f'd up the whole left side of the cake, rather than leave a wrinkle in the tablecloth that Aaron and I both felt actually looked nice.

And what is their response? Tell the bartender that they need to call the bakery and tell them they have to come RIGHT NOW with a bag of frosting. Wolf got that call, and then came to wake me up. I was utterly wiped--I'd been asleep for about an hour, and I've been busting butt on the flowers and such for this thing all week and haven't gotten more than 5 hours a night prior, plus pulled an all-nighter to make sure this thing looked perfect. I just told Wolf I couldn't do it... if they screwed it up, they were on their own... I was already drained.

While Wolf was upstairs with me, the mother of the bride arrives at the bakery throwing a hissy about us "just dropping the cake" and "not setting it up" and "using the wrong door", etc., etc. to my mother. Wolf came down, and they decided to send mom over to see what she could do. And, after about 15 minutes of tossing and turning and worrying about this stupid problem, I decided to just get up, take a shower to wake up, and go see what I could do. By the time I got there, mom had done a reasonable job patching things back together and obscuring problems with flowers that had been donated by bridal party members from bouquets and buttoneers. The bride was there and actually laughing about it... she thought the story would have been funnier if we hadn't fixed it. Also, evidently the parents of the bride had calmed down substantially and were feeling much more apologetic about the situation by then, too.

But what is it about human nature that does that? I do not see myself as this type of person, so I don't get it--if I screw up, I'm one of the first to say I own it. But what is the whole--"I screwed up, it's YOUR fault!!!" mentality?

These people kept going back to "but the tablecloth was wrinkled" as an excuse for screwing up a $600 wedding cake until I acknowledged that yes, there was a wrinkle, yes it was left there because we felt that it looked BETTER than leaving the cake boards as the only feature at the table level, and that yes, we took pictures of exactly how it looked when we left it. Not to mention that the tablecloth could have easily been slid by one person if another held the cake in place, and that the cakes should never have been picked up.

And what if I'd had 2 other cakes to deliver on the same day? Wolf and I would have been off delivering and Mom would have been the only one to mind the store. Are we supposed to close our shop to go fix their mess? Or are other brides' cakes supposed to be late because of this sort of thing? I mean, the reality is that I build really stable cakes and if they don't have trouble during the trip in the van where the vibration, motion and general road physics are impacting them, they're golden unless someone screws with them.

And on a business level... part of me wants to react to this by changing our contracts so that any hall or home weddings require a designated person to be there and accept the cake when it's delivered and verify its condition upon arrival, plus institute a "Cake Doctor House Call" charge to the tune of $50 an hour, 1 hour minimum plus travel expenses contingent upon availability so that people understand that demanding that we drop everything to go fix a cake that was fine upon delivery and for no charge is unreasonable.

I also feel like putting a whole list of things we just won't do at the bottom of the contract. The "no, we won't, not for any price, it's not ever included, don't even ask" list would be: Serving the Cake, Providing Napkins, Placing Napkins, Providing Forks, Placing Forks, Providing To Go Boxes, Pre-Cutting Cake, Decorating the Cake Table, Setting Up the Cake Table, Bringing a Cake Table, Bringing a Table Skirt, and those are just the things that come to mind immediately. Is it just because I'm in the business that those things seem obvious?

But if I take these steps does that punish everyone because of one really crappy experience? The usual experience is that, yes, the other people involved want just as much as you do to give the couple a nice experience. There was one cake where the deejay that was setting up helped me carry the cake into the banquet hall. I've never before had an experience where the hall refused to unlock its doors for my delivery... but usually for hall weddings there is a family member bird-dogging the event and on hand making sure that the caterer and decorator and photographer and cake person and deejay all have everything they need.

Plus, there's another argument that I should hike the prices VERY substantially... like from 2.85 per slice to 6.00 per slice. For one, our quality it worth it, and that's really what the cakes that I perfer to do should go for, even in this area... the reality is, I'm underpricing a lot of the gum paste work because I personally like it and think it's beautiful. Banging out wedding cakes that pretty much look like store cakes doesn't excite me in the least... that's just cake... so what? I like doing things that really are special, but if it isn't appreciated... ???? Y' know? And unfortunately, the real sign of how much things are appreciated in our society is money. In this case it was a little blatant based on other factors as well (forget them damn fussy flowers--look, the tablecloth has a *wrinkle*!!! Sweet Jesus on a stick with a crunchy toffee coating...) But the logic there is that we'll probably still get the professional business, because most professionals come in and are surprised by the reasonable price... some are even turned off in the too-good-to-be-true sort of way, and we'll just end up completely out of weddings where they're looking more at the fact that we won't set out their box of paper plates and plastic forks than the detail and artistry of the cake. The thing that tears me on this is that I *know* we've been MOST appreciated by some of the people who could least afford us, so that's not a panacea, either.

