Baking it Down with Sugar Cookie Marketing 🍪

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'Tis the season to h-h-hate your bakery business. I can't even judge, I'm a slave to the "cookie SuperBowl" where we sell the MOST volume all year x10 (see the diagram from Google search queries for "Sugar Cookies" below). 🔥 It's our time to shine - shine - shine, baby, and then go out in a glorious flame of burnout bust! But that's bad for business. 

So - here's Corrie's list of burnout boundaries to save ya from your sleighin' self this holiday season. 

💚 1. Raise Them Prices. 

A lot of you are leaving money on the table you're bent over to make that last batch you undercharged on. Does raising your prices lower your sales? You betcha! But does raising your prices also mean that those fewer sales go a longer way? Yes. 

📉 Let's say I have a classroom for 10 students and I charge $20/ticket. If I sell all the tickets, I make $200. 

📈 But if I raise the price to $50/ticket. Let's say 60% of people no longer attend the class (fair, it's out of their budget), and I only sell 4 tickets. But guess what - I still make $200, but now I only have to render services for 4 people - saving me time, ingredients, and headaches.

💚 2. Focus on Your Favorites.

Let's face it - some of us hate customs - they're time eaters, they're complex, they require a ton of work. So why are the last 23 posts you made to your page featuring customs? Market what you want to move! If you want to sell class tickets, I should see a heavier presence of class-related posts. If you want DIY kits to do the heavy lifting on that bottom line, I better so some DIY kit photos - packed, unpacked, finished, kiddo with icing bag in hand - you get the point.

💚 3. Don't Disappear. 

It's easy to take off especially when cookies aren't bringing in your primary household income and you have some flexibility (️🏆 Heyo to my trophy sisters and brothers! Take me with you!). But imagine going to a mechanic's shop for an oil change for years only to roll up and find they've closed temporarily. 

🚗 You check back next month. Nope.

🚕 You check back month 2. Nothin'. 

🚙 Your car needs oil - so you find another shop. 

BUT WAIT! They reopened! 😫 They want ya back! But you've moved on. Same with your clients. Take fewer orders - heck, reject 90% of them. But the big disappearing act is killin' your holiday sales. 

💚 4. Make Those Money Menu Makers.

Some products just have bigger margins - and they're a great way to buy back more time and less burnout. For us - it's classes. I can sell 10 class tickets at $75 a ticket to make $750 bucks. At the same time, it'll take me thirty DIY kits at $25/kit to generate the same amount of money. 

If you're willin' to stand in front of folks for 1.5 hours, then the classes will generate far more income for a lot less work. 

💪 (have I mentioned we do even more of that work for you in the class kits memberships?)

💚 5. Website Bouncers.

😈 Make your website be the bad guy. Corrie loves to let Jotform break the bad news that the date the client wanted is sold out (or maybe she's meeting me at the mall) so the client can't get to it and bog down your boundaries. This is a great option for those of us (hey - you are my people) who have weak "nos" and strong people-pleasing tendencies - 🔗 remove the weakest link: YOURSELF. 

💚 6. Get Tunnel Vision.

Listen to this week's pod to learn why all the best options is actually the worst option when it comes to boundaries and bottom lines.

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Okay yeah - Heather here. I made a calendar boo-boo and thought I'd be in town on Monday, but turned out, I'll be outta town, so I had to record the "Tuesday Podcast" for the "Onesday Wednesday Newsletter" on Sunday - so, 👋 hello from the past. 

Since I had to podcast a la solo, I figured I'd walk you through why the Cookie Class Kits are a great deal right now. And I'll break down what ya get, for how much, and when you need to get it by.

🎒 1. What are the Cookie Class Kits.

The Cookie Class Kits are everything you need to teach a cookie class - the class curriculum, the promotional materials, the copy, the supplies list, the decorating videos, the class PowerPoint, the math - yeah it's a lot.. All you need to do is add you (the instructor), the dough and cutters (also linked in the supplies list), and a venue. We wanted to take the "overwhelming" out of teaching classes - and thus the Class Kits were born from years of teaching classes, learning from mistakes, and adjusting - and here's what we're left with - everything that'll make a successful cookie class experience! 

