I would love to open me own cake business. But the problem my husband and I are having is figuring out is where to find the money to be able to open one. We have 2 small children and it will be nearly impossible to afford it ourselves or afford to pay back a loan. We've asked family to borrow money before on other things but now that we've payed it all back we really don't want to ask again. Our family has told us if we could find a way to get it started(money wise) that they would help us with it in others ways. I was thinking about finding someone (possibly friends of ours) to back the business (money wise) but I think my husband is not to comfortable with it. I'm not to comfortable with it myself but I can't think of anything else to do. Does anyone have any suggestions? ANY help would be greatly appreciated! I currently decorate cakes in our kitchen(even though I not suppose to) but just for our close friends and for family! I know I would have enough business if I could just find somewhere to get it started!

I'm the same way. I have looked into getting small business loans and they're not very easy to obtain. Our city doesn't really help out with anything either so I've decided to just put it off for now. If you can borrow money from family, do it! That would be your best bet IMO. I just don't know anyone with that kind of money!

Any information about this I would love to know too......

Ok ccer's I can't speak for all your states, but here in WI we have a Women Small Business Organization. They are there to help provide women training and other things but also to help them find ways of financing their business. Also, try doing a web search on Minority Business Owner Resources. I have looked into these myself, I just don;t think that I have the business yet to be able to maintain success due to my area being "friendly" to their bakeries.

I wish you all the luck in the world ladies!

I really don't know. I probably would do some research in opening a small business and getting a loan. you could try and find a business partner or look into if any grant money might be available. Talk to people who have opened small businesses and ask how they got the money. Most people don't have 100 K to throw around.

I personally wouldnt borrow money from family or friends. I am a fan of Dave Ramsey (financial guy) and she advises against borrowing money...at all. Because then your family or friends are always scrutinizing the way you spend money. He says there is nothing worse than having Thanksgiving Dinner with your Master. I tend to agree.

I bought the Small Business Startup Kit, published by an organization called nolo that offers all sorts of legal and business advice in layman's terms. It's an incredible book that walks you through all of the steps to start a business, including writing a business and financial plan. If you take the time to do what this book suggests, you will end up with a really sound business proposal that you can use to show potential private investors your plans. It also talks about partnerships, which might be a consideration for you. And I think that nolo has other books that give suggestions for financing a new business, too. They are awesome and worth every penny, if you are willing to put in the hours it takes to work on the kind of detail this plan requires.

On a more personal note, I have also decided to put off the cake business for a little while, until we can better afford to put more of our own money up front for it. When I put all of the numbers on paper, I just couldn't justify asking a loved one to loan us that much, especially with a fairly risky business venture. And I'm not ready (yet) to have a bank loan or partnership. For now I just keep baking for friends, and gathering ideas from CC!

I hope you can find a way to fund your business! Keep us posted!

First things first.

Are you looking to convert your garage or lease a space/building? Is it possible to even convert your garage in your state?

How much money do you need and how did you come up with that figure? How much do you need to sell per day to break even and meet expenses? What equipment do you need and how much does it cost? Does your state allow home appliances or do you have to use all commercial grade equipment?

How much build out construction will you have to do, whether it's a leased space or your garage? Is the water piping already there or do you have to trench thru concrete? What's the wiring like? Will it support the amperage required to run the equipment you've determined you need to get?

(Here's one for you .... my kitchen designer spec'd in a dishwasher with a 3-phrase heat booster, but the contractor found the building had no 3-phrase wiring in the entire strip mall, so the designer had to come up with a 1-phase alternative.)

What is the cost of your liability insurance, equipment insurance, are you required to carry worker's comp insurance, cost of commercial vehicle insurance? If you lease a space, don't forget to factor not just your rent, but your common area maintenance fees and any signage rent they may charge to put a sign on the strip mall pylon. How much is a sign, anyway? For the storefront and for the pylon?

Do you have commercial accounts set up with suppliers and if so, which ones? What are you buying and who are you buying it from? If you go after SBA monies down the road, the bank wants to know that you are not dependent on just one supplier and that you have established accounts with multiple suppliers.

What is your business background? Have you run a business before? Do you have a track record of sales and sales growth? Who is going to run the business vs. who is going to run day to day operations?

What is your competition in the area and how will you deal with them? How does their pricing, products and services compare to yours? Who is your target market and how will you market to them? What are the demographics of your area....age, salary, growth, unemployment rate, availability of employees, etc. If you are doing wedding cakes, what is the marriage rate per capita and/or how many marriage licenses are issues per year? How many divorces? (60% of all weddings are 2nd and 3rd marriages.)

All of this is information you will derive as you write your business plan. As one banker told me, "We dont' really read the plan ... it's really more of an exercise for you to go thru to make sure you are looking at this with a business sense and not an emotional sense."

