My “Failed” Bakery, and Why it Wasn’t a Failure: Motivation, The Final Chapter

While we sipped home-roasted coffee together, my family sometimes talked about how cool it would be to open a coffee shop…maybe we would sell home-baked treats in a place where local art was displayed, and local musicians could maybe come and play guitar in the corner on a Saturday morning.  And people would stay and play checkers and savour coffee.  

We brainstormed ideas, but I felt like we were learning the habit of dreaming, but never doing. 

So I decided to start a home based bakery.  I envisioned the enthusiasm being contagious, and then we would start working together, and the bakery would expand into an actual shop, and then our coffee shop idea would become a reality.  It was gonna be so cool! 

Looking back, I can see that I inadvertently used the steps I’ve been talking about in my series on Motivation to launch this bakery.

Steps 1-4: Getting started, breaking down tasks, and doing them by using those small opportunities of time, instead of scrolling through other people’s ideas.

So, working through my list one by one, I:

• Waded through legal red tape and safety certifications 
• Designed my logo and website
• Tested, improved, and retested lots and lots of recipes and flavor ideas (the fun part!)

Step 5:  Setting up the environment for success.  

I set up an efficient work station in my basement to keep my bakery separate from my home kitchen for convenience.  I made sure to put all the ingredients at an arm’s length, and, of course, my speaker was ready to play some upbeat tunes while I was mixing up those honey lavender cupcakes.

And, you know what?  It actually worked!  

After several months of checking off tasks on my list, I launched Red House Bakes:  selling high quality, homemade cupcakes and cakes –to  real live customers who weren’t all just family and friends!  I couldn’t believe it!

Step 6: Evaluating your processes and your commitment:

As orders began to pile up, I had stabbing pain in my feet, and I was spending my evenings in my basement instead of hanging out in the family room with my peeps.  I was in danger of resorting to ingredient shortcuts that would go against my priority of keeping everything homemade.  

It didn’t take very long before I realized that Red House Bakes might no longer be sustainable as a one-person side hustle.

With this evaluation, I came to a crossroads:

On the one hand, I found I was capable of producing some nice-looking, tasty treats, and I proved to myself that I could put together a beautiful brand and website.  On the other, I wasn’t sure I was willing to commit to being covered in frosting every single day at the expense of my many other responsibilities and interests.

More importantly, no one in my family seemed to catch the spark that I thought I was igniting, which was my original “Why.” They had their own pursuits, so I had to evaluate whether I even actually wanted a this to become my main pursuit. 

So, even though I had put a great deal of time and effort into creating this home bakery, I made the decision that, while it was a cool thing, maybe it wasn’t my thing. 

Was this a failed venture? No, I don’t believe so. 

Maybe I should have spent more time counting the costs.  But, if I had not taken action, I would still be sitting around, researching and thinking, instead of doing. I needed to take a little risk to find out what would happen if I really did start a bakery, for real.  

Based on its reception, I do believe that Red House Bakes could have grown if I were willing to invest more time and money.  But, instead of it being a failure, it turned out to be a valuable experience: 

• I learned, and demonstrated for my family, that action beats planning.
• I met people and got to make them happy! 
• I accumulated a repertoire of yummy recipes, and I still bake for family and friends for special milestones.   
• I learned how to design a website and a logo, and, in doing so, learned more about myself and what I wanted to communicate to the world. 

I am telling you this story in order to inspire you to go out and try the Thing!  

Maybe this will be the beginning of Something super cool, but you won’t know unless you start.

 One final thought: 

When my dad was debating whether, at around age 60, to pursue his dream of becoming an airplane pilot, we said to each other “wouldn’t it be better to die in a flaming plane crash than it would be to die of natural causes, sitting on the porch, looking up at a plane, wishing you had tried it?’

(The end of the story is that he did become a pilot, and no, he did not crash!)