also, notice there weren't any "cake ingredients" in that list either! LOL!
"initial start-up supply of all ingredients. "
(last line of last two paragraphs on the list.)
woops......sorry.....I was just thinking that it seemed like a LOT on the list there......and if you REALLY itemized everything it would make your head spin!!!
woops......sorry.....I was just thinking that it seemed like a LOT on the list there......and if you REALLY itemized everything it would make your head spin!!!
Yep, it's a long list, but it's only "some" of the things. (I only listed full size sheet pans, for example... maybe other people don't already own lots of pans in various shapes and sizes, so they'd need to add 'em to their list.)
Like I said to the OP... it's all part of your business plan, so all of YOUR list would be itemized in the plan. (Depending on how big of an operation anyone is looking to start along with the necessary quantities of the items, and whether retail or wholesale, I'd estimate the cost to be anywhere between 100k - 400k.)
And dont' forget that dang mop bucket! (STILL pi$$es me off!
)
LOL, Debi, you crack me up with that "dang mop bucket"!! Every time I use mine at the shop I think of you after the first time you mentioned it.
Funny, because mine was already at the shop. The previous renter left it behind. Lucky me! 
Good question... the answers would be in your business plan.
Some one-time start-up costs to consider (office expenses):
Computers, printer/copier, cash register, coffee brewer and decanters, stir stick dispenser, cake stands (for samples and displays), microwave, safe, power tools and replacement batteries for cordless equipment, scissors, tape dispensers, staplers, soft drink vending machine(s), vacuum, time clock, signage (plus sign painter labor & installation), neon "open" signs, furniture (conference table, chairs, cubical walls, office desk, file cabinets, bookshelves, displays, etc.), telephones and equipment, cordless headsets, TV, digital picture frames, lockers, display cases, countertops, video security system, trash bins, wastebaskets, styrofoam dummies (for displays), surge protectors, clipboards, calculators, register corporation fees, business license application fee and 1st time gross license fee, initial accountant, consultant, and attorney fees.
(operating supplies/equipment):
Freezer, cooler, airbrushes (hoses, hangers, fittings, compressors), fans, glue gun, pencil sharpener, wire cutters, pliers, mop, bucket, enclosed cabinets, full size sheet pans, pan racks, spatulas, serrated knives, mixer, stainless steel work tables, industrial shelving, ergonomic stools, step stools, two or three-compartment sink with drainboards (plus faucet, spout, mounting kit, plumbing materials and installation), jig saw, turntables, decorating tubes/tips, pastry bags and couplers, mixing bowls, rubber mallet, claw hammer, foldaway platform truck, utility carts, personal handtruck, pallet jack, delivery vehicle, GPS system, angled tweezers, aprons, storage containers & lids, hack saw, shop trash containers with dolly and lid, power strips, start-up supply of separator plates and columns, silver cake plateaus (for rentals).
(product and materials inventory):
Copy paper, thermal paper rolls (for cash register), regular and decaf coffee, cups, lids, stir sticks, creamer, sugar, artificial sweetener, napkins, forks, plates, tissues, toilet tissue, paper towels, Handi Wipes towels, glue sticks, tape, staples, highlighters, pens, pencils, markers, dowel rods (plastic and wooden), soft drinks, bottled water, vacuum bags, pine cleaner, sanitizer, dish detergent, time cards and replacement ribbons (for time clock), airbrush color, paste color, business cards, brochures, parchment paper pan liners, assortment of cake toppers, toasting glasses, and cake knife & server boxed sets, gumpaste/gumpaste toppers and flowers, cardboard cake circles, cake drums, styrofoam dummies (for orders/rentals), lace, ribbons, dragees, foil leaves, poly-foil rolls, skewers, wax paper, plastic food wrap film, foodservice foil, bakery boxes, vinyl gloves, rack covers, quinns/decorettes/sprinkles, trash can liners, initial start-up supply of all ingredients.
Some reoccurring costs to consider:
Lease, credit card usage fee, telephone service, Yellow Pages ad, business cards and brochures, electricity usage, water usage, gas usage, car insurance, liability insurance, delivery driver, employee wages, payroll taxes, replacement inventory all operating supplies, product, and materials. (plus more endless possibilities not listed like trash removal, strip mall sign fees, snow removal, parking lot repair fees... the potential list can go on and on!)
I'm getting there! I either already have or don't need most of the items on the list. Thank God I have been doing cakes for quite some time and I have been sinking money into it quite steadily over the years. I still need the stuff that is in bold.
Additionally, I need electrical work, lighting, insulation, ventilation, drywall, painting, an awning, double doors installed where one of my garage doors are, I want a decent business vehicle (my mom van is junky, but paid for! ) table cloths (for my consultation area) organization for all my cake junk, and partitions between all my various sinks.
