Should I do it?

[Rosiie]

I’m thinking of starting my own business in couple months, something I’ve wanted to do for a long time. It’s a cake business and I live really close to my local market, I was thinking of having a stall there and sell cupcakes and cakes, and take orders.

The problem is, I’m in two minds whether I should employ my next door neighbour who’s a friend of mine, she’s also a SAHM.
I’m scared that I’m gonna come to regret it and something’s gonna happen. It would be nice to have someone help me transport the cupcakes and just be there with me in the market and it would only be for 3-4 hours whilst the kids are in school. I will do all the baking, she will just be there with me at the stall for those few hours. I’m hoping to open a shop one day.

Should I employ her or should I just bite the bullet and do it myself?

Trust your gut. Why do you think there might be problems?

Noooo. Don't employ her. You know it's not right.

Do it yourself.

Not that I want to piss on your parade but the whole fancy cupcake thing is a very over-saturated market...ten years ago you'd have made a killing but nowadays the world and his brother is selling cakes and you'll have a massive amount of competition. In your shoes I'd not want to be shelling out wages, that may well be all of your profit gone.

No!

Wait until your are established then see if you need her. You are unlikely to sustain 2 people when you first start out which means you will end up paying her and you'll take home nothing.

I have no experience in setting up a business or employing anyone but could you maybe either trial doing it on your own to see how well things go or how busy you are and maybe look emplyeeing her on a more advice basis. Just so you can see and trial how you feel about working together etc. That way it would be less of a wrench for her and less awkward for her if she isn’t day promised 15 hours a week and you want to change the arrangement and no awkwardness or bad feeling if she is a neighbour.

I would be astonished if you made enough to employ your neighbour. In fact I think you'll be doing well to get a profit yourself. Start small and if it works then you can think about employing her, but I doubt they'll be enough for both to do and definitely not enough for both to be paid.

I know people who do cakes really really well and it doesn't pay well.

No! Don't do it! You won't have the margin to pay her anything and the paperwork is ridiculous.

Start off, get the hang of the usual run of it; work out what your real log jams are, what you really need and then contempale the best fix.

before you even think about baking cakes to sell to the public you will have to have EHO round your house to approve it as a commercial baking establishment and issue you a license, then you will need public liability insurance , and if you employ your friend you will have to pay her minimum wages, offer her a pension, and inform the tax office that she is working for you, and register as a business yourself

Have you costed out how much you need to earn to pay yourself, let alone anyone else? You sound a bit clueless. Why would you need to pay someone to stand at your side to sell cakes? You do know you need to pass hygiene certificates, have your kitchen inspected by the council plus other costs to deal with? Register as self employed with hmrc, keep business records
Does your neighbour even want a job?! Will you employ her? Pay her employers tax, ni, pension etc?

Aargh... laptop issues

...contemplate the best fix. When I started I knew I would need typists. But not initially. So I spent a few months researching then, when I knew what I really did need, I started using 2 different agencies. I knew what I was looking and wasn't influenced by any 'what ifs'.

That and she is your NDN, if anything goes wrong you won't be able to distance yourself from it!

SimplyJaded I get what you’re saying, but nobody is selling cupcakes and cakes in my local market. And it’s a big market, they mostly sell clothes, toys, bags and fruit and veg. And there’s not really any proper cake shops around, I’ve done a lot of research and I think I can make decent money. It’s not something I’ve decided to do overnight, like I said I’ve thought about this for a long time.

Frasier She’s a really good neighbour and friend, but I’m scared that we might fall out if she does something I don’t agree with, or she’s late etc.

I’m also scared that if I don’t employ her and she finds out what I’m doing, she’ll copy my idea and start her own cake business in town. God, im horrible 🤦‍♀️

It’s lose lose but you can’t afford to employ her straight away. I’d include her n your plans so she knows your doing it, she may tag along anyway if you’re really good friends.

I did this for a few years when my dc were small and tbh the selling at the stall is the easy and enjoyable bit! Yes there's a lot of stuff to carry in to a market or whatever but there's always other stall holders happy to help out. I loved market days, you get to chat to people who show an interest in your products and you get to actually make some money! It's hard to make decent money out of it and there will be some.days where you only sell enough to cover your costs. I worked it out once that I actually couldn't afford to pay myself the minimum wage by the time all the other costings were taken care off so there's was no way I could have paid someone else. Manage by yourself at the start and see how it goes but if you employ someone, especially your ndn, you're going to feel obliged to keep her hours up and at the end of the day you're in business to make a profit.

Issey yes I know I need a food licence and EHO have to inspect my kitchen. Like I said I've done research and I know what I need to do before starting the business.

Pinkpeter Well if you read my post properly, you will understand why I it would be nice to have someone there with me at the market.

How do you know you will need someone? How do you know you will make enough money to employ someone? I would definitely suggest starting out on your own. If you find you need help then consider whether it makes sense to hire someone and for how what. It might make sense to hire someone to man the stall while you bake.

If you're planning a business you need to plan carefully. Maybe contact whatever local enterprise body deals with setting up businesses in your area. Where I live, they offer a fantastic free service.

If she's a good friend then she won't copy your idea and open a cake business! Is that why you want to employ her? So she won't feel the need to copy you?
This just sounds like a bad idea tbh, I would definitely not employ her.

Don't do it, I've worked on markets, they go by quickly so you'll be fine for the few hours alone. And cake stalls rarely make that much - I'm sorry they really don't They are done as a hobby more than a business. Start small - don't employ anyone until you've been settled for a bit. I've known many traders not make back their pitch fee for the first few months! Also check if your market actually allows cake sales. There may be a reason no one is currently selling them there. Good luck!

It's just so unlikely that you'll earn enough to pay her, at least initially that it doesn't sound like a good plan.

Iammarge I don't know tbh, I'm just paranoid I think. She's currently SAHM, her children are in school and she's told me she wants to start working but doesn't know what yet.

You won't need anyone with you at a market, it's your chance to build up a rapport with customers and other stall holders, do a bit of pr, give out leaflets, tastings, etc. With a small business it's so important that you represent it to the customer, having someone else there is not the same, people want to know where you source ingredients, what was your inspiration, etc etc. It sounds like you're a bit nervous, which is understandable bit I honestly think this is something you and only you can do, once you've done a few markets your confidence builds. when you get good feedback it's brilliant, sometimes it's the only thing that keeps you going!

The overwhelming response is don't do it.

If you've done your research you'd know this, you've no idea how much you can even earn yourself yet.

There might be a reason there aren't any cakestalls already at your local market.

X post. You're not obliged to employ her though?! I don't get why you feel responsible for her having a job?

Embarrassed losing someone when you don't need anymore staff is a very stupid thing to do. When you run a business you can't spend money just because 'it would be nice'.

Have you done a proper business plan? That will indicate how much you would need to be making to have an employee. One of my dp's (veteran of several businesses) favorite sayings is "It's cheaper to fail on paper". A good business plan will tell you whether your idea is likely to work.

As long as you don't tell your neighbour what you're doing in advance of starting the stall, she will be miles behind if she needs to start getting registered and inspected, you will have a reputation/rapport with customers before she sets up. Tbh, if you are successful then someone will likely copy you, so it isn't worth employing your neighbour to try to avoid that happening.