Baking Business?

Question

I bake, a lot. I love baking cakes, cookies, muffins, capcakes, anything at all.

I would absolutly love to start my own business, though I have no idea where to start.

Any tips and/or advice?

Please and ThankYou! :)

Answer 1

My ex's mother baked for several decades. She was part owner of an electronics company during the day, and she baked cakes at night and on the weekends. And the entire time she worked from her home kitchen, using family recipes.

She got started bringing baked goods to her office. She made cakes for friends. They were so good, I used to visit her just to get the unusable edges of the cakes. She gave out business cards along the way, and her business just spread through word of mouth.

Though like I said, her cakes were really, REALLY good. And she did professional design work. And she delivered and set up the cakes (wedding cakes in particular).

Based on those merits alone she never had to advertise, and she was always busy. (She did every wedding cake in my family - and when she left cards she always got more business.)

So my advice is to make sure the taste of your goods speak for themselves. Make sure they're lip smacking and mouth watering - not just yummy. "Yummy" is what store bought baked goods are like. You don't want to be lumped in that category.

Do you belong to any clubs/organizations? Can you bring baked goods and leave your business cards on display at the next function? Are you providing cakes for birthday parties? Can you provide cakes for local bake sales? Can you bring them to your workplace? Make sure you're leaving cards wherever you go.

And that brings me to my second piece of advice, get your goodies into as many mouths as possible. That might mean feeding a lot of tummies for free before you start seeing orders. But if your goods are mouth watering, then you'll probably see orders sooner than later.

Good luck!

Answer 2

To do it legally and to protect yourself, you need a business license and a health permit.

Any klitchen producing food to be consumed by people must be inspected and rated by the health department. The requirements are strict. A home kitchen will not pass. You would need to rent a commercial kitchen to do this.

You can sometimes rent a kitchen at a church, school or other commercial venture.

You should also have insurance in case someone gets sick(or says they got sick) from your food. You'll lose everything in a lawsuit. Especially if not licensed or working with a valid health permit.