Gah... I know, I know. One of my professors kept talking about how running a small business is like a chess game, and you have to enjoy finding out what happens when you move the peices. I keep wanting this to be a light switch, not something multi-faceted.

Oh well... that ended up being more lengthy than expected. Guess it just brings some thoughts to light.

Another odd week...

2007-09-17T06:28:19Z

Well, my Aunt quit on us this week. Evidently I was being too rough on her. Wolf keeps telling me that I need to tone my expectations of people down, and that even the slightest comment is seen as heavy criticism.

And since she's come back to work, my Aunt has been going to Wolf worrying that I haven't been satisfied with her performance. And it's true, I haven't been, but she's been on work restriction and what I've really wanted was for her to sit her butt on a stool in front of the till until customers come in, then be friendly to them and pack their orders and take their money. Maybe wipe up the counters and re-stock the packaging materials, occasionally make a pot of coffee. That's it, because she came back with a work restriction from her doctor not to lift anything above 15 lbs. In a bakery that's the only job where you don't have to drag around 50 lb bags of flour or 30+ lb pails of batter, icing, dough, etc.

I don't think she particularly liked being on counter, so she'd keep scooting off into the kitchen, and either she was rusty or on pain meds, but either way she just kept screwing things up (lots of weird errors... the most agregious and spectacular being whipping 5 lbs of egg white--this had to be put in a 30 quart mixer--to make meringue for 2 pies... and it was done wrong so the whole thing and the pie shells had to be pitched), so I told both her and Wolf that she needed to focus on counter.

Well, this Friday bake off was screwed because Wolf overslept. So, we were sucking wind at 5:30 trying to get ready to open at 6. (Mind you, I was in 3 1/2 hours early to work on gum paste flowers for a wedding cake due the next day, and I'm getting sucked in to managing and bake off.) My two bread guys inform me that they both need next week off... one was approved so long ago that I thought his last vacation was this one, and the other wants to go to his brother's once-in-a-lifetime basic training graduation. As Wolf and I are looking at the calendar trying to figure out what to do, my Aunt comes to me asking for the next Monday off for a doctor's appointment. I told her we were short staffed and this was short notice, so couldn't she just go on her break and come back after? She really seemed peeved and evidently making a 9am doc appointment requires a whole day off when you work from 5:30 until 11:30 in her book. After that, she made coffee, then essentially took it upon herself to start scooping cookies in the middle of bake off, which is a time with limited kitchen and oven space. I told her to stop that, and finish getting the lobby ready because it looked like crap--cases weren't cleaned, packaging materials were scattered, lots of minor stuff. I asked her a direct question about a spool of ribbon lying on the counter and instead of answering me, she gave me a talk-to-the-hand motion! That did piss me off (who does that to their boss???) and I told her that it was a direct question and I'd like an answer, even if it was that she didn't know anything about it. Turns out that was the case, and I asked Wolf and found out it was supposed to be for an upcoming wedding cake and I went to use the stapler to attach a piece to the bride's file. The stapler was kaput, so I tried to get it to work by whacking it a few times (it was a weird spring-loaded thing,) and digging around with the staples, and no luck. In the midst of this, she just told Wolf she was leaving and took off with not a thank you, kiss my ass, nothing. Wolf keeps saying it was the stapler that pushed her over the edge.

Good grief... seems that I have some real nerve expecting people to WORK and do the STUFF I NEED DONE rather than just letting them hang out and shoot the shit on my dime. In Michigan this makes me the worst boss in the world. ESPECIALLY considering I CORRECT them and REMIND them when they aren't doing what I WANT.

We've lost 2 employees since re-opening. In some ways it's not surprising, since during our break I did some basic calculations, and yes, these folks need to move their asses faster or there's no reason for them to be here, and I've told them that, and begun to pressure them all to be more productive. It's just disheartening when even your own family can't deal... especially since we were paying her to do a stripped-down, simple, version of counter... everyone else needs to hop back and forth from counter to prep.

"The bear is DOWN!!!"

2007-09-10T05:00:01Z

Oh, today was not pretty.

I was doing a 3-tiered shower cake that was a Wilton design that was relatively complicated. It has a white 3-D teddy bear at the top, sitting on a 10" cake with stars and quilted fondant on the sides, which is supported by pillars that are covered by 4 hand made gum paste baby blocks, on top of a 14" cake with the quilted fondant and stars. I'm cruising along thinking, "Wow, I'll have this set WAY before 2:00 when we're delivering it." Just to make sure, I ask Wolf to double-check the order form and confirm the delivery time.

