I'm constantly told (like every day) that I should quit my job and open up my own cupcake store. I love to bake, but so far just do it as a hobby and, also sell to friends and co-workers on the side. I'd love to have my own shop one day, but know nothing about running my own business. I'm also a little worried & doubtful that a cupcake shop is a lasting business proposition here in the UK considering that the market here is so saturated (when the recession hit, it seems like everyone started up their own cake business - either from home or their own shop!!!). I'm wondering if I would be better off baking my cupcakes at home, but then selling them to coffee shops and tea rooms for them to sell on to their customers. Does anyone else do this? If so, how did you go about getting coffee shops etc, to buy your cakes, and how much do you charge? I'd want to make sure that making my cupcakes is worth my while, so currently the minimum price I charge is £1.50 ($2.30 US). I'm not sure how much a business would be willing to pay for my cupcakes - afterall they have to make money too. Would I have to drop my price down to £1.00 so that the shop could charge £2.00? How much profit does a coffee shop/other business expect to make?

If anyone has any info or advise they could provide me, I would be soooo greatful.

Thanks very much!

Bump.

Anyone???

Have you been to any nearby coffee shops? Do they sell cupcakes? And how much do they sell them for? You should just strike up a conversation with a local place, bring them a sample and suggest they go into business with you. It doesn't hurt to ask

You need to check and see if that's even legally a viable option.

I'm in the US (Kansas), and as a homebaker, I can only sell to the end user. Resale is verboten.

I sell cookies and a few other goodies at a local coffee shop. I bring in what I want to sell every week and set the price and she takes 20% of the sales. It's worked out rather good so far.

Cookie lady- I am in the process of trying to work out a deal with a shop. Any guidelines- how do you track sales and such? Do they sign an inventory list each week to track sales, etc.

I keep track of how many I give her each week and she keeps track of how many she sells. I usually stop by on mondays to see what I need to bring and while I'm there (even though I'm there all the time) she adds up my sells for the past week, takes out her cut and writes me a check. And usually if I have any cookies left I mark them 50% off till I get new ones in. Plus she tried to make a new coffee to go with one of the cookies I make for the week. For example last week I did Nutter Fluffer cookies(peanut butter cookies with marshmallow fluff in the middle... AWESOME!) so she made a marshmallow/ peanut butter Frappe' to go with it. WAY YUMMM!!!

cookielady- thanks for the info- Have you guys ever disagreed with #'s? Did you have a previous relationship or do you have any advice for me in negotiating this type of relationship?

We had a mutual friend that put us together. She JUST opened her coffee shop 2 months ago (shes only 20) and really wanted to help out some of the other businesses by selling some of the stuff in her store. There is another place in town that she was getting pastries from, but she had to go buy them and resell them herself. So she kind of stopped getting them (I don't recommend that method). I started small when I first started just to see if they would sell at all. She only took 10% the first couple weeks then bumped it up to 20%. I don't make a killing, but it has been great advertising, plus its great to hear of people just going in there to buy my stuff! She told me that I could even put a display cake in the window!