I met with two local restaurants today, a tea room and a catering/take out place. I showed them my album and they were so enthusiastic that I am feeling overwhelmed. The caterer has been looking for someone, and started talking advertising and filling up a large display refridgerator with cakes and cupcakes! The tea room has already ordered 12 cakes for next weekend and has a display table ready for cookie bouquets and cakes!
They both want me to present some financialarrangement for use of their kitchens, advertising etc, in exchange for cakes/custom orders.
I am not a good business person, and tend to way underprice my work, but this is also a chance to become legal!
I need help!
Did I mention I work a part-time job and have 2 small kids?!?!
Is anyone out there doing something similar? How do you arrange a deal?I don't want to be constantly baking and turning a passionate hobby into mundane work.
Aaargh, what do I do?
Please help before I drive DH crazy and pull out all my hair!
LOL
Diane
OK, it sounds cool, but it really is presenting a dilemma! If I had known the response I was going to get, I would never have gone in! If I wanted to make it a business it would be great, but I just want to be legal and make some cakes, not do an entire career change! Does anyone out there have a similar arrangement with a commercial kitchen? Do you do percentages, rental....what should I do? I have to come up with something in writing by Monday!
Diane
P.S. Already missing a few locks, and DH has given up and went to bed... LOL
Fever-dont go pulling out the beautiful hair just yet! In the morning, call your local Small Business Assoc, most take walk-ins. Here in PA we have a service thats totally free. You will get a consult, they will draw you up a small business plan, and advise you on legal matters that you need to get in writing. Be calm, proud, and everything will work out for you! You made it past the hard part already. I'm sure the restaurant/tea house will be willing to work with you, knowing that you are just starting out with them! You are doing what many CCers aspire to do!! Hang in there and good luck!!!
I will tell you that I had a similar experience when I was a "younger" mother of my two children. They were about 3 and 5 at the time when I contracted out to provide all the cakes for a local bakery/deli. The one saving grace was that my shop was in my basement, so I could be very flexible with my hours. However, I am only talking ONE account here and it kept me PLENTY busy with an average of 20-30 cakes a week, plus my own individual customers. I found myself up til 1:00 a.m. most Thursday and Friday nights. I got to the point where I hired out a person to bake my cakes for me out of their home, which was nice for a while, but then realized, she really couldn't handle the volume and we parted ways.
It sounds to me,,,,,,,and this is NOT to discourage you, but with all that you have to do with your children and your other part time job,,,,and your husband! it may be wise to just pick one of these accounts to take care of. Especially since you would have to go to their facility to make your product. i just worry about burn out for you. I slowly, but surely grew my business while making my kids a priority and volunteering for everything under the sun! Now that they are graduating from high school, I feel like I laid the ground work to really go for it.
So I wish you luck, and by no means meant to discourage you. This is a very positive thing for you and in the end you will make the right decision for you and your family! Good luck! 
OK, I've never rented kitchen space so I will leave those details to some CC'ers who have more expertise than me. However, I don't think it's reasonable to expect a full blown financial proprosal to them by Monday. You first of all don't want to offer anything that can be used as a contract until you have an attorney look it over, so you will need time for that to happen. Unless you are comfortable with submitting it as "subject to attorney review" or something.
The arrangement will need to be fair to both sides. Suppose the caterer offers "You can use my kitchen for free in exchange for making all of my desserts at this specific discounted price." Define "all". What kind of volume is that?
What if the value of the kitchen is $500 a month and you end up making $2500 worth of desserts (discounted). Can you set your standard price and discount them $500 on their monthly orders? (They order $1200 of desserts .... you discount them $500, they pay you $700 for the whole she-bang and now you're even. If they order a 2nd round of $1000 in desserts, then they pay $1000.) I have NO IDEA if that is feasible or acceptable .... just offering it as an example of things to think about.
To be fair and equitable, I would think both sides would want a dollar value placed on their contributions to the arrangement.
Thanks for the advice. I have stopped pulling my hair out (my stylist thanks me for that!) I have decided to just go with the tearoom at this time as they do not want me to have a big commitment, but are willing to accept whatever I can come up with and give them a good deal on special occasions eg. Mother's Day. I do not want this to affect my family and I think the caterer could get out of control very quickly!
I just needed someone to talk to about it.
Thanks for being there
Diane
Wow! What an amazing opportunity. Just imagine, you don't have to do it now - and you're only going to get better at what you do. When you decide (or if) to do this as a career change... you will have so much business you will have nothing to worry about!! Congrats!
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