(I commented an update since it blew up) I just quit my job as a pastry cook with a new fine dining restaurant that I helped open. Toxic chefs, etc. you know the drill. Of course, now I’m three weeks into unemployment and spiraling. My friends don’t even follow my new bagel account and I’m getting 4-5 likes per post. I think I have to go back to corporate. This country is killing me. Sometimes I think these bagels are all I have going for me. But with the added stress of social media exposure, or lack thereof, I can’t help but feel invisible and worthless.
by LegitimateCake97
49 Comments
Best of luck to you
These look so amazing! Congratulations on this big step and all the very best to you💕
A baking tutorial youtube channel, pleeeeeaaaase 😭 good luck to you though, these look drool worthy
They look fantastic. Take them to a local coffee shop/eatery.
They look amazing! Good luck
Those look amazing! As someone suggested, try partnering with a coffee shop or bakery.
They look amazing! That crust is fantastic. Starting any new business especially a specialty catering business is tough. I think some people might feel they look a little too well done. I like them this way, but offering them less brown or a choice of well done and “regular; standard” cook might help too.
I suggest you join some of the entrepreneur subs. Make sure to add your socials to your profile. Buy some ads on social media with targeted marketing. Go door to door to businesses with samples. Even places like auto body shops, retail, small business, etc. do breakfast for employees. Add yourself to google search, join wedding sites; The knot, call bigger catering companies and get in as an add on or supplier.
Even try supermarkets for demo to customers and or supply to grocery store. Rachel Ray started her career doing food demos in Price Chopper after pitching the family owned company!
Call local TV, radio, newspaper and other promo (I mean news) companies to do a profile story on you and your new business.
I know some of these are not quick, easy or the best, but every sale matters.
I hope this helps.
P.S. What part of the country are in?
phenomenal!
Bro/sis, what’s the account? I’ll follow.
I want that
Farmer’s Market season is coming up…
These look insane!! Insanely good I want them in my mouth
Method/recipe?
Sooo where can I get one…?
Those look so good. I wish you were in my area. All of the bagel shops I’ve tried around me have been letdowns.
Did you see a hole in the market?
Connect with coffee shops to see if they’re interested in pop ups. Someone else mentioned farmers markets. What’s your social content like?
Where are you located?
Beautiful bagels!!
I want to follow your account so I can stare at bagel pics like this everyday 😆
Also sell them online over ice and ship them. I need that salt bagel at the end. 🥯
Good luck!
Looks like you made the right call.
yum
I’m so sorry op. Please make sure you’re a registered cottage baker with your state if you’re in the US. Just to protect yourself. Spring time is here and you can do markets, pop up events, etc. start up cost is a lot though to get everything you’d need to get your name out there. These look fantastic. Best of luck op
I’m going to get downvoted, but sometimes people need some honest, tough love, feedback. It sounds like you chose to work in an industry that is already notoriously rough, quit a paying job without another source of income lined up. Randomly started a bagel business with vague research about doing so. Now you are blaming not only the country but your friends as well for your current predicament? It’s not their fault, or the country’s, that you are in this situation. You need to take some ownership and turn it around. I love baking breads/bagels, but there are more guaranteed ways to pay the bills.
All of that said, no one is ever worthless and I’m sorry you feel that way. Your bagels look fantastic, but you haven’t shared anyway to get them. You could be next door and I wouldn’t know that. As a real estate agent once told a class I was in, you don’t want to be a secret agent, you want everyone to know your name and business. I’m not in real estate anymore because I sucked at it. In an hour you have 350+ upvotes on this post, that’s 350+ potential followers you lost. Unless this subreddit doesn’t allow you to share social media. Keep your head up, get your name and product out there and hopefully it will take off. If you are in the RDU area of NC, let me know and I’ll buy a dozen off of you this week.
I managed a hand shaped bagel bakery for years and these are the best bagels I’ve ever seen. (Background in fine dining and bagels were Also my escape haha).
The bakery blew up in its infancy because the owner was doing free bagel pop ups to gain attention. A local coffee chain owner picked some up, loved them and reached out saying he HAD to have them in his shop.
A few years later, over 1 million bagels a year, and it was the only bagel sold at the most expensive grocery store chain around (PNW), and over 120 local coffee shops. Things could definitely work out for you!
Honestly, this post speaks volumes… amazing looking product, but a self-defeating strategy/outlook. Commenter’s are thirsting for more info, but no link to your socials? We want these bagels like right now, but we don’t even know what city you’re in. You clearly have the artisanal side down. They look delicious and precious. It’s up to you to put that shit into potato cannons and blast them out to the world.
1. They look overdone
2. What’s your strategy going to market? Direct to consumer? Coffee shop partnership? etc?
3. Are they good?
3 weeks in and spiraling sounds like you didn’t really have a plan? Did something fall through or what were you expecting here? My gut says you didn’t have a plan and focused on the craft rather than the fact this is a **business**. Which are two very different things.