Does anybody know where I can get organizational drawer thingies without spending $500? I have been looking at scrap book stuff and tool boxes and I am already spending so much and need to spend so much, I just don't have it in my right now to spend that much on organization. I think i will go to the dollar store and buy plastic shoe boxes for everything. It is not ideal, but would work for now.
How do people organize cookie cutters? I have about 350 (i'm addicted). I'd like to have them organized by holiday/season, wedding, baby shower, sports, girly, ect. I just can't find drawer systems that are flat enough to not take up too much space, and less than $300!
Does anybody know where I can get organizational drawer thingies without spending $500? I have been looking at scrap book stuff and tool boxes and I am already spending so much and need to spend so much, I just don't have it in my right now to spend that much on organization. I think i will go to the dollar store and buy plastic shoe boxes for everything. It is not ideal, but would work for now.
How do people organize cookie cutters? I have about 350 (i'm addicted). I'd like to have them organized by holiday/season, wedding, baby shower, sports, girly, ect. I just can't find drawer systems that are flat enough to not take up too much space, and less than $300!
I use these shelf units from Ikea, and their plastic storage boxes. They are see through enough for you to be able to see into them, but not so much that the place looks like a mess.
For cookie cutters, I have them bagged by theme/season, and all in a box. Then again, I don't have 350.
Also, that picture was taken before I opened...the boxes are now full of stuff and I am considering getting more shelving...
How do people organize cookie cutters? I have about 350 (i'm addicted). I'd like to have them organized by holiday/season, wedding, baby shower, sports, girly, ect. I just can't find drawer systems that are flat enough to not take up too much space, and less than $300!
Your clear plastic shoe boxes would work, especially if you are organizing them separately by occasion... so would bakery boxes with a label.
If you really like the idea of having them in the flatest space for easy viewing and easiest to find, the flatest space that I can think of would be on full sheet Bun pans (especially if you already own them, or buy extras), and you can store the pans in your enclosed cabinet (if you have one). The cabinet is useful for so many things, and the trays fit so much closer together than on the pan racks, plus it's enclosed--so no need to cover yet easy access! You can slide those trays in on the high or low sections if you don't use them much, to keep the middle section open for most used items, etc.
To the OP... you mentioned throwing up a wall to make a kitchen area... does the place you're renting not already have a kitchen (or the bare bones of one: flooring and plumbing, etc..) or are you just making it smaller. Before I chose my current location I looked into turning a plain ol' retail shell type space into a kitchen.... and the bid was $300,000. New walls, floors, dig into the concrete to run plumbing, hood for the oven ($15,000 easy), etc.... and that's BEFORE the actual oven, sinks, fridges etc...
I highly suggest finding a spot that is already a kitchen - a defunct pizza place was perfect for me.
Wow, I really like the idea of an enclosed cabinet like the (VERY EXPENSIVE) one in the link, but I just can't spend that much more money. Everything in so close together and the space is utilized very well.
And the plastic containers on the shelves don't look bad at all, I just see a lot of wasted space between them, about a whole foot. Do they sell additional shelves? I would like to smoosh them closer together and add another.
I have 362 square feet, with 10 foot tall ceilings, so I am really limited on floor space, and would like to utilize wall space as much as possible. And just not waste even 1 inch of space of the space I have. I plan on hanging huge industrial type shelving at a 6.5 foot level, so I can stack my cake boards, boxes, plateaus, cake dummies and such. I am going to put a shelf under my two tables and stack junk under there as well.
Do you mean the space between the boxes and the shelf above? You can space the shelves as you like, but you only get that many in the package and I don't think they sell them separately for this range of shelving. And the spaces are like that so I can pull the box out a bit, lift the lid up and get stuff out without having to take the whole box down 
They don't make that style boxes any taller anyway.
Anna, I have some shelving units like that, but I got them from Sams. They are comercial grade, heavy duty and were around $80-$90. I think the measurements are 72x48x18. And have 6 shelves each. You can actually spilt it and have two shorter sets as well.
You can adjust the shelves, so what I did in my cake room is take the containers I had and figured out the best way to do the shelves to get the most of my spacing. I have a rows where I stacked two containers on top of each other. It may take additional time to pull the top box, to get to the bottom one, but it does save on space.
I've been looking at alot of organizational blogs lately, and alot of them use containers from the dollar store, so that may be something to look at.
Wow, I really like the idea of an enclosed cabinet like the (VERY EXPENSIVE) one in the link, but I just can't spend that much more money.
Yes, some are very expensive... even more for insulated. I couldn't get the priced page to load, but the National Cart cabinets can be purchased for somewhere between $450 - $500.
Do they sell additional shelves?
Yes. You may also want to check out the bin rack (linked below)... the shelves are closer together.
