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[abculatter_2]

I'd like to start an online-order small bakery, and was wondering if there were any laws, regulations, and/or licenses I should be aware of before-hand, or other things, tips, resources (first person to say 'Google' gets a piece of coal to the face), etc. I should be aware of.

[Pillow_Killer]

Hello. Today is 2010. We currently have around 195(196 here, fuck off UN) recognised counties in the world(On Earth) Due to the fact that all these countries got separate goverment, and as a result separate laws your question doesnt makes a tiny bit of fucking sense so google laws for your goddamn region or ask a local lawyer.
-edit-
Looking at how you probably didnt knew that, I assume you're in USA.
So...
You have to obtain:
Business license
Sellers permit
and dba certificate.

[Lordinquisitor]

Not to forget the most important thing: You need something your customers want. Something that makes your online bakery special. I don`t know why i should buy something from an online bakery if i could just walk 5 minutes to the nearest bakery and i could get everything fresh and cheap.

[Vactor]

The biggest thing you'll want to check on is any food safety laws that might exist, which may call for certain labeling of the products (think nutritional content, ingredients.)  I would guess that there is a certain threshold of production you would need to meet to fall under those regulations though.

As far as selling online, you should look into if your local/national government has sales taxes on internet transactions.  Generally speaking things are usually geared for people to be able to start up easily, with the more onerous laws taking effect once you get your feet on the ground.  The best thing you can do is just start doing it.  If you're in the US you should get ahold of your local community/economic development block grant, or talk to your state's department of commerce, or county's development corporation.  they should have a good amount of resources for start-up companies, including help developing business plans if you're looking for outside investment, or doing a market feasibility study for you. 

In most cases your financials/legal hurdles won't be an issue unless you are looking for investment, or want to separate personal liabilty from your business.   Just make sure you're in compliance with food safety.

[abculatter_2]

Hello. Today is 2010. We currently have around 195(196 here, fuck off UN) recognised counties in the world(On Earth) Due to the fact that all these countries got separate goverment, and as a result separate laws your question doesnt makes a tiny bit of fucking sense so google laws for your goddamn region or ask a local lawyer.
-edit-
Looking at how you probably didnt knew that, I assume you're in USA.
So...
You have to obtain:
Business license
Sellers permit
and dba certificate.

I thought about this before writing this post, but for some reason forgot to add it into the post itself. Apologies.

Not to forget the most important thing: You need something your customers want. Something that makes your online bakery special. I don`t know why i should buy something from an online bakery if i could just walk 5 minutes to the nearest bakery and i could get everything fresh and cheap.

Now that I think about it, perhaps an online bakery wouldn't be a very good idea, for this exact reason.

There is, however, a distinct lack of smaller-scale bakeries in my general area. There might be a reason for that, however...

The biggest thing you'll want to check on is any food safety laws that might exist, which may call for certain labeling of the products (think nutritional content, ingredients.)  I would guess that there is a certain threshold of production you would need to meet to fall under those regulations though.

As far as selling online, you should look into if your local/national government has sales taxes on internet transactions.  Generally speaking things are usually geared for people to be able to start up easily, with the more onerous laws taking effect once you get your feet on the ground.  The best thing you can do is just start doing it.  If you're in the US you should get ahold of your local community/economic development block grant, or talk to your state's department of commerce, or county's development corporation.  they should have a good amount of resources for start-up companies, including help developing business plans if you're looking for outside investment, or doing a market feasibility study for you. 

In most cases your financials/legal hurdles won't be an issue unless you are looking for investment, or want to separate personal liabilty from your business.   Just make sure you're in compliance with food safety.

Now this is exactly the kind of thing I wanted. Thank you muchly.

[DJ]

Your idea will only work if you do "there in 15 minutes or free" deliveries. If there's enough offices in your area people working there will be all over it, since it lets them avoid waiting in lines during lunch break. I'd add coffee to the menu as well.

[abculatter_2]

Alright, thanks to Google and Vactor's post, I think I now have a good, if still rather vague, idea of how to get this going. But one problem keeps biting me in the ass;

Where am I going to sell my products? I don't know much about the competition for this in the area (which might be a good thing, since there must not be much to know), and I have very little in the way of capital. Plus, if I applied for a loan, I'd probably get laughed out of the bank about as quickly as it took them to read the proposal, as I have little more then a fire in my belly and a good cookbook right now.

And on top of this, I'm not entirely sure about the market for such a business in this area, though I have a feeling that it should be enough to provide an acceptable niche.

