It was crazy, started with a 15 large pie order that was on the answering machine when I got in in the morning, called the customer back and confermed the order and she added 5 more. I’m a take & bake and back in July I started baked pizza for del/co. (great idea.) Well then the phone started ringing and started doing deliveries, 3:00 rolled around and before I knew it 9:00, keep in mine one four deck Bakers Pride oven and a microwave thats it. I had to stop deliveries at 7:00, couldn’t keep up, need another oven or two. I just hope that I didn’t p%^&s to many customers off, no complaints yet. At the end of the night standing in the back of my store with only the light from the Pepsi cooler on I said to myself I built a machine and the darn thing works! Thanks to long days of hard work and all the great help and ideas from all of you. Door hanging really works. Just last July 18 I was able to hit my first $1000.00 day Just wanted you to know, again thank you very very much. 
Congrats man! That is great to hear. Keep that train a rolling! I wanna see you posting "1st $2k day…1st $3k day…etc…
[size=2]Since j_r0kk has been out of pocket doing all things marketing and new shop building . . . [/size]
[size=6]YOU DA MAN!!![/size]
How many people you got in that kitchen working those 4 decks? Or is that one deck that cooks 4 pies? :shock: Sounds like you had one of those “75% of the sales within 2 hours” kind of nights. Trust me that once you have $1500 . … $1750 or $1900 isn’t all that different.
It wasn’t so very long ago we hit our first $1500 night. Keep that momentum going. We usually slip a couple hundred on Fridays for a couple weeks each time we hit $1500 (which isn’t often enough, I’ll tell you). Your commitment to marketing and keeping your name out there on door hangers will go a long way toward staying above $1000 consistently and peeking over $1500 more often. Now all you gotta do is crank $2000 out of that little oven 
Nick I have 1 pizza cook, 1 cashier, 3 pizza makers and 2 drivers. My oven is a Bakers Pride p44s which is one oven that bakes 4 16" pies at a time. Last Friday $1572.33, Saturday $1251.86, Sunday $908.59 (I’m tired.) No day off since the Vegas show. It’s paying off now, so hopefully I can take a day off sooooooooon.
Man! That oven is gonna bunch up the growth for sure. You just think $1500 was hard four pies at a time. Unless they load up the toppings, $1800 will come to a standstill with your oven. We have 4 total kitchen staff on weekends . . . usually 2 guys total on pizzas (sometimes one for stretches of time) doing slap/make/bake/box. Our little double deck bake oven is a step up from yours in that we can bake eight 16" pies, or 10 if we want to cram them in. It’s the little ones sprinkled in there that make for the fun! you can get a 981 pretty cheap, but you’d do better stepping past that to a real pizza oven option.
If you keep up that pace, then an investment in a larger oven is definitely called for. Heat recovery and volume to cook will demand more muscle and capacity. You may or may not need the capacity of a conveyor, but definitely a larger oven of some sort.
thats my magic #… 
Wish I could hit that soon. I keep teetering at 1000.00 never much more than that but im staying persistant hopefully 1 day. Other than doorhangers wat do u do?
Nick I don’t have a three phase electric and won’t, to much $ to hook up, I guest that I have to invest in another single phase, gas oven is not a option, no hoods. I think that using fresh sausage and putting 101 slices of pepperoni on our large 16" pie is to time consuming but the customers really like the pepperoni and the hand pinched sausage, what kind of sausage do you use fresh or pre-cooked and the size of my pepperoni is 38mm.
We are stuck at pre-cooked and pelletized sausage for now. I’ll make my own in coming months . . .a mixer would help with that. I already have a stuffer for making my own links for sandwiches.
YIKES! 100 slices would eat up time and cause carpal tunnel problems in my store! We go with ‘regular’ diameter pepperoni 16 count. We get about 35 to 40 on our 16" pie. We do have a customer who asks for triple pepperoni and green olives, which gets us up to your 100+ level. It takes a looooong time to make their pie. With pepperoni being the single most popular topping in the world, I personally would switch from 101 small pieces to the large, sandwich sized slices and put a comparable weight on the pie. It could be unique for folks to have the large slices.
up23 I just started using 4 color menu’s from cfm concepts out of Canada, they I think really made the diff. I sent them out with the million dollar, also did just mailing the menu’s out. I had a press release 2 weeks ago, my one year ann. and remembering 9/11 For every large pizza I sold in the month of Sept. I will donate $1.00 to the vol. fire dept. Should lead to another press release, free advertising is great. Total amount donated should be around $700 - $900 My customers like that the new guy gives something back to the area.
Nick I like to advertise that we put over 100 slices of pepperoni on our pizzas it’s one of my usp. Quality pie take time, most customer don’t mind the little extra wait.
tony very good keep up the good work
how long you been opened?
Sept, 5, 2006, high noon. 370 days ago, other than the 2 days in Vegas I spent at the pizza expo no days off 10-10 every day, But working for yourself is the best and making a living.
tony very good keep up the good work
how long you been opened? and how much you sell your 16"?
16" $10.99 cheese Grande 50/50 shredded, $2.00 a topping
14" $8.99 $1.50 a toppong
12" $6.99 $1.00 a topping
Highest price pizza in town. No PJ. PH. or Dom. just a Papa Murphy’s
GOOD DEAL TONY “GITERDONE”
I ALSO LOAD UP THE PEPPERONI,75-80 PCS,THEY LOVE IT
I ALSO LOAD ON THE FRESH SAUSAGE,8 OZ ON 16"
THEY ARE THE BOMB
John I to use 8oz. of sausage, The customer really likes the fact that I use fresh sausage(my grand dads recipe from the motherland).
Do you use whole or ground fennel . . . or both?
Top work Tony.
Man with such a small capacity oven you will be hard pressed to grow. I really feel for you and your future sales potential with a small capacity.
When I took over my store Fridays were about $2,000 - $2300 tops and now are $3,000 - $3,300 still with the same single MMPS360 conveyor. We are at our limit on Friday and Saturday and can’t take any more on during the 2.5 hour peak.
We need to gt an additional oven real quick to expand and it looks as if you need to do the same.
It’s great when you hit new record highs but it gets very frustrating when you have customers waiting 45 minutes during peak times. It’s also very frustrating knowing there is a lot more action out there that you can’t tap into because yoy’re limited with oven capacity.
As soon as we get our new lease we are getting our extra oven. I would highly recommend you look at doing the same as the heartache and worry of not getting pizzas through quick enough will wear you down.
As Nick said there isn’t much difference between $1,500, $1750 or $1900 but I would asume he is talking from his oven capacity. With yours there is a huge difference and to get it up further than $1500 you need the capacity.
Hey, when you put in a more capacity you will generate sales levels to allow you some days off
Keep telling us of your successes because it’s greta to hear and drives us all as well.
Dave
Ground fennel
WHOLE FENNEL
SPICY