You know, I can't afford the TONS of money, time, and attention span for med school.. so I didn't go. Guess what that means?

Means I'm not making my living as a Dr.

I'm not going to elaborate a ton, but I 100% agree with Debi's post. I moved here with pretty much just the clothes on my back, and *I* was able to go legal. I face obstacles that many of you will NEVER have to go through. If I can do it legally, anyone can. It's laziness and defeatism to say otherwise.

I have to apologize ahead of time, as I know my post is going to sound like a reall b*tch...but here it goes.

I spent a lot of time, a lot of money, a lot of research, gave up a full time IT carear...and STILL spend a lot of time, a lot of money and a lot of research, to run a fully legal, fully inspected, home based bakery. It really pisses me off, and again I am sorry, but it just does, that some people bake cakes out of thier homes, ILLEGALLY, and charge money for it. They are not only taking away MY business, but they are also making a risk to the public that if someone gets sick, or someone complains, and there are enough complaints, not only does it risk the state no longer allowing home based bakeries, but it also affects the reputation of those of us who do have a legal, inspected bakery. (we get enough flack from the public asking why we aren't a "Real Bakery". I personally dont want to go to a store front because I like working from home, I can keep my costs down (thus the price of my cakes) and offer a better product)

I don't care if you are making 1 cake a month. or 1 cake a year. You are also not paying taxes to the state for your sale, and this adds up and affects the general economy.

I know some states make you get extra sinks and extra this and extra that...but if you want to run a business, it takes money to start up. Most businesses are HUNDREDS of THOUSANDS of dollars, so we are VERY lucky we don't have to invest that much. But if you really want to do this, you find the money, the time, and the efforts involved.

Sorry again if this is harsh, but again, I HATE illegal bakeries!!! GET legal, that is your only answer. Swap, charge, whatever...GET LEGAL.

indydebi:


Welll Said!!!!! And THANK you for that post!!!!

"What we have here, is a fAilure to communicate". Some people are not really comprehending what they are reading here it appears. Sorry to hear of your downfalls Copacobanya.

txkat:

I would like to point out that not all of us home bakers use mix (yeck!) and the only can of crisco I have in the house is for making fried chicken! (which what it was designed for) As far as freezing, I had a bride tell me she went to a tasting at a store front bakery right up the street from me, where their cakes were still FROZEN AT THE TASTING!!! I agree, some home bakers do use mixes and shortcuts, but so do some big bakeries!

I would like to point out that the Best Wedding Cake bakery voted this year in the Knot magazine for the Raleigh/Durham area IS A HOME BAKER. (and this was decided by brides)

Good luck with your bakery! I have seen your stuff and you will do very well!!

Hmmm...this post is sorta putting a bad taste in my mouth....I am LEGALLY allowed to sell cakes from my home...my state is a Cottage Foods state. I am just starting out and charge $1.50 per serving (Which by the way is pretty much the going rate in my area....there are a few that are higher, like on lady is $3.75 per serving but, she has also been featured in magazines and won contests and such...so, people WILL pay that price for her services!!) I get people complaining ALL THE TIME..that my prices are too high....When there are soooo many people producing cakes from home...JOE SCHMO down the street can ALWAYS sell cheaper than I can.

I Agree with an earlier post.....it's about selling ones-self....I barely have any orders at all...but the few that I do have say that it's not my prices but my talent that sold me to them...also my attitude, I will try my hardest to get a customer what they want without underselling my self.

So, I understand how hard it is for commercial bakeries....and people who pay an arm and a leg in overhead expenses...but even us "little people" who CAN legally sell cakes from homes we get undersold all the time too.

~ But, I must also say that if I were not LEGALLY allowed to sell cakes from my home I would not do it!! I would just make cakes as gifts to my friends and family and be done with it. I do this because it's something I enjoy doing...I DO it for fun...but at the same time if someone wants to pay me for my services...and it's legal to do so...then so be it.

I don't have a bakery, and I don't sell cakes from home either. My husband wants to open a bakery someday, but I don't really want to, because I really enjoy decorating cakes, and it sounds (from some of you ladies here) like doing it as a business is a great way to quit enjoying it.

