Cracked Cauldron Spillings

We've been looking at professional memberships in baking organizations.

Based on membership fees, baking must be a lucrative busniess. This gives us hope.

We've also been crawling around the internet, looking at start-up stories of other bakers, and beginning to open the lines of communication with them. Networking.

Something I find very interesting - none of the bakeries we found are in our state. So, maybe it's a good time to open one here, and use the internet to advertise? I know there are bakeries here, real ones, not franchises.

We won't be in the same neighborhood. And we won't do partially baked, either. That just gives me the shudders.

When I go into a bakery, I expect the bread to be made from scratch on the premises. If I want partially baked goods, I'll buy frozen dough out of the freezer section at the grocery store and make my own.

I don't expect our customers to do so, either.

Scratch breads, artisan breads, our Daily Bread, our Ethnic Breads, our Custom Breads, our nifty soups, our pies and pastries and cookies - that Sweet Tooth Buffet - and the live bands and entertainers who will come in and draw in customers.

Biker bars are VERY useful places to visit on Tuesday nights. The barkeep is sweet,and the bar is relatively quiet. I asked about their policy on live local bands and small groups. He said they usually paid a percentage of the bar's take that night, plus free drinks. We can afford that fee for our entertainment. A percentage of sales during their performance times, and free coffee, tea, soup, and baked goods sounds like a deal to me for a group that's just starting.

We won't hire popular groups until we can meet their fees.

And NO pyrotechnics. Got enough heat in the bakery, don't need wild fires.