Transcript

• Session Spotlight: Planning and Opening a Business
• Hi, I'm Amy Smith. I'm owner of Amy Bakery in Osterville, Massachusetts on beautiful Cape Cod. Amy Bakery opened in December of 2014, and we're entering our 11th season here on Cape Cod. We were downtown in a small location and we've grown our business quite a bit, and in 2019, we opened our flagship location on Main Street in Osterville.
• What will attendees learn from this session?
• So in my session I'm going to talk about how to run a successful opening of your bakery. We had two grand openings, one when we initially started downtown in a small location, and then what it took to plan to open a larger location with a new menu, more staff, and everything new in terms of systems and equipment. And anything you want to know about running a bakery on a day to day basis or what you need to think about before you even open your doors for the first time. Other things you'll learn about are the different challenges you might face, the unexpected things like the COVID pandemic.
• What's crucial for baking pros' success in 2025 and beyond?
• To be successful, it doesn't matter what profession you're in. You need to dedicate yourself to whatever it is you're doing 110%, maybe even 200%. There is a great deal of focus that's required, a great deal of discipline. It's hard mentally, it's hard physically, and those realities, I don't think are apparent until you're actually in it. Someone can tell you how hard it is, but you're not going to really understand how hard it is until you get into it. That said, if you're passionate about it and you truly do what you love, then it doesn't feel like work, but it is a lot of discipline. It's a lot of discipline financially and work wise in terms of hours, and you need to be extremely detail oriented to stay on top of a million details and a lot of moving parts at the same time.