Things Are Heating Up

Our ovens and big equipment are ordered!  We are so excited!  This has been a huge process,  researching equipment for six months meant contacting many different equipment vendors.  First we were looking for a company that offered most or all of our desired equipment to make logistics easier to get items sent across the country then packed onto a barge to sail across the Gulf of Alaska.  Being located on an Alaska island makes these things just a bit more difficult.  We narrowed it down to two different companies who were quick to return our calls and were so good at answering all our questions.  Empire Baking and Erica Record Baking Supply are both great companies.  They talked us through the process to zero in on what types of products we would be making and determine the equipment we would really need. 

The oven is really the centerpiece of every bakery.  This is where the magic happens.  Deciding on the right size oven is key.  Right now the oven is our biggest choke point.  In our home oven we can only bake four loaves of bread at a time, so it takes planning to be able to produce a large number of products.  This oven will be exciting.  It has 3 decks, and each deck will fit 4 full-size sheet pans.  This means we can bake a lot more bread.  

We ordered other equipment that will make life easier as well.  A retarder proofer will allow us to slow-proof bread and pastries overnight, to be ready to bake in the morning.  This means at least a little more sleep, and happier bakers.  We also have a large spiral mixer that will handle 50 pounds of flour, and a dough divider that will save time to hand divide each piece of dough to be shaped.   This equipment will help us work more efficiently, producing the same quality of bread and pastries in a quicker time frame. 

As we dove into this we learned some things along the way.  Initially, I had envisioned saving enough money to be able to do this debt free, but I realize now how naive that was.  Especially this year with ever-increasing inflation.  We talked with a couple different banks and finished up paperwork to close on a loan.  To get to that point we had to create a projected income statement and business model.  This gives an idea of our realistic sales each month based on our current sales, and shows our projected expenses.  This process took time and research.  We needed detailed information on insurance, utilities, and supplies.  We needed to have an idea of not just the type of products we want to make, but how many.  When you are asking to borrow money, banks want to see how they will be able to get that money back.  They also want to make sure that their investment is protected.  This meant having an insurance policy in place before we would close on the loan, to then allow us to order the equipment.   It is big chicken and egg kind of process. But that part is now done.

While this process took time, we had many great people along the way to coach us.  The Alaska Small Business Development Group from the University of Alaska Fairbanks was very helpful in making our projections, and sent us an Excel form that would calculate much of the income statement for us.  Local bankers walked us through the process and pointed us to other resources we would need.  The Chamber of Commerce and other local business owners have been supportive and given some good advice.  I am learning that businesses don't just happen on their own, but with guidance and support from a network of people.  As we continue moving forward we feel more a part of this community, as so many have contributed to our success.  

So, with all of this going on, isn't it fun with things don't go to plan?  This weekend, right in the middle of a big production day baking for the Kodiak Women's Show, our oven died.  To be fair, we have been babying it along for months.  We have replaced a relay couple of different times when the oven was not keeping temperature.   This has been a great oven, lasting for over 15 years with long baking days and sustained higher temperatures.  But, with a full day of breads and pastries to bake, it was time to finally call it.  Time of death, 9:14 am on Friday, September 30.  After 40 minutes of trying the different tricks,  the sandwich bread was still in the now rapidly cooling oven, with  no hope of being baked.  Thankfully a wonderful neighbor was available to get some bread baking in her oven, and I ran to Spenards Hardware.  Two hours later, we had purchased, hauled home, and installed a new oven and were ready to start baking again.  The weekend was saved, and thanks to being dedicated to saving, this oven emergency didn't become a disaster.