Please Help

i think cake boss would be invaluable for you because it does so much of the thinking for you

and the cb site explains what it offers

but you still would want accounting software -- i like quickbooks -- or anything where you get some hand holding built in.

qb gives you lists of qb pros in your area who can help in real time--mine would drive over for big things -- and i paid her substantially priced mileage too -- or she would login to my computer remotely and straighten me out. often just answer a quick question for no charge

having a cake biz means unbreakable and stress inducing deadlines so be sure to have good backup in place to help care for your special needs child

a cake biz would be very good for you to have an outlet that you can immerse yourself in on a regular basis--however everyone who does cakes or bakes sugar cookies from outa the refrigerator rolls from the grocery store gets told to open a bakery -- as you know-- so much more to it than 'can she bake a cherry pie, charming billy' as the old song goes

i encourage to peruse one of my hero's Earlene Moore's site, www. earlenescakes.com

my point about the store bought cookie dough is that i'm sure someone told the person who made them that they should open a bakery business.

almost anytime anyone bakes almost anything someone tells them they should open a baking business--

it's just the way we are what we do -- for example:

• "oh you know how to open an oven door, you should start a bakery."

• "oh you looked inside a bag of sugar, you should open a bakery."

• " oh you lived down the block and across the street from someone who once ordered a birthday cake and even though they forgot to pick it up, man you should open a bakery!"

i like those cookies they are good with lots of icing.

so the reason you might open a bakery is to feel good--nothing wrong with that

if you do one birthday cake you've got stress and an unbreakable deadline

i'm at a loss about names--don't know

i think names that include your location are good and taglines are just as important as names

yes i suggest you do searches on here --tons of great info in the business section

Hi, just wanted to chime in and wish you luck. I started a very similar business (home-based, custom order only) last year and I have two small children with my youngest being special needs as well (cerebral palsy).

It sounds like you are on the right track as far as getting legal. For names, I would recommend googling and checking the lists of registered businesses in your state to make sure the one you want is available. Also see if the website domain is open so your site can be easily found. I found Legal Zoom to be helpful in setting up an LLC (they also checked the name availability, registered with the IRS, etc.). And obviously you'll want to look into liability insurance - your current homeowner's provider should be able to help or you can call around.

Aside from the "official" stuff, I think the biggest thing is for you to make a menu and a price list. This should definitely be in place before you start advertising. You mentioned cookies, pies, cakes - that's a big range. How many varieties of each will you offer? In how many flavors? Having a home bakery, I think it's wise to come up with a set list of offerings. It's ok to handle the odd customer request, but not having a commercial operation (and the wonderful storage space that probably comes with it!) you may not be able to keep everything on hand at all times and frequent trips to the store for small ingredient quantities eat into your time and your profits. And the price list is a must! I understand custom cakes have to be priced individually, but you should know what your general range is (i.e. $3/serving for buttercream, $4/serving for fondant, $2.50/cupcake, etc). My biggest problem starting out was being consistent in pricing, but once I sat down and made a detailed chart I felt much better. Now when someone calls/emails I can easily look up their size cake and get a base price to which I can add any extras if needed.

For accounting, I'm lucky that my sister is a CPA so I hand over my receipts and sales slips and she does the hard work :) I use Excel for all of my internal tracking of orders, supplies, etc.

But anyway, good luck with starting out. There's a lot more work involved than I initially thought. I too got the "your cakes are awesome, start a bakery" comments and that's what got me started. The licensing, insurance, website setup, menu development, blah, blah was exhausting but I now feel like I have a pretty good system in place. I still have my full-time day job, and just bake at nights and on weekends. I limit myself to 2-3 orders per week depending on their size so I can make sure I'm not too overwhelmed. Some weeks (this week) I have nothing and it's a nice break. But the week before Christmas I didn't sleep b/c of all the last-minute orders! 

If you have any questions, let me know. I'm still a newbie too, but sounds like our situations are somewhat similar.