I may actually be commissioned.

[hippywife]

Every once in a while, I send baked goods to work with Bill to share with everyone just for the heck of it. This week, I sent a Fanny Farmer Fresh Banana Cake iced with the leftover cream cheese filling for the lemon whoopie pies. The girl that runs the front office was complaining that she couldn't stop eating it. She orders the cakes when someone is having a birthday and asked him if I would be interested in taking her orders instead of the local high end bakery.

I think I just might. ;)

[Tab]

1. Congrats!

And, I'll, um, taste them for food safety if you want.

[hippywife]

3. Well, I do need a taste tester

for things I may not have made before. Of course, you'd need to knock Bill outta the way for that position. LOL

[grasswire]

5. I found testers for test pies

A 5-man band moved in a couple of doors away from us. Nice young men who play sort of old-timey world music. They are happy for any leftovers.

Oddly enough, one would think that two teenagers in the house could test pies but they really don't.

Congratulations, HW!! Live it up!

[hippywife]

16. LOL

That takes me back! When I was 18, my roommate and I used to house and feed her cousin and his bandmates from time to time. Not an accurate sampling since they would eat anything that you laid in front of them, and very quickly so I'm not sure how much of it actually got "tasted." :rofl:

[troubleinwinter]

10. My parents, my husband, daughter and I were taste testers

for Peter Rienhart's breads and his wife's deserts!!! OMG!!!! O. M. G.

Also, they had potluck parties with all the celebrity 'Wine Country Foodies'. O. M. G.

WTF am I gonna bring to THIS kinda party?! Luckily, at the time, nobody was making maki sushi, though it was very popular. I had grown up in Hawaii making it. So a platter of sushi was impressive, and disappeared completely.

One very noted, high-fallootin' food celebrity had done some heavenly marinated grilled vegetables. One was especially thrilling to me, and I asked the guy what it was. He looked down his nose at me and said, "Parsnip, of course.", as if I'd just fallen off the turnip truck. I had never had one before. But I have made sure to have them since!

[Stinky The Clown]

2. If you're not careful, this sort of thing could explode on you ....

.... and become a full time, payng job!

[hippywife]

4. There are a couple of things that would

prevent that. Really stringent state laws that I'd just as soon not have to deal with and access to a commercial kitchen.

[Tab]

6. Yeah, that's the part that sucks about doing a home food business

And, understandably, because goodness knows what goes on in a house (not necessarily yours), and homes don't usually have commercial-grade equipment either.

A close friend of mine went into catering and the personal chef business, but the frustrating part was that she could prep relatively little (at least officially) - the items had to be prepared in the client's kitchen. And, of course, every kitchen is different. You can make it a selling point as a personal chef ("we'll buy the ingredients, come to your house, and cook your meals in your own kitchen"). It was more the catering that was a bitch. You have to prepare for a lot of people, and if it's a private home you have to do it (often) in some rinky-dink kitchen, which may just be merely space-confined if nothing else, but still...

[pengillian101]

7. I used to be like that office girl.

"The girl that runs the front office was complaining that she couldn't stop eating it. She orders the cakes when someone is having a birthday and asked him if I would be interested in taking her orders instead of the local high end bakery."

If the company grows and grows that girl just might be a buyer of all kinds of things for the company as it expands. I did just that.

She might just be a potential pal, lol.

[hippywife]

14. She probably thinks

I've been plying her with goodies to this end. There's mostly men in the place and every once in awhile I send an extra bagel or something for her. She thought the lemon whoopie pie was the best thing she ever ate, and I thought they were just okay.

[elleng]

8. Excellent!

You'll charge for them, right???

[hippywife]

12. But, of course!

He told her I might charge more than the bakery and she's fine with that. She also realizes there won't be any fancy decorating involved, either. Just good home-baked cakes, cookies, and brownies. :D

[Lucinda]

9. Very cool chickie!

:D

[hippywife]

15. Thanx, 'cin.

We'll see how it goes. Bill says there are six birthdays in October! :wow:

[Lucinda]

17. You can do it. :)

No doubt about it.

[pipoman]

11. Congrats hippy

I know a lady who bakes cakes who gets around owning a commercial kitchen by renting a church kitchen. Now I have used this same church kitchen, it has double Blodgett ovens, a proofer, a wall of reach-in refrigerators and a Hobart dishwasher. She just has to work around their schedule. Maybe there is a venue type kitchen in your town you could rent, at least for larger jobs. Good luck my friend!

[hippywife]

13. Thanx, Pips!

I thought of you when Stinky mentioned that it might explode into something bigger. LOL

If it gets to that point, I'll check around to see if anyone knows of one. There was one getting ready to be opened this spring by a woman I know but then her husband lost his job and, sadly, they are losing their home and her home-based business. :(

[hippywife]

18. Well, this fell through.

She told Bill today that she would have to pay with a credit card. :eyes:

[troubleinwinter]

19. PayPal

You can accept credit cards thru PayPal.

I had a little cottage business and did that.

It may seem to not be worthwhile for a once-a-month gig, but if you think you may wish to use the gig to grow, it might be worthwhile.

PP will take the CCs and deposit $ into your bank account or mail a check.

I do think "she" is an idiot.

[hippywife]

21. I was disappointed but

I can't really fault her. It is a business, after all, and she just does what she needs to do. I'm sure they need to do it that way to better track expenses.

I don't think I will bother with PayPal. Husband says it's not a good idea. He stopped using it because of too many fees.

Thanx for the idea, tho. :hi:

[Lucinda]

20. troubleinwinter beat me to it. Paypal is a great solution.

You invoice her, she pays, you can spend it from there at a lot of places online, or transfer the funds to your bank.

[Tesha]

22. paypal isn't horrible...

I set up a website for contributions for a cancer patient a few years ago. A bit of a pain, but really worth it once you get the kinks worked out with paypal accounts.

Is there a way she could use an online payment to your checking account? People do that with things like automatic payment, right?

If it could mean beginning a business for you, don't let this stop you!