James Rodrigues
How To Start Your Own Cake Decorating Business At Home – If you are looking towards starting a cake making business, here are some tips you should know to start selling cakes from home. Get started by learning about food safety, food hygiene, best practices for selling baked goods, and how to mentally prepare.
In this post, I want to share some of the tips I have found helpful when selling homemade cookies and a few words of encouragement.
How To Start Your Own Cake Decorating Business At Home
Now, this is not an exhaustive list. There are many things to consider when starting a business, especially in the food industry.
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To begin with, I will say that I am not a lawyer or an accountant, so always consult a professional before making a final decision. I am also not an expert in running a bakery business, but I managed to run my business for several years working full time and learned a lot.
Okay, let’s get started… (I also created a free printable tips sheet that lists all of my tips. You can find it at the bottom of the post.)
Before you sell any products from home, you really need to check your rules. Just because you see people selling food from home on Facebook doesn’t mean it’s legal.
Don’t rely on other people to do your homework for you. You are the one who has to pay for your mistakes, so take care of yourself and do your own research.
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Know your rules… practice them. In Texas, we have a country food law. This means we can sell food outside of our homes, but it won’t be food that needs to be refrigerated.
When I sold cakes from home, it limited the types of cakes and toppings I could sell. Sometimes you just need to get creative.
Example: If someone wants cream cheese buttercream, I should make American cream cheese flavored buttercream.
However, the rules are not something you want to ignore. Litigation is real, and if you are a sole trader, your money is at risk…but not the business’s money. Follow the law with all diligence.
How To Start A Cupcake Business At Home
I don’t know about other states, but if you’re in Texas, here’s a link to our local cottage food law: Texas Cottage Food Laws.
I also cannot stress enough how important it is to follow the rules of writing. Your state or local government may have certain things that you must list on the label (they do in Texas).
Now obviously you can’t label the cake itself, but you can label the cake box.
It may sound bad, but in fact the law exists to protect people. Personally, I’m allergic to hazelnuts (which is why you don’t see much nut cake on my blog) and I’m definitely the type of person who really appreciates food allergy labels.
How To Start Your Own Cake Decorating Business?
This is another “close your walls” trick. I didn’t have insurance for a long time, and it made me very nervous. My main job is to work as a legal librarian (I’m not a lawyer), so I see a lot of cases moving forward.
Sometimes it could be a simple mistake on your part, or the client feels remorseful and wants revenge. Who knows, but if you have some sort of insurance, it might give you more peace of mind.
It’s a good idea to call your insurance agent where you get your home or car insurance and ask them first what they offer.
I eventually found FLIP, the food liability insurance program. I paid for a year and it wasn’t too expensive.
Women’s Hands Write On The Cake Inscription
Now I’ve never had to file a claim so I can’t view how they pay claims so I suggest reading about them and trying to get feedback.
You will want to decide which cookies you want to use (or at least have a good idea). You may be able to make changes later when you gain some experience.
You don’t need to have any other details, but it should be an idea to indicate what you love to do and who you really are.
You don’t have to take orders for cakes you don’t like. If you hate working with fondant, try buttercream cake.
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You can always expand your offer later if you feel like you really want to go all out and get more experience.
You want to mix and match cake recipes and make them perfect. You don’t have to look for all the types of recipes you will be cooking.
At the very least, you’ll need a list of the main ingredients you’ll be serving. Sure, you’ll get requests for unique flavors and take on a challenge if you want to, but at least master the basics like vanilla, chocolate, marble, or whatever is popular in your area.
I love makeup here on my blog and here are some basics you might want to try:
Work From Home Start Your Own Cupcake Decorating Business Step
Okay, I know you know this, but I have to say this. Practice before you start selling cookies.
You also don’t want to wait forever because you will never know everything. Even famous cupcakes don’t know everything. I mean, they know a lot, but they are still learning and experimenting.
Practice your essential cookies. You must have cake decorating skills, such as how to cover a cake with buttercream, multiple cakes, etc.
Have a good idea of how you will be buying cakes. There are many different ways to do this.
Dream Cake For Any Occasion
You don’t have to use just one type of pricing method. For example, charging per serving will not work for a very complex cake that requires more work than a simple iced cake with the same number of servings.
So, don’t advertise that your cookies are $2.50 a piece (or whatever the price is), because then you’ll be driving yourself into a corner. You can use “amount per slice” to help you quote a cake, but personally I have never said “my cakes have x number per slice”. I just made up a quote.
Many consumers think that the number of services increases the price, and this may be true.
You can even create a pricing plan that lists prices for 6-inch, 8-inch, and 10-inch buttercream brownies… and upgrade from there if you want.
How To Start Your Own Cake Business
If you try to be a cheap cookie lover, you will drive yourself to death and feel unappreciated and miserable at the same time. Your love for baking will increase.
Cake Boss has a great article on how to take charge if you want to check it out. Here’s a link to it: How much does Cake Boss have to charge me for my cake?
It’s one of those things that takes practice. Don’t be sorry if you pay a lot less money. It will happen. Double-check and promise yourself not to be sloppy in your work in the future.
Start with new bookkeeping and don’t forget about taxes. If you’re not sure which taxes will affect you, do a Google search for your state and country, or contact your local tax office and ask.
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You don’t have to be trendy. You can start by saving a simple spreadsheet to Excel or Google Sheets, which are free to use. Over time, you may move to something more popular like QuickBooks or Freshbooks or something similar.
Make sure you track your income and expenses right from the start. If you have a separate bank account, keeping track of it will be much easier.
You don’t have to show off and spend a lot of money on a new camera. You can use your phone if you like.
If you want, you can get some vinyl backdrops and take photos next to a source of natural light. If your indoor lighting has yellow bulbs, turn them off. Yellow lights degrade image quality. Try shooting near a window or get “daylight” light.
Professional Bakery Recipes That Taste Amazing!
There are also many photo editing tools that you can use right now that can do wonders.
I have a post with simple tips for photographing cakes. You can find it here: Practical Tips for Photographing and Editing Cakes.
I’ve changed a few things since this post, but it’s still a good place to start.
Here’s a bonus about photography: try not to send clients “progressive” shots. You may be excited and want to share with them how the cake turns out or how the topper you made turns out, but it often makes you nervous.
Free And Customizable Bakery Templates
Twice I did it, I was completely satisfied. They will want to completely change the situation, even if you came up with the plan they asked for and you agreed with it.
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