Attention Home-Based Bakers – Is Your Online Business Revenue Struggling

Friday, January 9, 2009

What purpose does a website serve today if it’s not generating revenue? I teach a home-based bakery course and work with home-based bakers who sell their baked goods either for a living or part-time to generate extra income for the household. As our economy dips further into a recession everyone is searching for ways to make extra money. It would be wrong to say all these little earn extra money schemes are effective, most aren’t and few people will tell you that.

When economic times are tough expendable income becomes more precious than gold, silver, and diamonds (combined) and trying to pry it from the super glue drenched hands of the everyday consumer is near impossible. I have friends and acquaintances who constantly want to send emails asking me to purchase this or that from their site and I want so badly to say, I am not spending the extra income I have on sweet smelling stuff, candles or other items that end up cluttering my home. If I am going to spend extra money on anything it is usually going to the theater, movie, out to dinner or planning a dinner party with family and friends.

There are simply too many online businesses chasing too little online revenue. The whole Web 2.0 social networking genre has created a multitude of online businesses whose main focus is to build followers and databases of contacts without a clear definition of how they will generate revenue.

For the home-based baker one way to create a sustainable income is to create forums whereby all consumers who purchase from you; receive your product over time. A sort of get your money up front ventures. For example, one home-based baker devised a plan to ship out miniature pound cakes (6 ounces) to retiring teachers across the nation who belongs to a specific organization. The organization has a database of retiring teachers and each time someone retires they receive a gift card congratulating them on their retirement and pound cake. The gift is personal. less expensive than flowers, rarely thrown away because it’s delicious.

I still believe people involved in the food business are some of the most creative folks on the planet. The one item people will always be interested in spending their expendable income on is FOOD!