He's right .... it's an EXCELLENT exercise! Unless you have a strong accounting background, you'll probably have to have a CPA help you with the financial section.... pro-forma balance sheet and income statement; set up costs; break even chart and graph, etc.

So if you are going to ask anyone .... bank or family .... for money to open a business, you should do your homework and present it to them as a business.

My bank said they couldn't do an SBA loan to open my business until I'd been in biz for 3 years because I was in the food industry. Contrary to popular belief, there are not people out there just waiting to write a check to women who want to open a business.

Even if you won the lottery and had the money to do it all today, I'd STILL recommend doing the biz plan. It's an amazing exercise and the information you discover will help you tremendously!!!

Indydebi---you are a genius!

I got on line and found free training on creating a business plan. Went to small business .gov. There is alot of info and l9inks to your state.

I got on line and found free training on creating a business plan. Went to small business .gov. There is alot of info and l9inks to your state.

This is a great opportunity for me to thanks publicly The great Debby for sending me her business plan, it's been of great help for me, thank you again Debby for been always there with all your wisdom and help.

Kathryn, I live in Alabama also so Hi neighbor! Since indydebi mentioned doing a home business I wanted to throw in something - I have been told that Alabama does not license a home bakery business - HOWEVER - I work for an insurance company writing commercial business(instead of getting to own that cake shop I would love but don't have the money to do!) and within the past week we had an application from someone who converted her garage into a cake business and was licensed by the state. So - if being able to convert something at home is an option and someone tells you Alabama does not license home cake businesses - don't take no for an answer! You may have to go through some red tape - but apparently it can be done! Good luck with and keep us posted!

Here is an idea that I have came up with. Purchase a two story/duplex home that is in a commercial area so you can get it rezoned if not already zoned for commercial use. If you can find a place that is already a duplex would be best. You can rent the upstairs to cover the mortgage. The downstairs will already have a bathroom and kitchen. There will be little work to do depending on what your state requires. Find a home that is a decent price and bid low...at least $10,000-$15,000 under the sale price. But, get your loan for the total amount so you can use the extra money for whatever you need. For example....the house is listed for $75,000...you offer $60,000 and they accept. You get the loan for $75,000 and receive the $15,000 difference. Or something along those lines, lol.

Just a thought, lol.

Or if you have enough equity in your home (if you own) you could refinance.


I am in the same boat though. I have been trying to make something work for the past few months. Something always comes up to get in the way. I am trying to decide if God is trying to give me a sign to wait, or if he is testing me to see if I truly want this.

converting a garage and being a home bakery business aren't necessarily the same thing. Could be you just have to have a separate kitchen, which is what the person did when converting the garage area. I suspect they won't license you if you bake out of the same kitchen used for the household.

Sorry ya'll for not getting back with you sooner! thanks for all the info! We've thought about converting our carport but our county says we have to have a building seperate from our house. I have some of the commerical equipment that my mom had in her wedding and catering business so it wouldn't cost alot to get the rest of what I need. My dad was going to help us, and we had found a building that was once a resturant so we wouldn't have to fix a kitchen from stratch but him and my new stepmom decided to buy horses instead of helping me.

We also don't want to build a small building behind our house because we plan on moving in the next couple of years.
indydebi...thanks for all the great info! I have gotten several business books that has all those questions in them and I was planning on working on it before we ask for money.
I currently making soy candles in a very small room in our basement, we sell them at local festivals for a little extra money...I'm waiting for a spiritual sign to let me know what I really need to be doing.
We have done some of the research that we need to do but haven't gotten to all of it. because of our 2 small children(girl 6 years & boy 7 months)

Can anyone help me figure out how to get my photo downsized so I can put it under my username?

Thanks for clarifying! Sounds like you HAVE done quite a bit of work already. And you know what you want and what you don't.

I would still say your next step is to make time to work on the business and financial plan. Once that is on paper, you will have an even clearer picture of what needs to happen, and I believe it will give you courage to approach other potential investors!

As for the picture, I just use "Paint" to resize- there's an option in the Image menu to Stretch/skew. Then do a Save As and select Gif as the file type. That usually does it for me.

You might also look into grants that are given to minorities to help open a business. Women are considered minority business, regardless of race. I found this out when my husband and I recently started doing some research into me starting a business.

Good luck with your business, I would love to have one some day too.

As far as resizing pics, I go to www.shrinkpictures.com , I could never figure out how to do it on my computer. Just click on resize there and it gives easy directions for you. Good luck!!

I would rent kitchen or exchange product for using a caterer's kitchen while you build your client base. Create your business plan as suggested and see if the amount of money you are able to pull in makes sense to move forward with an independent kitchen of your own.