I fondly remember a local bakery near a local business I used to work for (Northwest Computers) in Bellingham. They (the bakery) went around to all the local businesses and asked if they’d be interested in either:
A: subscribing to a ‘bagel day’ where the company placed a recurring order to be delivered to the office (written off as a business expense + Morale improvement)
B: allowing the bakery to send someone by with fresh bagels and sell to employees directly.
I don’t know how viable that business model is, but from a workers’ perspective it was amazing, both for generating good word-of-mouth, as well as recurring sales.
I’d say your pants are on fire, but bots don’t wear pants.
If you can obtain a license you can do little pop up shops at small markets
Wow those are good bagels
Man, starting a bagel gig sounds awesome but the early hustle with likes and all that can be a real downer—keep pushing, it’ll pick up.
Could also partner with book stores! They are always looking for baked goods if they have a cafe
Social media tip…. Don’t post as though you are trying to sell. Post like “made myself this awesome bagel this morning”, etc. trying to sell doesn’t work nearly as well as making someone want to get something and have them reach out to ask where you got it, etc.
Wheeeere you be friend
Brand new account with a sob story and some AI-looking bagels. Don’t be gullible yall
I should call her…
Do you deliver to the Netherlands? Because I am really interested …. 🤤
But honestly, they look yummy and your boxes are perfect. As others already said, work together with another company. Check catering companies and offer your bagels to them, also give tryouts to cafes and restaurants.
UPDATE
Hi – okay this was my first post and I’m brand, spanking new to Reddit. I just like to listen to Reddit story line-ups, and I was feeling insecure about my recent situation and came to the internet. Where I knew I could be anonymous, not self-promote or ask for sales, just share my side of the industry.
1. I’m in Texas
2. These are not AI
Some backstory: this is my 10th year in the service industry. I started out as a bartender at 17 and then worked my way into waiting tables, management and then BOH as a prep cook on to working in pastry – which is what I’ve been doing for the past 5 years. I love the industry, I know its a difficult one and I’ve had my share of shitty conditions: 17-hour days, 105-degree rooms with no air conditioning, abusive chefs, you name it. But I LOVE the rush, and I love going home feeling like I worked for my paycheck. I tried working corporate for two years after college (I’m 28 now btw) and I quit because I didn’t feel like I was giving myself purpose. Sitting in front of a screen for hours on end wasn’t a good fit for me, though I know it is for others and respect that.
Recently: I was a part of an opening team for a new fine dining establishment in my city. It was owned by a large corporation that already had several BBQ chains under its belt to show for its success. This was their first crack at fine dining. There is a lot going right for this new spot, but there is also a lot going poorly for it too. I was cross-trained in pastry, saute and expo on the weekends. And it was a lot of fun! Unfortunately, they revoked their original promise of health insurance and other benefits, and our chef (having only been open for 8 months) had already slept with 3 of the servers. I was losing respect for a company that some peers and I were really rooting for, and as someone nearing their 30s, I really need health insurance and that was my first red flag when they revoked what I had signed off on months ago.
Long story short, I’m reconnecting with my old corporate managers. I did quit without a plan. If you work in the service industry, you know that your health – especially your mental health – goes to the back burner. I wasn’t in my right mind, I was put in an uncomfortable situation with my sous and pastry chef and I left. Had a 4-hour panic attack. Looked at it as my consequence. Manically started a bagel service on the side so I didn’t kill myself. I had just received my last check and tax return, so I used it to pay off the next two months of rent and buy more flour. And now I’m in the never-ending hole of a job search.
And here we are! I love bagels. This is a recipe I’d been working on in my personal time simply because I liked making them for family and my boyfriend. These are truly my babies, and sometimes I think they’re the only thing I’m good at. Thank you for your kind (and unkind!) words – they were so much fun to read through. People are so funny, I’m glad we can still be idiots on the internet anonymously.
Burnt: Some of yall think the bagels look too well-done and I get that! I’m a sourdough baker, and I like a carmalized crust with a high temp start to build those bubbles and NY “chew.” I knew I wanted a crust similar to sourdough, but I assure you, the inside is fluffy and puffy.
These look better than 99.9% of bagels out there. Such great blistering.
Would
I put my Instagram in my bio. I’m sorry, I’m so overwhelmed with comments!
Link your accounts! We’ll follow and like 🙂 gotta support small businesses
Pls ship to Canada these are the most perfect bagels I have ever seen I must have them 😭😭💯💯💯💯🏆🏆🏆🏆
I have a place that basically survives off delivery to businesses.
I can walk down to the shop and grab a bagel, but they are mainly a delivery service to many local businesses. They also started selling sub sandwiches this year.
Maybe if you don’t have something like this in your area you can capitalize on that? Hopefully you live somewhere that doesn’t have a lot of bagel places, but also has a lot of NorthEast US transplants. That’s kinda your golden ticket.
Lots of NYCers miss their bagels, but no decent bagel places around. That type of thing.
These bagels look incredible.
Wow. They look amazing!
Whatever your opinion on this kind of people is, connect with local influencers/tiktokers/food bloggers. Social media is king for local exposure with young demographics.