This is at quarter after 11.

"Honey, this says 11-12."

"Whaaaaaaaaaaaaat! OH FUCK!!!!!!" (Yes, it's Sunday. Yes, the shop is directly across from a large church. Yes, I'm sure they heard me if it was a quiet point during mass.)

So, Wolf called the hotel we were delivering to, told them we'd be about 1/2 hour late, and I started doing everything as quickly as humanly possible. I took some shortcuts like using all pink for the details in the bear's face rather than pink and black... the guest of honor for this baby shower is pretty sure it's a girl, so it actually fit their theme better... cool. I get the cake assembled, tiered, decorated, and it's looking very nice, feeling plenty sturdy, easily lifted and placed into the back of the van and off we go.

Pulling out of the drive, the traffic on one side of the street stops so that we can mosey right out of the lot... very cool of those folks. On the other side of the street a guy blasts through the intersection at the corner hell bent on getting past us before we finish our turn. Fine. I brought the van to a relatively quick stop. We're pretty sure this jolt is what started the trouble. Less than half a block away, Wolf says, "Did you hear that?" I hadn't heard a thing. So, as we're going, Wolf twists around to look in the back.

And then I hear, "Aw shit, the bear is DOWN, honey."

"What?"

"The bear is DOWN!!!"

"Hunh?"

"The BEAR--the cake--it's DOWN!"

I pull over in partial disbelief, hoping that Wolf just wasn't seeing something right.

We open the back and the bear is face against the tailgate and all the blocks look broken, plus a side of the cake is collapsed.

Now, what I don't get about myself is that near disaster will send me into a tailspin. An actual disaster sends me into a recovery mode. It's almost like once things get so bad there's no point in even being upset. Just fix it.

So, we called the gal at the shower, explained the emergency, promised a full refund, and delivery of the cake after a repair that we estimated would take 1.5 hours. Thank god the woman was understanding and more concerned about us not being hurt than the goofed up cake.

I immediately start patching and rearrange the supports for the ever-popular "the back is now the front" fix. Plus the bear needed some pretty serious cosmetic surgery. I get my aunt going on seeing what we can do to save any of the baby blocks (only 1 was salvable). Plus, a few strategically placed clouds and things aren't bad. And we're out the door in about 1 hour 20 minutes. Phew.

We get there, and all the guests are already there... 120 ladies, the mom-to-be is socializing, there's a massive pile of prezzies that haven't been touched. As we are walking in, there was a communal "Awwwwww...." for the teddy bear. :)

One of the ladies near the cake table said something about the bear, and I replied, "He's had a really BAD day."

She replied in that mom-worried-about-the-kid tone, "We hearrrrd..."

The mom-to-be was totally cool about things and said we didn't need to refund the whole thing, so we left it as something she should check with us on when she has time.

We don't have the pictures of the cake before wreckage, but we do have pictures of the mess and the final result. When they are developed I will post.

Also, we did realize that this *is* going to happen a certain percentage of the time. All the supports and best construction merely minimize damage if the force is strong enough... especially in heat and humidity which we have now in spades. So, there's not much that can be done other than be skilled in cake reconstruction as well as construction.

I'm also glad that we could still put something together that looked nice rather than having to either not deliver anything or something that looked like it had been in a wreck.

Stuff...

2007-09-05T21:51:41Z

agentanderson and his sweetie visited last week. It was awesome to have them visit, and very sad to see them go. An amazing kicker is that the two of them helped us for about 30 minutes each night, and that ended up saving us enough time to have dinner and visit with them every night, with no real detriment to the bakery. In fact, having friends around made it extra-pleasant for Wolf and I and it made things actively go better.

Kind of brought us to the conclusion... there's no point in any of this if we can't be somewhere near friends, or have some time to spend with them. No amount of success or failure is worth it.

We started noodling numbers and the bakery as a business alone is probably worth somewhere near $400K without real estate. Also interestingly enough, it's producing right about where I was expecting the first year to be in the business plan, although the profitability is poopy primarily due to employee issues (which I've kvetched about ad nauseum). I don't think the business would fetch nearly what it should be worth, but we are seriously considering putting it up for sale, anticipating that it will take several months to sell anyway. Plus, Wolf is starting to shop for jobs in LA, SF, and Seattle. I've also glanced through things and there are $40-70K jobs that after the experience running the bakery, I'd be qualified for, plus there are other bakeries for sale out there.

Also, retch was a massive help in getting some thoughts on what to do and where to go crystallized. It's good to have friends with business minds that aren't emotionally attached to the business that one can bounce thoughts off.

Employees

2007-06-12T18:36:51Z

The bread guy position...

