Not Legal But Advertising Like Crazy????
Decorating By SueW Updated 8 May 2008 , 4:56pm by ntertayneme
Just wanted to add my 2 cents. I myself operate out of my home. Yes I have business cards and a myspace. No I am not "legal". BUT, I have contacted the health dept. to see what I needed to do to become legal and I was told that they, being the health dept., was not allowed to enter my house. No idea as to why not. When I asked her why, I was told due to regulations where I live they were not permitted to enter my home. I live WAY out in the country so I'm assuming that I may not be under the same rules as people that live in the city. Just guessing though.
*sigh* there's nothing like threads like these to create drama. I love drama 
From a 100% business stand point if you are not doing at least one of the following four things better than everyone else then you business will fail!
One price- if your products are cheaper then everyone else then you will maintain a very disloyal customer base. As soon as another bakery lowers their price then your customers will flock to a new person. BTW Wal-Mart is already cheaper than you.
Two Location- If you are easy to get reach, if you have a website, and you deliver then this will attract semi disloyal customers. The reason I am saying that they will be semi disloyal is that in all honesty it is really easy to make a website, and deliver. Any one can do it, it is easily copied. And the people will buy from you because of your location are just wanting the convenience factor. Now if you have an actual store front in a good location, that gives you a bit more of an edge, but since most places will delivery not much.
Three Advertising- If you advertise enough you can brainwash people in to thinking that you are the best! Of course this is rather expensive and takes a long time but it can be done. As your customer base will once again be very disloyal, if you stop the advertisements then they will forget about you so you must constantly flaunt your name in front of them. This can backfire and cause people to not want to use your bakery; I refuse to use anyone who puts a flier on my car just out of principle.
Last your product! This will gather the most fiercely loyal customer base. If your customers really love your cakes then they will not stray! You can raise prices and they will pay them! You can stop advertising and they remember your cakes! You can even stop delivering, but they will not care because your cakes are so awesome that the will come and get them!
Now I suggest that you combine several of these four key business points and tailor them to your business. I would also suggest that since 20% of your customers are going to make up 80% of your business, you need to identify them and bend over backwards to make them happy. Repeat customers are the lifeline your bakery.
If a new bakery pops up you need to know that you have the edge on them. It may be rough for a few months, but if you make it though then you are that much stronger. Look at what they are doing, can you incorporate some of their practices in your company. (As long as all practices legal) Remember that it is hard to start a business and many times people decide to compete on price. And now we all know that make for very disloyal customers. Businesses do not operate at a lost, so prices will not remain super low for a long time.
Now in my ârealâ job I would charge a few thousand dollars for this info! But I give it to all my cake friends for free.
You can have a website, but it must be like a "blog". That's how mine is. I separate it with tabs to categorize it into cakes, cupcakes, etc. DO NOT INCLUDE PRICING. I network solely on word of mouth and Myspace. Even then, my myspace profile is just pictures of my cakes with flavors I have done/can do.
If someone confronts me about it, I say they only pay me for the ingrediants that I SHOP for them. Then I tell my "clients" that I am not legal, but they never seem to mind since the "charge of ingredients" is cheaper than other cake designers.
Again, I network solely through word of mouth and myspace.
I don't see anything wrong with that...just my .2 cents.
Having worked in law enforcement (and keeping up with the news, etc.) I have seen your arguement used as justification for crimes ranging from prostitution, and drug trafficking, to the employment of undocumented workers as well as an affirmative defense by drunk drivers.
Prostitution rings commonly advertise (misrepresenting their true nature) as either escort services, personal consultants or message parlors, etc., and their customers are willing participants.
Drug houses also only advertise by word of mouth (or using code/symbols in RAVE advertisements) and their customers don't care that their suppliers are illegal.
Undocumented workers never advertise, but their employers are complicit in their illegal employment.
Drunk drivers also never feel they've done anything wrong, and aren't made public until their behaviour is reported in the news (usually as the cause of a fatal accident).
All of the above would agree with your arguement, "I don't see anything wrong with that."
It is interesting to note that the famous rackateer, Al Capone, who listed his occupation as used furniture sales was not convicted of murder or bootlegging. No, he was convicted and sent to prison for tax evasion.