[Vactor]

Alright, thanks to Google and Vactor's post, I think I now have a good, if still rather vague, idea of how to get this going. But one problem keeps biting me in the ass;

Where am I going to sell my products? I don't know much about the competition for this in the area (which might be a good thing, since there must not be much to know), and I have very little in the way of capital. Plus, if I applied for a loan, I'd probably get laughed out of the bank about as quickly as it took them to read the proposal, as I have little more then a fire in my belly and a good cookbook right now.

And on top of this, I'm not entirely sure about the market for such a business in this area, though I have a feeling that it should be enough to provide an acceptable niche.

a lot of this is what a good market feasibility study will get answers for, as to where you will sell your products, that is a plan that you'll have to come up with, if you're going for fresh baked goods, like breads, doughnuts, etc. you're going to need to be selling to locals and have some sort of delivery plan.  If you're making gourmet confectionery or some other niche product that keeps well in transit you can go for a broader market and use shipping companies.  Take your primary food supply competition, the grocery store and figure out how you can do one particular thing better.  (For fresh breads it could be that you'll drop it off at their house, for gourmet it can be the quality, originality, or style)  If you want a place to get a head for some of these options look at the online distributors that are doing the same type of thing, i would think you could try etsy.com, I'm betting somebody sells candies or baked goods on there.

If you're looking for investment capital you'll need a business plan, and you'll want to talk to a financial planner before you even approach a bank.  Your other option is to simply take out a small personal loan, however you'll probably want to have some business lined up before you do this.  When I got out of highschool I took out a $1000 loan for a summer so I could buy materials for landscaping projects,  I earned this back several times before the loan was due, and at the end of the summer paid the loan back in full with interest for $1024.  Again, I didn't do this until I had some jobs lined up, but you can start doing all the legwork of finding business in your own free time, without any money at all.

[Heron TSG]

Looking at how you probably didnt knew that, I assume you're in USA.

11/10, would be trolled again.

Anyway, from what I've seen of local bakeries, you either need some wacky out-there theme, or you need something that your competition doesn't have. Whether this is a fancy new type of bread or a speedy delivery service is up to you.

[abculatter_2]

The delivery service would probably be my best bet, though I don't have a driver's license yet. Also, no matter what I do I'm going to have to schedule it around school, which will be a big hindrance as well.

I might be able to sell stuff at school the end of the day, though I'd have to have my mom do the baking and shaping, which might work well for coffee-cakes and other yeasted stuff, though I'm not sure how well she'd be able to do it, plus I can only make small batches currently...

Now that I think about it, I think selling at the end of the school day might work fairly well if I can get the things sold fast enough that the bus riders don't miss their ride home. I could also set up a little order form for the less-popular items, and people could order it and have it delivered directly to their house (for a small additional fee) or delivered to school within the next day or two. I know their are laws against competing with the school cafeteria while their serving food, but they don't serve food at the end of the day, so that hopefully wouldn't be a problem.

The small patch sizes I'll be forced to make will probably be problematic, however... Is there anything special I should know about personal loans, or are they pretty much just like normal loans but smaller?

EDIT: Jesus Christ, ovens can be expensive...

[Vactor]

At the scale you're looking at I'd start by making stuff with your home oven, unless you've spent some time working in a bakery and know 100% that that is the industry you'd like to go into professionally, taking out a loan for an industrial oven can throw a wrench in your future plans if you decide you'd rather do something else/the market for your goods isn't there. (when I was landscaping my loan was for materials that i'd resell to the customer, so rather low risk there) 

Another angle you could take is to work something out with your local grocery store, assuming they don't have an in-store bakery department you could see if they'd be interested in stocking your goods.  There may be a local restaurant that would be willing to rent out their oven to you on weekends or something (paying rental the first few months would help minimize your personal investment.  There is a growing demand for locally produced foods, which is something that you could try to tap into. 

Your school administration might be supportive of you doing this as well if you talk to them about it, they may give even let you do it as a self directed class, give you credit and use of the school kitchen equipment if you come in with a well thought out presentation. 

With a personal loan it is a loan that you take out in your own name without a specific purchase to be held in collateral.  (when you take out a mortgage or auto loan the house or car you purchase is held as collateral if you become delinquent.)  I would only recommend you do this if you have some other source of income that can easily pay it off if your plan goes bust. Remember this is your own money you're putting up against the loan, no matter how free it seems at the time.