🎒 2. Why You Need to Sign Up Now for the Deal.

Every year, we archive old courses and classes. The Class Kits Membership is no different. All of the 2023 classes are archived on December 31, 2023, to make room for the 2024 class content.  

But right now - you can get both the old 2023 classes AND the 2024 classes (class kits drop a month early to give folks more time to promote the class and sell class tickets) for the price of 1 month's membership. 

🤔 "Why would anyone not have waited until December to sign up then if you get EVERY class for the price of just one class?" 

I like how you do baker math. The reason folks signed up all year long (and didn't wait until now) is because they wanted to teach the classes ✨throughout✨ 2023 as we dropped them. They paid a premium to access them as soon as they dropped (first week of each month). 

But you, you procrastibaker, you - you get to benefit from laziness and snag them now to teach in 2024. 😴 as the sayin' goes - you snooze, you win. Wait...

🎒 3. When the Deal Ends.

Okay - technically it's not really a deal - it's just good timing on your part. But that timing ends on ⚠️ December 31, 2023, when the 2023 classes disappear (you can still snag them in The Cookie College level membership), and you're left with the 2024 classes (⛄ we already have January's Build your Own Snowman Class and ️🏈 February's Superbowl-themed Class is in the works). 

🎒 4. How much it Costs.

So - each month you're a member of the Cookie Class Kits, it's $63. 💵 Meaning you can sign up for one month, download everything (all 13 classes), then hit the cancel button and that'll mean that you'd get all the courses for $63 - which comes out to $4.84 per class! 🤑 Hey - I ain't no genius, but I know a good deal when I see one (I am also biased - but it's a good deal - trust me - these courses take forever to make). 

🚫 Cancel and never be rebilled again - ooor - 👀 stick around for the 2024 classes (️🏈 February's will drop in the first week of January to give people over a month to promote the class to attendees). 

🎒 5. What's the Catch? 

The catch is that this deal expires in less than a month - 😭 so this won't be nearly as good a deal on January 1, 2024, as it is on December 31, 2023. 🤔 Hey - why not download them now - even if you don't teach classes, you can still sell them as DIY Kits and send the PowerPoint along w

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and what you can learn from our blendy blunders.

We may not be allowed to talk about "the event that shall not be named," but that doesn't mean we can't learn from it! A lot of marketing goes into the yearly Vendy Blendy, and it seems like each year we learn a little more from both the Vendys and the Pendys (turned Spendys). 

So let's take a look under the hood on how the Vendy Blendy can help your bakery market better in 2024.

🔊 1. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat

3️⃣ We marketed this event over THREE months to over a hundred thousand collective followers across our socials. I'd wager we made over 150 posts dedicated to this event across all the accounts. We dedicated podcasts to it (20,000 monthly listens), newsletters (6,000 subs per email), and the SCM family of groups (over 50,000 members). It was a lot of marketing. And yet 2 hours before the event, I still had folks asking me "What a Vendy Blender is?" 

Your marketing isn't being seen - so you gotta repeat it. And repeat it. And repeat it again. Your audience just isn't seeing as many of your posts as you think they are.

🔊  2. Chicken and the Egg.

🐔 The Vendy Blendy requires both Vendors to sell and Penders to spend. 🥚 But Vendys won't sign up unless the Pendy numbers are high. And no one wants to pend if there are no shops to Vendy. 🐣 What do? We had to market both - back and forth - until we got both numbers high enough.

Much like marketing a cookie class, you'll have a chicken / egg scenario. 🏢 You need a free venue to make your margins so you tell the host you'll bring people to their shop, but 👨‍👩‍👦 you need people wanting to take a class to be able to secure the free venue. Market to both. Ask your audience if they want to take a cookie class. Then tell the venue, "Look, I've got 20 people interested in walking through the door a business that lets me host." Then turn back to the audience and tell them you've secured the venue - you just need to sign up.

