How would you start your own bakery/bake goods business

[Liviathan]

My friend is a great cook/baker. She has taken great courses...studies a lot and tries bunch of stuff with food.

She told me she would like to start selling her stuff. I told her for food is kinda complicated because there are probably some liability issues if someone gets food poisoning.

There are is an independent coffee shop near her place and I told her maybe thats a start.

Anyone have any experience starting a food services business?

 

[Rastus]

Start Here

 

[kranky]

I think her best bet is to see if she can sell her baked goods to other established businesses. The coffee shop you recommended is a good start.

That way she doesn't have to have a storefront with all the associated costs. One of the biggest problems with food preparation is having to satisfy any applicable health department requirements, so she ought to look into that first. Remember some people have serious allergies to some food products so she'll need to be careful to isolate products with certain ingredients (like peanuts) from others. She wouldn't want anyone to get seriously ill or worse because she used the same spatula to make multiple products without a proper cleaning.

I have a feeling that baked goods is a tough choice for a one-person business. It takes a lot of work and time to make a nice variety and what doesn't sell goes in the trash.

I have a friend who is a great baker and what she does is make cakes to order. Everything is paid for in advance and there's no waste. Most customers contact her directly but she also "moonlights" for a Bruster's ice cream store when they get an order for a cake. The downside is that it's not steady income. She charges a lot (IMHO) but she also delivers the cakes which people seem to like.

 

[Carbo]

Tell her I want to try one of her muffins.