i've spent the last year working to just find out about opening a home based cake business.....in florida...IT'S HARD!! but it can be done....just very difficult w/lots of rules and other crap! well I actually did my freaking homework, met w/people, made more phone calls then i can remember and had finally reached a point to actually submit my plans for review!

NOW THE SAME FREAKING PEOPLE I'VE BEEN TALKING TO FOR THE LAST YEAR--MEETINGS AND THE PHONE...HAVE NOW LOST THEIR MEMORY AND ARE SAYING CRAP LIKE "I DON'T WHY I WOULD TELL YOU THAT"!! and "DID I SAY THAT" or worse..."I DON'T REMEMBER MEETING W/YOU"!!!

just got my plan review comments back and they are now asking for all this crap they had told me and my husband we didn't need!! i'm so damn mad right now!! and it is all just stuff they want shown the plans...and done by engineers.....which is just crap b/c they told me I wouldn't need it!! and we've shown the stuff....it's just not considered complete and they say I now need an engineer's seal!! I'm waiting until tomorrow to go down and there and let them have it!!! If I went today...I'd probably end up in jail!!

i've tried to do this the right way and be honest w/people and make sure everything is done correctly.....I should have just submitted my plans for a freaking 'play room' and I would have my permit by now!! i know a couple people who are doing a WELDING SHOP from their homes and just said it was going to be an accessory building...NOT a welding shop...and they got their permit in less than a freakin week!! I've waited for this review for 6 weeks now!

aaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrgggggggghhhhhhhhhhhh!! THIS SUCKS!!

Do you have the dates that you met with them, or any notes? Anything that might help them to ring a bell in their seemingly empty heads? (besides your fist!)... I can't imagine how frustrating that is, but thank you for the warning, because I am about the start the process myself. Don't know if I can in CA, but I am going to try. Just try to keep a cool head & not "go off", because they do have control of your business right now, and you dont' want to jeapardize it. Maybe if you HAVE to work with an engineer, you can do partial tradework? I have found cake a wonderful trade that the most odd people accept. Plumbers, electricians... Not COMPLETE payments for what they've done, but it takes a dent out of it! Also, ask around before you go with the first Engineer, you don't want that choice to end-up a jerk either!

Well, good luck with it, I hope the rest of your journey goes more smoothly.

I know what you mean, sometimes the left hand is oblivious to the right.

I also had to submit engineers plans for the permit. Once that was done, we had a pretty easy go of it. Also, the engineer thought of a couple of things we hadn't considered.

Best of luck, and stay out of jail.

Soo sorry to hear that! If it makes you feel any better it is just as hard in NJ to do a home bakery business....

I'm so sorry that totally sucks!! I'm kinda under the feeling "I've tried to contact the agriculture/health department and no one ever contacts me back - so if anyone ever said I was operating "illegally" - I could honestly say that I don't really know the rules and no one will tell them to me so how can they punish me when I HAVE asked for help and been given none?" I'm sure that doesn't go over that big but so far I'm only doing cakes for friends & family so I don't have to worry about it just yet. Although I WOULD like to know how you freakin get information out of these people! How hard is it to send out the rules by e-mail???

Anyway, this kind of crap always makes me feel like you need to carry a voice recorder or have all meetings video taped or something - or have someone transcribe all of your meetings - I hate that "I don't remember talking to you" - now honestly they may not remember as I'm sure they deal w/ a million people a day but still - at least if you have something written down or documented in some way you can show that to them and say "SEE??? You did talk to me on this date at this time for approx. _____ and we discussed x, y, and z, and you said _______ and then maybe you could have a signature place that says "I agree that we met on this date, discussed x y & z and decided this_______" - I wonder if they would sign it or if that would hold up to anything???

Just frustrating I know! I"m so sorry for you and I'll say a little prayer that your honesty and "trying to do the right thing" will help you to prevail and things will start going more smoothly for you!

Girl, I feel your pain. If it's not one thing, it's another, But dont let the man get you down! Just make it a note that when all is said and done and these jerkfaces want cake, charge them DOUBLE. Then say oops, I dont remember having that conversation ... did I really say that ?

OMG, this really sucks.... I'm about to move to FL and start all this, I can't believe how hard they are making it for you. All I have to say is good luck and thanks for letting us know about it. Please keep us pusted on your results, hopw all goes well and you get your permit soon. Good luck!

Been there - done that!!!

Texas is just as hard to get a home based business started. What frustrates me is that in the next county over from us - they have no rules or regulations. You just have to register your name and get a tax id. You are then able to bake right from your home with nothing else that you need to do. AAAARRRRGGGGHHHH!

gilson - what county is that? I may have to go there! Here in ours, you CAN NOT have a health inspected kitchen in a home. No exceptions.
It must be a separate building.

