Hey so I have been doing cakes out of my house for years for my kids, family etc.  Currently I work at a retail chain doing cakes in the next town.  Well I am wanting to branch out and do cakes more out of my home, the problem is there is another girl in the same town as I am in that is already doing cakes out of her home and has a pretty decent clientele.  We have a few of the same friends and I have actually liked her FB page. The issue is.... if I start having my friends "spread the word" will I be stepping on her "turf" and has others had this issue before?  I am sure there are other people who probably do cakes from home here but we are a very small town and don't have an actual bakery here. I don't want to accidently get an enemy from the get go----thanks for any advice! 

So I meant to post this in the Cake Decorating Business section--any one know how to move it to the correct forum!  LOL

Easy! KY has no cottage food laws, so neither one of you can legally do cakes from your home without a licensed, inspected COMMERCIAL kitchen. You BOTH need to cease and desist. 

BTW, I don't get how you say Lexington is a small town...I used to go to the huge Methodist church that is across from Rupp Arena, so I know it is a huge city, first hand. Are you in Versailles, or another close town? I used to live there, in the Methodist Children's Home. 

I live in Wilmore which is in the outskirts of Lexington... And as far as the cottage law-- I hadn't heard that before-there are sooo many people who do things like this out of their homes I had no idea.  I will def need to look into that!  Thanks for the heads up on that!

AKY's cottage food law only applies to farmers who grow at least one of the ingredients in each of their products, so if neither of you qualify then you would both need to stop advertising and stop accepting orders until you have licensed and inspected commercial kitchen space.

Now this might be an opportunity if the two of you can work together to rent or build a commercial kitchen. The hard part will be explaining the legal situation to the other unlicensed baker without burning that particular bridge.

A

If there are lots of unlicensed bakers around you should make sure it is worth your while to even start a business (this involves putting together a business plan).

It's fine if the unlicensed bakers are pricing correctly, but if the going rate is $1-2/serving you may be better off keeping it as a hobby.

I currently don't charge for the cakes I do out of my home cause they are for friends and family and the cake is usually my gift. I can see what you mean by the unlicensed decorators undercharging-making it difficult to charge a proper price to cover the extra costs of being licensed.

As far as stepping on toes, a little competition never hurt anyone. If she can't stand the heat....  Go for it girl this is America, free enterprise and all that. As far as decorating out of your home, you said you only sale to friends and family right? I am sure it's fine.

I love decorating cakes and love practicing by making them for family and friends (giving them as gifts of course).  I work at a retail chain doing cakes now and it sucks- but it lets me get the customer experience and practice as they let me do alot of creative cakes to "hone my skills" My dream would be to one day open my own shop or have my own business.