🔊 3. Two Separate Campaigns.

👥 Corrie was assigned "Vendy Aquisition" and 👥 I was assigned "Pendy Aquisition." ✌️ These were two completely different marketing strategies running congruently, but completely separately. The messaging to one audience (get some great marketing and make some solid sales numbers) was completely different than the other audience (hey get some great deals!).

You're going to need to do the same things - 👉 a campaign for classes, 👉 a campaign for your farmer's market event, 👉 a campaign for customs. They'll be posted to the same page, sure - but they'll be completely separate campaigns when it comes to marketing (targeting, messaging, CTAs, etc.)

🔊  4. Diversity in Marketing Channels.

😕 "I'm worried I'll annoy my audience." No - because you'll diversify your outreach. You can post to Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Nextdoor, email list, Google Business Profile, TikTok, FB Groups (Community and VIP). Sure - you may annoy yourself, but diversification in your outreach strategy will allow you to hit more targets across more websites. 

Just like the Vendy Blendy - 🎙 we have people that listen to the podcast, 👍 but don't use Facebook. 🖼 People that use Facebook, but aren't on Instagram. 📑 Some folks just want the freebie transfers in our emails and don't need the group content! D-V-E-R-S-I-F-Y. 

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🎅🏻 Corrie had a genius idea (they come around to her once a decade) to ask bakers what they think other bakers would want should they find their names scrawled on Santa's nice list this year. 📜

Ho-Ho-Hold your credit cards, because some of these are really creative! We've come up with an "actually affordable," mid-grade, and budget-buster list for you... to forward to your... ahem... in-home Santa. 

🧑‍🎄 So if you find your friends and fam askin', "What the elf does this baker want?!", here may be a decent shopping start line. Heads up - none of these are affiliate links, so click away unimpeded, my friend! 

🎁 1. Actually Affordable

1. A Spotify Subscription Gift Card
2. Amazon Hand Massager 
3. Vanilla Beans for Extract (Indri's is a good place for this)
4. Stupid Car Tray
5. Ender 3 Pro (they go on sale from time to time - don't pay full $)
6. UberEats Gift Cards (for delivery on busy days)
7. Bakety Bakey Royal Batch - 1 Lb (code TWINS saves 10%)
8. Acrylic Turn Table
9. Skincare (Duke Cannon's Bloody Knuckles Hand Cream) 
10. Aprons
11. Cookie Cutter Subscription Boxes
12. Heat Sealer
13. Cute Baking Tees (Doughmestic / Bakery Tee Co)
14. Scribes 
15. Ring Light
16. Americolor Basic Six Kits
17. Edible Ink Markers
18. Small Fisker Scissors for Cutting
19. Coffee Mug Warmer
20. Rubber Spatulas (skip wooden handles)
21. Cookie Countess Rolling Pin
22. Filament
23. Universal Attachment (code SCMARKETING could save some $)
24. Box Cutter from Amazon
25. Two Dollars Transfers Club

🎁 Mid-Grade

1. Anti Fatigue Mats (for feetsies comfort )
2. Kitchen Aid Auto-Sifter Attachment 
3. Plum Paper Planner Gift Card (for the pen / paper girlies)
4. Bambu P1P Printer
5. Dehydrator (Cabellas is what Corrie uses - 10 tray)
6. Bakety Bake Royal Batch - 5 Lb (code TWINS again - 10% off)
7. House Cleaner 
8. Massage Gift Cards
9. Apple Pencil (2nd Gen)
10. Custom-made Cookie Signage / Pick Up Box for Porch Pick-ups
11. Sweetest Tiers Stencil Holder
12. Photography Backdrops (code SUGARCOOKIE saves 20%)
13. Airbrush (Sweet Pink Olive / Cookie Countess)
14. Kodak Luma 150 Projector 
15. Stands (Shop Canvas / Arkon)
16. Half Sheet Pans (Corrie suggested Nordic Ware)
17. Chua Mats 
18. Nielsen Massey Vanilla Extracts 
19. Hulken Bags
20. Nutrimill Artiste Mixer
21. Cash for Cookie Events (CookieCon / SoFlo)
22. Fancy Scribes (The Sugar Cookie Dealer)
23. Americolor Nifty Fifty
24. Monthly Class Subscriptions: Artee McGoo, Sams Cookie University, Colorful Cookie, Cookie Class Kits by Cookie College