...no, not something new and kinky. Darn.

The "bread guy" is the person we need at midnight that comes in to make bread. We've had Jerry, a GM retiree, doing it for Thursday and Friday, and Wolf for Saturday, Sunday, Monday. This situation came about when our previous bread guy, Dave, quit with no notice the week before Easter.

And kind of good riddance, because he wasn't willing to create artisan quality breads... he was churning out a bunch of mediocre stuff based on my recipes, but frequently overwork, overproofed... just not what we wanted. John, our pot washer had been helping out with breads here and there when he finished his pots and pans early, and we recognized that he was pretty good at breads. When Dave quit, we asked John if he'd like to quit washing pots and pans part time (7am-11am), and start doing bread full time (3am-11am until he was trained, 12am-8am after). He was ecstatic. But after two days, he called us the night before he was supposed to be in saying he just wasn't able to get enough sleep, couldn't do the shift, but he was thinking about getting his own place, etc., etc. Okay fine.

As a stop-gap measure, we called Jerry back in for 2 nights a week, and put Wolf on bread for the weekend, but continued to find projects, and keep training John for breads, and keep John working full time. Well, that was weeks ago. This past week, Jerry's mother in law was dying, and he needed time off. We called on John to fill in for Jerry on Thursday and Friday. He did really well on Thursday, but 3 hours after leaving called to say he wasn't feeling well, and just couldn't work the midnight shift because he can't get enough sleep. I told him that was fine, but that we also don't need a full time pot washer and his hours would be going back to plus or minus 4 per day. The plain fact is we need bread when we open, not at 2pm, which is what happens when it gets started at 7am.

Well, John came back in to talk with me and explain that he really needs full time work and really likes his shift the way it has been. I had to point out all kinds of things like--it's dead right now, and it doesn't help business when the bread is not there for people to purchase when they come in in the morning. That we've been coming up with work to keep him busy for 40 hours at the same time that I've been having to pour in all kinds of extra hours because we've been holding the bread position open for him, waiting for him to get a place or work something out, and now that we have an emergency, he can't be inconvenienced for even 2 days.

He actually said, "You don't understand... I really need this job... all the other places I've applied to don't even call me back." But despite that, no budging on the hours he's willing to work. Even after I offered a $1 per hour shift premium. No dice.

So, I'm calling bullshit on him and interviewing someone this Thursday. If this thing is going to fly, I'm not getting up at midnight to make bread, doing bake-off, whipping out a few wedding cakes, doing all the pastries, and then getting back to bed at 10 pm only to repeat the process ANY MORE. If this town wants a bakery, it needs to support it by coughing up the workers to make it run, and the $$$ it takes to pay them and me and my suppliers.

Employee profitability...

What I'm finding is that most of our employees, even after lots of training, are capable of producing about enough product to pay for their own time and not much more. On average, one of my people in the kitchen for 8 hours produces $125-$175 in product. If pushed to do much more, either by working faster or longer hours, that amount is either reduced from the next day's production or the person quits after a short while.

To contrast this... when I was INTERNING (no pay 2 days, $8/hour 2 days) at Noe Valley Bakery, I'd typically produce 80 cupcakes, which sold at $3 each, set up and baked off 7 dozen cookies at $10 per dozen, made 3 large fruit tarts at $35 each, 12 med fruit tarts at $3 each, and 12 small fruit tarts at $1 each, plus 5 lemon meringue tartlettes at $3 each, 8 pies at $10 each, and probably another $100 of miscellaneous stuff. Roughly $650 in value... and it was probably costing them less than $100 to employ me on the days I was paid.

The midwestern work ethic I grew up with is toast, gone, kaput, nada. And not a single person has come to me saying, "If I had a raise, I'd produce more." In fact, I gladly hand out overtime at 1.5x if someone is getting things done. But it's clearly not the money here. It's just that people don't want to work very hard, and they want to work the hours they choose.

Reliability...

I've had to bonk Aaron, our counter guy, on the head pretty hard. In a single week, he gave himself a day off, set his own hours on his first day back, called in absent the following day, then the day after that showed up late. I told him his hours were getting cut because business is slow and I need people I can rely on, and cut him to one day per week. So, this week when he showed up for that one day, he really worked. I hate to be an asshole boss, but something has to give, and I can't have someone picking and choosing the days that it is convenient to show up.

Business Side Thoughts...

