Ok, here goes, I need some advice - FAST!

Here goes the story, hope I don't bore you or ramble to death

My wife works with a lady that has a nephew that's a minister. She told her nephew about us and our desire to make wedding cakes. He told her he wanted to meet us and possibly offer us an opportunity to work with him. Now, here goes the clincher, he used to do weddings here and there, but his business has picked up so much lately that he's decided to bring on a wedding planner to his group. This new wedding planner wants to develop a list of contacts/vendors to suggest to the clientele and they would like to meet us to discuss the possibility of having us on their list as a cake vendor.

My worries are:

Health Department
IRS
Licenses
Equipment
Man-power
Limited Space
Overall experience
Etc...etc..etc...

I need some advice from my cake friends

Everyone I talk to is telling me what an amazing opportunity this is...that I should take the risk...that doors like this don't open all the time...that these things happen for a reason and if I want to be successful, I need to start somewhere/somehow.

Guys, I want this so bad...I could taste it! I'm trying to convince myself that we can do it, but I don't want to get way over my head. If I decide to proceed, I don't think I would want them to consider us as their sole baker. I would want to take on projects for smaller/less profile weddings. I just don't think I'm ready to bake for a 200+ guest wedding

What do you all suggest? Do you think we should move forward with this and do it under the table until we get enough profit/experience to have a seperate space just for cakes? Thoughts? Ideas? Suggestions? Advice?

Thank you for listening (reading) to my Monday morning DRAMA!!!

Hi,

The first question is: Are you licensed to sell baked goods either out of your home or someplace else?

If not, than my advice to you is, before you have your name advertised, to sell Wedding Cakes, you need to get yourself licensed. There are way too many things that can happen and you'll want to cover yourself. It's one thing to bake for family and friends, but when you place yourself on a list of potential Wedding Cake Bakers, you need to be licensed.

I went through this process about 4 yrs. ago, it's really not too bad. Just call your local Health Dept., and anonymously ask what the requirements are for having your home kitchen licensed to sell baked goods.

Good Luck, it sounds like a good opportunity. I think you should go for it. Remember if you get an order that you aren't comfortable with, you can always decline. You don't have to be forced into making something you are not comfortable with.

florida does not license home baking businesses - you must bake from a licensed commercial kitchen and you have to take the food handling course and become licensed. There are fees involved with that as well - I think its about $300 total.

The hardest part is finding a kitchen.

Where in FLA are you??

If you are licensed and are baking out of a licensed kitchen, i say GO FOR IT - if not, I wouldn't do it - too dangerous - big fines if you get caught!

I hate to say it, but I also think you would need to get licensed to do this. Do they know that you are not licensed? I would be worried about someone seeing your name, realizing you are not licensed, and reporting you. You won't know who will see the list.

I so feel for you -- I REALLY want to sell cakes, but as far as I know, you cannot get licensed to see out of your domestic kitchen (although apparently you can if you set up a second kitchen, but who can afford that if you only plan to sell the odd cake?)