My current status with the whole starting a business journey has me patiently waiting to be contacted by the inspection people. I am waiting to be contacted to schedule an appointment for an inspection (“pre-registration facility inspection”), which I am quite nervous about! When I wasn’t hearing anything back about anything, I called (9-30-19) to check in on what’s going on with my PFR application. I was told that it’d typically take approximately 4-6 weeks to hear back to get things rolling with the inspection process. So here I am, patiently waiting.
8-28-19 – Mailed in PFR application (and scheduled a check to be sent)
9-17-19 – I received a reply email (stating that my application would be reviewed that week.
9-30-19 – I was starting to get impatient with the not knowing, so I called to see what was going on. The person handling my application told me that she thought that she had replied to my last email to let me know that she moved it forward and that I can be expecting to be contacted regarding the inspection within 4-6 weeks.
So here we are, nearing the end of October and I’m patiently waiting! I was hoping I’d be able to take on pumpkin season (as I love pumpkin season and baking with pumpkin), but it looks like Baked by A.K. will be missing out on that this year. But I am keeping my fingers crossed that I’d be able to get things moving along by the holidays! I actually have no idea at this point….anything can go wrong during the inspection and my start date may be even more delayed. There might be unknown issues. There might be setbacks. They might even take longer to get back to me for whatever reason…. This whole just getting started thing feels like the hard part! I’m just ready to dip my toe in and get started already!
For those of you who have been there, tell me, is it normal to be waiting this long?
In the meantime, as I wait........
I’ve been continuing to experiment with different recipes, reading books (food business related), watching YouTube tutorials to learn more in depth on effective marketing tactics on a budget, trying to understand pricing products, getting the social media thing going (because it’s a necessary beast that can’t be neglected), and shopping around for items! Whew, I got tired from just typing all that out.
The list of the items that I need is endless. And here are just a few of them that I am currently looking into.
FOR THE MARKETS
I still haven’t made up my mind yet whether I’ll be having an open tent or a closed one. The Orange County TFF has different rules and regulations for packaged and unpackaged food items.
It feels like a benefit of having an enclosed tent would be having items guarded from theft. With my items freely displayed openly with an open tent, it could make me paranoid about the ease of how items can disappear, as I’ve heard stories about. Also, it’d save costs on packaging. Instead of having items prepackaged, I’d opt for bags to serve the items in.
For open tents, items need to be packaged. If selling unpackaged items, the tents need to be enclosed. I found this tent that I am leaning towards getting, if I do end up deciding to go with Category 1A or 1B (prepackaged items). It is not outrageously pricey and comes with decent reviews.
If choosing to go with an open tent, I was thinking of getting a display case like this one. I’d display brownies, quickbreads, cupcakes, and such in the case. But then I’ll also need bags/boxes to serve the items in. I’d also personally start feeling weird grabbing the item each time (even with tong or paper) when also handling money at the same time since I can’t always be running back and forth to go wash hands with each transaction. I can be hypersensitive about that sort of thing, so I know how like-minded people might feel. So I wonder if it’s just better to just have them packaged. If packaged, it may or may not be in a display case. Another option might be to have wooden boxes or shelves. This might be a cute addition to the setup.
I want packaged cookies to be in jars, maybe because I have a thing for seeing cookies in jars!
GIFT SETS
With the holidays coming up (and assuming that the start of my business can happen by then), I also want to offer goodies by the set, great as gifts! My personal favorite gifts are the kinds you can eat. Lately when I come across posts from other foodpreneurs (primarily baking ones), I’ve been paying closer attention to their packaging. And I came across so many companies that offer a plethora of options to choose from. It’s so hard to decide! Among them is BRP Box Shop. They offer a samples option where you can order some samples to test before purchasing in bulk. It’ll cost me $12 to try out five different packaging items. Below are the five that I ordered to get a feel of. Photos are from their site. Click on images for detail.
Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links, which means that with a purchase made of the items I’ve shared, I will be earning a commission. I only share items that I stand behind, have used myself and love, or am excited to give a try.