Knead to Know feedback March 2012

In February 2012, we collected feedback from 100 of the 1000+ people who had bought a copy of Knead to Know, asking: 'How has it helped you?'

See also

• October 2012 feedback
• Reviews, bakers inspired by K2K and earlier feedback
• Find out about Knead to Know and order your copy

What we learned

"Knead to Know has been my start up bible. It's been such an inspiration and a very useful handbook on every aspect of starting a new bakery. Thank you!"

• Almost 70% of readers bake Real Bread for people in their local communities or are planning to
• At least 22 readers have started new Real Bread enterprises since the book was published
• More than 71% of readers found the book useful to their Real Bread enterprise*

*...and 27% only replied otherwise because they don't run one.

Here are the results in more detail.

• Do you bake Real Bread for sale?
• When did your Real Bread bakery/enterprise start?
• Do you feel Knead to Know has been useful?
• Knead to Know readers' bakeries
• Quotes

Knead to Know is still available as a PDF. Download your copy or read more details here.

Do you bake Real Bread for sale?

Answer	number of responses	%
Yes	30	30.3
Planning to	39	39.4
No	30	30

Total responses = 99

When did your Real Bread bakery/enterprise start?

Answer	number of responses	%
Since December 2010 (Knead to Know published January 2011)	22	22.2
Between November 2008 and December 2010	9	9.1
Between January 2007 and October 2008	1	0.99
Between January 2002 and December 2006	1	0.99
Before January 2002	0	0
Not applicable	66	66.

Total responses = 99

Has Knead to Know been useful?

Answer	number of responses	%
Yes, very	55	55.6
Yes	16	16.2
Not really	0	0
No	1	0.99
Not applicable*	27	27.

* Because I’m not planning to bake Real Bread for sale

Knead to Know readers' bakeries

The bakeries Knead to Know readers have founded, or work in, include:

The Earth's Crust Bakery
Chefonabike
Worthing Flour Power
Bill Quay Bread
Royston's Deli
Dough Works
The Slow Dough Bakery
Pinpastry
J:Bakes
Chalk Hills Bakery
The Welbeck Bakehouse
Quangle Wangle Foods
One Mile Bakery
imakebread
Bexley Bakery
The Zen Baker
Jo's Loaves
The Small Bread Company
Vienna Bakery
Nant y Coy Mill Cafe
Sticky Mitts
DUFFIELD LOAF
Red Dog Bakery
Backyard Bakery
Penn School
Wild Crust Bakery
billington buzzard
The Really Good Bread Company

Quotes

Here is just some of the wonderfully enthusiatic praise we've received from Knead to Know readers:

Essential Real Bread reading

A fantastic and inspiring book for anyone hoping to earn a crust through Real Bread

It's like a sourdough bruschetta - a nice tasty starter, not too filling and sets you up nicely for the main course, which of course is the serious baking...

You help put the theory into practice !! Thank you

A comprehensive guide for anyone thinking of starting a Real Bread community of commercial enterprise.

The book is very good indeed and we try to promote it to bakery students at the School of Artisan Food

Wonderfully captures the renaissance spirit of the movement, also captures the excitement of the sheer encounter with Real Bread - and real bakers and real people - after a lifetime of pap and packaging

Very good introduction for those thinking of taking the step from baking at home to baking for sale

It's a great resource with the right balance of basic and more technical information

Wished I had the book before I started baking Real Bread

It gave me a new perspective on baking. I found it inspiring in many ways about the variety of avenues you can go down to make bread and bringing it into the community

A valuable resource for anyone considering baking professionally but also useful for home baker

So much useful info, for so little outlay, with really useful comment from real bakers, who've already been there - I wouldn't have known where else to go.

Am firmly of the opinion that information about Real Bread should be on the national curriculum (I doubt if Mr. Gove would agree). Keep up the good work

A great place to start understanding what Real Bread really means

I found the book inspiring: re-assuring that I am on the right track and that there could be a market for the bread I bake for my family; a really helpful guide to establishing what I hope will be my micro-bakery

The book encapsulates the willingness of expert bakers to share their love of Real Bread and their hard-won experience and expertise

Really useful overview of the main considerations when starting to bake bread for sale. Very helpful!

