Transparency & the Bakery Debates
Newsletter #3
Welcome friends!
Transparency!
Thoughts by Jen to kick off this issue.
Recently I have heard the word ‘transparency’ a lot in how I have been sharing my story on the Bakery and the business to support it. Most of the comments are super positive – and some are cautious – aka ‘please be careful Jen’.
My community wants to keep my safe – and I am grateful for them. Thank you 🙏
So Let’s Dive into my Transparency
There is a feeling out there that most businesses do not share or as transparent as I am. However there are lots of local small businesses that do share their stories. Just log into your Instagram and look up any of your fave local businesses – and in Winnipeg I probably have been following their business and story for some time now. So what does this mean about my own transparency - I am not too unique! doh!
Constant online updates to the community
For me – and the Beach community – this does feel a bit unique. A bakery at VB was established over 80 years ago and much like most businesses we didn’t know much about what happened behind the counter. I have definitely changed that! So in context when thinking just about our own Bakery at VB - yes this is a different way of sharing and running a business in VB.
I like to talk not just about the Bakery, but to share everything else related to the business and the culture of running a business in our cottage country community. This does make some nervous – and I get it.
I have always been business curious – How their products or services were made, how the business is run and factory tours are my choice in reality shows. I am always asking a zillion questions and would never turn down a tour or time with a biz owner.
May long clean up crew. Over 100 people showed up to be apart of our clean.
Back to transparency - #squirrel -
For most part the transparency in my communications on what I share is well received.
June 3 - less than a month to opening. 40% flooring done.
For some – who are not from Manitoba or never have been to the Bakery or VB, they have told me they feel that they are a part of our Beach community because of the transparency. They ‘feel’ they are part of our team. How cool is that??!!
July 1 - Day 1: Sold out in 45 min. Thank you to everyone that showed up.
Well, this is my business and I get the honour of doing it my way. I am the boss lol – which sounds hilarious, but I guess it is true. So I am going to tell the stories and share the insights that I craved knowing when I was younger and the lessons I am still learning now that I am quote “OLDER” Unquote.
Let’s be honest - this is not conventional for a bakery – however clearly, I am not conventional or normal when it comes to running a Bakery. We are only open for approx. 90 days of the year – summer / seasonal bakery. I also didn’t have a bakery before VGB, and no I don’t have one in the city. I am not a professional pastry chef and I didn’t train in Paris.
Now I DO have a passion for business, i am an self proclaimed control freak, excel dork and o paper I have over 20 years of experience in the corporate world, and five years running my own coaching business.
No experience in this field of baking stopped me - nor should it you in going after your ideas and dreams.
Mantra : What if it DOES work ?
Transparency is one of my keys to success – combined with communication/honesty, trust and respect – I ‘feel’ these are the keys to success – whether in business or in life. If you drop one any one of these you are at risk for some awkward times. Awkward can be fun - but also expensive lol.
Let’s do this Friends! Transparency will continue.
Count down to Summer 2023 is on!
What’s Happening with the Bakery in the Off Season?
VGB – Hiring for Season Two!
In early February a VGB posting was put out on social media and the resumes have started to come in.
VGB OG’s
I have a business that some of our community “wants to” work at! #SorryNotSorry but that is pretty damn cool for me.
Last summer I received a lot of positive feedback from the VGB Team, but more so from their parents and grandparents! When the moms & grandmas go out of their way to let you know how proud they are of their kiddos and what they are learning from working with me I am blushing red!
Over the years I have learned from some pretty challenging bosses, and some rock stars, and I have been fortunate to have led small to big teams. Each team has brought new learnings – and K&W stories – and I personally have grown from them all. My hope is that my summer VGB team too will learn what they can from our Seasonal Bakery – and have fun doing it.
Our team this year will be a mix of the OG VGB and some new faces. I am looking forward to watching the OG mentor the newbies, and I am looking forward to further developing / encouraging the leadership skills of our OG’s.
Summer Jobs might be about making $$ but in reality, they are also more about making memories and having a lot of fun.
Bakery Plastic vs. Paper Debate
Back in November of 2022 I did a Bakery tour with my kiddo and his buddy for “take your kids to school day”. We hit up six popular & amazing bakeries to ‘eat’, check out prices and get inspired. As the kids stuffed their faces with cookies and cupcakes I was absorbing all the non-calories of the business.
Packaging and pricing ended up being my main focus – I already knew all the goodies were delish!
What I took away was that there are some pretty nice containers, mini cake to-go pans and treat boxes. And my pricing is way too low - oops?
sample box of mini face cookies - May 2022
Back to packing - what I noticed there was a lot of hard plastic containers and metal….but they were all so pretty/professional looking. The pretty is great for instagram and of course for keeping the goodies safe.
Here’s my conundrum: I would be devastated if I saw one of my plastic or metal containers in the bush, on the beach or tossed in the garbage (not recycling) at VB - or any cottage community. I just can’t do it.
Side Note: I think I could be the winner of best ‘take your kid to work’ experience! Just sayin’
Plastics are Still in Play
To be honest we do use plastic bags for our bread – and some plastic bags for our other goodies. We try and keep it to a minimum.
We could move towards using paper bags for our bread – the bag would need to be big! I am thinking about it – and would prefer it.
However the downside to paper bags – butter! We use a lot of butter in our baking – and yes there is butter in our bread! Now butter is oily – which means when you add it to a paper bag – the bag does get translucent and falls apart. Maybe this means you need to eat your goodies faster?? Or move them into the re-usable container?
Tips for your re-using your bread bags –
Turn it down when you pick up your bread and set the bread be free willy in your bag.
