Cookies that contain zero processed sugar have been getting more and more popular as of late… as people learn more and more about how bad it is for your health. They are also super-popular among people with diabetes and other sugar-sensitivities. In addition to this, cookies prepared with other sweeteners, like honey, are also super popular. But can you really make money baking sugar free cookies?
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The more I started looking into it, the more the answer seemed to be a ‘yes.’
And to be honest, my reasoning for this was actually coming from the ‘opposite’ side of ‘side hustle.’
I was looking to buy them!
I love cookies. But I have also been learning more and more about the dangers of processed sugar.
So the other day, as I was looking for sugar-free cookies at the store, I suddenly realized something.
There weren’t any good options. They were all just kind of lame, and also more expensive! Why couldn’t I find some awesome, high-quality, home baked cookies that just didn’t contain the ‘sugar’ part of the recipe?
Then, it dawned on me. If I wanted it, then it was possible that other people might want it as well. So I set myself to the task of doing some research.
Making Money Baking Sugar Free Cookies
Is baking cookies a viable side-hustle idea? Could you really bake sugar free cookies at home and make a profit by doing so?
It turns out that you can, but there are a few key areas that you need to consider.
The Basics: What This Side Hustle Would Require
Could this side hustle actually be profitable?
As far as I could tell, here is what you would need to make it work.
- A great cookie recipe (or even a couple of them) that taste great without any sugar in them
- A platform for selling and/or marketing the cookies
- A great way to package the cookies so that you can brand them and deliver them to customers
- You would need to make enough on them that it would be worth spending the money on ingredients and spending the time required to make, package, and sell them
So let’s talk about these.
The Sugar-Free Cookie Recipe
This is probably one of the easier parts of this side hustle… though it may require some research and experimentation.
Basically, you would want to search for awesome sugar free cookie recipes online, experiment with them, try them, and perfect your own ‘versions’ of them.
You could also experiment with alternative sweeteners as well. For example, honey can be used as a sweetener instead of actual sugar, etc.
You could also use fruits, nuts, and/or berries to flavor the cookies and make them stand out.
There are even low-sugar chocolate substitutes that you can use.
Once you get this all lined out, and come up with a fantastic sugar-free cookie recipe or two that people will actually love, it will be time to move on to the next part.
How To Sell Your Cookies
There are a lot of ways to go about this… though the most obvious options, at first, would include community connections and word-of-mouth.
Do you attend church? Do you ever go to farmers markets? Do you hang out at local health-food stores? Do you know of any health-friendly restaurants in your area?
These are all places where you could, in theory, sell your cookies to earn a profit. You could also take special orders from friends, members of your local community groups, family members, etc.
Just be careful with this! As your business grows, be aware that more legal restrictions may come into play. You will want to check with local health-department regulations to figure out what rules you will need to follow.
Not following local rules and regulations can result in fines and trouble! So avoid this by doing your homework and figuring out how to do things ‘by the book.’
Packaging Your Sugar-Free Cookies
This is a surprisingly challenging part of the side-hustle, actually.
You can buy to-go containers, but these tend to be plain and unattractive.
You can decorate the containers with stickers and/or labels to help, or use ribbons, bows, string, paper bags, tins, boxes, jars, pans, etc.
There are a lot of ways to actually package homemade cookies. The key here is to figure out an attractive, yet functional and unique way to make your cookies look great, while also protecting them as you transport them to their destination.
Pinterest can actually be a great place to look for ideas for this.
Selling Them For An Actual Profit
The next thing to consider is your profit margin.
You obviously don’t want to lose money on your business, which means that you need to crunch your numbers and make sure that you make enough to cover…
- The ingredients
- The packaging
- The time spent making and packaging them
If you can’t actually make a profit on your cookies, you may as well just bake them for you and enjoy them yourself… though at first, you may have to eat some of the costs (pun intended!) to get the word out and offer some up to potential customers as samples.
You may find that the more cookies you bake at once, the lower your costs per-dozen will be. But at the same time, if you bake them and never sell them, that is just money wasted… so there is a balance to be struck here. The same is true if you are trying to make money by cooking from home.
How Much Money Can You Make Selling Homemade Sugar-Free Cookies?
You can buy a dozen regular cookies at retail stores for as little as $1. But this isn’t necessarily realistic with homemade cookies!
Most homemade cookies sell for somewhere between $3 and $10 a dozen. The fancier/more exotic the cookies are, the more expensive they will tend to be, because you will have to charge more to actually earn a profit.
Obviously, you want to make them cheap enough to be worth the money to customers, but you also need to price them high enough to earn you money and make the side-hustle worthwhile.
One thing to keep in mind is that homemade sugar-free cookies are a specialty niche item, and because of that, you can usually charge more than you would charge for ‘regular’ store-bought cookies.
Why? Because homemade sugar-free cookies are filled with quality ingredients, are not filled with preservatives, are fresh, and are obviously sugar-free.
The type of person who is concerned with getting the cheapest cookies possible is probably not going to be the same type of person who is going to be buying sugar free cookies from you anyway!
So market to your target demographic… people who want healthier options, who are willing to pay more for something fresh, tasty, and more nutritional.
Because these people truly value health over price in most cases, you can usually get away with charging more. And as long as you try to keep your prices reasonable, you shouldn’t have a problem making sales when the right people are made aware of what you’re offering!
My Personal Feelings About This Side Hustle
I actually really like the idea of making sugar-free cookies as a side hustle. But there are also two very important things to keep in mind with it.
- You need to be aware of local health department laws, to make sure that you are following all applicable food-preparation regulations
- It is going to take some time, dedication, and practice to actually make this side hustle work
No side hustle is going to pay huge dividends overnight. Even if it is super easy and hassle-free, you will still usually earn less in the beginning, and more later on, as you learn more about it and get a better feel for what it takes to actually succeed.
This side hustle is no different. This is especially true of skill-based hustles… and I believe that making homemade sugar-free cookies would fall into that. It takes time to perfect your craft. It also takes time to learn how to market it.
I also believe that it would take a certain amount of passion to make this side hustle work. If you aren’t really into baking or making baked-goods, then you may have a hard time finding the motivation to really delve into this one like it would require.
But then again, with that being said, you never know until you try.
You may not get rich with this side hustle, unless you can manage to scale it into a full-sized business. And even then, you may face quite a few logistical challenges.
But if you love baking and feel passionate about the idea of making your own sugar-free cookies… there is undoubtedly money to be made in this hustle, especially in the local market.
Our Final Opinion Of This Side Hustle
Should you try to bake some sugar-free cookies and sell them as a side hustle?
There are a lot of ways to make money online. Some are good, some not, but ALL of them are still just trading hours for dollars.
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Nathaniell
What's up ladies and dudes! Great to finally meet you, and I hope you enjoyed this post. My name is Nathaniell and I'm the owner of One More Cup of Coffee. I started my first online business in 2010 promoting computer software and now I help newbies start their own businesses. Sign up for my #1 recommended training course and learn how to start your business for FREE!
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