Hello everybody,
Well...I think its time that I take a plunge and open my own shop! Just the feeling of having my own shop gives me chills which is good as well as little daunting.
I was wondering if you all could guide me to the right directions for opening a shop. I'm in northern california. I want to first how should I start and what are the steps involved!!

Thanks you all....and wish me all the luck

Probably the 1st thing you should do is go take any and all classes you can on business!
Most of us are good to great decorators; good bakers but poor busniness people
I have owned two shops and never took my own advice. It was always a struggle to keep the actual business end of it up and going.

Next look for a location. Are you going to buy property or rent a kitchen?
How much money do you have to invest? It can run over $10,000 just to open the doors depending on the place and how much work it needs to become legal.
Go to your local health dept and get all the necessary rules - you will need a 3 bay sink; a hand washing sink; a janitoral sink; your oven(s) - commericial grade; and then storage racks; baking pans; cooling racks (rolling is best); just for starters. Supplies - cases and cases of each size box, cake circles/boards; 50# bags of sugar, cake mixes; fillings; etc, etc
That all takes $$$$$$. But if you don't know how to manage your $$ you won't be able to restock when you need to so it's back to business classes.

Thanks Kakeladi for your response. Well...since I have a MBA degree in marketing and my husband in Finance..I think marketing and handling finance shouldn't be a problem! For me its a total career change...so I'm little scared but I know in my heart that opening my own shop and decorating cake is what I want to do for the rest of my life!
From the money aspect also...we are good but yes all the little things that you listed is what overwhelms me. Is there a checklist, document or any other kind of information that'll help me know if I'm on the right track

Buy and read the book "e-myth" by Michael Gerber. Two people, inside of 2 days, told me I had to read this book, "....because it's written about you, Debi." I got it a few days ago and IT IS AWESOME!!!!!!!!! I read it in just a couple of hours with lots of passages hi-lighted already.

Anyone who has opened or is contemplating opening a business MUST READ THIS BOOK!

It's a fast read and written in "so you can understand it" -ism's.

Go to Amazon.com right now and order this book. Now.