2007-06-12T18:04:05Z

Cakes are currently carrying the bakery. Looking at the numbers, for summer it would make perfect business sense to shut down the bread, pastries, etc., lay off all my employees, cut operating expenses like electricity (considering the heat, the air conditioning bill is going to be perverse... we run an oven in 90+ degree weather, then need the lobby cool enough for customers... we get bit both ways) and simply do wedding and graduation/special order cakes all on my own. The food cost is low on cakes... especially the ornate ones. The labor is what really adds value and no one except me can perform it. This would take us from breaking even to very profitable. BUT... there would be no real room to grow, and the value of the business would lie solely with me, making it very difficult to sell or pass to anyone else, ever.

Plus, I FREQUENTLY have wedding cake customers who expect to pay more than I ask. On the flip side we FREQUENTLY have people pissing and moaning about the cost of most of our other items... as an example, Tammy had a lady outright walk out because the tag was up on the shelf for our sweet boules which run $2, and the lady wanted a sour boule which was next to the sweet boules but was not labeled and runs $2.25. The customer refused to pay the extra $.25 because "the sign says..." and she was quite belligerent about it. And the worst thing is the customer RECOGNIZED the difference... she did NOT want a sweet boule, but she refused to recognize the fact that the sign posted near the sweet boules didn't apply to the sour ones.

We've been kicking that idea around for quite some time, in fact. Maybe even not just making it a summer change, but a permanent one. The reasons I haven't done this yet, though, are: 1) Ethics--I don't feel right laying everyone off as soon as the business cools down... it feels wrong. 2) Saleability--without additional employees and the ability for the business to live without my presence, the business's only value is furniture, fixtures & equipment. 3) Customers--despite the jerks, we also have customers come in every day that rave about different things we make, and I don't like the idea of disappointing them. 4) Ego--there is a certain amount of prestige in having a full-service bakery versus a cake shop, and I don't like feeling as if I've failed.

Other options being considered are just doing a "Month Off for Restructuring" sort of thing, to get processes and such down, but that feels like a death knell to me. Plus, I know I still have cake contracts to complete during that time, so thinking I'll have tons of extra time to spend on processes is a fallacy. Lots of places around here that take a month or so off during their first year just don't open again... and customers recognize that. Another possibility is just hiking prices on everything... this would make individual sales more profitable, even though my employees don't produce much, and it would slow down business so that I need fewer employees. Then, when business picks back up in the fall and there are more efficiencies, whoopee... we'll actually make something.

Decisions...

Exhaustion

2007-06-12T17:45:27Z

Having several separate lines of thought... splitting into smaller, more digestible, posts.

Well, finished a 4-tier wedding cake this past weekend, and it looked pretty, but the hot pink and black (especially the black) accents that the bride wanted certainly detracted from the cake. I didn't have to do a full-on all-nighter plus this time thanks to Wolf... he covered the bakery Saturday morning, after I did the setup for the cakes the night before. It actually worked out pretty well. But I'd still pulled a 28-hour shift at the bakery, got 4 hours sleep, finished and delivered the cake, then after another wedding cake consult went to dinner and bed and passed out for 14 hours. Fighting a cold plus all the squirrelly hours has been draining.

It's a weird thing... plus with the wedding season just hitting full tilt, we have at least one and as many as three wedding cakes every weekend until the end of July. Phew. But I don't want to do any more 42-hour runs at the bakery. In fact, I'm damn sick of all-nighters. I've found that after working for 20 hours, the floor in the ladies' room starts to swim and move (this has happened several times--the floor is a really pretty dimensional-stone tile pattern that just must be way too exciting for my brain when I'm exhausted.) Also after 24 hours, minor auditory hallucinations start (this week I kept hearing what sounded like NPR reports playing on a radio turned down too low to actually hear detail. I checked the radios in the shop several times, only to find that they were all off. I thought about turning one on just to fill in some noise but realized that what is on in the middle of the night is lame. Last time that happened, I just kept thinking I heard people saying my name as if they were getting my attention for a question.) This has to be what real honest-to-god biological exhaustion is like, but what I don't get is why on earth getting substantial doses of sleep on my days off don't resolve the problems. When we first opened, the long stretches of work actually felt good, and the sleep was invigorating. Feels kind of like a battery has been drained too low and can't recharge.

Here & There...

2007-05-21T20:16:56Z

Funny, Wolf expressed a sentiment that I think I feel as well. After dinner the other night he said, "I don't want to die here. They wouldn't bury me, they'd just deep-fry me. And I'd only feed a family of four for three days!" And, yeah... we're not doing so well here in terms of interpersonal things, business things, family things.

Today our banker showed up with some papers for us to sign. She repeated again and again how exhausted we both looked and how we should both get some rest. She also offered us access to any more money if we need it... line of credit, another 5-7 year loan for capital expenditures, anything. Plus she kept emphasizing how *well* we were doing, and told us to keep it going and she'd support us in any way. Even funding additional stores if we want to expand. We explained that we're at a weird juncture where we're deciding to either expand or contract... expand to reach out to more wholesale and such accounts, and get people and processes in place to put good bread in local markets and restaurants, or contract and become a simple cake shop until we can find the people to staff a real bakery. And when we explained the profitability of each of our lines, she was still with us.

