I may have the opportunity to rent kitchen space from an established business with a licensed kitchen. For those of you who rent, would you please be willng to share your arrangements with me. This is what I know so far and what I have questions about:

1 - I will need my own license and inspection - but should be fairly painless as the kitchen is already licensed

2 - I have serv-safe certification

3 - I will need my own insurance

4- I will need a sales-tax license

5 - Do you think it is best to rent hourly or a flat rate per month?

Please share with me your arrangements, contracts, pros and cons, anything, anything, anything you can think of.

I am super excited but would hate to miss something important and get in over my head.

Thanks so much!!

Jen

I hope to be able to do this one day, haven't yet... Very exciting for you!!!
But one thing that crosses my mind when reading your post is #5...probably depends on how many cakes you think you'll be doing, and if it would be more cost effective for you to do it one way or the other. If you're not doing a lot, or it varies from month to month, hourly might be the way to go. If you think you'll have the volume to make a monthly rate worth it, and it would not limit your time, that might be the best option.

I don't know what kind of business it is, but also what hours would you be allowed to use the facility? Are there times you won't be able to get in there? You might want to have a contract or something that states when you will be allowed access.

Good luck! I am interested to hear what others that have done this successfully have to say!! (Hoping to be there one day!)

That's really exciting. I am not currently renting commercial space but I have considered it and looked into it a few times. One thing to make sure you have clear is storage space? My understanding (and I could be wrong) is that your ingredients have to be stored at the commercial kitchen, I'm still unclear about equipment so at least questions to ask is will you have your own storage area, can you lock it? How long can you leave items there if you do an hourly rate vs monthly? Also I remember reading that you can not take the cakes home you have to take them from the kitchen to the delivery site so will they let you store the cakes in the refridgerator if they take you more than one day to decorate? What happens if one of their staff damages your cake or supplies. Will they allow people to pick up cakes from their location?

If this is the first time they've rented out space, they won't be thinking of these things either. The best situation I've seen at the big rental places is that you get a pantry locker that you lock. I have no idea how refridgerated items would work like sour cream etc. Wishing you all the luck with this.

The business is a "pre-made homemade" type store. People can order there lasagnas and hotdishes (or whatever is on that months menu) for example and pick them fresh or buy them frozen out of the display freezer. They also have an amazing by the pound salad bar at noon. They are open 11-6 Mon - Fri and 10-2 on saturday. The rest of the time could be mine - which is perfect because I work a full-time job.

We discussed storage and she said they would have a designated place for all my stuff. We have not discussed fine details like if people could pick their cakes up when that store was open and I wasnt there.

Thank you for your responses.

Any one else?

I would hate to rent hourly, but I also have my own space to work away from the caterers. I pay a monthly fee but then we pay a percentage of my cake sales for the month. The more I make, the more they make.

I rent from the same type of place you do. We all rent by the hour (probably 7 other renters). If we are willing to share the space that day, we get to share the rent, too! I pay $20 a month for cleaning supplies on top of my rent, which is only a required minimum of 3 hours. Forces you to learn to work faster if you are pokey like me. What else... oh, get an NSF approved cart on wheels so you can move your pans, ingredients, etc right up to you while working, then can wheel it out of the way when done. And yes, if the establishment already has their food license, chances are your inspection will be a breeze. Good luck!