Question about starting home business in CA

It varies from county to county, but usually you need to be inspected separately so the health dept can make sure you are following the correct food safety procedures in the kitchen. You will need a business license from your municipality and business liability insurance to cover yourself, you may need to show the inspector a food safety training certificate as well.

Also make sure you have a written contract with the restaurant that allows you to make food there to sell on your own, and keep your equipment and ingredients separate from the restaurant's.

Hi!! I live right around the corner in Cypress. I hang in LB all the time.

Orange county does not allow you to rent kitchen space - even from a commercial venue. It sucks. That's why we don't have any rented kitchens here.

Long Beach is easier to get away with. You cannot RENT the space, but you can borrow the space - which is how I operate. No, you do not get place inspected again... you are merely borrowing space in an existing established kitchen. But as the above poster stated - you will need to have a food handling certificate.

Be aware of this. You cannot, legally, carry your stuff back and forth. Not even your favorite spoon. It all has to stay on site. It's a huge pain in the rear. Do I always follow this? Honestly, no. But I risk getting caught. So, technically this space your borrowing must have extra space for all of your stuff.

Yes, you need a business license. You are your own business, so you need a license.

I hear they are cracking down and we may not even be allowed to borrow space anymore. We will need to be employees of that business. Of course, you can work around this too if it's a good friend of yours letting you use the space. In that case, you will not need a license - but you friend will be taxed.... get it?

I can tell you, in California, it's almost impossible to fully legally start a business of any kind, not just food related, anymore unless you are a big conglomerate. The government does not like new small businesses. It's really sad. They say they encourage it. But they don't really. It's insane.

Sounds more like an Orange County thing, here in northern CA (Santa Clara County) the health dept is pretty easy to work with. I have no idea why they don't allow rented commercial kitchens, that makes absolutely no sense to me, it could be a decent source of income for the county in terms of inspection fees and income taxes.

Because OC has it's head up it's rear in thinking they are better than everyone else. I really don't like living here. But it's where I am and this is where life is keeping me right now.

When I lived in the desert the Health Dept even let us bake out of our home. It was still illegal, I guess, but they really worked with us and were more realistic. It had to meet all the standards, of course, but they seemed to live in the real world there.

I like your area, pretty!! Never lived there. Lived in Sacramento for 6 months when I first came to CA (CHP Academy for what is now my ex). Then we got stationed down here and I've been here ever since.

You definitely need to clear this with your employer first...if I were running a restaurant and one of my employees was using my kitchen to make products to sell on their own without getting approval, that employee would be fired.



If you're going to operate illegally you are probably better off accepting cash only so you don't leave a paper trail, there's no point in filing for a DBA either. You will still have to declare your cash income to the IRS though, and your personal assets will still be at risk because you probably won't be able to get liability insurance coverage.

OK...from your wording it sounded like future tense, if you have something in writing you should be fine from the perspective of the restaurant at least.

You also might want to avoid advertising your business on Facebook (or anyone else) until you can get legal.