On the flip side, my mom, who's been helping out at the bakery by doing counter for us, continues to go out of her way to hurt me, Wolf and the bakery. For instance, today. Wolf and I were supposed to grab some dinner last night together. Wolf went upstairs for a nap, and I decided to stay downstairs and get some cake done to fill up the case (our refrigerated case, which had been on the fritz all weekend, and had just been repaired) and maybe make up for a really sucky Sunday. Needless to say, by the time I went upstairs, Wolf was deep in mid-sleep, and I was pretty damned exhausted, too. I tried to wake him, but he was zonked. Shortly after that, I passed out, too, with clothes on. So, when we woke up today, we were both starved... we hadn't gotten our one meal (we almost never eat more than a single meal in a day) yesterday, and we had tons of work to do before we could run out to get something. Admittedly, we were both nibbling on day-old, but that's not really a meal.

Anyway... when things finally calmed down, Wolf and I needed a real meal, and I was about to invite my mom to breakfast with us, and I said, "Well, we haven't eaten a meal in more than a day..."

I got about that far, and my MOTHER... you know, a mother? The person who's supposed to care about you even if no one else does? Yeah, my mother... says in a mocking tone of voice, "OHHHHh, poooor baby..."

I barely finished my sentence after that, but I did invite her to breakfast and she declined.

But what is that about? My *banker* expressed more concern and empathy than my *mother*. GAH. Whose mother treats them like that?

Another item of note is that I spoke with my old boss and my old boss's boss at Copenhagen. It was good (in some ways) to hear that Shari went through much of the same stuff, and in fact, still goes through a lot of the same things that we're going through with customers, suppliers, employees, etc. It was a nice conversation, and Shari told me directly that she and the rest of the family have wanted to find someone that really knows what it takes to run a successful bakery and is willing to take it over from them so that they can retire. She indicated that some form of transfer of ownership was definitely possible if I want to return to the Bay Area, and do some sort of training/working for equity/easy payment plan to take over their bakery. Massively flattering and awfully tempting... considering I loved the way their bakery is set up and running and would more than anything want to keep it running as is or better. (Shoot--our place is kind of a mini-Copenhagen.) That dovetails nicely in terms of what the Nielsens want... someone to take over their business who will run their bakery well, and not just run it into the ground.

So, yeah... strangeness whipping all around. We're taking half of Saturday, Sunday and Monday off for memorial day... and I am looking forward to it IMMENSELY.

Still in hell...

2007-05-07T19:56:44Z

Ugh.

This experience is the most bizzarre and insane thing I've ever had to live through. I feel more and more discouraged every day. It has to get better or I'm quitting.

I've had (I think) three employees quit with no notice since my last posting. First the bread guy, then the gal that had been with us from the start, and most recently a culinary student just about to graduate. I guess I'm an oddball, giving notice for all my jobs save one... and in that case, I was being abused. It seems like employees actively want to try to screw me... one pulled his exit the week before Easter, the next at the end of a week after the local paper'd written a huge article on us and we were swamped, and the third was 3 days after being hired as a replacement for the second. What the fuck? When can *I* quit with no notice?

When Dani quit, it was coincidentally 2 days after my Dad installed a video camera to counteract some of the theft issues we were having with employees and the till. Hunh... connection? Supposedly, she was just "too stressed out" working after that.

I had a wedding cake this weekend and ended up working for 42 hours straight to make up for the culinary student's f-ups and cover for missing people and get a totally complicated cake finished. There was a breif yay moment... the bride was at the reception location when we dropped off the cake, and nearly started crying because she was so happy with the cake.

But operating a bakery with no trained staff and relying on family to help is terrible. My mom is being difficult and adding to stress levels. Wolf either can't or won't listen to simple directions.

It's frustrating. Tempting to either close or turn it into a cake shop.

Ugh...

2007-02-28T22:11:06Z

Okay, another difficult week, but we're getting by.

