Chapter 1 of 10Week 1 · Day 1⏱ 5-min read + 10-min name & logo
You can do this
One page, before any checklists — the part nobody tells you.
In September 2023, a baker in Alaska posted on Facebook that she had a few extra loaves of sourdough. That was the whole launch. No website, no logo, no business plan. The replies: “We’ve been waiting for this.”
That’s the secret nobody tells you: for baker after baker, the demand was already there. Your neighbors are already buying bread, cookies, and birthday cakes. They would rather buy them from you — someone they know, in their neighborhood, who pulled them out of the oven that morning. You don’t have to create a market. You have to let people know you’re baking.
Sarah, a mom of two in Oklahoma, started her home bakery hoping it might help a little: “If I could only cover groceries, it would be such a help to our family.” Her second year, the porch did far more than groceries — and she still bakes from her home kitchen. Her advice, word for word:
“Start small. Bake one loaf. Then another. Let it grow.”
This guide is the path from “I wonder if I could” to your first ten customers, in ten short chapters. Every chapter ends with one small step — not a leap, a step. You can already bake. The rest is smaller than it looks, and Utah’s laws (chapter 2) happen to be among the friendliest in America.
Before anything else — your why
Businesses that last are started on purpose. Thirty seconds, just for you: what’s the real reason? (There’s no wrong answer — and on the hard Tuesday in month two, this is the line you’ll come back and read.)
Pick the closest one — then say it your way below.
In my own words, I’m doing this because…
My win number — what makes this a win:
And honestly, my biggest worry is…
Named fears shrink. Every chapter ahead handles one of these.
Name it, make a logo, move on
Your Instagram needs a name and a little picture, so let’s settle both right now — ten minutes, total. Naming is where new bakers waste whole weeks, and it never matters as much as it feels like it does: you can change the name, the handle, and the logo any time (bakers do, constantly). So: two minutes on the name. The easiest recipe is a place word + a bread word — pick one from each side:
A place word
Porch · Maple · Honey · Willow · Hearth · Canyon · Wildflower · Cottage · Sunny · your street name
A bread word
Sourdough · Bakehouse · Bakery · Bakes · Crumb · Loaf Co. · Kitchen · Oven
Maple Lane Sourdough. Honey Hearth Bakehouse. Canyon Crumb. Or skip the recipe entirely — Emma Bakes is a complete brand. Write it down (you can still change it in chapter 5):
Now the logo: open ChatGPT or Gemini, paste this prompt, and take the first one you like. Your shop name drops in automatically.
Create a simple, warm logo for a home bakery called “[your shop name]”. Hand-drawn cottage feel, one or two colors on a cream background, one small motif — a wheat stalk, a rolling pin, or a round loaf. The bakery name in friendly hand-lettered style. It must read clearly as a small round Instagram profile picture. No photorealism, no busy detail, no extra words.
That’s the whole assignment — two minutes for the name, eight for the logo, and don’t give it a minute more. Overthinking the name is where home bakeries go to stall. Name it, make the logo, move on.
Made the account? My handle:
Real home bakeries are selling across Utah right now — you can browse them on The Front Porch to see how normal this is.