Hello everyone!
I have some exciting news! I’m finally transitioning this week from pop-up to micro bakery inside of Studio C, but I’m really only telling you guys! It’s definitely going to take me some time to figure a lot of it out and get into a routine. It’ll be Thursday and Friday from 9am-sell out. I’ll have larger quantities of items to hopefully stay “open” for a few hours. I probably won’t publicly announce this definite transition until after a few weeks. I’ll just announce on Thursday evening that I’ll be there again on Friday.
While I’ve opened many restaurants for others, it’s always been with someone else’s menu and obviously not my own. Some background thoughts I’m currently having.
-What exactly do I need to make to make sure I’m turning a profit?
-Who exactly do I hire to help me and how many hours can I provide to them? This one is the most nerve wrecking to me because they will be my first official hire. I know my business model is unique and ever changing, so they have to be able to adapt with me. I also want to make sure I’m a dependable employer. Not in just a “let me push you forward in your talents” way, but I also want to make sure I’m paying close attention to the finances of Indy Dough that I can provide one person some sort of income even if it is only a part time gig. Heavy weight for me on this one.
-when should I make large batches of which items and how can I manage my time effectively to get through all my prep lists?
-what will be my weekly routine?
-will I ever be able to order inventory to be delivered or will I forever be going to Restaurant Depot?
-the other heavy thing I’ve been thinking about is the culture of Indy Dough. For so long, I’ve had so many ideas of how I want to feel as an employee working somewhere and how I want to feel as a customer in an establishment. That all contributes to the culture I want. Alone I can imagine it, but once I hire someone, it’s a matter of how do I communicate that culture to them as well as know they’re on board all on top of being a business inside someone else’s business? While I think this is a heavy thought I’ve been dwelling on, there’s another part of me that just says, it’s no big deal this is just where your business is at and you just have a simple conversation with your first hire. If you’re reading this, I would love to hear about a job you loved being at and why you loved being there. I have had a job that definitely broke me, but my bosses were the best bosses I know I’ll ever have. They’ve even been such an incredible encouragement to me through Indy Dough. They saw my potential and pushed me, they trusted me, and they consistently told me I was doing a good job and not only that, they often thanked me. Those were super impressionable on me.
I have my very large mixer set up that I will forever be so grateful to all of you who donated! I’ve used it and love it and it’s already making my life easier!
I have a table top fryer and I have a table for it to go on that just needs to get set up. I’m nervous and excited. The goal is for the fryer to allow me to fry more doughnuts at a time, but with any new piece of equipment, I gotta figure it out, which is the nerve wrecking part.
Thanks for taking the time to read all these newsletters and I hope to see you guys this week! Ending this note with a picture of jammy buns because I’m obsessed and I think you guys might be too!
Amanda!