I need advice... and to vent..

Only read this post if you have about 10 mins to spare. It's a lot to take in, lol. I used to post on the forums here a lot but then I took my baking business full time and I have 19-month old twins so very rarely do I have spare time.

Anyway, I started my business about 6 years ago renting kitchen space and only doing wedding cakes. Almost 2 years ago I opened up a store front selling items daily Tues-Friday and also taking special orders, as well as doing wedding cakes. My store is little bitty, only 300sq. ft. total, with my kitchen only being maybe 100sq. ft. of that. I run my business with one standard home oven and one 5qt. mixer because that's all I have room for. It is just me and my mom there, which means I have to limit the number of orders I can do per week (we both do the baking, but I'm the only one who decorates). Recently, my husband got a new, much better paying job so we no longer rely on the income from my shop. I dropped the shop down to only being open Thurs-Fri, and still taking special orders and doing weddings on the weekends. I had hoped this would ease the stress on me, as I was previously working about 60+ hours a week. I was wearing myself out physically and mentally, I missed my kids and I missed my husband. I have found that even with the shop only open two days, we are just as busy with special orders. Weddings are almost becoming more of a hassle for me, because it seems like everyone around here A.) is hateful when it comes to weddings and B.) bothers me non-stop for months leading up to the wedding, and gets angry when I tell them they have to schedule consultations to discuss weddings. Even knowing that information they still drop by/call/email whenever they want and get upset when I cannot stop working on orders that are paid for and due just to answer a question.

I love what I do. My business is like another child for me.. I built it from nothing and have made it decently successful in the two years I have had a shop. I'm not rolling in the dough by any means, but I did make a small profit ($4k cleared) last year. I am not opposed to hard work. I have been working since I was 14, and I don't like to NOT work. However, I do feel like all of this is wearing me down and making me a little, well, edgy I have considered just no longer doing wedding cakes, but it has become what I am known for, and I am in the only place in the city I live in to get a wedding cake (legally, lots of home bakers out there). I guess that makes me feel a little obligated.

Here comes the advice part. I may have the opportunity to expand into the building next door to me. If so, my rent would double (but would still be doable) and would allow me to get a bigger oven and more mixers (which I would have to purchase though). It would also allow me to hire employees, which I haven't been able to do because we physically do not have the room to have any more people in the shop besides me and my mom. However, I do have a standard when it comes to the decorations of my cakes. I am NOT the best decorator in the world by any means, but whatever goes out the door has my name and my reputation with it.

I know I can't keep going like I'm going or I will burn out totally. Part of me is already there a little, but I have worked so hard and love my business. Even if I scaled back to special orders only I would still be just as busy. I have to turn down just as many orders as I do during the week.

So I need thoughts.. opinions.. anything. Even if you just say, "wow, you're dumb," it would be nice to have some input from others who do this every day I've talked about it to my mom and my husband, but they just don't get it. All I get from them is, "Do what you think is best." Gah, I hate that phrase, lol.

Lol, I knew y'all would bring up things for me to consider that I might not otherwise have thought about, such as payroll and all that.

I just don't know what to do about the business currently. We have already lost some customers by closing two more days a week (walk-in business). Part of me wishes that I had waited until later in life to start the business but that's just wishes in the wind at this point. I could always close and reopen *if* I ever feel like it, but that would mean doing something with all of the massive amount of stuff I have. Plus, I have weddings already booked through November..

Why are there no easy answers?

Lol, this becomes an issue all in itself. We have a huge display window that can't be covered, so people can see us in there working. Which means lots of knocking on the door and lots of locked-door pulling.

The second space would allow me to take on other decorators, hopefully taking some of the decorating responsibility off of me. I was Of the mind set that more people would spread out the workload..

It's unfortunate that I have to say this, but I wouldn't really trust my mom with the paperwork and management. Only because she had a heart attack a couple of years ago and it has "changed" her.. She forgets things a lot.. She gets distracted and offput easily, and she doesn't handle stress well at all... So it really would e all on my shoulders..