Ahas anyone ever rented from donut shop or partnered with them? I would love your thoughts on how this has worked. monthly rental fee? commission split? thanks in advance!

AI'm assuming you're making cakes. Do they have an oven? A walk-in? A prep table? Because the donut shop where I buy my fix doesn't have an oven, only a fryer.

I have not rented or partnered with anyone but I would seek a lawyer if I think of going into one.

Ayes it would be to do cakes. this is really good advice. the shops around here bake pigs in a blanket so I'm assuming they have an oven.

what about paying flat rent? I would work after their hours and provide all supplies and ingredients. would this be less complicated?

Renting by the hour would certainly be less complicated than partnering. If you're interested in that kitchen you need to go look. Pigs in a blanket can be baked in a small countertop oven.

Aok so I visited the donut shop up the street. they have lots of unused space! only 5trays of donuts and 2/3 empty display case. I saw an oven as well. the area leases for about $10-17per sq ft. I'm wondering what a fair sublet monthly rate would be. any thoughts?

AI have the dilema here. I have doing cakes and candy for 10 years have recently moved to a tiny town. I have two local businesses that want me to come work for or with them the local donut shop and a Floral Shop/Bistro. Dont know what to do??? hourly wage?? split commission if so how much? rent space??

ideally you'd want/need to determine the viability of the business you want to rent from--those people have to be honest and solvent--these two things are not easy to determine in advance-- "hi - i'd like to rent space from you btw, can i go over your books please" 

i rented from some bad people once--it is heart breaking--

it certainly can work though but it also has it's own miserable set of unique deal breakers that mimi already alluded to upthread--

That sums it up ^^

I have rented space in a coffee shop and a small chain of three donut shops. What I found was that the owner over estimates how much space he's actually giving you and has no concept of how much you need. Of course you can work that out very specifically, but it doesn't matter much when he's not there.

The only place it sort of worked out were the two donut shops where the owners were actually there when I was. They were the business people who were getting the money and had no ego issues about giving up a little space. Otherwise, the employees r-e-s-e-n-t-e-d the space they were supposed to give me and shoved my stuff out of the way when i wasn't there. I think they dropped part of an order once on purpose. They couldn't understand stuff like why I couldn't leave a cake sitting on a chair waiting for pick up. One dumb issue after another. It was horrible trying to deal with them. It didn't matter how much free cake I brought or how sweet I was.

There was never a time when i didn't have to move their stuff out of the space that was supposed to be mine when I got there.

The lady who ran the coffee shop was uncooperative - they were supposed to be selling some of the stuff I made in the case, but it just seemed impossible to get any space to do it. Not that it had ever been a good idea anyway.

Now, you say there's a ton of space? In that case, it might not be so bad depending on everything else. Again, the owner may overestimate what is free space and what is not in terms of how you'll need to be using it.

It's a real can of worms. And here's a handy tip: if you plan to bake at night when they're closed, make a LOT of noise when you come in so you don't see too much when you walk in on the owner's teenage son and his girlfriend on the floor behind the counter. At least it was the floor ;)

Wow! This was super helpful! I hear you loud and clear, thank you!