I hope you all can help me. I would like to start a business out of my home, & can get licensed in NC ( north of Charlotte) no problem. I think I would really like it and have posted one of my new cakes on my site - Here's my problem -
My husband is a business man and thinks it's only smart to have a business plan to see what the potential income could be. Pricing for these types of cakes are all over the place (here) so I can look at an average but I really don't know what type of income I could be expecting.
My children are grown, so I can work outside the home but would prefer to make my big commercial style kitchen at my house pay for itself.
I'm pretty fast at making stuff - I think -

1. Is there anyone that could give me some averages?
example - How many cakes do you make a week?
2. what do you think the average home based business makes?
3. Do you think you get most of your business from the internet or word of mouth?
4. Do you often need people to help, or do you do it all yourself?
5. Is this a slow build type business, or has anyone had a "fast" start ie. lots of orders, quickly.
6. What do you think I should expect for the first year of business if I have a really great website and get a lot of orders - just looking for some sort of average here -
7. Do you have any good website / resources that you know of that might help me in this discovery process?
8. has anyone done a business plan recently?

I really love this business, but need a decent income to pay bills.
Thanks to all who respond. Any help/idea is greatly appreciated.

I'm not in NC, but as I read your list of questions, the answer that comes to mind for most of them is "It depends."

How many per week? It depends .... on how much time you want to devote.
Average sales for a home business? It depends ... on your pricing structure, profit margin, sales capability, capacity (how many and how big are your ovens, for instance) and how much time you want to devote.

Internet or Word of Mouth? Depends .... what search engines are you on, is your website optimized (man, did I see a BIG difference when I did that!); what kind of networking organizations do you plan to join, how are you going to spread the word for the word-of-mouth to get started?

#5 & 6: Totally depends on all of the above.

I got a lot of info for my biz plan from the local county clerks office. Marriage/divorce stats, number of marriage licenses issued; demographics of the area (ages, income levels, population, etc).

Busines plan: I have shared my biz plan with many CC'ers and will happily share it with you, if you want to see the kind of info I put in it, to give you some ideas. If interested, EMAIL me (not PM) and I will reply with the attachment.