Ok I called the health dept. here and they say that I can seel cakes out of my home but i just cannot advertise because I do not have a licensed kitchen and I cannot get licensed since my family has access to my kitchen.

Ok I was wondering if I designed a little website with all of my cake photos on it would that be advertising if I didn't provide my telephone number?

Basically the reason I am asking is that I have had A LOT of people asking to see my cakes and if I could direct them to one website and not have to email them EVERY single picture that would be easier.

I just don't want to shoot myself in the foot!!

Thanks a BUNCH!!!

what State are you in ?

In most of the major internet carriers you can make yourself a homepage, where you can post pics of your cakes. I don't believe cakes on a personal homepage would be considered advertising - just don't offer them for sale on that page.

Here's my opinion: If you post your pictures on a site like Yahoo photos or Webshots or Snapfish, in a separate folder that you can email people, that's okay. IF they ask you for it, you can send them the link to your photos, and I seriously doubt that counts as advertising.
If, however, you were to post the link to your photos on a public forum, or if you made a website just for the business of doing cakes, I think that would be considered advertising. And definitely no business cards (sad, but true!) I've asked the licencing folks in my state, and that's what they said.

I think it would be fine. You could even put your email or phone number on there, you just couldn't say anything on the site that would lead anyone to believe you are soliciting customers for the sole purpose of selling the cakes.

For building a homepage website:
I would suggest www.freewebs.com it is easy to use and you can download many pictures for free.

you could also start a blog about your cakes and I would think that wouldn't be considered advertising. There are a lot of places you can have a blog for free and they are relatively easy to set up.

What's a sheetrock knife for? I have this problem where I live too - except I can never figure out how to get ahold of my department to even ask these questions - I've just been told these things. I have all of my cakes on Yahoo and send them to people all the time - unfortunately, I haven't gotten orders from it - so I don't think it could seriously be called advertising!!!

Did your health department say you had to license your business name? Also, did they tell you anything about deducting your supplies for taxes as long as you report the income from the cakes? This is a question I've had a hard time finding the answer for.... I don't even know what tax form I would fill out if I did this - but I thought it would be great to deduct my supply costs!

Regarding taxes: technically, you have to report the income, but you cannot deduct the expenses.

As long as your sales are small, and you do NOT advertise (IRS would consider the website advertising) it is unlikely the IRS would find out.

If you put a "business name" on your website, it would also be considered advertising. A display of cakes would not.

I would make a website. No one can tell you you can't display your cakes on a website just to share them. That is what my website was to me.

But I would not put a price list, what flavors you offer, or any reference to selling cakes on it. To me having any of those would be adversiting.

I would add though somewhere on the website your email address with a message like, please send any questions or comments to me. That away if someone is interested in a cake, they can still contact you.

Thanks for all the advice I will have Dh cook me up something cute. He is good at that kind of stuff!!