Use it for your pouch when out for a walk
Re-use it for other food in your house – one less ziplock baggie
Use it as a garbage bag when you go to the beach – making sure you left the beach as awesome as you found it, and maybe helping someone else out who forgot their leftovers.
Another option that I thought of was increasing our use of pizza boxes – easily available, and no plastic – but have you tried to balance a pizza box while biking? And they don’t fit well into your basket or backpack.
Another option we use is to go containers – paper/kraft ones. These have been great, but don’t hold a lot. Every order is different.
A bakery in the past use to use paper to wrap all their bread – it was amazing and all part of the experience. I wish I could do this too; however, we just don’t have time to be doing this. The lines would take longer – and no one likes to wait in line tooooo long.
It is interesting to me that I feel that this is something I worry about – but maybe we all should be worrying about the packaging we are using on the daily?
Think about how fast your recycling bins fill up compared to 10 years ago. And how we are willing to load up our wagons and haul our recycling up to 5 km away on a bike during the summer. What about those that doesn’t haul it up to the recycling?
Did you know? The coffee cups and lids at VGB were all compostable. So even if they don’t make it to the recycling at least I know they will break down …. sooner than later. And of course, both Lise and I used paper bags for check out – no plastic to go bags for our businesses.
What’s Jen Up to ??
June 5 - 2nd floor bathroom flooded both main and basement floors
As I type now I / we are HOME. Finally!
We moved back end of February and have been unboxing since….soooo many boxes!
It was a lot of work to settle back in, and there are still some smaller projects to finish to end this adventure.
A huge thank you to our friends and family that have put us up on couches & spare rooms, found us a rental home, welcomed us home and helped us move! We love you huge!
Renovation Update
Jan 2023
Jeesh!! It has been a very long road – one that so many joked would take this long. We didn’t believe the stories of long insurance claims - mainly because our claim we assumed was straight forward – pipe burst, clean water, drywall/floors/paint – easy peasy right? Our kitchen was still intact so the biggest hurdle would be taking out the floors and replacing …. Wrong.
Regardless of the drama’s we are now home - thank goodness! Daisy is happy to be with her furry neighbors and we are beyond grateful to be at this point of the journey!
8.5 months later
Now that we have a place to finally call home I can start getting into ordering and stock piling for the summer.
Test Baking
Recently I have slowly started to back into test baking - in between unpacking and cleaning.
I can confirm we have locked a new Brownie Square that is Connor approved, and last night I tested a new Lemon Square on the neighbors - sooo delish!! Neither items are low in calories - however both could be converted to gluten friendly!
Watch for Instagram stories for test baking wins - and fails! The fails are actually my favorite to post!!
Bakery & Business Planning
I have spent a lot of time sourcing - ingredients, packaging (paper), working with suppliers, new signage - and butter.
CBC Article on the Rise of Butter in Canada
Have you been following the news when it comes to grocery prices? Wowza have prices have gone up so much since last year - and there doesn’t seem to be an end in sight.
As always, quality is key! So I will continue to focus on operational/production efficiencies and creative solutions to deal with the increase in costs.
Don’t forget - minimum wage has also gone up!
The reality is - pricing will be going up. Let’s not sugar coat it.
Cramptons is closing and referencing the pressures of changes in minimum wage
My business plan is constantly evolving as the new small business pressures come rolling in. And it is scary to see other small businesses struggling (and closing 😥). These closures could be considered to ‘normal’ in the business world - the risks we take - when it comes to running any business. But I don’t think any whose business is closing wants this type of normal. The realities of entrepreneurship are hard, challenging, thrilling and terrifying.
We will keep forward for as long as we can - and will keep having fun as long as there is fun to have. We got this - Right?! Yeah we do!
Karen & Walter Stories / Lessons Learned
Story #3:
Situation: Requests for Gift Cards in the early first season of VGB.
K&W: “I would like to buy a Gift Card”
Jen & Jade: “Sorry we don’t have Gift Cards at this time. We just don’t have capacity to build a program right now. Hopefully next year we will have a program ready for you.”
Other Comments:
Totally understand – thanks for looking into it.
No problem thanks for letting me know
Nuts. Oh well.
I’ll buy when they are available.
No problem
K&W Responses:
Can’t you just write it down?
Don’t you want my business?
What am I supposed to do for my gift?
Can’t you just make it work for me?
Massive eye roll
Lesson Learned / Reminder:
I couldn’t and won’t be able to make everyone happy.
Prior to opening in July 2022 I was working with my POS (point of sale) supplier for a ‘account-like’ solution but it would have cost over $5k to set up…..I just didn’t have the time (or funds) to dive into this option but I knew that it wasn’t exactly what I was wanting. The Gift Card (GC) program they did have I didn’t have time to set up either. To put it in perspective I still hadn’t loaded the system with our products, retail counters were still being built, and 50% of the floors were still not done. Priorities were focused on opening the doors …. not GC’s.
Cart before the horse scenario. I had to walk away from a GC program – and I don’t regret it.
Art Design by Maude D, Local VB’er and Cool Kid!
We did get creative and made a personalize GC for free cookies that we used for some of the kids activities. I have it framed up in our back area – super proud.
Gift Cards did show up in 2022 - In November when the dust settled I did look into a program and rolled out an online and GC program. It was released in time for xmas and a few of you did take advantage of it – thank you 😊.
Heads up: GC programs are not cheap! Even this program cost $$ and a % goes to the cc companies…I gotta sell a lot of cookies to cover this, but I see the benefits and the need to have so it was worth the investment. No complaints – only honesty.
Gift Cards now Available
Thank you AGAIN and AGAIN for reading and following along on this business and bakery journey. This adventure continues to be a wild and interesting one. Can’t wait to see what is next thrown in our path lol.
Jen