Making $20K a Month in this Tiny Osaka Bakery

Making $20K a Month in this Tiny Osaka Bakery

I think we’re starting kinda late, to be honest. People in the same industry might think that we’re on the later side. Not sure though. Right now, my wife’s pregnant, so we’ve separated our roles a bit more clear-cut. Since we both can do either job, we usually rotate roles every week or so. She’s 8 months along now. The baby’s due in about 2 months. But she’s still going strong. I’m 191cm tall. So sinks and this counter too, it’s low, so his back always hurts. My wife’s 153cm. So that’s what? A 40cm difference? Maybe 38? 30? Yeah, about 40cm. I’m 30 now, turning 31 this year. Same age as Shohei Ohtani. Same July birthday too. And we’re having a baby. We’re living almost the same life, really. It’s his go-to joke. I’m making the water roux now. Once this ferments in the morning, we bake it, then keep adding more to the batch. And repeat. I haven’t counted exactly, but we probably have 40–50 bread types. That’s just for the morning lineup. We started with only 30 kinds, but it just kept getting more. And more. I’ve always wanted to run my own bakery, but… running a bakery is actually really tough. Doing it all alone is nearly impossible. Some people do everything alone, even selling, but you basically can’t sleep if you do that every day. So at first, I wanted my husband to only do the sales. I was like, “Can you do the selling part?” That’s how it started. We dated for 5 years, then got married, and one year later, we opened the bakery. That’s kind of how it went. It’s fun, isn’t it? Yeah, we’re doing good. You’re just saying that! The pressure! Sometimes people ask me if I am mixed race. It happens now and then. I never understood why. When I started baking bread, I thought I’d have to learn everything from scratch. It seemed super tough. But we really wanted kids. If my wife was gonna work and run the shop, what if she had to stop when we had the baby? She might’ve had to close the place, and that would’ve been such a waste after working so hard to become a baker. She trained so hard for it. I saw how tough that journey was for her. And you know… It just felt wrong for her to give all that up because of the baby. It felt too unfair. So I thought if I worked with her and learned everything, So I thought if I worked with her and learned everything, then I could take over when she needed to step back. I thought that would be the best way to handle it. I thought that would be the best way to handle it. Really exhausting. It took me 2 years to get used to this. Even before the shop opened, I was already wiped out from the prep. I’d be taking breaks before we even opened. I couldn’t even work full-time at first — my body just couldn’t handle it. Unbelievable, I swear. Totally unbelievable. Like, I can’t believe how we went with no days off. Those two years were just intense. This part’s pretty tricky. Dropping the egg right in the center of the bread… It takes skill. And that’s the end of my big moment. The egg always overflows, so I’ll be like, “Maybe try this instead,” and then… She’s like, “Zip it.” We argue all the time. I don’t, stop saying that! She’s like, “I KNOW what I’m doing,” and then boom — Things get a bit tense. That’s our usual pattern when making bread. It happens almost every day. Stop it! We argue a lot. Like, a LOT. Yeah, seriously, all the time. Totally. Probably once a week we’ll have a little spat. If she messes up and I point it out, she’s like, “Why do I have to get to hear that from YOU?” Then I end up snapping back. That’s how it goes. She’s like, “Why should I get scolded by my apprentice?” Not that I’m saying I’m better or anything, but… “I’m the senior here!” Coming through! I didn’t say it exactly like that, but yeah, I was kinda salty. When things are going well, or rather, on average, we make about 1,400USD a day. That’s what he wants to say. She’s beating around the bush, so I’ll just say it straight: On average, our daily sales are roughly 1,400USD. Give or take. Rent feels expensive to me. I’m not sure what the average is though. We pay about 1,000USD. With tax, it’s around 1,250USD. Utilities are… Not quite 700USD. Yeah, under 700USD. That’s everything included. But we were really lucky, I think. We got loans from the bank. We got loans from the bank. Plus we had our own savings. Plus we had our own savings. And we got the bank to loan us the rest based on that. That’s how we got started. But we also borrowed money from our parents. Both my mom and dad gave us 70,000USD each. So for funding, we cleared the hardest hurdle early on. That initial startup phase is usually the toughest. But we got through it thanks to them. At first, I didn’t want to rely on them. So I tried getting the bank involved instead. We had about 14,000USD in personal savings. But with just that, the bank said they couldn’t lend us enough. They told us it wasn’t possible. We went to consult them twice, but they kept saying, “Yeah… not gonna work.” And just when we were wondering what to do, our parents offered to lend us the money. So it was decided. We signed a proper contract with both our parents. They even set a lower interest rate than the bank. The bank would’ve charged about 3%, but our parents gave us 1%. We’re paying it back over 10 years. We pay 600USD each. Yeah, per person it’s about 600USD. My dad did the math for us. Together, it’s a little under 1,250USD total. So our loan repayments are about 1,400USD a month. I kind of wanted to do it all on my own, but in the end… Honestly, I didn’t know if it would all work out. So I decided to rely on the people