Originally written by Timothy Adler on Small Business
Converted into a mini bakery, Alexandre Bettler’s spare bedroom was full of 25kgs bags of flour, fridges stacked on top of one another, with flour dust everywhere. In 2016, Alexandre Bettler decided to open his very own bakery business.
Bettler, a graphic designer, became interested in breadmaking as a hobby while studying at the Royal College of Art. He saw it as a means of communication (the French word for bread, “pain”, comes from the word “copain” or friend).
He began delivering his handmade sourdough loaves by bike to local friends in Walthamstow, East London. Soon he was delivering to local restaurants. Bettler realised he had outgrown their spare room and he opened the doors of artisan bakery Today Bread back in 2016. Not only was it a bakery but it had a 40-seat café as well. Soon, his bakery was selling up to 300 loaves a day.
Then the pandemic hit in March 2020.
Bettler was forced to close his doors and pivot to an online delivery service and takeaway almost overnight to keep going.
Thankfully, Square enabled him to get up and running as an online business within two days.
>See also: How to optimise cash flow