🎁 Budget Busters

1. Eugene Dough Sheeter (save $25 with this link)
2. Create a Room
3. Primera's Eddie
4. Bosch Universal Plus Mixer (maybe try code SCMARKETING)
5. Bambu Carbon X1C Bundle
6. A Year in Cookie College (get 2 months free when ya sign up)
7. A Cricut (to print stencils / packaging)
8. iPad Pro (and Procreate)
9. Americolor Heavenly Seventy 

👂 Snag this podcast on any major podcast player (Spotify, Apple Music, Audible, Amazon Music, or your desktop) by clickin' here - Episode 139 - 2023 Best Baker Gifts List.

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Would you do it? 🤔 "Do what? But also - yes," you might ask - and that's exactly the point of this week's podcast. If you knew you were going to get a million dollars for taking a benign action, most of us wouldn't think twice before we did it.

Full confession - 👕 I was cleaning out my closet, 👖 donating what I hadn't clearly worn in over a year to the VVA nonprofit to resell in their thrift stores. 👚 As I'm perusing this jam-full closet, my brain is jumping through hoops to make excuses as to why I suddenly may need to wear that shirt tomorrow that I haven't looked at in 2.5 years. 🫣

🧠 Wild the mental gymnastics our brains can flip through. Also wild to think at one time I thought I could pull off a crop top. But I digress...

So - I thought to myself, 🤔 "How many shirts would I throw into that donation pile if I was offered a million dollars to only leave hanging what I actually wore?" I can guarantee you that I wouldn't think twice before another half of my closet found the donation bag. 

🤑 I'd do a lot of things for a million bucks - and purging my fashion faux-pas would be an easy one to add to the list of "can do's." 🤔 But why is it so easy for me to purge my ponchos when there's a million bucks on the line, but take away the green stuff, and I suddenly think I can make Mary Janes work at 35!?

Incentive - 💵💵💵 specifically, incentive we can see. 😜

The issue with running a business is that the incentive is often hidden behind time and tasks. 🥸 We aren't sure there's a million bucks on the other side of making that post or going Live on Facebook, so we think up excuses - much like me with the 🤔  "Well, maybe I do need that shirt that's 2 sizes too small." 

But how do you know that there isn't a million dollars? 🥧 There's a giant proverbial pie out there - and there's enough slices of said pie to go around. But the catch is - only you can cut your own slice. 

💰 And the way small business owners cut their own slice? Put the work in. Put the excuses to bed. Show up. Repeat. Until that million dollars - or that paid-off mortgage, or the kid's college tuition, or the... or whatever that hidden incentive is? Work until you get that.

💳 Work as if you knew someone would give you a million dollars if you did the thing. Whether posting to social consistently, entering your corporate girly era, joining a local chamber meeting, teaching cookie classes, hosting a pop-up - 💰 do it as if you had a million-dollar check waiting for you on the other side - because who knows, there just might be.

Listen to this podcast on all major podcast players (Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, Pandora...) or by clicking here to listen to Episode 138 - If I Gave You a Million Dollars.

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It's the time of yeeeear... when the reach is low and the engagement is even lower. What gives?! I'll tell ya what - the deep pockets of big corporations capitalizing on the "year-end consumer" who is primed to pay. 

It's a fight to the feed death in Q4, and we've got some tips and tricks to help you gain some ground.

🥊 Reset Expectations.