Woah - why don't you all put on your white hoods and go around lynching all the unlicensed bakers in the country?!
This is a truly unfortunate choice for an analogy.
A sad reminder of a past time period when white American racists affiliated as the Klu Klux Klan were committing hate crimes by murdering (or assassinating) and routinely violating the civil rights of minority Black Americans.
You trivialize the memory of those killed, (victims and civil rights activists) unknown and the very well known such as Dr. Martin Luther King and Robert F. Kennedy by your flippant comparison.
I'm sure that'll make you all feel so much better about yourselves.
It never ceases to amaze me just how vile some people can be to others on this forum.
You have also branded the CC members who don't share your opinion as RACISTS and their objections to illegal activity as the result of racial bias (which constitutes a HATE crime).
You have attributed to your fellow (specifically American) CC members the most vile and depraved intentions possible.
Can I just say one thing?
I am not legal...I am trying VERY hard to find some loop holes (have attorney looking into that) just so I can make a few cakes a month.
The only thing I find offensive in some topics like this it always comes up that someone wishes that they could turn these ILLEGAL bakers in. I hate that. Yes it is wrong... but come on.. are some really that bad off that they want to turn people in for BAKING?
Another thing.. Please don't put me down for starting out at home.. I really have to say this... If anybody expects me to believe that they just up and said I am opening a shop and did it WITHOUT EVER (<-----key word) baking at home I find that VERY HARD to believe. Nothing anybody can say to me that would make me believe that...
I am a nice person. I always give back to my community... I always give before I receive.. and let me tell you... We (my DH and I) pay our FAIR share of taxes a year... 14,000 worth.. So to tell me I'm a lawbreaker.. just as bad as a murder...liar...etc...really burns my buns.. it's NOT the same thing AT ALL...
I really think the government has A LOT more to worry about then little Auntie Fannie baking her buns and selling them for a .25 a piece...
Ok now that my buns are burnt and I'm frazzled I'll sit back and get flamed..
But remember guys... This is the way I feel.. And JUST my feelings...
I think that this entire argument can be summed up by the following positions (based on my reading of these threads for the last 2 years):
Homebaker: "I don't think what I am doing is wrong and I am going to keep doing it until I am caught ... and if I do get caught I believe that any punishment I receive would be an injustice"
Licensed baker (or advocate of): "Illegal is illegal, just because you can justify it doesn't make it any less illegal. It's the flood of illegal food businesses that force legitimate food business to close their doors".
Sound about right? Obviously I am paraphrasing from 2 years of posts but that's the gist of it to me.
Both sides are pretty set in their points and I don't believe any arguments that either side makes is going to change any opinions, so while these discussions are fun... they are also pointless, other than just being a place to hear ourselves talk.
In short, nobody is likely to change any minds on this issue and trying to do so just gets threads locked.
For the record... I'm not saying to stop, I find it amusing. I'm just sayin...
I think that this entire argument can be summed up by the following positions (based on my reading of these threads for the last 2 years):
Homebaker: "I don't think what I am doing is wrong and I am going to keep doing it until I am caught ... and if I do get caught I believe that any punishment I receive would be an injustice"
Licensed baker (or advocate of): "Illegal is illegal, just because you can justify it doesn't make it any less illegal. It's the flood of illegal food businesses that force legitimate food business to close their doors".
Sound about right? Obviously I am paraphrasing from 2 years of posts but that's the gist of it to me.
I think that's funny... you were just saying... um that we think we shouldn't get any punishment? What should we get? Ummm lets see... death by lethal injection? Ummm... imprisonment with the murderers for 10 years? LOL I find this topic amusing when people don't stop and think about real problems in this world..
Only closes doors if you aren't as good I guess...
That's another point I forgot to bring up. If only it were true. You see a wedding cake is like a car, once you find one... you stop looking. So if a friend knows a friend who makes cakes out of their home, many brides never meet with any licensed bakeries... they book the "friends" cake and they are done with it.
And if they do meet a licensed baker and a home baker, perhaps even one with less skills than the local bakeries they often opt for the cheaper cake "hoping" they will do a nice job. (no I'm not implying that licensed means "better decorator") I mean... is there anyone here that hasn't purchased something just because it was cheaper than the one they wanted?
