Hey cake family!

I'm prepping to open my cupcake shop the first week of December and I'm not only exhausted, but my mind is going in circles about a few things, AND so I decided to ask my friends to relieve some of the pressure! Here we go.....

1) Would you start with boxes or plastic dome containers? How many would you get to start off with?

2) I was thinking of baking around 250 cupcakes in the morning. Which is really not hard to do considering the pans come in 12 cup holders or more. As the day goes on if I see the stock running low, I'll bake more. My husband said, (bless his heart) Honey, bake 500 due to the fact that it's new and people are already excited about it! Love him!

Finally,

3) I'm thinking of doing my grand opening on a Saturday. I came up with that due to the fact that alot of people are off from work, kids are out of school, etc. I would blast it throughout the neighborhoods with postcards, call the news and have them cover the story (they're always looking for one!), maybe even the newspaper! Give out coupons to the daycares, schools, all the factories around the shop, etc, for grand opening day!
The police department are psyched about it! Well, that's my dilema at the moment and If you have any suggestions, or any helpful websites, etc. bring them on! Thanks in advance!

Hi thre sweetneice:
Congratutlations!!! I'm so excited for you. I too dream of opening my own place one day.

My first question to you is.. Have you advertised your new opening buisness heavily? if so, then I would definetely start off with the 500 cupcakes. I hope you have help because you're gonna be busy busy.
No doubt you want to use the most appropriate packaging but I will tell you go with whatever you feel feasible in price and comfort (storage).

Oh I can help you overthink--one of my specialties.

I recommend a soft launch. "Open" up a few days in advance get a feel for what 'being open' means. Do you have napkins, what if they want a fork. You got milk? Some drinks? Why not?

I'm just saying a big fanfare grand opening should not be out of the blue--

You don't want to start out making excuses--you want to start out as 'on target' as you can be.

"Oh, you need change?" I need change for the register? Why didn't I think of that? Just silly stuff comes up that you can't even foresee sometimes.

Thank you jobueno!

I'm going to start my heavy advertising after thanksgiving. I figured It would be fresh and not so far ahead of things that people forget.! Thanks again for advise and kind words! I hope you keep in touch and you get yours one day soon!

Another thought to add to K8memphis' suggestions. Are you going to accept credit cards. If not, you might want to have a sign on the register that you only accept cash. I now that is important to me because I almost never use cash. I always use my debit/credit card.

Good luck.

Check your state laws regarding the forks and milk thing.

If I sell a cake that I just drop off ... no sales tax.
If I sell a cake and give them a plate and/or fork to eat it with .... sales tax.

It's why I have to charge sales tax on my catering but not on drop off cakes. It's why have to charge sales tax on the wedding cake when it's purchased with a catering where I'm providing plates and forks.

If people walk into my shop to buy some cookies .... no public, handicap accessible restroom required.

If people walk into my shop and they buy cookies and milk and I provide a place for them to sit and eat it in the shop, then that makes me a restaurant (just one table and one chair is all it takes) and I have to pay $7000 to install a public access handicap accessible restroom.

Lots of places do a soft opening first, just for the reasons mentioned. It helps get the word of mouth going, so when you have the big grand opening, you tend to have a bigger crowd.