We're in a battle of the business and the newsfeed is the fighting ring. Bigger companies with bigger pockets are paying bigger bills to win Facebook bids. Lots of 🅱️ Bs, but the 💯 A+ will be earned by the page that understands this and uses it to create compelling content to fight through the feed clutter. 

💁‍♂ Listen - it's going to be harder to reach your audience. Your engagement will be lower. And that's okay - because knowing this will help us to create a better campaign to adjust to the deeper pocket punches. 

🥊 Be Annoying.

Corrie is very adept at this (lol). But seriously - no one is being annoyed by your posts because no one is seeing your posts. So 👏 be 👏 annoying! And don't just post the same thing 10 times - yeah, that's not ✨quality✨ annoyance. We need to be ✨creatively✨ annoying. 

• 👊 Use the Stories feature. 
• 👊 Host a Facebook Live. 
• 👊 Post a Reel. 
• 👊 Create a poll. 
• 👊 Make a feed post. 
• 👊 Run an ad. 

All of these are features to sneak into the feed and annoy your audience in a way they don't think is annoying - but it's everywhere all the time. 

🥊 Be Consistent.

Be consistent! It's so easy to get all those holiday orders in, tuck your head between your legs, and head off to the kitchen only to reappear in January wondering if all the sales followed the groundhog back into his burrow. We may get busy - but we can't be too busy to market - unless we're willing to leave the sales to our competition who is willing to be present on their pages. 

🥊 Test. Test. Restest.

Your audience shifts into 🧠 "year-end consumer brain" in Q4, and adjusting your content will be a necessary step in making sure we're still resonating with that audience. How are we gonna do that? Test and retest! Long-form content (example below), short-form content, different creative (aka pictures), videos, Lives, emojis (Corrie thinks I use too many... 🙂😄😆😅😂🤣😊😌). 

Test it - see how they respond. Then retest it again - see how they respond ✨ again ✨. Wash, rinse, and repeat until your audience is primed to react, respond, and reach for their wallets. What works in 1️⃣ Q1 isn't likely going to work the same in 2️⃣ Q4. Adjust accordingly.

🥊 Learn to Pivot. 

📆 Sometimes you hoped your audience would like Advent Calendars and sometimes your audience just happens to 🚫 not like Advent Calendars. 😭 We can't cry over spilled meringue powder - but we can pivot! 

💃 If advents don't sell, swing back by pivoting to DIY kits - test, test, and retest and see if that hits your audience's sweet spot. Test PYOs, test cookie classes, test DIYs, test customs - and keep pivoting until you find the product your target audience flips for.

🥊 Admin Day.

Set aside an admin day - this is a day you are NOT allowed to touch a Bosch, Kitchen-Aid, or oven. On this day, you realign yourself each week to stay on top of posting, follow-up, invoicing, and customer relations. ❌ This day SHALL NOT BE A BAKING DAY ❌ - 🤑 no matter how tempting the rush fee charge may be. 

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You know we preach policies. 👏 Protect your boundaries. 👏 Charge your worth. 👏 Guard your peace. But you may be surprised to know we also say "bend the rules." You see - the policies are the "big bad monsters" we use as our fall guy. 

• 🤷‍♀ "I'm sorry - my policies state no refunds for no-shows."
• 🤷‍♀ "Oh man, I wish I could! But my policies say that payment is due at time of order."
• 🤷‍♀ "Darn it - I would, but the policy states that there's a rush fee for orders placed with less than a 5-day runtime."

💪🏼 The policies are in place to protect us - but that doesn't mean they're written in stone (or rock-hard, stale dough). You see - by bending certain policies, we can snag the bag and come out lookin' like our client's hero (🦸 wearing an apron as a cape in this scenario).

 🚩 The key to effective rule-bending is knowing when there's a win for the baker and the client. A win-lose rule bend is a loss for someone, so might as well just stick with the policies. Let's look at some examples.

🗒️ Rule Bender Example 1: It's a Pick-Up Date.