From an economics standpoint, in every industry more competition means lower prices, lower prices means more work for the same money, which means that the people with the highest overhead are the first to go. It often has nothing to do with "better".
I think that's funny... you were just saying... um that we think we shouldn't get any punishment? What should we get? Ummm lets see... death by lethal injection? Ummm... imprisonment with the murderers for 10 years? LOL I find this topic amusing when people don't stop and think about real problems in this world..
"I" wasn't saying anything. That was my synopsys of the argument as best as I could do in a couple of sentences (based on what others have said in this and previous threads). When I used the term "punishment" it was a general term for whatever fines/warnings the state/county might issue.
Ok .. I'm through...
This subject comes up all the time...
and it is always just to hurt someone else... on both sides...
That's all I was suggesting. That everyone has heard everyones arguments and nobody is going to change their minds so everyone should stop trying.
Gotcha
Now if you wanna get into why HD-DVD should have survived instead of Blu-Ray... you'll have a fight on your hands. 
You're so right PieceofCake and that was the summary in a nutshell. Unfortunately, we know it won't stop the threads.
Now can you do a synopsis for scratch vs. mix?
NO NO NO NO LMAO NO NO NO 
[quote="indydebi"]and on a lighter note.....
What's the Beatles song?..."Live and Let Die."
Not a Beatles' song. Written by Paul McCartney and performed for the movie by Paul McCartney and Wings in 1973. The Beatles broke up in 1971.
OMG!!! I am SO new!!! I thought it was made for a James Bond movie, and I don't even know which one!!!!
This tangent is way more fun than the bickering and so forth. Can we discuss my marriage now, and how I can make my DH the person that I know he CAN be??? Seriously, any help at all will help!
Homebaker: "I don't think what I am doing is wrong and I am going to keep doing it until I am caught ... and if I do get caught I believe that any punishment I receive would be an injustice"
Okay, but I KNOW it's wrong, but I'm seriously only doing 2 cakes (okay, maybe 4 ORDERS) a month. I'm not even making enough money to pay a 15 year old babysitter!!! so until I build a client base that warrants renting space and paying for a babysitter, I'm going to keep doing what's wrong, because if I put my dog down to get an at-home license my DD will never speak to me again, and she's only 10!!! But if I get "caught" then I'll face that bridge when I come to it, and Yes, I deserve what I get.
NOW can we get back to my marital problems??? HELP!!!!
hmm only if you can help me with mine LOL
Well, I'm not sure if you want MY help!!! I told mine not to come home tonight if he wasn't going to be "Happy and Perky" And yes, I used those EXACT words!!!! As I think about it, I'm starting to giggle, and I think that I just need another drink. Bartender!!!
What's the Beatles song?..."Live and Let Die."
OMG!!! I am SO new!!! I thought it was made for a James Bond movie, and I don't even know which one!!!!
[/quote]
You were right...the movie was called "Live & Let Die"...Starring Roger Moore...Love him!!!...but it was P.M. & Wings as I.D. said...not the Beatles...
SueW, I have no idea why you are mad/frustrated or whatever that you are feeling. If other people want to run a business and have guts advertise their product, let them do it. You want to sell your products, you go and advertise. There will be competition in businesss and you have to accept that. Should stop saying that their product is bad and mine is good. That is childish. Or if you are that much intolerant, go to the police and have those illegals arrested so you don't have see those illegals' flyers flying around anymore.
Hey someone earlier on the thread wrote that in Florida you do not have to get an inspection to bake out of your home!!! Who was that.. i went on the website and got lost in a bunch of jumbled words... and i havent had the chance to call the Health Dept.
I am working from home right now and only doing cakes for people that I know. I advertise by a magnet on my car, and word of mouth. And the magnet is only there bc my bestfriend got it for me.
Mostlyits word of mouth, people that know me... family and friends. But my dad has offered to help me get legal and i wanted to knoe if whoever said the thing about FLORIDA... can you let me know what you know
pm me please.
THANKS... lesley
To save a whole nother topic from popping up in this thread, Mommyle, if you are really serious about discussing your marriage, there is a forum section under Members only that's called The Lounge and you can talk about subjects that are not about cake.
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