Seriously, a cake pan is an absolute must if you want to bake a cake. Are you thinking I have lost my marbles? It is Friday, so please bear with me, but that made me think of something funny. A psychologist I know got a t-shirt that said”I can help you find your marbles”. I know, that was really random, but some days are just like that.

Anyway, back to business here. Last week my husband and I were invited to a dear friends house for a dinner party. She asked me to bring a Red Velvet Cake. Oh boy, now you will begin to know the truth about me. I love to work with yeast. I have done quite a bit of cake decorating back in the day, but really, cake isn’t my specialty. And Red Velvet Cake was all new to me. You see, my family is not big on cake.

My kids have always been able to pick their birthday dessert, and it seldom is cake, unless it is German Chocolate. They usually choose things like cherry pie, cheesecake, apple crisp, grasshopper torte, strawberry shortcake, tapioca pudding etc. So you see, the request for a cake that I did not have experience with made me nervous. When that happens, I always pull out a cookbook that my sister-in-law wrote for family. She is a gourmet cook, so I always count on her book when I have to make something new, because I know that if it is in her book, it is a great recipe. I flipped through her book to the cake section, but there was no recipe for Red Velvet cake. That put me over the edge.

Start With a Good Recipe

I am always afraid to trust a recipe from the internet for a special occasion. Problem was, I [Read more...]

If you just wanted to be able to sell your favorite cookies, it may not have occurred to you that you have a lot in common with the people who are passionate about sustainable living issues. I have to admit that I had not put two and two together until recently either. The more I research how to help others be able to start a business baking from home, the clearer the picture becomes for me.

One of the goals of the sustainable living movement is to make it possible for people to have access for local food. I had thought that they were talking about fruits and vegetables. That is not the case, as a matter of fact, a lot of the local organic gardeners are helped by the cottage food laws as well. The truth of the matter is that we are partners in trying to create businesses that produce food, baked or grown, that is local. It puts the consumer face to face with the producer. You get to actually get to know who makes or grows your food, and you can actually ask questions about how they do it.

Meet the people who are baking for you

If you are looking for organically grown, not GMO,  chemical free, you can go to the farm and see for yourself. If you want food baked sans preservatives, ask the baker who made it for you. Cottage food laws require a list of ingredients on non hazardous foods. I bet you will be able to pronounce all the words listed on that label. It is taking us back to the basics, and in most cases, access to home grown or home prepared food. We need to combine our efforts as part of a growing movement to localize food systems and stimulate small-scale food production.

I recently heard of a great book It is about a family that decided to live only on locally grown food available in season. It is a good read, I would have to say inspiring. It does tie into the Cottage Food Law mindset.It too suggests the benefits of reverting back to the way things once were. The before all the chemicals and preservatives that are present in many things we eat everyday.  You should check it out. I think you will see the connections I am talking about. Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life (P.S.)

Cottage food laws are made and passed by each individual state. Because of that, you have to check with each state to see what foods they include in their laws. Here is a list of some of the common foods that are approved of as non hazardous foods:

• baked goods (but with no cream or meat fillings)
• jams and jellies
• candy
• granola and other dry cereal
• popcorn,
• waffle cones
•  pizzelles
•  nut mixes
• chocolate covered non-perishables (such as nuts and dried fruit)
• roasted coffee
• dry baking mixes
• herb blends
•  dried tea.

Depending on the state, that list will vary. If one of those is a specialty that you make, and your state has Cottage Food Laws in place, you may be a few steps away from starting your own business.

Your Health Department Can Tell You the Rules

You will have to check with your local health department. You may have to do things like get a [Read more...]

A bakers favorite tools are usually things like a mixer or an oven. I love those tools, but I want to suggest that there are other tools we bakers can make use of as well. If you are wanting to start a business baking, you will need a little start up money. I for sure don’t want you to run to the bank and take out a loan to do that. That just puts you in the hole to start with.

Instead, think of ways you can make money to get the ball rolling. I have been talking a lot about Cottage Food Laws making it possible for you to jump in and get up and running relatively cheaply. However, there still may be some start up costs. I was talking to someone who wanted a better mixer to get up and running. There are other things you also may need to purchase. One of the things I am doing is some targeted affiliate marketing. You have seen some of my blogs recommend a program or mentor that I have used that I think would benefit you in your journey to start your own business. There are other ways to do affiliate marketing too.

