Advice on Opening a New Business

I would try to go to www.score.org. It's an organization of retired (and successful) business people who give free advice to people who are business owners, or considering starting a business. They can help you with business plans, SBA loans, etc. They have a few offices in the metroplex... I don't know which one would be closest for you. They can also give some advice online or over the phone. And there are several useful tools on their website, including templates for business plans. Writing one is a thought-provoking process in itself, and helps you think through a lot of different aspects of the business.

Good luck!

I agree with starting up at home. You can get a feel for it before you actually buy expensive equipment. You can also adverise for free on Criagslist. One lady here advertises elaborate birthday cakes. good luck

I would definitely start working out of your home first. Perhaps baking your things and taking them to farmers markets, craft shows, etc. and see how successful it is there, and build an account to start your own store from there. I do a lot of baking, and have met tons of friends who do it "on the side", and the few that have taken it further say it is TONS of work and cost.

Opening a bakery is not a small task. The equipment alone can run you into 75 to 80k (buying used). Then you must consider ingredients, licensing. You will need to make sure YOU have your Food Manager's license (that will cost you $100 for study materials and taking the test). You must make sure EVERY on of your employees has a Food Handlers License ($10 each). After ALL of that you will need to make sure your building is up to the local health codes and regulations.

On top of all of that if you plan on getting bank financing, you will need to provide a business plan that lines out your plan on operating the business for the next five years. Someone mentioned going through SCORE for business advice and that is a VERY good idea. The people are retired entrepreneurs that donate their time to help new entrepreneurs start a business.

Perhaps starting out small from you home may be better for you until you get your feet wet and learn more about the business. Another idea is to get a job with a local bakery so that you can LEARN the business from the ground up.

Best of luck for a SWEET Adventure!

D.
www.littlesnowflakes.com

Katherine,
My husband has been in the baking industry for 40 years. We have lots of great friends with wonderful bakeries all over the United States. You are wise to gather information before you just jump in because it is way harder than it looks. These people work long hours and not many days off. Trying to find good help is really hard.
There is a Bakery Association in Texas Greater Southwest Retail Bakery Assoiciation that can provide you with answers that you need. You can also contact my husband Danny Cox ###-###-####. He works for a company that sells bakery supplies.
Thanks
N. Cox

Katheryn,

I don't know about the excat costs of start up, but I think it would depend on if you operate out of your house or rent a space.

But, I am an accountant who works with small business, so I HIGHLY recomment that in the process of starting up that you think about a business plan that includes an accounting system. I have worked with many small business that have great ideas and are very enthusiastic that end up not knowing what went wrong when all the money is gone. Don't forget taxes, licenses, and other fees that may be needed to legaly start a business, especially one that involves a kitchen.

I don't mean to be a downer, but it is better to start out right then end up out of business.

Good luck!

H.

My husband and I opened a start-up business in 2005, and last year was the first year we made so much as a dime on the place. That's 4-5 years of never seeing my husband and a ton of stress and no money! With this economy you can expect to have a very long road from start-up to actually turning a profit.

I don't know if you have children (assuming yes) but your own business will take over your whole life. My husband hasn't been to my son's birthday party in 6 years. The only time my son sees him is in the morning, and then he's off to work, and we don't see him again until 10 PM some nights.

I would do a lot of research and just think really hard about how much time and money you want to invest, and how much you are willing to lose if you end up having to walk away... we invested a lot of cash in our business and although we considered walking away, we couldn't stand to lose all that hard-earned money.

Good luck with your decision.

Consider renting kitchen time from a restaurant or another bakery.. This way you will not have to worry about getting your own kitchen in the beginning..

If you want to do it out of your home and deliver baked goods to businesses in the beginning to save up cash, look into city codes and permits. See if your own kitchen will work. Also see if you are allowed to have this business in your neighborhood. Some city codes are pretty tough.

I have a friend that has started with a "Pie Wagon". It is a trailer that she sells pies out of.. She does the baking out of a rented space. She has a few clients that she keeps stocked with her pies and then she actually sells to the public out of her trailer.. She has applied for a loan to take over an established bakery. The owner is going to also help finance it in the beginning for her.

http://www.cutiepiewagon.com/

You may want to look into actually working in a bakery to see if it is what you really want to to. The hours are really tough in that business. I know the bakeries in town begin baking at 2:00 am - 3:00 am to open at 6:30 for morning customers..

There is also a very successful cupcake business in town. This young man started by selling out of an airstream trailer, he now also has his own cupcake bakery in a storefront.
http://www.heycupcake.com/story.html

The other new and up coming bakery is Sugar Mama's Bakery. It is pretty tiny, but her product is so good, she has quickly gained a following.. I love her "icing shots" and I do not normally even like icing..
http://www.sugarmamasbakeshop.com/

Also I read, Gesine Bullock-Prado’s memoir, "Confections of a Master Baker". This is Sandra Bullocks sister and she has her own bakery. She tells about the ups and downs of owning a bakery.

