Posts by jason_kraft

It took us several weeks (not continuous research, mostly just my wife and I brainstorming) to come up with our name. A good way to start is looking at your competitive advantage, and try to work that into the name. These days you don't...

Just because a recipe contains butter or cream doesn't necessarily mean it is not allowed. Contact your county health dept to confirm if your recipe can be sold under the cottage food license. If it can't, you can still look into renting...

Excellent advice so far in this thread. Getting a rough idea of the customer's budget before you even meet with them is critical, otherwise you risk wasting your time and the customer's time. If the customer specs out a cake that is...

$90 for a 2 layer cake = $45 a layer, so a price of $135 would probably work.

Coming up with at least a rough price range on the spot based on your experience and previous calculations (for example, fixed overhead) can be a real time saver if there is a discrepancy between the estimate range and the customer's...

Spectrum makes a palm oil based shortening that is soy free. Earth Balance also makes soy-free dairy-free margarine but we've never used it, our soy-free dairy-free BC is primarily palm oil and powdered sugar.

3'x3' is the equivalent of six half-sheet (12"x18") cakes. Take how long it takes to make a half-sheet cake, multiply by 6, and add time for the floral arrangement, then multiply by a fair hourly wage (usually in the $10-20 range...

Which county are you in? Your county health dept should have all the information you'll need. Here is a general FAQ page: http://www.theselc.org/faq/

I was planning on a high level article on business planning, so that should tie in with the "before you start" angle. What kind of information re tax laws were you interested in?

Thanks for the support! The blog is a testbed for a potential future book as well, so I've included a page that allows people to contribute a small amount ($1 or $5, under the "Donate to fund future content" link at the top) to gauge the...