Opening a home bakery is much easier than opening a bakery in a store. You’ll save thousands of dollars on an expensive business location and need less to start your business.
Home bakeries are actually the perfect way to test your water before starting a full bakery.
The first thing to do is determine where you will sell and what you will sell. If there is a farmers market near you, this is a good place to start. Small cafes and restaurants are also a great place to ask. Bring a healthy sample of their best baked goods and give them away for free in exchange for the chance to speak with the owner and see if they would consider selling their wares. They will probably ask if you have a business license and health care permit; let’s say you don’t have it yet, but confirm that there is enough market to get a license and permit.
A trip to city hall is required to obtain a business license. First, you need to choose a name for your business and obtain an employer identification number, which you can do online in about ten minutes. Obtaining a health permit is more difficult. You may be able to avoid this depending on where you live, but in reality, the correct way to open your excellent bakery equipment is to be completely legal under local laws. Doing anything less can create serious and costly problems later.
Summary
Now that you are legal, you can go back to the cafe and restaurant owners and get a real commitment from them. After that, you need to turn your family kitchen into a small bakery. Most people end up separating what they use for their baked goods from what they use for their own cooking. So if you have a closet that you can use to store baked goods set it up so you’re ready to start ordering.