Oh, i've documented EVERYTHING!! I now have 2 (TWO) binders full of names/dates/phone numbers/notes, etc. that's what is pissing me off so much!! b/c I specifically asked these questions BEFORE we did anything...b/c getting an engineer in florida is near impossible....(price is VERY high, and if you're not building a condo project on the beach worth millions of dollars...most of them wouldn't even talk to me)!! the few who did say they'd do the plans...had a waiting list of over a year (before they even started the project and the price was way too high for us). so i tried before i even met w/them b/c I knew nothing and thought it would be better to have someone who knew what they were doing help me!!

so we did ask and we wrote down EVERYTHING they told us to have and when we finally found someone to draw up the plans for us (she is not an engineer) we gave her the list we had of everything we needed on the plans....how it was suppose to look, sizes...i mean everything!! and we had the dept. of ag and the county covered b/c I talked to both agencies before we did anything and made the plans to fit both agencies requirements!!

i even showed one guy A SKETCH HE DREW ON ONE OF the LISTS i was like...how in the world would I know to do it that way!!! but they keep giving me the same bull@#$% about not remembering!! I'm waiting on their boss to call me back...but I've talked to him before...so I'm not expecting much!! but if we have to go back and get all this done by an engineer.....I'm in trouble and this will probably never get done!

So very sorry to hear about your frustratings! All your little emotion icons were intense! Hope it gets better soon and you can look back on this experience as well worth it! Good Luck!

In AZ, it is the same thing. I don't know of anyone here who has tried the process of building a kitchen in their backyard or anything, but I do know that the heath department considers home cake decorators in the same category as the women who try to sell you bags of tamales down at the laundromat. They call them food pedlers and are not legal for sale of food. I once asked a heath inspector about home cake business and he did tell me that there was little risk of food borne illness from cake and icings and whatnot, but you are still selling food. He didn't really seem to know if there were specific rules on the subject. That may be the problem that some of you have. There just are no rules specifically and no one wants to take the responsibility to find out or even make some up. Anyone I know here just rents out kitchen space from an approved source or just opens a retail shop. It is probably less of a hassle. Good luck to you. Give 'em !!!

I live in Montgomery County which borders Harris County (Houston area). Waller County is the one that has no regulations. Thing is, we just moved the beginning of July. I might have moved the other way if I had known about the no regulations for Waller County.

All these rules & regulations make it hard on the little guy. We can't have our own business without spending bunches of $$$$ but you can't make any $$$ if you don't have a business!!!

gilson-I'm just wondering-I know I've read on here some places that the county doesn't require anything but the state is a diffrent story. Kind of like the county hasn't addressed it because the state prohibits it type of deal. I just wonder if that's the situation with your neighboring county. Sometimes the county isn't following the state rules and the state always wins-unfortunately sometimes!

Chin up pinkbunny! Take your binders with you and have things earmarked so when they start with the "we've never had this conversation" you can flip to the date, time and what "they never said" !

I do know in Fl everything has to go thru an engineer. My uncle added a deck onto the back of his house without a permit, the county found out and he had to get an engineer to come out. keep looking for one because he got the engineer to come out in about a week.

Pink where are you at in Florida?? I live in Florida too. I havent started the leg work as of yet to open up shop. I live in Port Richey in Pasco county. Good luck to ya. I think I remember a speech by the honorable Jeb Bush that stated he was all for bringing small businesses into the state. If that is true then why do they make it so flippin hard to get going. I have worked in the food industry all my life and understand they need rules and guidelines especially when it concerns health regulations but come on sometimes it goes overboard and makes it nearly impossible both logisticly(sic) and financially(sic).!!! Cheffie

O cakes:

I live about 5 hrs from you here in calif. the state law is you cant not have cooking business out of your home. but some counties will let you have a shop that is not connected to you house but you have to have it inspected by the heath dept cert. and a business linces one guy here took a double wide trailer and converted it on the side of his property. or they said if you can get a heath cert from a church or community center kitchen that will be ok.

What I don't understand is why they're requiring you to have an engineer, as opposed to an architect? My FIL was an engineer and the only time they're needed in this type of construction is if it's on a precarious piece of land or an extremely large structure. We're over in Baldwin County, AL...only about 40 minutes from you...funny how it's so different from one state to the next. It's not like you're building a full scale bakery and shop...it's a tiny building with an oven and some sinks and a fridge. I'm so sorry they're jerking you around with all of this and I hope you get a hold of someone who is actually of some help and won't try to pass the buck.

Ok here is idea do you live out in the country or have extra land? What a guy did here is got a empty trailer with no walls and set it up on his proberty and made it a kitchen for his cake making and they oked it cause it was not in his house or anything then he got his lincens and his health permit. seee if they will go for that or do you need a solid building then you can be close to home and still have your kitchen.