Hi Cheryl,

What you have in your mind is a great idea!

There is nothing more rewarding than working for yourself, but know up front, it's not an easy road.

The first thought that came to my mind is that you need a commercial kitchen. In other words, where are you going to bake your cakes and assorted goodies?

The second thought is in reference to the empty building, that if you do it right, you won't have to worry about the fact that "nobody really goes down there", because, as long as they have a place to park, if that's where "the best (insert name of baked goodies here) is sold", they'll come. Unfortunately, letting everyone know that you're there is the tricky and or expensive part. Don't worry about the building initially. Since it's empty anyway, chances are it won't be so expensive, and as such, it could be the ideal place for you to begin.

Location may be everything but if it's cheap enough to make your business worthwhile the location doesn't necessarily mean death, it just means you have more logistics to deal with.

We have a "bad location" as far as business real estate goes. We're in a small town, on the main street, yes, but we don't really get street traffic like they do in the big metropolis 45 minutes down the highway. Instead, we have to do a lot of retail marketing to sell our products, so, really, we're often not in our shoppe.

To begin with you should put together a concrete idea of what you need to start your business. Put together some samples, figure out what it would cost you to make each cake or batch of cookies, etc. And what you could sell them for. Bear in mind that given your location, you'd probably be selling specialty cakes and dozens of cookies, because you wouldn't have the walk in crowd. Also, don't forget to add in a percentage (10%?) for waste and spillage, you will have accidents.

Then find out what it would cost to rent, then renovate the building to suit what you want to do. (You can do this piecemeal, as you make more money.

Add your salary into the calculation. There is nothing worse than paying everyone else's bills and at the end of the month discovering you don't have enough money to give yourself a paycheque.

That will give you a very basic idea what it will cost to put your business together.

The next step is to create a business plan and do some test marketing.

You can find help doing your business plan in the https://www.businessownersideacafe.com/business/index.php section of Idea Cafe.

Then if you timed it right, take some of your samples down to the local high traffic area and give them away, asking people for feedback. Ask them if they would purchase cakes or cookies, when they would do so, ask them about the location you're thinking of using, etc.

btw, in the event that your market data doesn't pan out, it doesn't mean it's not a good idea, it just means that you'll have to go further afield perhaps to find your customers. (Mail order?)

Once you have all of that information in your hands, go to City Hall, business registrations clerk and they will help you figure out all of the licenses and registrations that you need to do this business and how much they will cost.

What you are going to discover is that, short of borrowing money from family members, nobody, grantwise is going to simply loan you all of the money. You may find that you can qualify for $10,000 from one group, if you are a black woman, for example, but you will need to meet certain criteria. Other groups, may require that you have at least twice the amount you request, already invested in your business.

I know this isn't anywhere near all of the information you could use, others will add to it or suggest variations on my theme, but I wish you good luck with it.

Oh and take a final piece of advice to heart... if you think you are a great baker and you really want to do this for a living, don't let anyone stop you.

T

Tina Brooks, VP Marketing
Brooks Pepperfire Foods, Inc.
Makers of Peppermaster Hot Sauces
http://www.peppermaster.com

Eat more peppers!