The Truth About Making $25,000 in Cookie Sales in 1 Holiday Season (the good, the bad, the ugly)
And why a massive boost in sales isn’t always as fantastic as it sounds.
The 2020 holiday season was a HUGE learning experience for me as a cookie baker. And yes, spoiler alert - I made $25,000 in sales in about two months. This experience taught me so much about running a creative business online!
While I had an incredible amount of organic sales, I also learned some tough lessons. In this post, I am sharing my story - the good, the bad, the ugly. I want to share the mistakes I made (and could have avoided) - so you can enjoy your growth more sustainably and profitably.
HOW MY COOKIE BUSINESS WAS DOING BEFORE THE PANDEMIC
First things first, you may remember that early 2020 was when a particular global virus wrecked life as we knew it.
My yearly sales started off rocky due to becoming a homeschool teacher and a social recluse all at once - and against my wishes. I had already established my part-time cookie business, but at that point, I was making most sales through Venmo and PayPal.
For the first ten months of 2020, I averaged $2,000 in monthly sales. I was the baker, decorator, and marketer for my business - AKA, I was everything. I didn't have any employees or outside help.
Then came November and December in 2020.
HITTING IT BIG WITH HOLIDAY COOKIE SALES
It's every baker or creative business owner's dream to just "hit it big," right?
I mean, to wake up one morning and the sales are pouring in.
The dream we all hope for is that beautiful "ca-ching" chime going off left and right - notifying us of every beautiful, delicious sale… Right?
With the hopes of having a solid holiday sales season, I started promoting my cookies earlier than usual in November 2020. And my people were here for it!
Covid had everyone rallying around small businesses and shipping an unprecedented amount of gifts through the mail. Everyone was stuck at home, stir crazy, and looking for a way to connect with loved ones.
It was the perfect recipe for high cookie demand!
I was thrilled! And when I hit my regular monthly sales numbers ($2000) in the first two weeks of November, I didn't even consider slowing down. I just kept truckin'.
SALES WITHOUT A PLAN ARE LIKE COOKIES WITHOUT FROSTING
I loved the momentum I was experiencing, and I launched a "Black Friday" promo to keep it going.
That's when it happened.
I did another $10,000 in cookie sales in the second half of November.
The kicker?
That number doesn’t even include my Etsy shop or Cratejoy site sales! The snowball effect was intoxicating (and a little scary).
After I got over the excitement of the initial sales, I quickly realized I couldn’t fulfill the orders by myself.
I put the word out and found a few friends interested in being seasonal cookie packagers, and I even found a short-term rental space.
The growth was so exciting that I never sat down to make a real plan. I didn’t pause to consider how to manage the sales, baking, coordination, packaging, mistakes, and deliveries.
I just ran with it.
A PERFECT RECIPE FOR BURNOUT
I “ran with it” from 5:30 am until well after midnight for about a month and a half. I ran and ran until my back ached and my head hurt constantly.
Even when I finally fell into bed exhausted each night, I was so overwhelmed with the chaos of orders and customer service emails that I would just toss and turn. I missed out on a ton of holiday family time because I had so much work to do I couldn’t stop.
And here's the really sad part.
After all that work: the promotions, the social media shoutouts, the Etsy feature (that resulted in massive exposure and a steady stream of bulk corporate orders), I only made about $2,000 extra in profit during those two months.
In November and December 2020, I did nearly 7x the revenue for my creative online business, and what did I have to show for it?
A slight pay bonus and some MASSIVE burnout.
THE KEY INGREDIENTS I FORGOT WHEN TRYING TO BOOST SALES DURING THE HOLIDAYS:
When I jumped into the 2020 holiday season with NO plan, there were a lot of factors I didn’t consider. Each one of these details plays a role in determining whether you will successfully grow your creative business or if you will put in a ton of work for not much profit.
Employees. I had no plan for how many employees I wanted to bring on or how many hours of support I could afford.
Error costs. With such a huge production increase in such a small time frame, there were a lot of mistakes made. There's bound to be! But I had no budget or plan for covering those mistakes, so I ended up replacing far more orders than necessary - thus digging into my profit.
Supply shortages. When the holidays started, I had the ingredients and packaging, shipping, and marketing supplies for my average month. We ran out of supplies QUICKLY and had to make daily trips to local stores to buy things at a far more expensive rate.
Extra miscellaneous expenses. My family ate out nearly every meal between Black Friday and New Year’s Eve. Most days, I bought dinner and coffee for my entire team of seasonal helpers. - That felt like the least I could do for the amount they were helping me. Beyond those expenses, I paid a babysitter over Christmas break and spent way more on gas from the constant trips to the store.
Waste. We wasted an outrageous amount of product because we had all new helpers and absolutely no training plan. I usually did everything myself - and I knew how to use every last drop of icing and rarely burnt a cookie. While some waste is normal with growth, the lack of training and planning turned out to be pretty costly!
The moral of the story
Growth is amazing! It's fun and exciting. There are tons of customers out there, waiting for what you're offering. And your shop can grow just like mine did! But marketing your business blindly, without a plan, is dangerous. And frankly, it isn’t that fun.
While there are seasons in our creative businesses when we will have to put in more hours, sweat, and effort, we want to make sure we are strategic about our choices! We want to work smarter, not harder, right?! And we most certainly want our effort to be worth it!
The goal is to increase sales, profit, and our actual take-home pay! We want to hire people to help us and feel good about how we pay them. We want to create sustainable businesses that we LOVE and that enable us to enjoy our families, hobbies, and freedom!
I had to learn this lesson the hard way, which is 100% why I started offering 1:1 Marketing Strategy Sessions. My goal is to help creative business owners and bakers grow with a plan and a purpose.
If you’re interested in learning more about how I can help you navigate marketing in a way that is strategic, sustainable, and supportive of the life you want, schedule a free clarity call now! [Snag your free call now!]
