A new coffee shop has asked me to make cupcakes, desserts and sandwiches for them, but neither of us know how we should go about setting it up. Should I be an independent contractor or be an employee? I can do as much business as I want on the side either way, but has anyone had this sort of experience? Not sure if I should charge them a percentage of sales, pay a monthly rental fee or just take the paycheck? HELP! 
I personally think you should set a price for each item (something below retail) and have them purchase the items in whatever quantity they want. That way, you get the money up front and they can't try to avoid paying for any products they don't sell at the end of the day.
definitely get paid up front ... no 'consignment' type of deals on perishable items. You're taking all the risk. They can also tell you to load them up on inventory ... what do they care? They're not paying anything unless it sells. YOU'RE taking all the risk by over)stocking the levels as THEY requested.
they order it .... you make it ... they pay for it ... you delivery it. dun deal.
Indydebi is a food business god, I'd listen to her...
I agree! Get paid up front. I do cookies for a local play/cafe and I know that some of them don't sell when the week is over. They toss them and buy more. If they have a big event coming up or lots of birthday parties planned, they'll order more. If the weather is beautiful for the week and they're slow they'll order less. But, I always get paid for what I make, whether it sells or not.
Good luck. Sounds like a great opportunity!
i got an offer for this too but they wanted consignment and i just can't do that. I profit when i sell by cupcakes by the dozen so I can't just sell it to them per piece. i'm still gonna be spending the same amount of money to make them.
good luck to you
I would assume you need to be an employee to be covered under their insurance. I could be wrong though. Is it possible to bake in your kitchen and sell to therm?
robinscakes,
I'm assuming that if I baked in my home, I would still need insurance. The gal that owns it is a friend of mine and she said I could bake at the shop (and bring my kids with me-there will be a play room for her kids too) or I can bake at home. I'd rather dirty up her kitchen and use professional appliances, lol!
I generally just bake cakes for friends and family, so I have no experience in this sort of thing. Thanks for all your help, it's greatly appreciated.
p.s. Last night I got a call from another friend of mine that wants 100 cupcakes, 1 gallon of potato salad, a crockpot full of bbq beans AND wants me to shop for decorations and go decorate the place for Saturday night. I think I'll charge for ingredients plus my time. I'm not quite sure who thinks I'm qualified to do this, but...uh...okay.
I was assuming you already had a business out of your own kitchen.
I know that at Christmas time when our bakery was crazy busy, we had some friends come in and help out. One woman was chopping candied cherries for our macaroons and she asked if she was "covered" if she chopped her finger off. The owner said, "That's when we'd say, Diane who???" In other words, she wasn't covered. I think you'd be covered by their insurance if you were a customer, but it's a bit of a gray area for me (not being an insurance agent) if you're working out of her kitchen. But, if she's a friend, you may be able to wiggle something out of it.
I understand the messing up someone else's kitchen. I just did a Coach purse cake for a friend at the bakery instead of my kitchen. It would have been more convenient for me to do it at home since I wasn't selling it, but I did it at the bakery....better to mess up that kitchen than mine!
Robin
I sell to a coffee shop, I drop off the goods with an invoice and they mail me a check.
I recently found out that this is not allowed through Nc licensing. I think I could consign, but home bakeries cannot sell things to become retail.
For that reason, you may need to bake in her shop in order to sell there.
I am in this situations right now as a matter of fact. I work out of a deli were I pay the owners 10% of my sales. I am also worried about insurance not so much for me but all of my equiptment that is stored there. And also his tax accountant told him he would have to 1099 me at the end of the year does anyone know why that is. He doesn't pay me anything? Thank you for bringing this up I tought my situation was to weird to ask anyone their opinion
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I agree with everyone else - find out what they want - give them a price and get paid up front.
Here's the deal, (a least here) in order to sell to them and work in their kitchen you will have to get a caterer's license, you also need your own insurance--it has to be handled like a separate business--a caterer's license here is 300.00 and then you need commercial insurance--you will have to have separate business permits as well (this is all based on my area)
A Coffeeshop here in Holland is where you go to buy/smoke pot...called such because then no alcohol can be sold/consumed on site. I thought for a second, "Wow! What a clever place to sell your wares!" when I realized it was a US coffeeshop!!! LOL I've been away from home tooooo long!
Edited to note: I ain't never been in one, either!
"A Coffeeshop here in Holland is where you go to buy/smoke pot...called such because then no alcohol can be sold/consumed on site. I thought for a second, "Wow! What a clever place to sell your wares!" "
Too funny
A Coffeeshop here in Holland is where you go to buy/smoke pot...called such because then no alcohol can be sold/consumed on site. I thought for a second, "Wow! What a clever place to sell your wares!" when I realized it was a US coffeeshop!!! LOL I've been away from home tooooo long!
Edited to note: I ain't never been in one, either!
You made me laugh!!! However, what a great places to sell lots of munchies!!!
A Coffeeshop here in Holland is where you go to buy/smoke pot...called such because then no alcohol can be sold/consumed on site. I thought for a second, "Wow! What a clever place to sell your wares!" when I realized it was a US coffeeshop!!! LOL I've been away from home tooooo long!
Edited to note: I ain't never been in one, either!
You made me laugh!!! However, what a great places to sell lots of munchies!!!
I'm still thinking about the pot being ok, but alcohol isn't. ?????? 
Crazy world we live in!
Indydebi is a food business god, I'd listen to her...
Didn't Indydebi basically agree with my suggestion? Where's the love?!
Don't worry, the love came directly from me! Thanks for your help. 
A Coffeeshop here in Holland is where you go to buy/smoke pot...called such because then no alcohol can be sold/consumed on site. I thought for a second, "Wow! What a clever place to sell your wares!" when I realized it was a US coffeeshop!!! LOL I've been away from home tooooo long!
Edited to note: I ain't never been in one, either!
Sounds like you better write up a business plan, lol!
Indydebi is a food business god, I'd listen to her...
Didn't Indydebi basically agree with my suggestion? Where's the love?!
I really didn't mean any harm. I certainly didn't mean to imply that you didn't have the right answer, just that Indy ALWAYS seems to know something about food sales. Sorry if I offended you, I really didn't mean to 
take it from the horse's mouth on this one.... I do this.... I started doing consignment on my sugar cookies for holidays... she would call and say I need this many and I would prepare them, set x amount to sell them and she would sell them at that and take 15% off of the top and handle the taxes.... I went in one day and my cookies had been marked down, w/o asking me 1st.... had I known this I would have grouped them up and sold a bouquet.... but no they just marked them down.... when pay up time came, I did get what I qouted for payment of the cookies not the mark down price, I wouldn't have had it any other way. I prepare a consignment invoice of what I have supplied and what I charge and she pays that less her 15%... the only thing I do through there now is individual orders and leads, no prepared stuff. I keep a cc bouquet on display for show so people can grasp the concept and see how I package it... other than just business cards. HTH!
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