Affiliate Products for Your Customers

I know your may be thinking, I am a baker, what does affiliate marketing have to do with me. I thought that too, until I learned a little more about affiliate marketing. You see, even as a baker, you should be connecting with your customer in lots of ways. To start, pick your specialty, your niche. Are you a bread baker, a cake decorator, a pastry chef etc. Once you know the answer to that question, you can start putting together the foundation of a business.

In order to assure steady cash flow, it is a good idea to have a number of products to make that happen. In a brick & mortar bakery, you would have breads, pies, pastries etc. In a given season one may be your best seller and then drop down on the list as that season passes.

If you are a solopreneur, having additional products helps your cash flow as well. [Read more...]

Cottage Food Laws have been passed in all but twelve states. If you are unfortunate enough to live in one of those states, I know you must feel frustrated. Before you decide to put your house on the market and move to a state that allows home baking, you might want to consider joining the cottage food movement.

It is a part of a larger movement to make it possible for small business to get a start without a huge investment. There are a lot of good arguments in favor of the cottage food initiative. It makes it possible to let the consumer have ready access to food made without preservatives. It also supports foods produced locally. Cottage foods pose little risk to the public because they  only permit home food processing of non hazardous foods.

At the writing of this blog, there are eight states that have cottage food laws pending. They are  California, Colorado, Georgia, Louisiana, Maryland, Minnesota, Nevada, South Carolina. Each of those states have FaceBook Fan pages set up. when you click on those links, you can see that there is a lot of activity going on there. Getting new laws added to the books takes some work, but ask those who live in the states that Cottage Food laws if it was worth the work.

I know how I felt when I ran into roadblocks everywhere I turned. I was good at baking, I knew there were people who did not have the time or inclination to bake who could really benefit from what I loved to do. But, the law at the time made it impossible for me to simply bake and sell the things I loved to produce. Now that is becoming possible in so many states, and that is really exciting!

How to Start a Movement in Your State to Add Cottage Food Laws

Wishing that your state would add the laws to you state probably won’t do much to make that happen. You can take action and get [Read more...]

Home based business ideas are a hot topic. If you need proof, just do a little keyword research.” Business Ideas” gets 823,000 searches per month. Search for “start a business” and you will see 1,830,000 per month. That is a lot of interest. I talk a lot here about that very thing. Dough Raising Mom focuses on making money and ways you can start a business.

A lot of what I try to cover here is ideas for those who would like to start a small business using their experience and love of working in the kitchen. Notice how I broadened the spectrum from specifically targeting just baking. By doing that, I open up other possible avenues to make money based on your expertise and interests. That is a thinking outside the box mindset.

I have talked a lot about the new Cottage Food Laws in one of my recent blog posts. By the states making it legal for you to use your own home kitchen to bake and sell products, starting a business is reachable for those who love to bake. As a baker, in order to have a business that makes money, you have to sell a product. I would invite you to check out how to easily do that by checking out the Easy Sales Tips I told you about last time.

Of course one of my favorite ways to make money is to help non profits raise money to fund charitable works. I have a class to teach you just how I have been doing that for almost thirty years. It has a great profit margin for you, and is one of the easiest and most profitable fundraisers for the group you are helping. One of my daughters was a youth minister, and our fundraising program was by far her best way to generate the income they needed for their mission trips.

You know I talk a lot about actually making and selling your products. On this site I have shared a lot of recipes and how to videos.
Watch for future blogs about the actual steps you need to take to get a business set up the right way. Today my focus is going to be about some additional ways you can use to start some cash flow for your household.

A website can help monetize your interests.

I know, you are probably not here because you are interested in sitting at your computer all day. Or maybe you are, and you would love to write about your love of cooking. A blog is a great way to do that. I won’t get into all that here, but I do have another website where I talk a lot about blogging and using WordPress.

Even if you don’t particularly want to work on the computer, you could set up a few niche websites centered around food, and add some products that you collect affiliate commissions on. If you have favorite tools, recipe books, appliances etc., you can write reviews about them and add a link to the product for their convenience. You do some product research, do the shopping, add a link and all the consumer has to do is evaluate your research and decide whether they want to click and buy. You are just saving them the time and effort by packaging it all in one place. The best part is that the consumer does not pay one penny more. You are providing a valuable service.

