So this was my first full wedding season running and I ran myself to the bone. I was doing too many orders and generally overwhelmed. Because of the area I am in, I have to rent kitchen space or if I want to do it from home, conform to zoning and a ton of red tape. Well we purchased a home that meets zoning, but to convert the garage plus buy all the equipment it will be about $25,000. It will eat up everything I have earned this year, plus I will have to borrow money from my parents. I have a young son and a husband who works himself to the bone to support us and I feel like this is too much to ask of them and I should just pack it in and go back to the corporate world. I am really feeling discouraged with the cost to get setup for a simple home space. And on top of that, had I done this a few years ago, there would be far fewer regulations and it would have been much cheaper to do, so all those bakers have been grandfathered in and new ones are facing all these issues.

Could anyone lend some ideas, thoughts or support? I am really feeling discouraged and out of steam.

Kcampeau, if you are able to rent a commercial kitchen and you made a good profit, I suggest you continue the practice, at least for now.  Perhaps you can work fewer hours, but on higher end cakes?  For what it is worth, I think cake decorating for a living must be the hardest job in the world!  As much as I love it as a hobby and selling only the occasional cake (on purpose), I would NEVER consider it for a profession.  It is SO much easier to work for someone else and bring in a steady income.  That is just me, you must decide what works for you and your family.

what area are you in?

see if you get a decent job you can always make a beautiful cake here and there and satisfy that baking/caking itch -- wow $25 big ones is a lot -- you sure it'd be that much? you gotta do the plumbing thing with the big floor drain huh -- well idk --

and are you buying all brand new? let's look at cutting that estimate down -- is that possible?

but then again -- you will always be "at work" there's no real going home anymore kinda --

sounds like you really wanna do this but it's a giant hurdle --

jump

I am in Ontario and that is the cheapest that it can be done. Because I need a separate entrance the only area I can put it in is a single car garage. So I have to finish the walls, floors and ceiling, run plumbing and electrical, drains, take the garage door off and close in for a regular door, insulate etc. So that along is $18,000 and then buying second hand tables, pans, oven, shelving and all the nitty gritty stuff is around another $7500. So although I do want to do this, it would take me years to pay back and I am not sure I can handle the stress of that and strain of finances on my family. 

I can get a decent office job and go back to what I was doing before, and yes do a cake here and there for those customers who have always been with me and family and friends. I just love whipping up massive batches of stuff and would have noone to bring it to - I guess I could just give it away on facebook mom groups as there is no law against that!

Such a shame there has been such a clampdown on red tape here in Ontario - they laughed when I brought up cottage food laws in the US like I was crazy for thinking that.

i'm with you -- i LOVE making huge batches of...anything! especially baked goods! here in the states we can take baked goods to police and fire people and emergency room employees -- a lot of those kinds of folks appreciate sugary treats and accept from the public -- i try to balance them with some nuts or bean flour and stuff to make it not just a sugar zing -- but i don't get around to doing that a lot either -- once in a while --

for a while though i had a charity to donate baked goods once a mouth -- that was fun -- it was for women coming out of jail who had been incarcerated for prostitution to try and get them out of the business and into a new life -- and i decorated them a wow cookie thing, bagged it all up with ribbons -- it felt so good -- wanted to somehow convey hope and how special they are and y'know intangible things that only come from God and from deep inside of you/them really -- like a cookie could do that but yeah i did it as just a small part of a whole package -- see many agencies were at this luncheon banquet thing -- and they had an intake time to talk to all of the attendees, tell them of the opportunities available -- feed them a meal and some would come out of that life -- prostitution is a social problem -- law enforcement does not improve their conditions -- so anyway -- 

there would be places for you to bestow some goodies -- my husband and daughter helped too -- unbelievable feel good time --

best to you