A Lucrative Way To Start A Bakery In Nigeria (begginer's Guide)

If you’re ready to turn your talents into a profitable bakery, you’ve come to the right place.

A bakery is the home of the production of all food made with flour such as bread, cakes, pastries, cookies, and many more.

Bread however is the most consumed, because it is the cheapest food to get when hungry. This makes the bakery a profitable business. Lagos state consumes over ten million loaves of bread daily while Cross River consumes about six million.

Initially, one could start up a bakery with about five hundred thousand naira (N500,000) or a little more but with the recent hike in the cost of goods and services due to the recession; it is difficult to give an accurate estimate of what the cost will be.

If you are passionate about baking and consumed with the zeal to expand your horizon by setting up your own bakery, here is a brief guide on formalities and everything else you will need to know. It involves quite a lot but you can start from somewhere.

let’s get the planning process started.

1. Select the kind of bakery you’d like to open

One of the first decisions you will have to make is the kind of shop you want to open. To do this, you’ll want to assess your talents, budget, and goals. Be sure you’re not making this decision in a bubble, You may decide to run an online bakery that doesn’t need a store, you only need to work from your home and then put up good pictures of your work on your website where customers can place orders. Many Nigerians run online bakeries by websites and Instagram pages.

You can run a counter service bakery which involves getting a commercial store where customers come and buy from the counter. It is the most common form of bakery in Nigeria, An example of a good, old and running counter service bakery that has consistently delivered quality flour foods is the high-quality bakery in Calabar, cross river state.

You can also choose to run a specialty service if you specialize in a certain kind of service like wedding cakes, bread, and snacks for diabetic patients and fit families. You get to choose whether to operate from your home or rent a shop. There are very many specialty shops in Nigeria; some are online while most of them operate in stores.

2. Write a business plan

Once you know what kind of bakery you want to open, you need to create a business plan. This will force you to look at the business from every angle. It will help you define your business, set goals, find ways to generate revenue, list expenses, identify your customer base, and examine your competition.

Assess your startup funds

As part of your business plan, you will dive into finances. One of the numbers you will need to generate is startup cost. You will need to compile a list of equipment, from appliances like ovens and refrigerators to smaller items like utensils and pans. Make sure you create a full list of tools. The equipment will be a one-time hit, but you will also need money to live on while the business gets established.


You won’t make profits overnight, so you need to sit down and figure out when you will break even and how much money you will need to survive until that time.

Register Your Bakery

Make your bakery legal by registering it with appropriate authorities like the Association of Nigerian Bakers. Get a lawyer to do the necessary paperwork for your license and obtain NAFDAC approval to ensure that your products are safe for consumption.

3. Shop for space

If you’re running a bakery from your home, you’ve already got your space figured out. If you plan to invite customers into your shop, you will need a formal spot with a kitchen and an area for the public. Some bakers decide to rent out commercial kitchen space only. It’s a good option if you don’t want customers to walk through your shop and just need a bigger, more equipped kitchen.

Shop around, compare prices, talk with neighboring businesses, and research the area to make sure you find the right space. It’s never a bad idea to look into small business incubator programs that might offer space and business training or mentorship at a reduced rate. Do not forget to consider the legal necessities—which will vary from state to state—such as obtaining a license to bake out of your own kitchen. Wherever you decide to run your bakery, be sure to think through the pros and cons and their related costs.

4. Make A Market Research On Baked Goods

To find a market for your products, you must study your competitors. Find out the kind of services they render and work out setting yourself apart. Do you have special recipes? Use them; work hard at making your bakery different and a delight for potential customers. Be prepared to market your product by all means.

Marketing

Be ready to go the extra mile to make your services known to all and sundry. Social media and the internet in recent times have been an effective marketplace for young, thriving, and experienced businesses, to make good use of it. Create a website and make it available on the internet, this will make your products available to unlimited numbers of people who are likely to patronize you.

As the customers begin to troop in, you have to give each customer a memorable and beautiful experience, only satisfied and happy customers are likely to become repeat customers. Ensure that your staff are polite, hospitable, and courteous. Engage your customers politely and warmly to create a friendly atmosphere and ignite a sense of belonging.

With all the above properly and carefully set up, your bakery is set and with the high demand of bread, you can supply an average of fifty thousand loaves weekly. This will fetch you good profits after deducting the total costs of production.

5. Have a defined friend and family policy

Before you sell your first baked products, be aware that friends and family will probably ask for a discount.

it’s fine to give a neighbor or friend a discount, but when you start your business, it’s different. “All those wonderful people who previously bought your product off, of you for the cost of ingredients are going to need to be re-educated about what you’re doing now,”

Those who really love and support you will also understand your need to feed your family and pay your rent.” If you want to offer a 10 percent discount to friends and family, that’s fine, but whatever your policy is, make sure it’s consistent.

Do you have experience opening your own bakery? What worked for you, and what didn’t? Share this article on Facebook or Twitter and let us know what you think.