Hi all,

As far as I know, my state (Delaware) does not have a Cottage Food Law. So, I'm looking into renting a commercial kitchen...maybe. I really don't have money to spare right now...and I'm new, so I doubt I'd have many orders. What do you think? For those with experience doing this, is it worth it? I have no idea what usually goes on with renting kitchens...I'd like to rent hourly, since I won't have much business. Here's a Craigslist ad I found:
http://delaware.craigslist.org/bfs/2205202211.html

What do you think? I emailed them, asking if they might consider doing it hourly vs. splitting the cost (I definitely can't do that yet), and they told me this:
"We wouldn't rule it out, we rent our space for $100 dollars per day when we have rented it out in the past, but maybe we can work out some other deal if you know exactly what you'll be needing. Let me know what you are thinking, my number is ______ and my name is ____. Best of luck!"

I couldn't rent it for $100/day (making cupcakes isn't all that profitable to begin with...and I probably wouldn't have enough orders to warrant me spending the whole day there). But it seems like they're pretty desperate for extra money, so maybe I could negotiate something...
So, what I'm asking all you pros is...how should I negotiate this? Or shouldn't I bother?

THANK YOU!

I don't know about your county but I know that there are bakers in Delaware that bake from their homes. I don't live in Delaware so I am not that knowledgable but there is one pretty welll known baker who lives in Bear Delaware that has a home kitchen in his basement. You might want to look into that first. Like I said I don't know much about the rules in your state just trying to help.

If your state doesn't allow baking from home, I personally wouldn't risk it. I hear you about the cost but the penalties scare me too much to try. I shelled out the money and the piece of mind is so worth it! Good luck!

I'll take all the help I can get, sweeteats! no problem! I don't know...it's so hard to find information about this stuff!

But to clarify (Mamamia) I'm not asking if I should do a commercial kitchen vs an illegal kitchen, but more like what should my negotiation with the kitchen people look like? I know I couldn't do the $100/day thing...does anyone use a kitchen hourly? How much are you paying? Or should I just wait and start selling when I have more money?

Either way though, I guess I need to call the Delaware Dept of Health...hopefully I can get some straight answers...