Let's say you have a set pick-up date on Saturdays, but the client wants to move it to Friday. What do you do? 🦨 Tell them "ain't no way, honey bun - rules are rules and your hiney better be bright-eyed and bushy-tailed come Saturday at 8AM!"? I mean - you could. It's in your policies. BUT - could you snag a sale by bending just a little? ⤴️ For example, a rule bender would say this:

🗒️ Rule Bender Example 2: It's Delivery.

Corrie doesn't offer delivery - ⤴️  that is until she bends the rules a bit. When she got an order from a large department store in our local city center, 🧈 you butter believe she jumped in her car. Why? By bending the delivery rules, she snagged a HUGE sale - and another, and another - from the same store. So when a big account asks for front-door delivery, it may be a good time to do some old-fashioned rule-bending.

🗒️ Rule Bender Example 3: Class Credit.

Corrie and I have some pretty strict class cancelation policies - unless we bend them a bit. Here's the thing - 💳 Eventbrite doesn't tell you this, but if someone does a chargeback, they'll 100% refund them (and not ask you). 🏦 So - if I bend my "no refunds" policy and turn it into a future class credit, I may be able to snag an additional sale for the now-empty seat AND get that future class money from the credited sale. One of those "win-win" scenarios.

🗒️ Rule Bender Example 4: Copyright Copy Cat.

🚫 Corrie does not offer copyright cookies. But she bends the rules with likenesses. (Where that legal line in the sand is between you, your liability policy, and Disney lawyers and is a bit too deep to swim in in today's podcast but I digress). 💃 But the likeness of a copyrighted character can be just enough rule-bending to snag a sale. 

Most rules aren't meant to be broken. But many rules are meant to be bent. Knowing which ones and how far to bend them comes with practice - and keep in mind, bending the rules may be makin' the sale, but it also leads to a bit more liability exposure. So weigh your options and make sure you have a fully funded oopsie budget to stave off bad reviews for bent rules. 

⛔ "No" is only a complete sentence for a bad salesperson. Find the common double-green-flag ground for you and your clients to both win-win while you laugh all the way to the bank.

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and the lessons we're implementing.

Corrie and my mom and sisters all met up on Sunday for a cake class - they had a blast, but they also got to be on the "student" side of a class for once (Corrie specifically). So she made some notes she could take back to our own class drawing board. Here's her "bake down" of her mental notes post-caker crash course.

🎂 1. Remind - Remind - Remind!

"Eventbrite reminds attendees of the basics of their event, but go out of your way to email a personal reminder. Nail down some extraneous details - like to confirm the class has met the minimum attendee requirement. It'll go a long way in establishing a relationship with your students before they get there too. Plus it's nice to cover your butt by emailing your "no show" policies before class start time." 

🎂 2. Start on Time.

"We were in a second class following a prior class that had run over a bit. Since the first class ran over, it put the teacher in "rush mode" and didn't give her or her assistants much time to breathe. A great tip we'll be taking back to our classes is letting the first class know that they have to be out by X time. Also - I'd like Heather to build in a little extra time in between our first and second classes - 30 minutes just isn't enough time if we have students leaving 10 minutes late and new students arriving 15 minutes early." 

🎂 3. Bright Eyed / Bushy Tailed.

"We gotta keep our energy up for all classes - even if our stomachs are growling louder than our Spotify playlist. Folks paid for "bright-eyed" twins, folks better get what they paid for. I think we should bring a snack in between classes - and throw in a few diet cokes to keep us awake and engaged."

🎂 4. Imperfection is Perfect.

"I feel like I'm trying too hard to impress attendees with my skills that I forget that they're trying to learn, not be wow-ed. I gotta introduce more "Here's a common issue and how to address it" rather than "Look, I've been doing this for years and you haven't - be amazed as you try to keep up." I think it'll make the class more relatable if I come down to their level versus them coming up to mine." 

🎂 5. Reference Materials.

