How To Start A Baking Business!

So you wanna start a baking business! Yay, congratulations! But do you actually know how to start one? And I mean start one the RIGHT WAY!

It's true, there are TONS of steps that go into starting a business to set yourself up for success and I wanna help you!

After starting my business with ABSOLUTELY nothing, operating a home based business for two years, owning two storefronts as the founder of The Cake Mamas and spending over a DECADE in the baking industry, I'm sharing the DO'S AND DON'TS of starting a baking business.

You can grab my ENTIRE bundle for "How To Start A Baking Business" for FREE here! Inside I share my:

• Eight Tips To Help You PROPERLY Name Your Business
• How To Start A Business The RIGHT way! Your small business checklist
• Business Expense Essentials For Small Businesses
• A 10-Step Checklist To Making Your Business LEGIT!

Plus you'll receive a BONUS of must-have APPS and RESOURCES you'll need for your business!

If you're interested in how I started my business, READ on to hear the EXACT steps I took when building what turned out to be a million dollar business.

Let's take it wayyyyy back to the beginning...

In 2009, my husband Eddie and I BOTH lost our 6-figure corporate jobs working for Circuit City.

In 2009, that was when the entire economy crashed. Millions of people were laid off from their jobs (including us), those same people were filing bankruptcy( including us), and we realized really quick that we were in trouble.

We made tons of sacrifices like pulling our girls (five, six, and nine at the time) out of extracurricular actives, went down to one car, got rid of our child care, refinanced our home, and changed the ENTIRE way we lived our lives.

It wasn't easy but it got us through one of the most difficult times in our lives. And in hindsight, we're better off for it.  

For those of you reading this that know nothing about me, I'm a creative person and I always need to have my hands in something. As you could imagine, sitting at home wasn't fueling my creative juices at all. One day, I was watching the "Cake Boss", feeling INSPIRED and I decided to go out and buy all the ingredients, some fondant, and make a cake. Which probably wasn't the BEST decision at the time considering we were trying to save money and we were on a tight budget, but I did it anyway.

Long story short, I loved it and I was freaking good at it (as good as beginner could be). So, instead of trying to find a corporate job, I decided to start my own home baking business.

However, I had NO IDEA how to even start a business or what went into building a home based bakery. That's when Fabiola comes in...

For those of you who don't know, Fabiola is Eddie's ex-wife and the mother of my two oldest daughters. In the early stages of starting this business I had a dream that Fabiola and I were running this bakery empire together and one day I was telling her about it because I thought it was insane but turns out she had experience working in a bakery and I had the corporate background so we DID IT. We decided to jump all in into this business and we just STARTED, which is step #1! 

Once you've decided to start, no you need to know HOW TO NAME YOUR BUSINESS...

Our girls over heard us talking about the business and they said, "Well, if you're both our mommas and you make cake; you should name the business, The Cake Mamas," and the rest is history!

Looking back it was a sentimental name at the time, Fabiola and I both loved it, but it really pigeoned holed us as our bakery grew. Which is why I now teach my students to be careful when naming their business so they don't make the same mistakes I did. If you want to know more tips on how to name your business you can go HERE to get my eight tips to help you PROPERLY name your business.

Once you have your name you'll want to establish your business as a business ENTITY.

This means setting up your business as an LLC, DBA, or an S-CORP. I talk more in depth about this in my FREE 3-part video series:  "How To Start A Baking Business 101" which you can watch now! 

After establishing your business, the next step is to set up a domain and get trademarked. For domains my go-to is always GoDaddy.com, I use them currently in my coaching business and always encourage my students and fellow bakers starting out to do the same. Before securing your domain, make sure no one else has that name or a name similar on social media; if it's not available and you happen to pay for the domain beforehand, you'll be out that money you paid to secure the website. If you're wondering if you should get trademarked or not the answer is always YES! As a home baker it can be an expense that most aren't prepared or ready to invest in and they never do it but TRUST ME, it will save you thousands of dollars in the long-run, PLUS saved STRESS as the years go by. About seven years ago, I was prepared to sue another bakery in another country for using my name. At this time, The Cake Mamas had credibility and was known on social media with over 50K followers, and this other company was operating under the same name, using our photos as there own; yet I wasn't able to do anything about it because I only trademarked domestically rather than domestically and internationally. If you could do BOTH that would be the best option, however it can be expensive so do domestic if possible for you right now. Ultimately with that company, it started to create brand confusion for my customers and we had to take on an ENTIRE RE-BRAND. This entire re-brand cost us upwards of $10,000 and when you take into account the signage, materials, marketing tools, etc. costs add up. For trademarking BOTH domestically and internationally, I recommend LEGAL ZOOM. It's super easy to navigate and takes you step-by-step through the process.

Now you'll want to look into setting up a business phone number and address.

Yes, it's okay to register your business using your home address (which seems like the logical answer for home bakers) but keep in mind situations may pop up that require you provide a physical address for the business. You may want to use a service like GoDaddy SmartLine to add a business phone number to your cell.

Before you start operating, you need to do research and find out if you have the necessary PERMITS/LICENSING required for your industry.

This could be a sales tax license, or a health department inspection, or certain professional licenses depending on your type of business. If you're not sure you can talk to someone from your local SBDC (small business development center). The Secretary Of State website in the state you incorporate will also help you navigate what permits or licensing you may need.

Now you'll have to start thinking about insurance, obtaining an EIN, and opening a business bank out.

Although it may seem unnecessary, insurance is so CRUCIAL for business owners operating from home, let me explain why. My daughter is severely allergic to tree nuts. So say I place an order from your home bakery and there just so happens to be traces of tree nuts in your kitchen or the place you're operating from and my daughter breaks out in an allergic reaction. I could then SUE you and EVERYTHING you own(including your home) because you don't have the security blanket of business insurance to cover if an incident happens like this. Long story short, get the insurance.

An EIN is your employer identification number and this is going to help you when you file taxes with the IRS.

Lastly, you'll want to open a business bank account to keep your expenses organized. This will help you keep track of what your business is bringing in and what your spending. Plus, you can then apply for a wholesale license.

Now that you'll be taking on potential employees, spending on equipment, and inventory; you'll need to set up your books.

Tracking your business expenses and income is essential to any business success. If you don't know how business accounting works, consider hiring a book keeper or accountant or at least brushing up on your math, finance, and accounting skills.

As a bonus, you can now start building your business CREDIT, but beware; building business credit can be a lot trickier than establishing personal credit.

This is just the beginning friend. These few steps are a GREAT foundation to getting started on the right track. As I mentioned before, if you visit www.janellecopeland.com, you can grab my FREE BUNDLE for all things "How To Start A Business," plus you can search "Janelle Copeland" on Youtube for more FREE TOOLS and RESOURCES.

To wrap it up, here are the KEY STEPS to consider:

1. Just START

   *BONUS: Not sure if starting a business is right for you? Click HERE to take my FREE business readiness quiz! 

2. Name Your Business

   *Tip: you can grab my 8 tips to help you PROPERLY name your business

3. Establish a business ENTITY

4. Secure your domain and get trademarked

   *Tip: Secure your domain through GoDaddy.com and get trademarked through Legalzoom.com

5. Set up business phone and address

6. Research your local permits/licensing

7. Business Insurance, EIN, and opening a business bank account

8. Set up your books

*BONUS: Build your business credit

As a friendly reminder, I touch on all of these steps and share more in-depth info during my three-part video series, "How To Start A Baking Business 101", which is available for FREE on Youtube right now.

It's going to feel hard, and a little overwhelming at first, but don't get discouraged, you got this, just GET STARTED!

Cheers to your business success!

Xoxo, Janelle