Find Business Ideas and Get Started

Sometimes for newbies, the hard part is figuring out how to get started. One of the people I follow closely is Susanne Myers. She is an expert on how to get websites to show up and rank in the search engines. She also is a market research guru. She has developed a number of products called Affiliate Niche Packs. She has done all the work to launch a niche website.

Each Affiliate Niche Pack will provide you with the following:

• Detailed niche description
• Who your target market for this niche is
• List of affiliate products available
• 100 domain name ideas (plus list of modifiers for hundreds more)
• Detailed keyword report for over 1000 keywords
• 100 article and blog post ideas
• 15 different author resource boxes
• 2 different detailed marketing plans (beginner and advanced) with action steps to get you up and running right away.
• List of available PLR products for this niche
• Recommended tools and resources

Letting Susanne do all the work is an easy way to start generating some income to make so extra money. If you would like to learn how she does all the research to come up with ideas for great niches, she wrote a short report about checking out the potential for earning money in a particular part of the market. It is great information for only $7.

Those are a couple of ideas I have on getting started. Don’t let putting up a website intimidate you, it is pretty easy. Use WordPress.org and you will be up and running and ready to do business in just a short time. Do you have any questions? Please leave them in the comment section and we can all talk about them.

Sales – the unfortunate truth is that any business small or large has to have sales. Your business might be producing a product, in the case of my readers it might be something they baked. I am just like a lot of you. I like to bake, but dread selling. At least that was the case when I started my business. The thought of attending a networking opportunity like a Chamber of Commerce meeting made my stomach churn.

The scenario started with walking into a networking event. My palms would be sweaty and I would scan the crowd for a friendly face. Often I would grab a cup of coffee hoping someone would approach me. Sometimes that happened, sometimes not. If not, the only choices were to stand there alone looking out of place, or approach someone else and strike up a conversation. My first few events were miserable. I felt so out of place, and it showed. I had no idea of how to turn those type of situations around, and frequently left feeling like I had wasted my time and money.

Marketing Mindset Adjustment

After awhile, I got tired of feeling that the marketing efforts were useless. After all, I was in business to make sales, and sales are the byproduct of marketing. I faced the fact that I had to equip myself with some “how -to’s” for those who are afraid to network.I started getting serious about marketing techniques that I felt comfortable with.

• Change the focus for networking events. Make sales a byproduct. Instead scout out new friends. After all “strangers are just friends we have yet to meet”. A lot of the people at those events are just as nervous as you are. You know how you are just hoping someone will talk to you – well they are feeling like that too. Make the first move and you both win.
• A lot of people envy those with the gift of gab. You know what I mean, those natural extroverts who never met a stranger. My dad was the type of person who could easily strike up a conversation with anyone, anywhere. I always wished I was like that. I am not denying that extroverts have a gift, but introverts can learn tools that help them get past their shyness
• Be happy with who you are, and what you are selling. “Always be a first-rate version of yourself, instead of a second-rate version of somebody else.”. That is so true. No one is impressed with phonies. If you bake quality products, feel confident that the world is hungry for the fresh homemade products you offer. Let me say that again, all those products sold in stores that are pumped full of artificial chemicals and preservatives are pretty much the same. Everyone truly appreciates homemade products. That is the niche we are talking about filling.

How do you know what to say?

That is the $64 question. If you are a stay at home mom or someone who never had to do sales before, knowing what to say to [Read more...]

Passing a Cottage Food Law in your state opens the door to a home baking business. So exactly what would that mean to you if you are someone who has always wanted to make some income selling your baked goods. Well, a lot of years ago, that was exactly what I wanted to do. When I inquired about doing that, I ran into a brick wall.

I was a stay at home mom who just wanted to be able to generate some income from home to supplement my families income. I was a pretty good baker, and I enjoyed making homemade food, especially baked products. I often had friends and family suggest that I take my culinary expertise and bake for others. That was exactly what I wanted to do. The problem I ran into was not having a commercial kitchen. Believe me, lots of people encouraged me to open a restaurant or bakery. The thing of it was, I wanted to be a stay at home mom. We also did not have the cash to make the huge investment of a commercial retail bakery.

Cottage Food Laws are Changing Restrictions on Home Baking Businesses

With the passage of the new laws in many states, it is now legal to start baking some foods to sell to the public. It is really important to understand what the regulations and restrictions are however. I have been doing a lot of research about those laws, and there similarities and differences in each state. In the coming blogs I will try and give you some specific information I found about the different states that have the laws in place. I listed the states that have  Cottage Food Laws in a past blog. I am going to start with the state of Michigan and look at the law there.  [Read more...]

