Bruja’s Bakery has grown from my toaster oven in my little apartment in Lavapies, with a few orders a month, to a REAL oven, and multiple orders per day. In the beginning, I handed people their pumpkin pies wrapped in foil and in plastic bags from various supermarkets, and their bagels went into a big Ikea plastic ziploc bag (take a minute to imagine how bad that looked when the bagels were warm and steamy!!). With the evolution of the business has come evolution of the materials I use to promote the business – from business cards, to stickers, boxes, plates, pie boxes, and more. When you start to add boxes and bags and business cards, you start to feel like a real business. This is what I have been using:
Business cards
The first business cards I ever made were in November 2017 and I designed and ordered them from moo.com
As you can see, I ordered 200 cards for a little under 56€.
I wanted something simple, but colorful as well as sleek and professional looking. The great thing about Moo is that they have lots of examples and templates, so you can find one you like and just add your own information. I ordered 200 cards, which lasted me quite awhile. When they arrived in the mail, I was thrilled that the quality was awesome and they looked exactly like what I had designed. If you want to check out Moo, click here and browse their items.
After a year, I started running low on business cards so I started browsing for some new ones. Right around Black Friday, I came across a huge sale on Vistaprint and decided to give it a go- their prices were unbeatable, and I LOVED the designs they had.
With the sale happening, I was able to snag a great deal – 500 business cards for under 32€ (I was only going to order 250, but at checkout they asked ‘want 250 more for just 10€? Great marketing, Vistaprint!!!). Admittedely, the quality is not as good as the ones from Moo, but it’s good enough and I would order them again. Plus, I don’t feel like I have to ‘save’ the cards because that’s how I felt with the others- they were too expensive! Check out Vistaprint HERE.
Stickers
After ordering cards, I decided it was time for some stickers – to put on cookie boxes, bagel bags, pie boxes, etc. Stickers take you from a wanna-be business to a less-wanna-be business 😉 The only problem is that stickers can be expensive, so I definitely feel like I have to ration them. For example, if someone orders two pies, I only put a sticker on one box.
The first stickers I ordered were also from Moo.
As you can see, 100 stickers were almost 40€ (with shipping and tax), so I can’t use them all willy nilly. Despite them being expensive, I LOVED these stickers – the colors, the brightness, the girliness of the them. They didn’t have anything with a bruja or a bagel, but I still thought they were great.
I used them up during Thanksgiving, so when they were gone, I ordered new ones from Vistaprint (bundled it with my business cards).
Since there was that big Black Friday sale going on, I was able to grab these for over 50% off so I got 100 stickers for right under 20€, which is much better than the deal with Moo, but still pricey. Of course, prices go down as you order more, but I was hesitant to order too many and not use them.
When I was designing those stickers, I wasn’t in love with the fonts I was using and felt it looked cheap, but I was tired (it was late at night) and was getting cranky and frustrated and sort of said F it and now I wish I had been more patient because I still don’t like the stickers very much and still think they look cheap. Ah, ya can’t win them all. Next time, I will change the font.
Pie Boxes
Luis and I searched high and low for pie boxes that a) wouldn’t break the bank and b) were nice looking. Luis is more dedicated to these searches than I am, so he was actually the one that found these boxes from Hermanos Galiano, a complany located in Spain.
The boxes arrived 2 days after ordering them and were exactly what I needed during the craziness of pie season. They come with 4 flaps that slide together, and have a sturdy handle on top so customers can carry their pies on the top or bottom. The only thing I didn’t like is that the boxes tend to rip at the top if you are too aggressive with opening or closing them.
Pie Plates
Luis is always the one with the good ideas for things to improve my business, while I am the one, admittedly, that is more hesitant to get more and more and more. It was his idea, of course, to get some pie plates to go with the pie boxes and I’m so glad I did! Thanks Luis. I ordered the plates from Hermanos Galiano, so they came in the same box as my pie boxes. I chose gold plates that could fit in the boxes, but go under the pie and give it a festive look. The plates are great quality and have worked for Thanksgiving pumpkin pies, to cookie cakes, cheesecakes, and more.
Bagel Bags
Right now, I package my bagels in paper bags that we bought from Makro. They are good quality, can hold 6-8 bagels, and they say ‘panadería’ on them, so they work for what I need.
Once the bagels are in paper bags, I put those bags into white plastic bags. The plastic bags were purchased from a Chino store- after searching high and low for bags without words, I went into a Chino and asked if they sold them. The guy at the counter said no, so I asked if I could buy the bags he uses to put merchandise into and he said yes! He sold me 100 bags for 2€, so I consider it a win. I have since found where I can purchase more (the Chino called Casa del Pin near Lavapiés sells them).
Cookie Boxes
I used to give people their cookies on a plastic plate wrapped in foil, so getting boxes was a big step in the right direction. These boxes are perfect and come from Makro, but they are pricey- almost 9€ for the package of ~25 boxes.
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