Hi I live in the state of Virgina and I have been toying with the idea
of running a cake decorating buisness out of my home.
I don't have a clue where to start to find answers. I wen't to the state
of Virginia website but it was no help. I e-mailed them and told them I couldn't find info I need on there site and it was hard to find anything on there so what do they do send me a e-mail back with a link to there site

I was hopeing there might be someone on here who lives in VA. and
knows all the ropes when it comes to a home cake decorating business

I will only be doing kids cakes and maybe baby shower cakes
(NO WEDDING CAKES)

I also was thinking about calling a local cake decorating supplier and
asking them if one of there loyal customers could help me out. Or I
even thought about calling the woman who did my wedding cake
(She does it out of her home)

Anything you guys could tell me would be great..

Thank You

I'm in Richmond...I just converted to an LLC and had to go through the whole thing again, so here is the order that I had to do everything. You might want to call your county's business office to make sure you can get an Employer ID before you register the business name. That's the one thing that I might have done out of order since I was just switching over from a sole proprietorship to an LLC.

1.Make sure the name for your business isn't being used by someone else in the state. You might have to go to the the county registrar's office to do a search of business names if you can't find that online. I have a hard time finding that kind of thing, but they tend to bury a lot of information online and it's hard to find.
2.If you're going to do an LLC, you'll need to register with the State Corporation commission after you figure out your business name. You can use legalzoom.com or go to an attorney. Skip this step if you're going to do a sole-proprietorship.
3. Register with the IRS online to get an federal employer identification number. Even if you're not having any employees, you'll need the number to pay your sales tax with the state. You can do this online and they give you a number right then and there.
4. Get a business license, which you can do at your county's courthouse or online (I think). Make sure you take all of your LLC and FEIN paperwork with you.
5. Register to collect sales tax with the department of taxation.
6. Call the business department and tell them your tax number once you get it so they can add it to your business license.
7. Contact the Department of Agriculture and tell them that you want to get information about being inspected for a home-based baking business. As long as you're not catering, only doing cakes, you don't need a separate kitchen. As soon as you start catering the commercial kitchen is needed. The Dept. of Agr. will tell you what you need to have on hand and the paperwork you'll need to submit to get your ducks in a row. They're very helpful there.

Don't sell anything until you're legal!

PM me if you have other questions.

Thanks for posting this! I am in VA also and would like to start selling my cakes - legally. I honestly have no idea where to even start.

I'm in the Virginia Beach area, and the process was pretty painless. I did have to get my kitchen inspected first and show the approval letter to get my business license. Good luck

costumeczar
Thank you for all the info



Jessica
What does the inspection detail???
How often do they have to inspect your kitchen???



Lovedx3
How long have you been decorating???

When you get your packet it will give you certain guidelines, but the inspector was looking for overall cleanliness, all ingredients/supplies separated from household supplies (including in fridge), type of sanitation used, running hot water, etc. They are supposed to inspect every year, but the inspector says because of staffing they are more on a 18-24 month schedule. I paid the annual inspection fee in August, but haven't seen him yet...

Thanks for the info. What about the type of sink you use? Do you need the one with two sinks? Also, what about the floor, does it have to be mopable (?)? My entire kitchen is carpeted. So I'm assuming I would have to get another refrigerator, is that accurate?

Thanks for the info. What about the type of sink you use? Do you need the one with two sinks? Also, what about the floor, does it have to be mopable (?)? My entire kitchen is carpeted. So I'm assuming I would have to get another refrigerator, is that accurate?

You can get a packet of information from the Dept of Agriculture in Richmond. It tells you all rthe requirements for your kitchen. It also give example of the various documents you need to submit to them.

I live in No. VA and have a private water well so I had to get my water tested. Turns out that our well is contaminated. We had it decontaminated twice and it's still contains bacteria. The county condemned it. We are getting a new well drilled next week. Cost will be around 15,000 - 20,000. God works in mysterious way. We would have never had the well tested if it weren't required by the dept of agr.