Today, however, I received my first piece of hate mail. Yes. A little old lady went to the trouble of sending a bakery hate mail. I remember her pretty clearly... she came in and was P.O.'d that we didn't have the damned frozen cake donuts in the case, but instead had freshly made yeast raised donuts. She grudgingly took a PLAIN... yes PLAIN... donut, and a cherry danish, bitching the whole time about us changing the donuts. This same person then over a $.85 donut and a $1.25 danish writes a letter and sends it with no signature or return address saying she hated the donut and that the danish was old, and that this was expensive for leftovers. Both items had been made THAT day. She picked the crappiest possible item--a plain donut, and the danish was made fresh that morning, so all I can think about that is either she just wanted to pitch a bitch or she doesn't understand that good food has TEXTURE... that we will not be serving the standard donut crap that is just formed into a dozen different shapes all with different names and comes pre-made from the foodservice, but that we'll be serving the ACTUAL item that the donut knockoffs are named after. An Eclair here WILL NOT BE a rectangular donut with custard. It just pisses me off, though... after she made that huge stink about "no frycakes", did she honestly think I wouldn't know who she was when she specifically bitched about the items she then purchased? When I see her in again, it's going to be very hard to keep from asking her to not come in again. We'd even suggested that she go down the street to a "bakery" that is essentially a donut shop to find what she wanted... oh wait... this was on a Monday, and that's their closed day. God, I hate getting their customers... they are cheap asses that have a horrible palate... and we get them on their closed days. That explains it. Bah.

I have moved to the hinterlands and I'm paying for it with little pieces of my sanity. I can't even consistently get staples like formed chocolate cups or rye flour here. These things are special order items that require lots of jumping through hoops to attain. In San Francisco all of these things would be available in abundance at any time. GAH!

On the flip side to this kvetching woman, I also got a piece of fan mail today from someone saying that they loved our bakery. I have to focus on the positive. The negative mostly comes from people who think a bakery is a donut shop. I promised myself I'd re-evaluate things at 1 month, and here I am. I'm seriously thinking about dumping donuts altogether, because all they do is invite bitching... the price is too high, we don't have yeast-raised, we don't have cake donuts, we don't have custard, we don't have... well, just bite me. If I wanted a dawn donuts or a Krispy Kreme, that's the business I'd have set up.

Dad actually had the best logic... he asked if business is going up or going down. Reality is that it's on a gentle steady climb up. He said that we must be doing what people want then. Good point.

Oh my god...

2007-02-20T17:18:26Z

This is really a different experience than I'd been prepared for or even imagined.

I honestly expected that the hard part of running a business would be getting the customers in the door. Everything in my training was geared toward getting more people in to sell things to. This has been the exact opposite.

We're pretty much out by early afternoon every day. We'd love to feed more people and sell more stuff (duh--business, right?) BUT, finding people to make the stuff is turning out to be a real trick. The last thing they ever teach you in school is what to do if you can't produce enough. Of course, work faster... but there are limits on that. Plus, we've bumped up the prices to the point where anything more and I'm going to feel that I'm gouging on most things... our bread is still a little on the cheap side... and I'm going to re-evaluate pricing soon, but we're nearly getting California prices. People here are just hungry for some good food. I never expected that the talent pool would be so shallow that the tough part would be finding someone that could show up for work every day and have a clue.

On the flip side, the two employees that we have right now are simply fabulous. Danielle (Dani, she insists) and Josephine (Jo). The come in on time, do their job, do it right and are both really bright. I'm convinced that Dani and her boyfriend really belong on the west coast... Dani's 21 and a gamer girl who has piercings and a laid-back style. She was really cute when she asked if she needed to take her eyebrow and nose piercing out to work--of course they're fine with me, but I did have to let her know that if customers seem offended, that might change... and so far, no problems. Jo is a mom in almost every sense. She's got 5 kids, lives around the corner, loves to bake, and her stuff looks positively beautiful. Both of these folks are just awesome and without them I'd have had to close the doors last week.

We did our first wedding cake as the bakery, and it looked very very nice. Dani and I did gum paste flowers, the cake was a square 3-tier Princess Cake with scrollwork on the sides. It looked good. Yay! And I know it tasted good. Double Yay. The down side of that was I worked for 40 hours straight to manage production, the wedding cake, four special order cakes and getting bread made. We are trying to hire a bread/dough guy and we have a strong candidate in hand... if we can get him, maybe this business will actually settle in!

OH! And Wolf has been a trooper... he's pinch hitting where ever possible--putting a lot of time in on the counter, doing dishes and as dough guy. Mom and Dad have also been helping a lot... Mom on counter in the afternoon, Dad doing repairs and cleanup. Awesome family support.

I have to say that after the first week I just wanted this whole experience to go away. Thank god I don't feel that way anymore... it's merely frightening. Maybe in another few weeks it'll be enjoyable. At our one month mark, I plan to re-evaluate the business. If the dough guy comes on board, life is good... but if we can't get him, we may have to cut out many of our breakfast products in favor of cakes... right now I almost never have enough time to get cakes in the case, which is a shame because cakes are where I shine and also the highest profitability in the shop. But now, I'm doing a lot of the bread and working with people to get smaller items done.

