How do you know when it's time to hire some help? My husband comes and helps out when he'soff work, but sometimes I'm up until 3-4 in the morning and I've even had to pull a few all nighters. But it's not a consistent thing. Some times I''m super busy and then other months I'm slow.
are there things to be done when you are super slow, like organizing and cleaning the fridge, making stuff ahead of time,
inventory,
sorting.
writing notes?
if you can warrant at least 20 hours of work that you can fob off on someone else, I think you could hire someone.
With the understanding that during busy season that 20 hours can go up to 30 by letting them do your baking.
That keeps you free to do the fun stuff, like customers, cake decorting and calling people back.
Having never hired anyone, my guess would be if you can keep pulling a good profit while at the same time paying someone else a decent wage to do your busywork, then its time to hire someone.
I think it would be exciting to have to have a helper! Yeah! Maybe a friend who is willing to bake for you several hours a week or organize your orders.
Just try to find someone and let her/him know that it is not a steady job, more like a part time thing. Somedays they will have to put in long hours and then there will be days there will be no work. Good luck!
I don't want to make anyone feel bad, but this is not a fair way to hire someone.
you need to guarantee someone a set amount of hours, especially if this is additional income they need to survive.
The extra hours are bonus.
If you treat people decently and fairly you may find a gem in the raw.
and when ever possible the extra 10 hours would be gravy in their pockets!
Just try to find someone and let her/him know that it is not a steady job, more like a part time thing. Somedays they will have to put in long hours and then there will be days there will be no work. Good luck!
I don't want to make anyone feel bad, but this is not a fair way to hire someone.
you need to guarantee someone a set amount of hours, especially if this is additional income they need to survive.
The extra hours are bonus.
If you treat people decently and fairly you may find a gem in the raw.
and when ever possible the extra 10 hours would be gravy in their pockets!
That's why I suggested maybe just start out with a friend who would be willing to help out and be happy for the extra cash. Someone with a flexible schedule and who already has the income they need to live. You would pay a fair wage, but someone who doesn't technically *need* the money.
lol Who in this ecomony doesn't *need* the money!
Heck, I'd take the job myself! lol
Heck, I'm looking for local teenagers just to come in and make cookie dough balls to stock up in the freezer for me! I would answer that question as "When you are spending all of your time in the kitchen doing things that you could pay someone $7-$8 an hour to do, freeing up you, the OWNER, to do the necessary sales, marketing, soliciting, etc ...."
I can't get cookie sample trays out to my neighboring businesses because i'm in the kitchen making 300 cookies a day. Not a good way to grow a biz, so I need some extra hands to do the little stuff for me. 
I'm at the point right now where my business is really going great but I don't quite have enough income to pay for an employee yet. There are some busy weeks though when I am just SO exhausted & overworked, it would be wonderful to have a helping hand so I can get home to my hubby a little earlier. I looked around me & tried to think of who wouldn't mind helping me out just every once in a while. Finally, I asked my 16 year old niece. I can only give her about 3 - 6 hours after school every other week. But, she's always happy to come in & can use the extra money for gas. I don't let her bake or decorate anything, but she covers cake boards, colors my fondant, puts cookies in bags & ties them with ribbon, etc. Since I can't give her a lot of hours, I pay her a little higher ($10/hr.) so it's worth her time. The $30-$60 every other week is so worth it! My only complaint is that I wish I would have asked her to help me sooner! If you can find simple things to do, I think a high school student that doesn't want a lot of hours is a great idea!
I am super busy, too. I WISH I could hire someone to help! But I can't afford it. Kate Sullivan hires another bakery to bake everything for her. I would love to do that, because that seems to be the longest part of the process. Maybe you could call around other bakeries in the area, and see what they would charge you for plain cakes? That could help a bit.
Sometimes you just gotta put it in perspective.
If you paid someone $7/hour for clean up, and worked them 10 hours a week, that's $70 plus your part of the payroll taxes.
$70. In the grand scheme of things, that's not a lot of money.
When I first thought of hiring, I didn't immediately run the numbers. But the thought of hiring just SOUNDED expensive.
It's not unusual for me to have payroll of $250 to $400 for each event. Sounds like a lot, I know. But that covers anywhere from 3-6 people, doing all the work for me, on an event that invoiced $3000 to $4500. Perspectively, it's a drop in the bucket.
And when you're NOT doing all the work, it is SO worth it!! It frees you up to do the management tasks that you just never seem to get to. (Then your accountant is on your butt for not having things done!)
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