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.

Foods allowed to be produce under Cottage Food Laws

I am including information from the Sustainable Economies Law Center that gives examples of the types of food that may be allowed to be produced in a home kitchen.

Cottage Food Laws typically allow only foods that are often classified as “non-potentially hazardous foods” in state and federal laws. While the specific foods that are allowed or not allowed in each state vary somewhat, this list below includes most foods that are allowed under cottage food laws in at least some states:

o      baked goods (but with no cream, custard or meat fillings)

o      jams and jellies and other preserves with a pH of 4.6 or less

o      granola and other dry cereal

o      popcorn

o      waffle cones and pizzelles

o      nut mixes

o      chocolate covered non-perishables (such as nuts and dried fruit) and other candy

o      roasted coffee

o      dry baking mixes

o      herb blends

o      dried tea

o      dried fruit

o      honey

o      rice cakes

o      rice noodles

o      dried pasta

o     vegetarian empanadas

o     mole paste

o     vinegar

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.

Herbs & Spices were on my shopping list yesterday. I don’t usually  get overly excited about shopping, but when it means a trip to my favorite place to get spices, I do. I want to tell you upfront that I am in no way associated with the store, and they don’t even know I am writing this, I just truly like what they do.

Yesterdays blog was about using the new technology to keep up to speed. I know I have to do that, but I want to tell you about my shopping trip today, because going to this special store is a nostalgic visit to days gone by.

It is called Planters Seed & Spice. It has been part of  the historic Kansas City Market for many years. It  is a nostalgic general store with original wood floors and seed drawers. You know how there are stores that adopt an old fashioned decor. That is not the case with Planters. It is the real deal. I should ask how long they have been there, but I am certain they have been there a long time. I don’t think there have been any attempts to modernize their building in decades, and that is part of the beauty of it.

They sell bulk spices, tea, coffee, lots of seeds and bulbs, gardening supplies and tools, birdhouses and a random selection of other things. In the spring the entire sidewak in front of their store is filled with flats of flowers.  [Read more…]

Online Instruction is the Way of the Future

Teaching online was a totally foreign concept to me as little as 3-4 years ago. I never thought I would be hosting webinars online. Let’s face it, I am a stay at home mom and a baker by profession. Those are not the usual credentials of the techy crowd. Things in my world are changing.

I made a good decision to join Mom Masterminds over a year ago. It has since changed to Solo Masterminds. In my coaching sessions with Kelly McCausey, she encouraged me to get movin and shake things up. She refers to that as “butt kicking” advice. I was intimidated by technology, and struggle to understand how it all works. Her advice sounded something like “no excuses, just get out there and  do it”. 

Me, offer a webinar? Are you serious?

She suggested offering to do some free group coaching calls to help germinate some ideas of how others might start a baking business like I did. I have admit that just the thought of actually using the technology was really scary. For those of you who might have been on the first call, I apologize for my technical difficulties. The thing is, once I actually figured out how to use it, the webinar software was  really cool.

I really don’t know what is going on here, if only my mom could see me now. In my last blog I added some audio via a cinch. (If you don’t want  to read more you can just listen at the bottom of the page by clicking on the Cinch arrow. ) I was patting myself on the back for learning how to use that tool. A while ago, I would have taken credit for adding something new, and left it at that. 

Are You Keeping Up with Technology?

It seems that nowadays, things change at lightening speed, and as soon as you learn one thing, there are several more new things that surpass it. That’s what I am talking about. Less than a week ago I learned about Cinch and thought it would be the latest greatest addition to my website and I could happily leave it at that for awhile.  [Read more…]

Business start-ups happen everyday. Unfortunately, many also fail everyday. Last year alone over 80,000 businesses closed according to Dunn & Bradstreet. The scarier part is the close association between business failure and bankruptcy.

I am not here to rain on anyone’s parade, I just want to encourage you to do your homework and make good decisions about how you start a business. I have learned a lot from the school of hard knocks, and I am here to tell you there is a better way. Start small, listen to your gut, dip your toe in the water before diving in, & avoid borrowing money to start

I bet I know what you are thinking. Does it sound something like “that’s impossible” or “easy for you to say”. Remember, I have been there, done that, got the t-shirt! The purpose of my website is to try and help others discover legitimate ways to make some extra money from home. My personal specialty is baking, but that is not the only avenue I want to cover here.

Work from Home

If you are reading my blog, I assume that you are someone who would like to work for themselves, and probably at least checking out if there is any possibility of using your talents with food to start a business. A lot of the things I talk about here will cover other ways of making money, but for now, I am focusing on starting, without going into a ton of debt. I am qualified to talk at length about that since I did exactly the opposite, and paid dearly for it.

If you have started doing your homework, as I talked about in my last blog and found out there is a real interest in the product you want to sell, the next step is to start using your connections to get the word out about your culinary talents. This is probably going to involve freebies. Consider it cheap marketing, because that is exactly what it is. You need to develop a loyal following, so that you will have customers lining up to buy your product when you are at that point. You are developing a “hungry” market, pun intended.

Books Are Your Friend

There is a great book I would recommend to you . It is by Seth Godin called “Tribes”. In summary, it talks about how you should develop a loyal following by frequent and relevant interaction. It is an easy read, but should be on the bookshelf of  every business owner. I want to take a minute here to give you some advice. It does not matter if you are a solopreneur. You need to adopt the mindset of a business person. When you look at businesses that are successful, you can bet that the owner is a continuous learner. There are lots of helpful books out there, and I am going to get in the habit of recommending some of them to you. It is simply part of building that solid foundation..

Yeah, I know, reading, researching, networking, etc all take time, and you need money now. You are anxious to get started. I know you don’t want to hear that, I didn’t either. I did however, take the time to take some classes, to get ready to make the leap. I had mixed results, and I will tell you more about that later. One of the things I do wish I had done was develop a healthly appetite for reading. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel, but as a matter of fact, there are design changes being made every day to the wheel that powers business, and those books will help you stay or get to the cutting edge.

I recorded a short tidbit, I am really liking using this new recording too, I hope it is helpful to you. Please leave your questions in the comment area. Let’s talk about your ideas, and work on a plan that you can implement.