Anyhow, here's a question I've been wondering about. How is it legal for a school to have a bake sale and sell cakes that everyone has baked at home? If a home kitchen can't be good enough to be licensed to cook for the public, then wouldn't it follow that the school should not sell the cakes?(although if they demanded as many store-bought cakes from me I would go broke!)

So, having just read through the entire five pages of this thread, I'm feeling really sorry for CharmingConfections... It reminds me of a Seinfeld episode where J. Peterman is commenting on a 'cat fight' by remarking, "Woof."

Down, girls, down... no one is going to win this one.

I wasn't going to post in this thread...and i sure my post is going to get lost amongst all of this but, did you guys ever think about the people that are BUYING these cakes from these "illegal" home bakeries. THOSE are the people you should me mad at! Or maybe it's you that's doing something wrong? Whichever it is...it's being done.

Some of us don't want to INVEST or whole lives into having a bakery because we just can't handle it. It's a way to make side money just like if someone were to make candles from home and sell them...or make pies from home and someone just happens to hand money over to them! It happens! It's a way to make money! So what!!! "I" for one am just trying to get by until I finish school to do what I REALLY want to do! Cake Decorating is not going to be there for the rest of my life! So, if people are willing to pay me for what I am doing right now and they don't care that I am working out of my home....then so be it! I am not going to be doing this for forever! I will possibly be only doing it for the next 2 years! Possibly! May be shorter than that! But, when there are NO jobs for me to work in, in my town of under 100,000 people and my husband keeps getting his hours cut every week...then I am going to do what I have to do! JUST like you all did and now you are KNOCKING us down because of it! That's just not right!

I don't get why you are all mad at THESE people here?? We all probably don't even live next to each other!!!!!! We should all get a grip!!!

I'm in oklahoma, as far as i know they'll allow you to do cakes at home as long as you have a separate kitchen, i looked into doing that, but after having another home based biz for years i decided not to go that route....i wanted to keep my biz and home separate.

It's the government making it so hard for us, it's like the hate small business....they try to squeeze as much money as possible out of us.

I think theres enough business for all of us...from the real big shops...to the one man shops like me...to the people working at home...i personally put in more hours at my other biz when it was at my home, thats why i wanted this one away from home...i'm just sayin.....

"but even us "little people" who CAN legally sell cakes from homes we get undersold all the time too."

How true that is!! I deal with this all the time too. In NH it's really easy to get licensed.. people still do this illegally, but even the legal homebakers I know have this idea that they HAVE to sell cheap to get business. My thought is you only HAVE to sell cheap if you CHOOSE to sell cheap. I am a (legal) home baker.. but I charge just as much (if not more) than the bigger bakeries around me. Why?? It costs me more to make things because I can't buy in bulk like they can.. plus I use mostly local ingredients. A lot of the bigger bakeries around me use mixes that they can buy in mass quantinites. I use this to my advantage though. It's selling point. Now I don't take offense to the kicking their feet up between cakes comments because they don't pertain to me and I know it.I am not a hobby baker who dabbles in the business side.. this is my business and, while it's slow starting out, I work very hard at it.

I do think that this has gotten a little out of hand.. but I can completely understand the strong feelings that the operating illegally can bring up. To the OP.. don't fret.. it wasn't you in particular that stirred up this hornet's nest of feelings. I do think we all need to step back and read these posts as the ventings they are and not personal attacks.

My school district doesn't do bake sales any more. They also don't allow kids to bring cupcakes that their mom made for their birthday (or any other holiday party).

Even though I'm not legal I still pay taxes. My dh is a CPA and does all the tax work for me- but they get paid both state and federal.

Wow. I think the original poster was just asking a question and wasn't looking to evoke this type of discussion with the us against them mentality.

When it's all said and done, people reach success in many different ways. If it's flying under the radar and waiting until you build your customer base or if it's going full out and making a large investment. But either way, I don't think the word "lazy" should enter the discourse.

In any type of business, doing it at home or in an office, or kitchen in this case, requires a certain amount of time and dedication. Each situation has it's merits and drawbacks. Homebakers have their own set of issues and so do shop owners.