Good luck to you. Any new business will take up 90% of your time, so be sure you and your family are prepared.

In Texas it's not legal to make food in your home kitchen. In order to sell at a farmer's market or make cakes for weddings etc, you will need a commercial kitchen.

I make miniature desserts and ran into these same issues when I wanted to start my business. So, I decided to open up a bakery and rent out the commercial kitchen space by the hour when I am not using it. You can check it out here, www.elixirkitchenspace.com.

Good Luck!

ALOT!!!! Think REALLY hard about it! You will be married to the place. You have to be open the hours you post and if you are sick, well, you still go in. You also have to deal with employees, all of the laws, the extra taxes, etc... Also, be prepared to not have a steady income. Some months you may make $0, or very little, and your bills will still be due, and you still need to pay your employees. You work LONG hours, and it can be very stressful, even if you enjoy what you do. I would think really hard about this and if you still want to do this, then good luck and have fun!! I'm not trying to be negative, but I've been there and it isn't a piece of cake, like so many people think. With this type of business, you can easily do this out of your home to start with. I would go that route, it's much less stressful AND lots cheaper! Good luck to you!

I have a friend (a previous co-worker) that made cakes out of her home. She took a cake decorating classes, she experimented, she got better and better -- between co-workers, and slowly advertising she had a great side income that she told me she was actually turning people away.

She also did fancy decorated chocolate covered strawberries. She made my husbands groom's cake - it was gorgeous. (It had strawberries dipped in white and milk chocolate that looked like a bride and groom! So amazing!)

With tools like Craigslist, Facebook, and websites being fairly easy to set up.. you could advertise, take pictures of your creation and build a clientele without putting out a lot of cash.

Good luck on whatever you decide!

I definately will take money. First try and do a business plan. Talk to other bakers. Get a name and go to the court for an assumed name. Location is important. Look online not sure where to see what it could cost. Look at Whole sales of what you would need and talk to them. Manufactures? Lots of research. Good luck. Also I was told you can hire maybe a college student that needs credit for doing a business plan can pay them to do it.
Good luck G. W

You could do it from your home if you have a separate, up to code, commercial kitchen. The law in Texas says that you cannot sell food items from your kitchen that is adjacent to any living area. I have thought about remodeling half of my garage to make it a commercial kitchen but even that might cost anywhere from $30,000 to $50,000 (done cheaply). I'm part of a group that is trying to get a bill passed that could change that. Go to www.texascottagefoodlaw.com for all the information. I have been making cakes for 10 years and it has been a dream of mine to run my own bakery, but the cost is just way out of my grasp right now. If this bill passes it would make a huge difference in so many lives!

I just woke up, so this won't be really detailed; but I had to tell you...

Consider opening a website before you open an actual store. It is MUCH cheaper, and will allow you to make sure you really, really love it before you have the expense of a brick and mortar!

You might also want to consider a "cooking contractor" (see - I told you I wasn't fully awake!) type of service. You can get the word out that you are the town baker and cook from home.

If you have any questions, please feel free to email me!

Good for you for using your skills like this.

First, business plan, good tax accountant and good legal counsel. We run our consulting/brokering raw materials company out of our home. It is not easy starting up.....

My hubby had been in the business 25 yrs and now instead of working for someone else it is just us, our contacts through networking and CASH. We refuse to go into debt and we have self funded ourselves. In 9 months, we've $1.5mil in sales.... Cash flow is an issue. You want good credit with your suppliers. We still pay some cash in advance to prove ourselves.

Be careful extending credit to your customers.. On large sales $50,000+ we offer a discount if they pay in 10 days.....that helps our cash flow....helps them save money as well.

Get with someone who can help you with a plan, then go to the CPA, Lawyer, get your business name, tax id. We opted for an LLC. You self pay taxes, health, expenses, etc. Quickbooks is very helpful...

Best of luck to you. I am in Allen area, about 30 minutes from you....what is your specialty? Best wishes!

Start from home. Take some photos of your specialties, and send an email to all of your friends & relatives along with the pics & prices. You can do things for birthdays, class parties, bridal/baby showers, etc. This will give you the opportunity to see how much you really love the business before you make a big investment in it. I have a friend who specializes in cake balls & cupcakes, and she sends an email to everyone before holidays (Valentines Day, Easter, Mother's Day, etc.) along with pictures of the special ways she can decorate her creations for that holiday. Good luck to you!

I hate to break your bubble, but you cannot do it from your home? You have to have an inspection and proper papers by law and run it out of a church or kitchen facility already approved.
Also it is a very competitive business.
Sorry-maybe others have an idea how you can legally do it.