Advice For A New-ish Dessert Brand Owner
Two years ago I was laid off from a tech job and decided to try and start my own business. I had very little experience in running a business beyond being the 8th employee of a tech company that was able to grow to ~100 employees before getting laid off. About 18 months ago I launched a dessert brand and have steadily and slowly been able to grow it to some level of profitability; I've been able to both pay my bills (which was the primary goal) and also use whatever I have left over to reinvest into the brand in a couple of different ways.
The company pays for itself at this point which I am grateful for and I think it can actually scale based on feedback from other owners that I've spoken to. Currently, our main source of income is farmer markets and craft shows. We are really well received by customers, so far 25 5stars on Google and have been able to grow my social media as well. We frequently sell out at these markets. However, markets can be fickle and I'm learning that I can't always count on the same level of foot traffic every single time.
I've worked out a wholesale offer and have begun to reach out to business via IG to try and get them on as wholesale clients. From my research it looks like this would be a good way to create consistent recurring revenue in between markets. Additionally I am planning on attending some bridal shows as I would also love to start booking some weddings as well.
Honestly, I don't know what I'm doing but I am slowly pulling it all together. I've been reading a lot of books on how to run a business and trying to apply what I've learned when it comes to building out things in the backend as well as taking serious approach to tracking finances like spending, profit etc.
I would love to hear back from anyone who has been successful in this space on how best to scale. I don't think I want to be tied down to a specific location so I don't want to open a brick and mortar store but I'm open to any and all sensible ideas tbh. I also would love to hear what books you guys would recommend that I read as I have found that they have been very helpful in teaching me what I don't even know that I don't know.
TLDR: New dessert brand operating for 18 months. Profitable so far but still obviously very young as a company and I'd love some advice from others who are successful in this niche on how they scale and what mistakes they made.