|
Answer from our Guest Expert Cheryl Demas, Founder and Editor of WAHM.comPAGE 2Calculate Your Bread and ButterOnce you've dealt with the bureaucracy, sit down and calculate your costs. Will you be able to sell your products for enough money to make your venture profitable? Think about all of your costs, not just your ingredients and equipment. You'll have additional costs for packaging, marketing, and delivering your goods. You're also dealing with a perishable product, which makes packaging and stocking inventory even trickier. You certainly wouldn't want to make anyone ill with undercooked custard, and we all know there's nothing worse than stale shortcake. Some Hearty Resources for Your IdeaSince this business is more complicated than your typical home business venture, I think it's even more important that you educate yourself as much as possible before you get started. I have two books to recommend. From Kitchen to Market : Selling Your Gourmet Food Specialty by Stephen F. Hall How to Start a Home-Based Catering Business (3rd Ed) by Denise Vivaldo A baking business is a big undertaking, and I don't want to discourage you, but I want you to be sure you know what you're getting into. Do your homework and be prepared, the fewer surprises, the better. You're starting small, but you never know where you'll end up. Back in the 70's, when everyone else was out disco dancing, a young mom named Debbi Fields started baking cookies in her kitchen ... and we all know how that turned out! Cheryl Demas, Founder and Editor of WAHM.com Author of The Work-at-Home Mom's Guide to Home Business This Coffee Talk was inspired by an actual posting in Idea Cafe's CyberSchmooz. If you'd like to dish up some more advice for this person, click here and post your reply today! The more, the merrier! Page 1 - 2
Small Business Tax Center • Idea Cafe Home • Sign Up • Biz Grant Center • CyberSchmooz •Coffee Talk with Experts • People in Biz Profiles • Starting Your Biz • Biz Planning • Running Your Biz • FREE Trade Publications • Marketing • Financing Your Biz • Human Resources • Legal & Biz Forms • Managing Your Biz • eCommerce • You and Your Biz • Gen X • Work@Home • The Fridge • De-Stress • Send an Award • Send an eGreeting • Yoga @ Your Desk • Web Guide • Idea Cafe in the News • About Idea Cafe • Advertise on Idea Cafe • Contact Us • Privacy Policy • Site Map • Small Biz News Copyright 1995-2024, Idea Cafe Inc. Downloads are for personal use only, not for resale to others, and may not be reprinted in any form without written permission from Idea Cafe Inc. DISCLAIMER: We hope whatever you find on this site is helpful, but be cautioned that it may not apply to your own situation, or be totally current at any given time. Idea Cafe Inc. and all of its current and past experts, sponsors, advertisers, agents, contractors and advisors disclaim all warranties with regard to anything found anywhere on this family of websites, quoted from, or sent from Idea Cafe. and its related sites, publications and companies. We also take no responsibility for comments published by others on these pages. TRADEMARKS: The following are Registered Trademarks or Servicemarks of DevStart, Inc.: Idea Cafe®, Online Coffee Break®, The Small Business Gathering Place®, Take out Info®, Biz Bar & Grill®, Complaint-O-Meter®, A Fun Approach to Serious Business, CyberSchmooz, and BizCafe.
|
For more business advice, check Coffee Talk Answers
Each week we pluck reader questions from CyberSchmooz and ask our savvy biz experts to give you their ideas -- compliments of the house! Got biz questions of your own brewing? Go post 'em in Idea Cafe's CyberSchmooz. You'll get peer-to-peer help from fellow entrepreneurs. And bookmark this page so you can check back here soon -- maybe our experts will single out YOUR question next!
|