Also, that business plan... wow was I wrong. I was expecting a sleepy winter start with little demand and plenty of time to train people and develop recipes. Not so. I've always heard that people either vastly over-estimate or vastly under-estimate in their business plan... guess I fit the statistic.

Tips

2006-05-19T00:23:17Z

Sprinkles = Cake Makeup

The easiest way to get frosting on a round cake is to frost the top, clean up the upper edge, then use a bag to fire a half-inch or slightly larger bead halfway down the side of the cake, then fire another bead with the top edge right at the level of the top or just slightly above. Then use either a straight or patterned comb or a spatula to smooth the sides while spinning the wheel.

For sheet cakes that do not have a doily, placing them on a table, and then sliding a comb along the tabletop to frost the sides is the easiest way to get straight lines on a sheet cake.

Decorating tends to be easier when done on a lower table... this allows you to get over the top of the cake and see what you are doing.

When trying to create a design or shape, construct it out of strokes you are already comfortable with... for instance, use a series of comma shapes to create butterflies.

Advertising faux pas averted...

2006-05-19T00:16:54Z

Well, after finally getting in touch with someone, the situation became clear. My sales person moved to another position within AT&T and just sort of dumped all her half-finished stuff on the new guy's lap.

Fortunately, the new guy was VERY competent, and managed to pull everything back together in a week. Bravo! Yay! The new version is lighter, brighter and does *not* look like a ransom note. Whee! :)

How disappointing...

2006-05-10T22:04:47Z

I just got the proof in for the Yellow Pages Ad, and it's looks like a goddamn ransom note.

I sent the sales rep a full color .jpg showing *EXACTLY* what I would have been happy with, and the only thing that the ad I sent her and this one that is in common is that they both show a picture of pastries in the background.

They didn't use the font I SPECIFICALLY requested, they changed the text and put these tremendously ugly black bars on the top and bottom. All they needed to do was replicate what I sent and I would have been happy. I'm extremely UNHAPPY at this moment. And not only is this font *NOT* the one I specifically requested, but they used it in at least 8 different colors, sizes or boldings. It looks like a ransom note. And I'm probably going to have to look at it for a whole damned year.

SHIT. Idiots.

Madison Avenue Time

2006-04-21T22:43:50Z

Strangely enough, when starting a business that depends on the public, you need to start thinking about advertising way way in advance.

The most classic example is the Yellow Pages. For a food business, having at least a small listing in the appropriate section is absolutely necessary if you want anyone that does not have super-easy access to an internet connection to patronize your business. And knowing the demographics of Bay City... a lot of potential customers include baby-boomer grandparents that want to get a cake for their grandson or granddaughter's birthday... the average person will be more likely to pick up the yellow pages to find a bakery as they will to hop online. Now, the yellow pages is only printed *once* each year. In the Bay City/Saginaw area, the time happens to be now--the books are printed in July, and the cutoff date to set up advertising was this week. Fortunately, I'd known about this potential wrinkle and started the process of getting an ad about a month ago. Since we're going to be new, I'm going to do an ad that is larger than a basic listing (which is all an established place really needs) that includes a short list of items being offered and "Grand Opening January 2007!" Considering the book will be used for months before we open, that seemed to be a necessity. Plus, this also means that I needed to set up basic phone service and get a number... and for small extra one-time fee, I was able to get a vanity number! It's 989-894-BAKE (or CAKE, which I might use in cake-specific ads.) Once the line is installed, we're going to put an answering machine in place with a message thanking people for calling, but indicating that we won't be open until January.

Also, regarding web sites--so far I we have the domain names www.theoldworldbakery.biz and www.oldworldbakery.biz. www.oldworldbakery.com will probably never come up because there is an actual bakery using that site, however, www.theoldworldbakery.com is coming due, and has not been used by its current owner. We've tried to contact this person with no luck at all, so we'll just ride it out and hop on it when it opens.

Another kind-of advertising thing that I'm doing is having an awning put on the front of the building. It looks kind of bare and not very inviting... plus, in inclement weather, which Michigan is known for, who wants to be getting out of the car into the drizzle? Having it there will eliminate one potential barrier to purchase. And, it will encourage walkers in bad weather to come closer and look at our tempting displays! Whee! Cake dummies! :) Bread sculpture! Maybe even some pulled sugar or blown sugar display pieces. All that fun stuff that once the bakery is running, we won't have time for. :)

As for other advertising... I do need to check with the local paper to find out their rates, although I probably won't use them *real* regularly... but also to see if they have an annual bridal section, and make *sure* to be in that with wedding cakes.