I don't think that we should criticize the path that others have taken in any case. In all facets of business, there will be those who price high, low and around the middle. This is all of course dictated by the area and the competition. But in the end, your ability and the quality of your product is what will bring you customers.

There are so many variants to pricing that it's totally unfair to say that because someone bakes at home they underprice thusly hurting "legal bakers". Home bakers have overhead as well, what about utilities that wouldn't be as high if they didn't bake from home? And what about a shop owner who actually owns the building? Wouldn't that allow them to price lower? Would you criticize them as well for degrading the industry because their prices are lower?

All in all, you determine your success in your business. Your path is only yours and can't be compared to those of others. Plot out what the best strategy is for you, take the good and the bad, and move forward. Life isn't fair and neither is business.

You know why I left the floral business?

Because of all the church ladies, SAHM, and everyone else who decided they "wanted to play with flowers" and proceeded to do so.. from their basements.. no overhead.. and very little profit margin because they were "just doing it for fun".

All of that money into training, tools, everything.. didn't stand up for much when these people ruined the industry. If you had any idea how many florists close shop every month because of the "basement betties" and other outside crap undercutting their prices and devaluing the product... it's just very sad.

When I invested time, effort, creativity, and yes - a little money - into recareering to be a LEGAL baker, I was so happy that our state has strict laws - I thought it would protect the industry in a way that floral was NOT protected.

I'm lucky though.. I already had something I COULD recareer into. I know plenty of florists who had to go to school and train for a whole new career, because flowers are ALL THEY DID THEIR WHOLE LIVES before the recreational crowd ruined it for them. Middle age and even older!

So I've seen what effect something like this had on an entire industry already. I've seen the effect it had on FRIENDS in that industry. I think the "oh, I'm not going to be legal because I want to stay at home and make money here" thing is awfully short sighted and selfish.

Well said, Masked Baker, well said!

Why get mad at the clients? They most likely have no idea that the person they are buying a cake from is illegally operating their business. I mean how many people start their pitch with "Now I am operating this business without the proper licensing.."?

Not an attack on you at all, just questioning the logic.

jkalman-you are right! not a lot of people do that! And not a lot of people understand it either.

But, I do say to them...."Well, you do know I am working out of my home?" So, I feel that I say it in the way of they can take the risk or not. So I feel they get what I'm saying! I could be naive but then again, I won't be doing this for much longer.

I believe that we should do what's right-and legal. I am not a business-I have never taken any money even for supplies-for anything I have made. It has been offered. Where I live you cannot leagally bake at home. So until I can find a bakery to work in-or a kitchen to rent time in (and then beome legit) I will not be in business. I have had a business before (building swimming pools) and so many people were "in business" uninsured, unlicensed and working out of their trucks and could undercut legitimate businesses like mine, that I understand how the legitimate bakers on this site feel.

Wait...back the truck up!!!
First of all, i haven't been replying in the forums lately but i just had to put my 2 cents in.

How does this make sense? And this is not just directed at the person I'm quoting. If the homebakers are a threat to the legal bakers, but then once they become legal they will also be a threat then what should they do?

And Risque/ButterWench ...making your snotty comments is pretty much what you are known for.
You talk down to others.
You are condescending.
You make little jabs at anyone you can just so you can feel better.
You imply that unless you are baking at a shop that you are some sort of soccer mom with the easy life...blah blah blah
Is any of this helpful? No, but i guess that wasn't the purpose.

And please dont start with the "I give my opinions and just tell the truth"..."people are so sensitive" , etc. etc. No, you make these comments to make yourself feel better.
I know you will think this is harsh, but really it had to be said.

And its either...not eighter. That was how i knew you were RB...you've been spelling it like that for over a year and I thought you may like to know.

Steph.. I don't want you to feel like I was jumping on you so I hope you don't..

I think the you will be more of a threat once you are legal comment is saying that once someone is legal they can go all out and advertise and definitely become a threat.. but as an illegal homebaker you tend to be more reserved so you can fly under the radar and not draw too much attention to yourself not to mention that if this person knows you are not legal they can easily report you if they feel you are getting out of hand. Not that this woman had this intention, but it's a possibility.

Of course that is just my assumption and you know what assuming can get you.