"During the cake class, I never really knew what the "end goal" design was, so I felt like we were flying blind a bit. I know that in our cookie classes, we have the PowerPoint but at no point do they really get to see the "end result." I'd like to print out and laminate some pictures of the final product and have them in front of each attendee to look at during the decorating process." 

🎂 6. Drop Zones.

"Mom put her purse so close to the buttercream, she almost had a tasty tote - and I think we don't tell people when they show up where they're allowed to drop their stuff. Moving forward, we should tell them where they can hang their jackets, drop their bags, and let them know more about what to expect. That way they don't feel like they are fumbling with their belongings and can just enjoy the learning process." 

🎂 7. Supplies on Supplies on Supplies.

"I know we learned from this during a few Christmas classes a couple of years ago, but having fresh supplies for each class really cuts down on wait times. We had to wait for clean bowls from the class before us which really slowed the progression of the class. I think having supplies dedicated to each class would really move things along. It may take a cut out of the bottom line initially, but in the long run, it'll really shorten class times and make for an overall more enjoyable experience I think." 

🎂 8. Say Cheese.

"Take pictures and when you think you've taken enough, take more. The more photos you take, the more options people ha

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It’s that tiiiime of year… 😍 when the cookie world falls in love with some STELLAR deals. It's the third-ever Vendy Blendy! (👀 oh and how to win one of two Bambu Baby Carbon X1C 3D printers?! More on that in a minute.)

Get into the holiday spirit by treatin’ YOSELF to some cookie cutters, stencils, tees, and icing tips – oh my! Everything you’ll want to know to squeeze the most from your cookie dough is listed below. But don’t forget to join the Vendy Blendy Facebook Group – that’s where all the money-savin’ magic happens! 

🫐 Here's how to squeeze the most juice from the Vendy Blendy berry.

🎁 1. Inventory what you're missing.

We need to know where we're at before we know where to go. So let's start by spending the next few weeks taking inventory of what you have - supplies, bags, ingredients, tees, classes. We don't want to waste our hard-earned cash buying things we already bought, so start by making a list of "do have" and "do need." 🤔 Ask "what's running low, what's about to break, and what do I already have?" That'll be a great jump point to plan out the Vendy Blendy spendy.

🎁 2. Create a Blendy Spendy budget.

We don't want the Vendy Blendy to be a relationship endy, so come up with a budget and stick to it! As with any solid budget, you'll want to fund your "things I need" line items first. Those are the necessities we were gonna buy anyway - but might as well buy at 20% off. Once that's funded with the fun-ds, budget for the wants - the things you don't need, but it'd be nice to have. Once that's funded, add a max spend limit - a hard line in the "sales sand" where you won't cross. That way the Vendy Blendy won't end in buyer's remorse.


🎁 3. Pre-Shop the Vendors.

We've got 47 confirmed Vendys right now - 3 more that have told me yes, and 2 more that are getting their shops together. That's a LOT of Vendys - so pre-shop them now. I prefer an Excel spreadsheet to track purchase links, but Corrie likes throwing things in her Etsy carts' "save for later" feature. Whatever you do - save time by pre-shopping. I've added the current Vendy's list to the group description. 

1. 👉 See the List: https://www.facebook.com/groups/vendyblendy

Remember - Vendys are running 20% off or more - so your cart's total $ amount will drop by quite a bit come November 24th! 

🎁 4. Set Expectations with Your Family.

🤳 The Vendy Blendy is all of the 24 hours on the 24th, and while I don't expect you guys to be glued to a computer like me and the Vendys are, you will wanna check in throughout the day. ⏰ The best way to be guaranteed some "alone time" with your phone is by letting the family (in their 🦃 turkey comas 😴) know that you'll be checking your phone throughout the day to enter some fun door prizes and get a few deals and steals. 

🎁 5. Treat Yoself! 

There are a lot of new vendors this year, so that means a lot of GREAT baker gift ideas! 👰🏼 We absolutely do not mind you inviting your spouse to join the Vendy, tagging them in the products you'd like 🎅🏻 Santa to bring you, and then crossing your fingers that one of ya wins a door prize. If anything, 🧠 it's a genius idea, you smart baker, you!

