I am very interested in selling cupcakes. I love to bake and decorate. I just want to start small out of my home since I have no idea how to do the business side and I don't want to mess up. I figure this way I can get some experience and learn as I go. I'm getting very frustrated though. I know people sell cakes out of their homes but when I call the health department here, in Illinois, she says I need a separate kitchen with stove, 3 different sinks, etc. That will all cost an enormous amount of money, that I do not have. Or she said that I can rent somewhere and sell from there. I don't want to rent because I have no idea if I will need cupcakes every day. Please help. I just want to bake, decorate and sell cupcakes from my home for now. Thanx, Jennifer

I hate to say it, but you already have the information that you need to know what you have to do to start a legal business. If there are people doing this out of their homes who don't have the required health department setup, they're doing this illegally.

I know you want to do it from your home, but if your state doesn't allow it then you'll be doing it illegally. That is your decision to make. I personally couldn't do that because if you get someone sick or something happens you can loose everything.
Can you find a church that has a kitchen, and rent their space on a daily basis? just talk to them and see if you can pay by day on "as needed" basis. Also, if you find a church or community center, you can even offer to bake some stuff for them to pay for your rent.

I mean you are saying you want the potential of having a business without the responsibility of doing it right. And believe me I am in the same boat--I do too!! But alas, I cannot even have a separate kitchen on my property in my county--I have to have commercially zoned property and my zoning is residential.



Welcome to my world.

My best recommendation is for you to make all the cuppies you want and give them away, eat them, paper the walls with them.

I mean if someone helps their kid make a science project, a volcano or something--do they all of a sudden say hey I wanna go in business making science fair kits for kids or mass marketing volcanoes. No.

Why is it bakers want to go in business all the time?

Do scrapbookers want to set up businesses?

Do people who photograph have a burning desire to go into businees???

I don't know --I'm just running my mouth. And by the way I think this is an incurable disease.

I'm with you too. I'm lucky that my state allows home bakeries, but still i had to pay $200 to file my LLC, i have to get a business license, $400 a year for liability insurance, plus other things and i haven't even sold a cake yet!

You need to think that even when now you don;t have much business, you have to build for the future. I know that the first couple of years i won't make any money and be lucky if i end up being even, but if you start on the right foot now, you'll see how your business will grow over time.
you'll have the chance to advertise, to tell everybody you know that you have a legitimate business and that'll bring more customers than being hiding in your kitchen selling a couple dozen cupcakes to your neighbors.

If you're serious, you need to change your mindset. You can't "just" do business. It is an all or nothing proposition.
If you want to make money off what you love to do, you need to begin the process of getting to that point, and all the hitches along the way.
I think most of us have gone through what you are going through- that changing of the mind that takes you from- "I JUST want to sell a couple of cakes a month from my home to "OK, I need a business plan, a loan, training and lots of support, and I'M REALLY GONNA DO THIS! "
I wish you the best getting there!