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Why this guide exists
If you sell cakes, bakes or treats and your orders arrive as messages, this guide is for you. Not a marketing funnel, not a course. Nine short sections on getting the right details, in one place, before you agree to bake anything.
Full disclosure: we make Rapid Cart, a free tool for taking orders through one link. It shows up in two of the nine sections. Everything else works exactly the same whether you use a notebook, a spreadsheet, a Google Form or us. Take what is useful and ignore the rest.
You are not disorganised. You are using a chat app as an order system, and chat apps are built to lose information. Move the order-taking somewhere structured and most of the chaos disappears on its own.
1 · The problem
What DM ordering actually costs you
Four things go wrong, and every baker recognises all four:
- The buried message. It arrives at 11pm between a delivery notification and a friend's meme. You read it, plan to reply properly in the morning, and it slides up the list.
- The missing detail. You agreed a cake. You did not agree a size, a flavour, a collection time, or who is paying for delivery. Now it is three messages of back-and-forth per order.
- No record. Two weeks later you cannot remember whether she said the 14th or the 15th, and scrolling back through a chat is not a filing system.
- No boundary. An open chat implies you are always available, always negotiable, always able to fit one more in.
The arithmetic is worth doing once. Take 20 enquiries a month. If two get lost or fall apart over confusion, and your average order is 45 euro, that is 90 euro a month gone. Add roughly five minutes of clarifying messages per order and you spend well over an hour a month typing questions you could have asked once, in a form.
2 · The core checklist
The nine details every order needs
Collect these before you say yes. Every question you skip here becomes three messages later, or a bad surprise on collection day.
| Detail | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| 1. What they want | Flavour, filling, size or number of servings. “A chocolate cake” is not an order. |
| 2. Date needed | And the time. Collection at 9am and at 6pm are different bakes. |
| 3. Collection or delivery | Plus the full address, and who pays for delivery. |
| 4. Budget or your price | Agree the number in writing before you start. Always. |
| 5. Occasion and wording | Exact spelling of any name on the cake, copied from them, not retyped by you. |
| 6. Allergies and dietary needs | Non-negotiable. Ask every time, even for repeat customers. |
| 7. Reference photo | One picture prevents an argument about what “rustic” meant. |
| 8. Contact details | Name, phone and email. A phone number matters on the day. |
| 9. How they found you | Optional, but after 20 orders it tells you which channel is actually working. |
Allergen rules for home food businesses differ by country and change. Check what applies where you are before you sell. Whatever the rules, capturing allergy information in writing at order time protects both of you.
3 · Your options
Three ways to take orders
An honest comparison, including where the free options are simply fine.
| Chat DMs | Google Form | Order link | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cost | Free | Free | Free tier, paid tiers for more |
| Setup | None | 20 to 30 minutes | About a minute |
| Details arrive complete | Rarely | Yes | Yes |
| You get a record | A chat log | A spreadsheet | A dashboard |
| Customer needs an account | They have the app | Sometimes, to upload | No |
| Works from a bio or QR code | Sort of | Ugly link | Yes, that is the point |
| Track accepted or declined | In your head | Extra columns | Built in |
If you take two or three orders a month, a notebook is genuinely enough and anyone who tells you otherwise is selling something. The moment you pass roughly one order a week, or you start missing messages, structure pays for itself.
4 · If you want a link
Set one up in about a minute
This section is about our tool. Skip it if you already have something that works.
- Go to rapidcart.co and sign up with your email or Google account.
- Your order page is created immediately from your name, at an address like rapidcart.co/o/annas-bakery. There is no setup wizard to get through.
- Add one or two lines about what you sell. This is the single highest-value thing you can fill in.
- Copy your link, or download your QR code.
- Put the link where your customers already are. See section 5.
What your customer sees
They tap your link, fill in one form, and press send. No account, no app, no password. They get a confirmation with a reference code.
What you get
An email for every request, and a dashboard listing them with the details attached to the order rather than scattered up a chat thread. Accept or decline with one click.
It does not take payment. You still agree money directly with your customer, the same way you do now. We would rather tell you that here than have you find out after signing up.
5 · Distribution
Eight places to put your link
A link nobody can find is not an order system. Put it everywhere a customer might look:
- Instagram bio. The single most valuable line of text you own.
- A Story highlight called “Order” with the link sticker, so it does not vanish after 24 hours.
- WhatsApp Business away message. “Thanks for your message. To order, tap here.” This one works while you sleep.
- Facebook page button. Change the button to Order Now and point it at your link.
- A QR sticker on your packaging. Every box you hand over becomes a way to reorder.
- A QR card at markets and fairs. People who cannot buy today can still order for next week.
- Your email signature. Free, permanent, forgotten by everyone.
- Pinned to the top of your Facebook group posts, where the group rules allow it.
6 · Copywriting
Write a description that stops questions
Most of the questions you answer twenty times a week can be answered once, on the page.
Before
“Welcome to my page! DM to order.”
After
“Custom celebration cakes, cupcakes and brownie boxes, baked in Cork. Minimum 5 days notice, 10 days for wedding cakes. Collection in Douglas, or delivery within 15km for 8 euro. Cakes from 45 euro. I can work around most allergies, just ask.”
The formula: what you make + lead time + where you are and how they get it + a starting price + one friendly line. A starting price is not scary, it filters out the person who wanted a wedding cake for 30 euro, and that conversation costs you far more than the enquiry was worth.
7 · Boundaries
Five policies worth stating up front
Adapt the wording and put these where customers see them before they order, not after.
| Policy | Wording you can steal |
|---|---|
| Lead time | “I need at least 5 days for standard orders and 10 days for tiered or wedding cakes.” |
| Deposit | “A 50% deposit confirms your date. Until it is paid the date stays open to others.” |
| Cancellation | “Cancel more than 7 days ahead and your deposit is refunded. Inside 7 days I have usually bought your ingredients.” |
| Delivery | “Collection from [area] is free. Delivery within 15km is 8 euro. I cannot deliver tiered cakes.” |
| Allergens | “My kitchen handles nuts, dairy, eggs and gluten. I cannot guarantee an allergen-free product.” |
It converts a polite maybe into a real booking, and it is the single most effective cure for people who vanish two days before the date.
8 · Running it
Once an order arrives
- Reply within a few hours. Custom orders go to whoever answers first far more often than to whoever is cheapest.
- Say yes or no out loud. An unanswered enquiry is a customer who thinks you are still thinking about it.
- Confirm the date and the price in writing before you buy a single ingredient.
- Take the deposit before you block the date.
- Close the order when it is collected, so your open list is always only real work.
- Ask for a photo. Customer photos of your cake at the actual party are the best marketing material you will ever get, and they cost you one polite message.
9 · Do this
Your first week
- Write down the nine details from section 2 and keep them beside you.
- Decide where orders will arrive from now on: form, link or notebook.
- Write your description using the formula in section 6.
- Set your lead time and your deposit policy, and write them down.
- Put your link or your form in your Instagram bio.
- Set a WhatsApp away message pointing at it.
- Add a QR code to your packaging or your market table.
- Reply to the next enquiry with your link instead of twenty questions.
Rapid Cart is free to start, needs no card, and takes about a minute. Your customers never make an account. rapidcart.co
Questions, or something in here you disagree with? We would genuinely like to hear it: info@rapidcart.co
Why “ingredients times two” pays you nothing for the afternoon, the four costs a fair price has to cover, and a worked example from flour to a per-cupcake price.