Starting a business, working from home. Couple of queries...

SB118

SB118

SB118

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My wife is hoping to start up a baking business from home, got a couple of queries about how to start things up.

Unsure about things like startup expenses, things like getting her food handling certificates, kitchen inspection (council star rating as selling to the public), buying a new oven (and how much of the cost we can offset, not sure if we're going to convert one of the sheds to a separate kitchen just for the business or just refresh our family kitchen), etc.

Do we have to wait until she is self-employed before we can offset these costs, or can she get these things sorted out, then "start" the business? Or does she go self-employed, but carry on at tesco while the certs and inspections are done?

She's doing this partially because she enjoys baking and partially to be at home to keep an eye on me, saying goodbye to tesco night shifts would be a perk too.

If she can take care of the start up costs before going self employed we can get her staff discount on any white goods we need to buy, whereas going SE first means everything is full price.

Can you run a business with zero income for a few months waiting while things like inspections are done?

It's not going to be earning us a massive amount but it should start us towards getting off the income support and the like.

Thanks. Tried posting a few images of the stuff she makes but facebook seem to have fiddled with the image links and i can't like to pics any more.

Thanks
 
If possible I would think its best she carry on at tesco whilst you prep and start up the buisness. Since you mention income support I'm guessing you're not really in a posistion to have less money coming in.

Until the buisness is in profit and able to replace wage it doesn't make financial sense to drop a solid income no matter how inconvenient.

It'll be stressful and tiring doing both but hopefully it works out for the better.
 
There's nothing really stopping her working now, so long as she's insured and you get the particulars done within a certain timeframe I wouldn't worry too much. Can be a good little earner. Facebook is your friend with that one, adding customers as friends and repeat business.

I would stay at Tesco though and do the cakes on side until the income starts to come in and she's getting too busy to juggle both.
 
Completely different area/industry but a friend of mine successfully launched a business after moving to 4 days a week then 3 days a week at his employer initially... then quitting to run it full time from home.

He's now got his own offices and a few employees too.

I think starting it while working full time(weekends/evenings) or part time could be the answer initially, test the waters - you're not necessarily going to get sufficient customers initially anyway and if it does go wrong then you've got your job still as a backup.
 
dowie said:
Completely different area/industry but a friend of mine successfully launched a business after moving to 4 days a week then 3 days a week at his employer initially... then quitting to run it full time from home.

He's now got his own offices and a few employees too.

I think starting it while working full time(weekends/evenings) or part time could be the answer initially, test the waters - you're not necessarily going to get sufficient customers initially anyway and if it does go wrong then you've got your job still as a backup.
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This is exactly the same as I did. I had my FT job and used to invest in my business during free time, weekends etc.

24 months later I quit my job (credited myself up to the eyeballs on top of the savings I had)to be FT self employed. 18 months after that I left the country to take it further.

Best of luck with it. Being self employed was one my better decisions.
 
cm1179 said:
i don't know can you?
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Hmm I am sure you can. If not I have broken a few rules and regs when I was in the UK.

My business is VERY seasonal. I make my money between July and January, the rest of the year is pretty much zero income and just preparation and expense for the next period.
 
Baking what sort of stuff and for whom?

Doing it in sufficient volume to make a worthwhile profit would be difficult without commercial equipment.

Unless she's doing something quite specialised/skilled to command a premium? (e.g. wedding cakes with intricate sugar work)
 
This is a typical case of someone overthinking starting a business.

She should continue on her day(or night) job unless you can afford to support the household financially or cut back the hours she works, start knocking on doors to get contracts, build her reputation, then when she has x amount of consistent new business or recurring revenue to cover the lost salary, quit the job. You can't start thinking of offsetting costs before you've even made a buck :p Look at grant funding in your area, also. These provide funding for small businesses to buy equipment and so on.
 
beh said:
Baking what sort of stuff and for whom?

Doing it in sufficient volume to make a worthwhile profit would be difficult without commercial equipment.

Unless she's doing something quite specialised/skilled to command a premium? (e.g. wedding cakes with intricate sugar work)
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She does all sorts of cakes, some plain with basic text but usually with a fair amount of fondant work and decoration. She starting a course in lacework in september.

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Lego men at the bottom are edible.

nsfw
 
No idea right now, we've been making these at cost for family and friends. We get invited to a lot more parties now.

Pricing is one of the things we need to hammer out.
 
Hmm I think you need to look into pricing first before even bothering with food certs/white goods.

If such a thing can be made for £20 then it's worth pursuing if it costs £200 to produce I'd be suprised if you get much custom unfortunatly.
 
You should regsiter your new business first (that way you can claim any money you spend as expenses)

Good luck I tried being self employed 5 years ago and got bored with it
 
Mynight said:
Hmm I think you need to look into pricing first before even bothering with food certs/white goods.

If such a thing can be made for £20 then it's worth pursuing if it costs £200 to produce I'd be suprised if you get much custom unfortunatly.
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Just spoke to her and she says the going rate for something like the cookie monster is £45-£50, costs just under a tenner to make.
 
There are 3-4 stages which can be done separately, in total i estimate 3-3.5 hours, but spread out over maybe a day and half.

It's been great during the school holidays, lots of time for the kids.

It probably works out to a bit over NMW but it fits around our schedule, once they are back to school/nursey it should be faster and taking on more than one cake at a time will greatly improve time use, 20 minutes to mix, hour in the oven, hour to cool, then decorate, lots of down time where she can work on another cake while one is cooking.

eg, this ..

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.. took as long as the cookie monster as she could carry on with the first tier while the second was cooking/cooling.
 
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SB118 said:
Just spoke to her and she says the going rate for something like the cookie monster is £45-£50, costs just under a tenner to make.
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A lot people I know who make cakes to a very high standard don't do it full time. It's a thing they do on the side to earn a little extra. To make this into a job that pays a decent salary you'd have to be shifting 2-3 of these a day every day.

It's also a very saturated market. Every stay at home mum and bored house wife are knocking out these cakes all over face book.
 
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