21. CAKES BY LALA !!!

It's official, Cakes by Lala is now an official business!!
The process for becoming a business has been kind of a long one. I started thinking about this last summer but had no idea where to start. Diego then offered to put a website together for me (which is in the works!) and that's when we realized lala's cakes, which is the name of my blog was already taken so that's when Cakes by Lala became the name. A few months ago I finally decided it was time to really get things going.
I hate calling people to find out what I need to do so I got Erin to help me figure out what all I needed to do in trade for making her a cake. Erin found out that the first thing I had to do was to get an LLC, limited liability company. What that involves is filling out a bunch of paper work and sending the state a check. Couple weeks later I got my letter informing me it was approved, hurray! The next step was filling the home occupancy paper work. This was a more involved as I had to come up with a basic business plan, fill out detailed information on what I was planning to do, send them copies of my water bills etc. I then sent everything to the department of agriculture. The final step is to have a house inspection.
It took about 3 weeks to hear back from them. Friday afternoon I got a call from Sherry with the department of agriculture and we made an appointment for today! Over the weekend I cleaned everything! I spent several hours re organizing and cleaning my kitchen. For a home baking business you need to have a separate set of everything business related including: measuring cups, spoons, spatulas, pans, dish towels, etc. You also need a separate place for all business ingredients and designed space in your fridge for the business as well as a thermometer to make sure your fridge is at the right temperature, less than 45 degrees.
Here are some pictures of what my kitchen looks like now :

Cricut cake, decorating tools and pans on the left side of the kitchen

Pantry, dish towels, aprons on the right. I decided to use all my red things for the business as it's easier for me to keep things separate this way. The shelf with the baking sheets and red things is the shelf for business stuff on that side of the kitchen

In this photo you can see our "pantry" the top part has 4 baskets for our snacks, cereals etc. The two bigger baskets have little signs that say "sweet" and "salty" made with the cricut and that's where we keep out cookies, granola bars, chips, and cracker.

This is the business side of the pantry. You can't see it but each shell has a label that says Cakes by Lala.

Look at how awesome everything looks now that it's all organize and clean!

The inspection went great! Sherry spent about 40 minutes here. Most of the time was spent talking about her family, vacations etc. The inspection it self was much simpler than I expected! She did look in all the drawers, cabinets, dishwasher, fridge, microwave, pantry etc. She also checked to make sure the water in the sink gets hot. There is no specific temperature they are looking for. She also checked to see that the bathroom closest to the kitchen was in working condition. I had gotten a paper hand towel dispenser from Target, they are made by Klinex and are really useful! I also got an automatic soap dispenser that I use all the time now. It turns out I was informed wrong, you can use your kitchen sink to wash your hands. It's just suggested that you use your bathroom to wash your hands while you are cooking and your sink is full of stuff. They check the bathroom just to make sure you have a clean, working bathroom to use while you are baking/decorating. So, as of 2:40 pm today Cakes by Lala is official! I passed inspection, have all my paper work and I am free to start baking!
I even have an order for this weekend! I am really excited to see where this goes!
So what does this mean? It means I now have to pay taxes on my orders, it also means that once I get my tax exemption forms done I can buy things whole sale without taxes. I now have to keep track of all my business related expenses and add taxes to my sales.
What am I hoping to accomplish? In the short term I would love to be able to make enough with this business that I can buy all the pans and supplies I would love to have.
In the long term I would love for this to be big enough that it will help our income. I enjoy teaching and love babysitting but I know I won't be babysitting forever. I have no plans to quit either but if this business really picks up, in a couple years, I will probably limit the babysitting and teach 2 nights a week instead of 3 or 4 like I am currently doing.
So yea, this is it! The business is now official and I am looking for orders!!
I am planning on starting to play around with vegan recipes and I am happy to play around with any flavors you would like. I am also looking into starting to use local eggs and ingredients when possible.

Thanks for reading!!