Overwhelming but not discouraging.

My boss today told me, that if I wanted to buy the bakery from him, he would let me. I would just need to get someone to invest in me. So yeah, that would be easy. Just find someone rich, to invest in a 24 year old with bad credit and no business experience. Piece of cake, right? Right.....

But he did give me a good idea. Buying a shop from someone else. Instead of starting from scratch in a new building or turning something else into a bakery. Just buy a bakery already, and flip it my way. Cheaper right? Maybe. Depends on the cost of the bakery I am buying and the huge hassle that may be. Though he said he put 300 grand into the start up of his place. So I think it just might be a better idea to buy a business and turn it into mine. Doesn't even have to be a bakery, just a food establishment with most of the equipment already in it.  Definitely going to have to look into that more.

In the meantime, I got online and looked into how much a domestic kitchen(baking from home and selling online) would cost to do. Its 152$ just for the license fee. Then I would have to buy separate storage units for the food I would be using just for the business. Not to mention supplies for baking, packaging, advertising, and running the website. I would have to have an inspector come at least twice to approve of the kitchen. So its slightly overwhelming but I knew it would be. Its just a matter of saving and building up to it. I wish that I could start right away, but that's always me, always gotta rush things. With this though, its nice to not have the option to rush. Just make sure I do it right.

What is in a name?

A lot apparently. I thought thinking of a name for the business would be one of the easiest things I would have to do in this whole process. I think I was wrong. Back when I wanted to do just cupcakes, I had a few names I was considering, but I quickly realized they were either taken or just not fitting what I wanted to represent.  I have had tons of great suggestions from friends and family, and some not so great ones....you know who you are. ;)

Then when I decided to expand out to so much more. Thats where it got more difficult. At first I wanted to call it a bakery but when most people hear bakery, they think bread. Don't get me wrong, I love bread, but I love to eat it, not make it. I thought about Patisserie, but thats way to french, and I doubt I will be anywhere near authentic french pastries.

There are so many options, its overwhelming. But the word "Treat", now that word is what I am all about. Treating yourself.

So from there....came, Urban Paradise Treats, Gourmet Urban Treats, but the word Urban, gave not just me, the impression that if you walked into my shop, you were gonna get a glock in your face. So no more urban.  Then my friend "Cheese n' Crackers", came up with "Treatpocalypse- So good, it will end the world for all other treats." Now that, is the kinda originality and non cutesy factor I am looking for. But as cool as it is, It doesn't feel like it fits.

So while I put words together, and create new ones in hopes of finding the name of my future business. I can't help but wonder, how cool would an exploding cupcake logo be? Right, Court?

The beginning of something big....I hope.

So the whole point of this blog, is because I am a 24 year old aspiring business owner. Not just any business. I want to own a bakery/dessert shop. Its more than just a bakery. It would be a gourmet treat shop.

So I guess in my "quest' to open this shop, I have obviously been doing as much research as possible about the process I need to go through to make this happen. I have found a lot online, but its always scattered information. So I thought that well maybe it would be interesting to document every aspect of bringing a business from idea to reality. And not just the process from the bank loans on. but from the dirty, poor inexperienced bottom up. I thought that if i were to document my process, that whether I failed or succeeded, that maybe it could help someone to see basically where someone started and learn from my mistakes and successes.

I am basically starting from the very beginning. I have no money but tons of ideas. I am years, I believe,  away from having my own storefront, but there is so much more to accomplish in the meantime. Like basic experience. I know that I can come up with the ideas and I know I can make them work, but I wont act like I know it all. There is still a lot of industry information to learn and I am more than willing to learn. I have been doing a massive amount of market research about what is popular, what is sustainable and what isn't. I had originally wanted to open up a cupcake bakery. I was dead set on selling nothing but cupcakes. After all my research and talks with friends and family, I realized that if I wanted to be successful, I had to expand my inventory. So from just cupcakes, I decided to expand out to pastries, cookies, pies, cheesecake etc. I have been leaning towards the feeling of a bakery dessert shop. I am not big on breads or big cakes. I just want people to say "That would be a great first date place!" or "lets stop there and get dessert for tonight!" or having people want my stuff at their parties, baby showers, weddings! I want to be proud of my product and the fact that people would pay money to eat it. That is my ultimate dream.

So with all these dreams of success and business glory running through my head. I have never been more certain of this goal and this is what I want to do as my career. If I have to bust my ass the rest of my life, it will be doing something I love, and I refuse to settle for less!

So hopefully this blog, will at the very least show someone what not to do. but hopefully, it will show where that famous bakery in Oregon started out from.