Be wishing me luck...

I'm meeting with them tomorrow to see about renting the kitchen at a very nice day spa/country club here locally. Super convenient location for me. It may not work out because they were all into it when they thought the first cake was for a reception at their facility, but now that it's been changed to somewhere else, they're much less enthused....

Hope it works!

Good luck!

I hope things go well for you.

Well that was a total waste of time. They changed their mind after I got there and didn't even come out to meet with me...when the front desk girl buzzed the lady I needed, I talked to her on the phone (AFTER I drove over, after taking time off work AND getting a neighbor to come watch my kids ), and she said they "aren't willing to give up the time" in their kitchen for anyone using it for weddings that aren't at that facility. If it was at their banquet center, it'd be fine, of course...

Oh well. I got my license and dba registered. Now if I could just find a kitchen. I have another option closer to home, but they sell cakes, so I'm not too hopeful about it, though the lady there who I spoke with said she didn't mind (and she does the baking), and she thought the owner might say yes (?), but she couldn't be sure. We'll see. Also talked to a church I know, and they'd rent to me, but they're not certified "any more".

For now I'm going to quit worrying about it and bake from home. Everyone I've talked to, from caterers to bakeries, doesn't seem to even know or care that our state doesn't recognize home kitchens, so it seems like I'm making it harder on myself by trying to "get legal"...the lady at that last bakery said she did it from home for years with no problems. There are 2 coop kitchens around here--both are at least 30-40 minutes drive away...ugh

Back to the drawing board. Building my own kitchen is sounding better and better.

Oh gosh,
I'm so sorry. It was extremely rude of that "lady" not to phone you and cancel the appointment. She must have known their policy beforehand and letting you go to all that trouble for essentially nothing is very bad manners. If she runs that place this way, she won't have her job for long.

Yes, for a swanky country club, I was not impressed with her. I was standing right there in the lobby at exactly the time we set up for our meeting, and she didn't even have the courtesy to come out and say "boo'". I don't mind if they don't want to rent their kitchen for non-in-house weddings; obviously they want all that money to stay in their own circle--but geez--a phone call the day before or this morning would have saved me getting all dolled up, taking time off, putting together my photos in a whole new album, getting a babysitter, and painting my toenails for nothing.

wah.

Hey wait a minute, at least your husband can enjoy your beautiful toenails, but the other stuff, that sucks. Big hug from Shanghai

That is so inconsiderate for her to not call and cancel but to do it when you showed up. UGH!!!

I know how you feel. I want to be legal so I can advertise and start selling. So, the last few days I've called a few places but no luck. I'm supposed to call a church back today to speak to the Pastor about possibility of renting. Depending on the information he provides, I may not worry about being fully legal either and just try to get business by word of mouth. I did get my food manager's license so I feel good at least about that. Anyway, I called about a local Bridal Show coming up in January so the lady wanted to know about me so I told her I wanted to expand into wedding cakes, that I didn't have my own bakery but she wasn't too concerned about it. If the price is right (she said in the past the price to exhibit was less than $100) I will definitely be there although I'd be among other established cake companies. Yikes! So, I gave her my address so she could mail out the information to me in the fall. I'm excited so I definitely may not worry about selling until next year. I do need to work on my portfolio. Sorry for rambling but, if you don't find a kitchen, try to get business by word of mouth through friends/families, etc. At least you have your license which means you've been trained in the safety of food handling so people may not care about you not using a licensed kitchen. Most people probably don't even know that your county/state requires a licensed kitchen to be used. They just want a great tasting/looking cake!

What is dba?

What a biotch, Homecook. Sorry that she was so rude. Just keep it in mind not to refer anyone to her for a reception...lol.

Yes...

Our own small company that DH and I run consists of about 900 customers, and you can bet that we could do some SERIOUS "advertising" for the club there (as in, not...)....we've always gone there for day spa stuff, but I'm thinking maybe not any more. To set a meeting and then stand someone up is amazing.

I have gotten my license, which in this state means filing for free online and paying $25.00 for a dba...

and I'm waiting to chat with the owner of a cute little bakery down the road here to see about renting her kitchen next. I'm going to go ahead and run a small ad somewhere local and just assume that the kitchen will work itself out in the meantime. We'll eventually build, but like I (and many of you) have said and noticed...no one "out there" seems to mind, know, or give a hoot where the cake comes from.

DH says just do it as legal as I can until I find a kitchen, then go from there; that's about all ya can do. I'm not going to quit baking because a day spa was too sloppy to tie up their loose ends.

Advertising in newspapers can be very expensive and not very productive. Think about how many little ads in your paper you don't read or even notice.

If you have limited $$, it might be better spent where it can produce something. Making Samples, business cards, other stuff.

Although, some local papers do have some 'cheap' ads.

"dba" doing business as
Leslie

Thanks.