Rise & Crumb · bakery café, two locations
Same cookies, same team. Why is store two losing $8K a month?
A turnaround plan for a beloved bakery whose second location was bleeding money: the questions that found the real problem, the call on what to cut, and a 30-60-90 day plan built for a $5K budget.
Rise & Crumb, Dana and all figures are fictional. This is a spec exercise that shows how I work with a small business owner who has no time and no money to waste.
The brief
A dream of five stores, stuck at two.
“Same menu, same branding, same quality. Plenty of people walk by. They just don't come in. My husband wants me to close it, but if I can't make number two work, I don't see how five ever happens.”
Her limits: she already works 60-hour weeks, so nothing can depend on her personally, and no permanent discounting on tight margins.
The first move
Before fixing the store that's failing, study the one that works.
Instead of opening with ideas, I asked Dana why the original location wins. Her answers rewrote the problem.
How's the signage?
The center makes us use their standard sign, and it faces the parking lot, not the grocery entrance. People walk right past.
Why do people keep coming back downtown?
It's walkable. Office workers stop in every morning for coffee and a pastry. It's a ritual.
Do you do events or custom orders?
Custom birthday cakes, yes. Weddings and events, never.
Location one · downtown
A morning ritual on foot.
- Traffic
- Walk-in office workers
- Best time
- Every morning
- Why it works
- Habit, plus staff who know names
Location two · shopping center
A drive-to errand stop.
- Traffic
- Park, grocery, leave
- Best time
- Afternoons only
- What's wrong
- Selling a ritual where nobody has one
The big idea
Stop waiting for walk-ins. Be the bakery people plan for.
Location two isn't a café problem. It's a positioning problem. In a drive-to center, it should be the place you order from for weddings, birthdays, office mornings and parties, with the counter as a bonus.
The brainstorm
Every idea on the table, then a hard edit.
A store losing $8K a month can't chase fifteen ideas. The real work was choosing what Dana's tiny budget and full calendar could actually carry.
● In the 90-day planStruck Cut, for now
Why the cuts: the grocery deal would teach customers to skip the café, and shipping or national retail are big projects for a store that needs to stop losing money first.
The plan
30, 60, 90 days, each one paying for the next.
Days 1–30 · Learn and set up
Find out why people love the first store, and make the second one findable.
- Run a two-minute questionnaire at both stores for 10% off: how they found us, what they love, why they come back
- Get a sign facing the grocery entrance approved with property management
- Map 20–30 wedding planners, venues, schools and offices within a 15-minute drive
- Launch a simple order-ahead page for custom cakes and party boxes
Days 31–60 · Test
Put the cake in front of the people who order cakes.
- Host one tasting for planners and venue coordinators at location two
- Get on catering apps like ezCater so office managers searching for breakfast find Dana
- Pitch breakfast trays to nearby offices for meetings and birthdays
- Track every order by where it came from
Days 61–90 · Scale what works
Double down on the winner and reshape the store around it.
- Put the next dollar into whichever channel brought the most orders
- Shift staff hours from the dead morning counter toward production
- Decide whether storefront hours shrink to afternoons and pickups
A note on delivery apps
Individual lunches have mostly gone to DoorDash, so competing there is a losing game. Meeting trays and office birthday orders are different. Dana should treat the catering apps as a storefront to join, not a rival.
Where the $5K goes
Every dollar has a job.
An example split for a fictional business. My fee is quoted separately so the campaign budget stays intact.
What it looks like
The plan, on the counter.
Two minutes · 10% off
Help us get better
- How did you first find us?
- What do you always order?
- What keeps you coming back?
10% off your next visit
Counter questionnaire, run at both stores
Planners & venues · by invite
An evening of tasting
Wedding cakes, dessert tables and favor boxes, made in-house by a six-year local bakery.
Thursday, 5 to 7pm · Rise & Crumb, location twoTasting invite for days 31–60
Breakfast for your Monday meeting, delivered by 8
Hi Karen, I run Rise & Crumb, five minutes from your office. We make pastry and coffee trays for team meetings and birthdays. I'd love to drop off a sample box this week so your team can try us.
— Dana
Office manager outreach for days 31–60
How we'd know it's working
One goal, checked weekly.
Example targets for a fictional business, set with the owner at kickoff.
I can also build the systems that keep it running without Dana: questionnaire answers collected in one place, follow-ups when a planner goes quiet, and orders tagged by where they came from.
About Chloe
Ideas that turn into sales.
Idea session
$350
A 20-minute brain dump call: you talk, I listen. Then I come back with my ideas and your top three moves, in writing, on a short follow-up call, or both. Credited in full if you upgrade within 30 days.
Book a sessionGrowth roadmap
$1,500
The session plus a 30-60-90 day plan: priorities, outreach targets, budget split and what to cut.
Start my roadmapRoadmap + systems
$2,250
Your growth roadmap plus one automation built in your own account, so the plan keeps running behind the scenes from day one.
Start roadmap + systemsFractional creative director
$2,500 / month
Ongoing campaign ideas, a monthly strategy session and feedback on what your team makes. Three-month minimum, then month to month.
Bring me inNot sure which fits? Book a free 30-minute call and we'll pick together.
Want this for your business?
I work with local businesses and growing brands that want more customers without losing what makes them feel personal.
Rise & Crumb, Dana, and all figures on this page are fictional and created for illustration. Strategy and copy by Chloe Church.