My Dad, the quiet one, discovered baking at age 55.  He enjoys cutting dessert recipes from the newspaper and making them from scratch.  He’s happy to whip up a cheesecake or a pie for the church function, the family lunch, or next week’s get-together.

My Mom and I noticed that his baked goods were always a touch on the burnt side.  Being supportive family members, we ate what he provided and attributed the crispy edges to a faulty oven.  A slightly-off-kilter recipe.  A wacky timer incident or two.  The little old church ladies were all kind words and compliments.  We were all pretending the crusts were just dandy.

Until one fateful day when my Mom walked into the kitchen and found the pan Dad had just slipped into the oven set to bake a cake for 15 minutes at 650 degrees.

Yes, 15 minutes at 650 degrees.

Dad figured that if 30 minutes at 325 degrees would bake the cake, 15 minutes at 650 would bake it twice as fast, thus saving electricity and time.  Let it be noted that he’s quiet AND industrious.

He was terribly disappointed to learn that baking takes time, no matter how much you want to rush it.

Same goes for business: building a client base takes time, no matter how much you want to rush it.

When people e-mail me asking how they can increase business by 400 to 800 percent in the next month, or how many weeks they should expect to be in business before turning a profit, I remind them of this story.

Patience, patience, patience.  There’s no shortcut to that souffle, my dear.

There are ways to prevent creating everything from scratch, though.  Tune in on Thursday for marketing tips that can shave a few proverbial minutes off your business’ baking time.