Hiya,

I'm pretty new to cake decorating but am finding that I'm really enjoying my new hobby, I've sold about 5 cakes so far but I was wondering what exactly is involved in setting up your own business in the UK, any help would really be appreciated.

Paula
xx

your photos are great I say to go for it, I live in the US so I can't help you with your question though-sorry

I don't have the answer but am interested so I will bump you up!!

I am also from the UK and have just started doing this for friends and family and loving it. I would like to take this further but don't know where to start.

There's certainly not as many laws as in the US. You can bake from home but the council need to inspect your kitchen. You usually need seperate hand washing facilities. I have a small cloak room off my kitchen, which they accepted. You have to have some basic hygine knowledge. Again I did a 1 day course at my local college. You also need public liability insurance. I pay £45 per year for mine. Lastly you do need to inform your local tax office. I found when I was setting up the council were very helpful as to what I would need. The local action team for jobs were very good also. They helped me develop my business plan, paid for my college course, advised me on tax and gave me a grant to help me with start up costs. I was allowed to trade for 6 months while keeping all my benefits and any time during the 6 months if I had found I couldn't make a go of it I could have packed in , not had to pay a penny back out of the grants and wouldn't have lost any of my benefits so there was no financial risk to me at all.

A great place to start is by reading this book - it tells you everything you need to know and is UK specific :

Starting a Cake Decorating Business from Home
by Kathy Moore

Hope that helps!

You don't have to have the council inspect your home - it depends on where you live and what your council require. I rang mine (Devon) and they said they just needed to add my name to a list of food businesses. I asked if the needed to inspect my kitchen and they said they would come to offer advice if I wanted them to but that there was no requirement.

You're lucky emmascakes. I knew my clean and up to standard but I was still shaking when they came even though they were very nice