This 10-drawer organizer might work well for your cutters:
http://www.samsclub.com/sams/shop/product.jsp?productId=prod1490070
This bin rack is pretty cool, but keep in mind that it isn't very tall, and if you decide to remove the bins to use with your own clear plastic shoe boxes it's somewhat inconvenient because there's an upper wire embedded towards the rear of the shelf to prevent the bins from sliding off the back of the shelf:
http://www.samsclub.com/sams/shop/product.jsp?productId=prod1450040
Do you mean the space between the boxes and the shelf above? You can space the shelves as you like, but you only get that many in the package and I don't think they sell them separately for this range of shelving. And the spaces are like that so I can pull the box out a bit, lift the lid up and get stuff out without having to take the whole box down
They don't make that style boxes any taller anyway.
That makes sense! I am more a hands on (rough and clumsy, impatient) kind of person. I anticipate taking the whole thing out and digging through it.
I saw a drawer system I kind of liked, but there would be 2 inches of space left over in each drawer, and when you stack them, there is more than 4 inches wasted in between them. There is one that is AWESOME, but it is so expensive! I may end up going ahead and getting some, eventually. http://www.lafrei.primweb.com/store/WsDefault.asp?Cat=OrganizedCrafter
Wow, I really like the idea of an enclosed cabinet like the (VERY EXPENSIVE) one in the link, but I just can't spend that much more money.
Yes, some are very expensive... even more for insulated. I couldn't get the priced page to load, but the National Cart cabinets can be purchased for somewhere between $450 - $500.
Do they sell additional shelves?
Yes. You may also want to check out the bin rack (linked below)... the shelves are closer together.
This 10-drawer organizer might work well for your cutters:
http://www.samsclub.com/sams/shop/product.jsp?productId=prod1490070
This bin rack is pretty cool, but keep in mind that it isn't very tall, and if you decide to remove the bins to use with your own clear plastic shoe boxes it's somewhat inconvenient because there's an upper wire embedded towards the rear of the shelf to prevent the bins from sliding off the back of the shelf:
http://www.samsclub.com/sams/shop/product.jsp?productId=prod1450040
I have been wanting to look into a membership to Sam's club, I will once I get it all going here. Those carts are cute! I would probably still have to put them higher, I think the rule is 6 inches from the ground, but I am loving those! Mainly the prices! Thank you
jschilt1, koryAk is right. Don't sign anything until you have at least a plumber who knows the code to give you an estimate. A commercial kitchen from scratch can be upwards of $100,000. We already had the space with all approved surfaces. My husband's second occupation is a builder/developer so we got to bypass the architectural sign-off and periodic engineering inspections. We could pull all of our own permits. We ended up doing the work ourselves for about $25,000, after our estimates topped $50,000. Just to run an additional 220 line was quoted $5000.00. We did it ourselves and the cable alone was $600.00.
My point is, as koryAK said, if you aren't in a kitchen space already, the first thing you have to do is jackhammer the floor for drains. Then the extensive wiring and plumbing requirements to bring it to code. This alone will be about $50,000 in raw space. In my small town, plumbers, etc., are getting $80.00 per hour. You can't do it yourself unless you have a commercial contractors license.
Thanks everyone! I haven't signed any lease yet, actually found a different place than the one I mentioned in my first post, this one is a little smaller but I think is more the size I would need, it runs 300/mo, it does have a back part which has an old mop sink, this back part already has a wall but only problem is the bathroom is back there too, and I know you can't have people tracking through a commercial kitchen to use the bathroom, so I thought about putting up a half door to make it separate from the kitchen, if that makes sense, it's kinda hard to explain the setup without seeing it. The Health inspector is coming Monday to see if this place would even be an option for me, so maybe I will take some pics then and show you guys.
Besides the heath inspector would I need to get anyone else involved to make sure this place will work? What about a building inspector? I am just renting not buying????
You need to get involved with a master plumber and an electrician as well, I would bring the plumber first, because that is going to determine whether or not you want to jack hammer the floors up to put in plumbing. Electric is a major expense as well, but I think the plumbing might be a lot more in a space like that. A good licensed master plumber can tell you if the health department will approve the space, there is no need for him to come out there yet,
With your completed application you will be advised as to what is next. In my area, there is a $250.00 engineering permit which has a page for each department to be signed off on. For example, planning commission, architectural company approved plan, and the engineering inspections of all of your mechanical systems. Permits for construction will be pulled by various contractors, and the engineering dept will make surprise inspections during construction. Any licensed plumber, HVAC, electrician should be familiar with the local health dept requirements. If they aren't, get someone else. Be sure to get your construction estimates BEFORE you sign your lease, as some locations may be cost prohibitive and another with slightly higher rent may prove to have less construction costs. And these estimates can double during construction. Every one of mine did. There was a thread recently that covered this. The consensus was double the estimate cost and double the time for completion. If there are any vacant food establishments, the construction savings alone are worth taking a look.
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