I believe that there is an unsubstantiated fact that men think about sex every seven seconds. Since reading the Knead to Know, my mind is on bread practically every second of every day.

It is a fantastic little reference book that I have been using as a sort of checklist for putting together my bakery business plan. The tone of the book is very encouraging

Although I'd been baking for approx two years when the book came out, it gave focus on some areas of my bakery that I hadn’t really looked at. Also clarified some areas and reassured me that some things I was doing, were actually right

I was sorry that we didn't have access to the book when we were setting up the business in late 2010. It is a tremendous guide and very useful, I'd recommend it to anyone in the business and certainly anyone setting up a bread baking business

I love this book and now my students too!

It gave me great confidence that I wasn't the only one 'out there' doing what I was doing. Made me realise that what I had already set up was really quite an achievement and 'counted' - not just another little homemade project!

It's great to have a reference source where all the information is in one place

When you are setting out on a new enterprise it is nice to have a 'guiding hand' with you to avoid/reduce what might otherwise be obvious (or expensive!) mistakes

Really useful book with loads of good advice and tips

An excellent publication giving the full insight into setting up and running an artisan bakery

A good starting point for anyone seriously considering a bakery as a new commercial venture

Well done!

A great little tool for homemakers wishing to scale up.

I have used a lot of the information from the book to improve my profit levels. It has also been very useful in helping me to improve my baking processes

A very useful all round basic bread book useful for start up bread operations

It's really inspirational as well as practical and who knows one day I might realise my dream and have a bakery!

The book is interesting, useful and inspiring

Accessible, well organised & highly readable...good for dipping into

The book is very helpful. I am still reading through it and so far have found it very informative and helpful as I would like to sell my bread and find what I have ready very helpful and thought provoking

A great source of inspiration for all aspiring bakers a book you return to time again

A great book - gave me lots of ideas and inspiration

I loved the layout of the book, which made it easy to select and find what I was looking for

Brilliant

Keeps us grounded during our plans to start up our own Real Bread bakery business. Sometimes we get carried away and can't see the wood from the trees but the book has provided a good framework to work to and kept us focused and realistic about what we want to and can achieve!! Huge thanks

I found the book very interesting and there are many ideas that have made me think and in some cases rethink how I do things

Short and sweet and very tasty written. Gives and excellent overview of where to start!

Knead to Know has been invaluable help to me in setting up my home baking business. It was full of useful information, and pointed me in the right direction for all the areas such as Environmental Health where I needed more specific help.

Really useful resource full of useful pointers and invaluable advice

Great practical advice on running a small baking business. Much more than just a recipe book

Extremely well put together and very useful.

Even though our bakery is located in the USA, the information laid out in The Knead to Know, from the basic definitions of Real Bread to the variety of business formats for small bakeries, is very helpful. We reference the book in our Bakery Blog regularly.

Really useful, giving lots of info and tips to get started, looking forward to putting it into practice
It's an excellent combination of real life experience, advice and knowledge - just what you need if you're thinking of baking Real Bread as a business - even if it's just a vague notion it's worth a read

It deserves to sell more

Excellent

Useful little bible

Extremely useful. Use it all the time

This book gave me food for thought, allowed my thoughts to rise in a way in which I could make dough pay

Knead to Know gave me the information and the inspiration I needed to start baking Real Bread for my community

Very useful information

It really was a page turner, but best of all it made me look for even more information about baking

I was toying with the idea of setting up a business, Knead to Know helped me consider the practicalities of that idea.

To have such a freshly baked product, full of enthusiasm and inspiration is good enough to eat!

The book gave me belief that I would some day have my own bakery

Excellent introduction and overview of all aspects of starting a Real Bread enterprise

It gives readers practical tips on the administrative aspects as well as how to knead. I especially like to read the actual voices of people who have opened a bakery

Great addition to my bread library! always gets reaction when shown to attendees on my courses!

Makes it clear that there is a lot that one needs to know but at the same time makes it possible and seem easy

As a guide to setting out what (k)neads to be known about baking bread for a living this is quite impressive. Gave me plenty of things to think about and now armed with the information I feel I could go and have an informed discussion with a professional baker

I think it is a great resource