I live in Southeast Houston, in the Clear Lake area. I would love to be able to open my own bakery but I am a MOTHER first. Even if my husband weren't out of town so much, I would still not want to take the time and energy I would have to put into a bakery away from my children. They need me at home. I decorate cakes for friends and family all the time and only charge for the ingredients. They all always pay me extra and every one of them gripes at me about not charging enough and not passing out business cards at their parties. I keep trying to tell them about the law and that I can't legally do it at home and that that's the reason I only do it for people I know and only for the cost of the ingredients. They all keep introducing me to their friends and say now you know her so you can make cakes for her too. I sent four cakes for the cakewalk at my son's school last year and was asked for my card by all the women in the office when I delivered them and a bunch of people from the PTA. The PTA pres. asked if I would be willing to raffle a "cake of your choice" at next year's carnival. I told her I didn't think I could do that and I explained the law. There is a bakery nearby that everyone uses and every time someone new tries one of my cakes, they tell me I need to advertise because I would put the other bakery out of business. They all say my cakes look and taste better than the bakery's cakes. I don't know what to do. This is something that I'm pretty good at and getting better with every cake. I've never taken a class and have taught myself everything I know with a little help from you guys once in a while. I LOVE decorating cakes. And the impossible ideas are my favorite because I love figuring out a way to do something. I try to make everything on my cakes edible. I CANNOT open a bakery, especially not by myself. I want to be around for my kids and my husband. But now I'm afraid that I'm going to get in trouble because so many people know about me now. I would love for the law to be changed so that I could do this legally at home. I guess now I'm just going to have to stop making cakes for everyone but my family and closest friends. I don't have all of my pictures posted on here but I have a photo album that gets lots of oohs and aahs every time someone looks at it. I guess it's time to put it away or go ask for a job at the bakery. I really don't want to work for someone else though, with them selling my creations under their name. It doesn't seem quite fair!
post #46 of 347
9/20/07 at 10:51am