Do You Love to Bake Cookies?

If you answered yes to that, and have had dreams of being able to build a business centered around your favorite recipe, there is great news. Creative cookie sales are on the rise even in this tough economic market. They can be sold at a price point that allows people to justify the purchase as a splurge you deserve. Bakeries across the land are cashing in on the revenue stream offered by this most loved comfort food.

What about you, can you actually get in on the action. Can you get your piece of the pie, or cookie as the case may be. There is definitely competition out there, but there is enough room in the market for you to have your share.

If you have been reading my blog, you already know that there may be obstacles to getting started. State laws in some places are a huge stumbling block, but in other states, there are new laws that make it possible for you to start your business without a huge investment.You can read all about the changes happening in those laws. That is the first step. For those of you that live in states that are not considering changes in the laws, you might be interested in the ebook I wrote on how we added a licensed commercial kitchen to our home.

Creative Cookies are in Demand

Think about it, you can make cookies in all shapes, sizes and varieties. You can decorate them, dip them, put them on a stick and make a bouquet, make a cookie cake etc. You can make chocolate cookies, oatmeal, peanut butter, sugar, ginger and more. You can specialize in mini – giant size and everything in-between. You can put them in baskets or special boxes or tins.

Examples of specialty cookies include those that are figure-piped, have trademarked images, and are for special events, such as weddings, graduations, classroom activities and sporting events. They make great gifts and if you can establish your reputation, you could build your entire business around a specialty. An example would be to specialize in decorating 5″ sugar cookies with corporate logos.

If you would like the chance to talk about ways you could actually get started, I would like to invite you to sign up for my free mini webinars so we can brainstorm about ways you can make your dream of starting or growing your business come true. Could I ask one favor, would you please complete the survey about preferences of days that is in the sidebar? I would love to know what days work best for others.

I would love to chat with you, so please leave a comment by clicking on “comment” at the top right hand corner of this blog.

Home based business opportunities all bakers should know about.

If you love to bake and have dreamed of the possibility of actually making money doing just that, there is great news. Cottage laws are sweeping the county. They allow you to bake in your own kitchen without the huge investment of a retail commercial kitchen. It is finally happening, we are going full circle, and these laws are making it possible to return to days gone by when you could make a little income selling bread, cakes, cookies etc to your neighbor who does not have time or the inclination to bake.

This is great news for those of us who love to bake. I am especially happy. I know what potential income my Cinnamon Roll Fundraising program offers. Now more people can get started without all the hassle of finding a kitchen you can bake in. The Cottage Laws now make it so much easier to earn the income your family needs. For many years, it simply was not legal to make and sell things you bake in your own kitchen. 

Sustainable Living is On the Rise

Across the country, there is a huge sustainable living movement taking place. You have probably heard of it. More and more people are becoming aware of the affect that  additives, preservatives, and food modifications have on their health. Just the mention of homemade bread will make people hungry. There is a growing desire for real food, not commercially manufactured.

Basically. Cottage Food laws allow people to make certain foods in their own home kitchen and sell them on a small scale to the end user. You probably won’t be able to sell your product to the grocery store, but you could sell at a local Farmers Market or directly to people who want to buy what you make. This is a win-win scenario. Not only is it more feasible for you to start a small baking business, the consumers will have better  access to a variey of home cooked or artisan foods produced locally.

The laws only allow ““non-potentially hazardous foods”. In most states that includes,  baked goods such as cakes, cookies, pies, breads and most candies, but usually exclude anything with uncooked dairy (such as cream and custard fillings) and meat. Most allow jams and jellies. 

I found a great video produced by the Arizona Department of Health Services that does a great job of explaining what the Cottage Laws make possible.

I am really excited about these laws and intend to spend time investigating what is happening state by state. For now, here is a link to a Summary of Cottage Food Laws  done by Sustaninable Economies Law Center. You can get involved too. Find out if there are petitions out there to encourage your legislators to pass Cottage Food Laws in your state. 

I decided that I am going to continue the free coacing call, because I want to help as many of you as possible to start making money baking. Please sign up for the free webinars and we can brainstorm about making your baking business become a reality.With the passage of Cottage Food Laws, it is entirely possible you can get up and running soon.

This is really an exciting thing. I would love to hear your thoughts. To do that, simply click on the “Comments” int the upper right hand corner of this post.