My husband and I have bought a new house; but becuase of the housing market we decided to keep the old one. I inquired about a bake shop and he agreed. Help, what do I do?!!! I must move quickly before he changes his mind. Where do I begin?

First check with your HD for requirements as well as town offices for zoning bylaws and such. There's no point in doing much more than that until you get the ok from the town or you could be putting in a lot of work for nothing.

Good luck and keep us posted.....

Zoning and health inspection are early things. Can you even have one there, especially if you plan to have people driving by to buy stuff. Residential zoning wont' allow for that.

Even if you get an OK from zoning and health, have you looked into the financial implications of sinking so much money into converting a house into a bake shop? You will probably have a very hard time selling the converted house if you decide to sell in the future. It may make more sense to just rent out the house, and use the rental income to pay for renting an existing commercial kitchen.

This is definitely not something you want to move quickly on.

If you live in a state that allows home baking, you wouldn't have to do much to your "cake house" except pass inspection. You're still going to need a bunch of insurance. Write up all the expenses associated with operating your cake shop and then figure out how many cakes you're going to have to do in order to turn a profit. Then figure out if you want to be tied down with that many cakes. Making cakes for extra spending money and making cakes to keep a business afloat are two very different animals. Good luck!

Well the very first place you need to begin is with you local town. Is the place where you old house located zoned for that kind of business? Even if the DOH tells you can do home baking, you have to check with your town. Because many towns do not allow commerce of any kind to happen in the home. And they will eventually find out when you have one neighbor complain about the amount of traffic going in and out of your old house. And even if there are other businesses around, call the town and ask. And as a matter of fact, you should go in person to the building code department and ask in person. I got a whole lot of misinformation the first time I inquired.

After that there is a whole slew of stuff, one of which is to do a business plan. If you don't have the desire to do a business plan, at least do the financial part of a plan to see if you will make any money on this venture in your area where your old house is located. Financially it might not be worth it. If you find that out, don't despair. Because you have equity in that house that you could use if you sell it to open one elsewhere.

Whether it is in a already paid for house or not, there are other expenses besides the mortgage/rent. Don't be deceived into thinking it will be cheaper just because it is not a store front. There are still all the same expenses, especially if you are not living in the house. Think of all the expenses in your new home times two.