I've been running my internet and delivery business with alot of success and am now wanting to look into getting a retail shop. My question is who out there got loans for their shop? Is it possible to open without? Will I need to purchase all my equiptment myself? Oven, freezer, etc, etc...I'm new to the idea so any comments would be great!

You either get a loan or you save up the entire amount that you need or you hit up a rich relative or you buy that winning lottery ticket.

Not sure what you mean by do you have to buy all of the equipmetn "yourself"? (Who else would buy it?) You can lease equipment but in my experience, banks are not thrilled with that option because they have nothing to put a lien against.

I meant how likely is it to move into a retail space thats already a bakery. Do most people do this? Or is it more likely to buy a retail space and turn it into a bakery (by buying the equiptment yourself -what I meant-hehe)

Ohhhhhhhh!!

can't say which would be cheaper, but I can say getting one already set up is easier. With an empty box storefront, you have build out costs and buying the equipment and paying for installation. With getting one already set up, you'd need to balance the higher cost for a turn-key operation compared to what you'd spend to do it yourself.

If money was no object, I'd go with the turn-key!

Thanks for your help Debi!!! It's all so overwhelming!

Do you have a business plan showing a retail storefront would be profitable with a reasonable amount of effort? When we ran the numbers for our business, we found that we would need to work 5-6 times as much for the same amount of profit if we opened a retail shop.

JasonKraft-yes I have a business plan that shows a growth of profit over 5 years. I would have to do more work in order to deal with the increased overhead, but I'd also have the ability to 1. take on orders that I'm having to turn down currently and 2. sell every day case items that will increase money-flow.
Currently I don't have money put aside for a shop so I would be looking at getting a loan. I'd also be the first shop of my kind in the area so I want to get my foot in the door before the niche is already taken.

has anyone ever applied and receive a grant from the government? i applied last summer but never heard anything else. adventuregal did u apply for a grant?

Yeah, there are no grans for a for-profit private business. Think about it. If there was such a thing as free money, everyone would be in business.

Now there are interest-free, forgivable loans in certain areas, BUT you have to hire employees and stay in business for 5 years, or pay *all* the loan back. These loans have to be 100% collateralized. I have applied for one of those.

PS I didn't get it. Funny things is, all the local companies who got loans in the cycle I applied in have gone out of business. And here I am still crankin' out cakes.

I have worked with a number of bakers and I can tell you there are few to no grants available for this type of business venture (although there are sometime Angel Investors and MicroLoan Programs like http://makemineamillion.org/), I am not going to say, never, because just when I do someone will prove me wrong.

There is money, depending on where you live and how hard you are willing to dig for it. There is a woman who has a pound cake bakery, Jan Matthews-Hodges who landed a rural economic redevelopment grant; lucky...absolutely.

These grants are difficult to come by and really depend on where you live. Here's her story
http://www.thebestcake.com/about.html. I had the chance to meet Jan at a NC Conference for food entrepreneurs. She really was at the right place...at the right time.

i thought if u were a woman trying to open a business there were grants available. i mean i applied for one. never heard anything from them again. guess that means i didnt get it? wonder how often u can apply?

I have found that those ads for "grants for women" are agencies who ask for money up front and they will research these grants for you. In the end, that same info can be found by looking at the gov't websites. My experience has been that they want about $700 and they'll find sources of funding for you. No guarantee that the funding will come through.

There are low interest business loans available to women entrepreneurs but you still need a business plan and you need to show that you can add some money of your own to the venture. It's like going to a bank but the interest is lower and some of them will not ask for 100% of the collateral to be repaid.

Motta, you are absolutely right. What most small business owners must realize is there is no free ride (it matters not if you are a woman) and I can tell you from experience when I first started catering, I did it the old fashion way, using my savings. There are some interesting programs coming down the pike for 2011 for those interested in farming and the whole sustainable food movement, but nothing for small business ventures like baking.

Check out kickstarter(dot)com. Its a really cool website and fairly new. Basically, people give you money if they think your on to something and in return you give them your services, product, gift cards etc. A lot of bakeries have been successful using this method and have raised $10,000 or more. It's a cool concept.

Stephy, thanks for sharing this link. I was not familiar with this site and will definitely look into what they are doing. This is an interesting concept.

Please share link, thanks

One alternative to getting a loan is what I have been doing. As I sell a wedding cake (illegally) I buy a piece of used equipment. I have everything but a mop sink, and I know where I am getting it and I have the money for it. Now that we have everything, we borrowed $2,000 from my husbands 401K (we are still young!) to put the equipment in.

And no, I really am not all the nervous about saying it was illegal because even with my husband's income and my cake income, with 4 kids, we still live below poverty lines. I wouldn't owe a penny even if it was all reported. So tax fraud is not a big concern of mine.

Thanks!!!!!