🎁 6. "During Vendy Blendy" Best Practices.

️🛒 Try snagging your favorites right at midnight so you're not left with an empty stocking when/if a Vendy sells out of their fan favorites. Check back throughout the day since door prize posts can be posted whenever! 💪 Support the Vendys! Even if you're not shoppin' from them, leave a comment on their products, thank them for paying into the Blendy, and if you've bought from them in the

Send us Fan Mail

Corrie was on a mission this year to enter her ✨corporate girly era✨ - 👨‍💼 a time in her life (and business) where she gets most of her leads from small to medium-sized businesses (and heck - at this point, international businesses). 

Why? 🧦 Because corporate clients rock baker's socks - that's why. Here's the magic of corporate orders:

• 🏢 Single POC likely
• 🏢 Deep business pockets 
• 🏢 Basic Designs (heyo, logo cookies)
• 🏢 Potentially for recurring orders
• 🏢 Large-scale orders typically 
• 🏢 Very little back and forth 

😣 In the world of lots of detailed custom orders with clients breathing down your neck, fighting you on pricing, and showing up late for pickups while asking for discounts - corporate orders can be a breath of fresh air. 

And a really great way to diversify your income streams. 🌊 That way when the summer vacay season comes, your lead sources don't dry up as they head for the waterfront with the kiddos. 

SO - you're in, and you want a slice of this corporate cake. 🍰 But how?  Here's our 6-step workflow to getting into your ✨corporate girly era✨.

💼 1. Your content has to shift.

To attract corporate, you must become corporate - well, at least your content has to feature it. Don't have a corporate order to feature? Make one up! Find a business you can feature and then surprise the business with a logo cookie.

💼 2. Secure the tools.

When we say corporate, we mean quick - and often to a larger scale than customs. We ain't bakin' for baby turnin' 1 no more, we're baking for large events where the "corp client" likely wants to hand 200 folks a cookie with their logo on it. How can you work at scale? Invest in the tools to do so. Here's what we've got:

• ✨ Airbrush machine
• ✨ Cricut for stencil cutting
• ✨ Bosch for big batches
• ✨ Eddie for D2F printing (direct to food - gutter folk)
• ✨ 3D Printer for custom cutters

This stuff ain't cheap. Eddie alone is $3,000. A Bambu Carbon (which we happen to be giving away TWO at this year's 2023 Vendy Blendy) runs $1500. BUT - with these large-scale corporate orders, we are pulling in large-scale corporate checks which is a great way to cover the investment costs of these machines and then some. 

💼 3. Nail down the corporate tech.

💰 Nothing says "small beans and risky at best" than a baker telling a corporate client to pay them PayPal "friends and family" so the baker can skip out on taxes. If we want corporate money, we gotta look corporate ourselves. 📧 Get that custom domain - it's $12 bucks and that custom email while you're at it - it's only $6 and makes a 🌎world🌏 of difference when it comes to looking legit. 

• ✨ Get a Custom Domain / Email
• ✨ Send the invoice from an Invoicing Software
• ✨ Get your government EIN 
• ✨ Set up a Business Bank Account
• ✨ Maybe get a Business Address (UPS sells these)
• ✨ Have your W9 ready to go
• ✨ Setup business Insurance (just in case)

💼 4. Start a corporate outreach campaign.

Well, if stuff sold itself, I'd be out of a job. Fortunately for me, it doesn't - but that means we need to design a marketing campaign to reach our business buddies. Email lists - yes, BUT - segment them out. Make a list for just corporate clients. It'll make a lot more sense to send them team-building packages. Not so much to the baby who just turned 2 who you baked for. 

👂 Snag this podcast on any major podcast player (Spotify, Apple Music, Audible, Amazon Music, or your desktop) by clickin' here - Episode 133 - Corporate Girly Era.