[abculatter_2]

At the scale you're looking at I'd start by making stuff with your home oven, unless you've spent some time working in a bakery and know 100% that that is the industry you'd like to go into professionally, taking out a loan for an industrial oven can throw a wrench in your future plans if you decide you'd rather do something else/the market for your goods isn't there. (when I was landscaping my loan was for materials that i'd resell to the customer, so rather low risk there) 

I want to get a bigger oven mainly because I have to bake enough to sell in a relatively short amount of time, plus I'll likely have several different kinds of products I'd want to make at the same time, not all of which may require the same baking temperature (though I've noticed a lot of baking takes place at around 350 degree F).

Baking does interest me, though you're right in that I probably shouldn't make quite so large an investment so early. I've read that you can make home-made ovens for very cheap, or even free in some cases, and could be a fun project to work on, though it would probably take awhile and I don't know how to go about planning it (my dad could help with that, however).

Another angle you could take is to work something out with your local grocery store, assuming they don't have an in-store bakery department you could see if they'd be interested in stocking your goods.  There may be a local restaurant that would be willing to rent out their oven to you on weekends or something (paying rental the first few months would help minimize your personal investment.  There is a growing demand for locally produced foods, which is something that you could try to tap into. 

These are all intriguing ideas which I had thought about before vaguely, though the grocery store does have an in-store baking department unfortunately, and I don't know why any manager of a restaurant in their right mind would NOT be using their oven over the weekend.

That demand is actually exactly what I wanted to tap into.

Your school administration might be supportive of you doing this as well if you talk to them about it, they may give even let you do it as a self directed class, give you credit and use of the school kitchen equipment if you come in with a well thought out presentation. 

The use of school kitchen equipment has occurred to me, but I had never though of getting credit for it. I HIGHLY doubt they'll do that, but it is an intriguing idea. The use of school ovens would help a lot in many ways, though I'll probably need help with the presentation.

  With a personal loan it is a loan that you take out in your own name without a specific purchase to be held in collateral.  (when you take out a mortgage or auto loan the house or car you purchase is held as collateral if you become delinquent.)  I would only recommend you do this if you have some other source of income that can easily pay it off if your plan goes bust. Remember this is your own money you're putting up against the loan, no matter how free it seems at the time.

Quite true... I suppose my dad could supply a good amount of funding and support if I showed him I really meant business and his wife didn't throw a hissy fit for no good reason like she oh-so-often does.

[Vactor]

As far as the getting credit for it goes, back when i was in high school there was a big push to get students involved with business management, which was usually sitting at a till in a little shop that sold school logo shirts, and pencils, needless to say it wasn't very involved with actual business development.  I think you'd have some pretty good luck if you go in with some data you've drummed up about demand at your school, doing some surveys of your classmates about if they'd be interested in having baked goods available after/before school.  You could show a health benefit (if you can find one) of eating a home baked cookie vs. a little debbie snack or candy.   Make sure you also do the math, run the numbers on how much your material costs will be, what your pricing would be, and what your baking schedule will be.  If you can show precisely how you will be run it successfully you'll show to the administrators that you're both serious and dedicated to this idea.

Its my experience that the people who run schools are so tired of dealing with kids that aren't living up to their potential that they'll jump at the chance of helping a kid that has some gumption and is trying to be successful.  See if you can find a teacher you like who is willing to supervise you for a self directed class. (We had these when I was in high school, I made up a film class where I studied(watched) films all hour, I'd write up my own papers and stuff like that to be graded,  I'm not sure how prevalent they are nowadays)

As far as the restaurant thing, it depends on the place, my girlfriend spent this last weekend baking tea-cookies with a lady she works part time with in a restaurant's kitchen.  When you're planning out business it absolutely never hurts to ask around.

[abculatter_2]

Huh... Wow, I think I might actually be able to pull this off... If I do, it'll probably be the first real major project I've ever actually brought to fruition.

Researching the market shouldn't be too difficult, just make a survey, hand it out at lunch, and tally. Costs and scheduling will be even easier, little more then some legwork and number crunching. Nutritional benefits will depend on what kind of ingredients I can scrounge up reliably from Sam's Club, or possibly even wholesalers (Preferably local, though online as well) and then more research and another little number crunch.

I think I might have a bit more difficulty then you seemed to have had in trying to get the school really interested in supporting this, though then again I haven't really tried yet.

[Muz]

Yeah, IMO, food shouldn't be sold online. It's really hard to tell whether that food is good and great bakeries and restaurants are all over the place. You'll get ridiculous competition with any kind of food business, which is why I don't recommend it. It's going to be much harder work than actually working for someone else, with similar income after all the costs. Only worth it if you live in one of those countries with a very high minimum wage.