we could count on. Borrowing from our parents felt a bit like cheating. Like we didn’t overcome that first hurdle by ourselves. It wasn’t purely our own power, so I can’t say I feel 100% guilt-free about it. Yeah, I’d be lying if I said I didn’t feel weird about it. At first, the debt was a huge thing on my mind. Two loans of 70,000USD — 140,000USD in total. I wanted to pay it off as fast as possible. Once we’d pay it off, I figured we could ease up a bit. We were doing five days a week — it was just too intense for him. We used to take two days off a week, We used to take two days off a week, but one of those days would be completely taken up by prep work. So in reality, we only had one proper day off. That means just one day to really rest. I was used to two days off a week from my office job. And I wanted time to hang out with friends, enjoy hobbies, and stuff like that. So I pushed for three days off on the schedule. Though one of those days is still for prep, so really it’s two days off. I think that should be the standard. That’s my baseline. Otherwise, you get burned out. And you can’t bake good bread with a heavy heart. That’s something I really believe in. I mean, yeah, “working so you can play” sounds extreme, but I really think enjoying life feeds into your work too. So I told her I wanted more time off, and now I feel like I’m working with a full heart. Can you cut the cheese? Sure thing. We make sure the crust is evenly browned all over. One of our part-timers told me that “Men need praise.” So when I say something like, “This looks great!” A simple “Thanks” would be fine, but instead he’s like, “Right? Right? I thought so too.” He totally runs with it. Ah, got it. Shall I hold the second round for you then? The two of them help me to think things through, and always notice when something’s wrong. I really appreciate that. They’re always like that. It’s fun working here. Even just overhearing their conversations is funny. They’re not fighting for real, but when the wife gets going, I can totally relate. I end up comparing them to my own husband. We’ve got tons of drawings from our sons hanging up here. They even displayed some origami they made. They’re so happy to see their work displayed, they keep making more. Ever since they ate this bakery’s bread, they’ve been like, “Meh” about other bread. They always say, “It’s not as good as Hana Bakery’s.” Every time, without fail. Thanks! That’s where we’re at right now. I think in 5 or 10 minutes, there’ll be a bit more of a line forming. Good morning! Welcome, come on in! Good morning! Welcome, come on in! Congrats! Thank you! Thanks! The baby’s gotten pretty big. Just two more months to go! Two more months! I’m going to buy some bread. I’ll be right back! See you later! See you soon! I saw it on IG and wanted to see for myself. I actually live nearby, and have passed by a few times. But the line was always so long, I gave up. Today I figured I’d finally give it a shot. So here I am! Welcome! Welcome, come on in! Thanks for waiting! Thank you so much! Thank you so much! I’ll take that for you. Thank you! Thanks for waiting! We’ll have a stretch of bread for a while — can’t wait! You want some? Who wants bread? Meeee! Let’s eat! Wow, you bought a ton! Yeah, couldn’t resist. It all looked so good! I want the bacon & eggs one. Oh, you mean this one? Thank you very much! Thank you! I’ll take that. Thank you very much! We bought a bunch, but we’ll eat some today and some tomorrow. Got pollack roe baguette, melon bread, and sausage! Perfect combo. We’re gonna eat at the Esaka Park now. I tend to be the more negative one. But when I’m my usual pessimistic me, he’s always like “Nah, it’ll be fine”. He’s super positive. That side of him really saves me. He makes me feel like things are gonna be okay. I’m more the type of person who… …tends to put himself first, to be honest. But my wife, she thinks of other people’s happiness first. That feeling is really strong in her—it drives her actions. Even if it’s hard on her or she has to make sacrifices… …as long as the other person is happy… She keeps pushing through, and I really admire that about her. Seeing that… …makes me want to become that kind of person too. It’s definitely something I respect about her. To be able to do something for someone else… to put yourself out for that, and feeling genuinely happy just seeing them smile—that’s her mindset, I think. Her mom’s like that too. I feel like it’s something that got passed down from mother to daughter. I think that’s really wonderful. Right now, I’m super happy with how things are. It would be great if we can just keep going like this. Here’s another idea—my version. What? Why? Are we starting over? What’s gonna happen? For me… I’d love to run a bakery in the middle of a forest. Eventually moving to the countryside and opening a bakery there. Actually, never mind. Really? Yeah, doesn’t quite feel right. People watching this might be disappointed and think we’ll move. Yeah, that wouldn’t be good. That’ll be 14USD. 10,20,30 — here’s your change. Thank you so much! Thank you so much!

They bet the farm on this tiny Osaka place and went $140k in debt but now are turning a profit of $20K a month! Their hustle and supportive work ethic really impressed us and we wish all the best for their growing family!

🏠 Shop Name: Hanapan-Seisakusyo
📍Location on Google Maps: https://g.co/kgs/mQNKWk3
🌟Instagram: @hanapanseisakusyo
https://www.instagram.com/hanapanseisakusyo/

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0:00 Intro
0:43 She’s Pregnant!
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#bread #baking #パン屋さん