AT HOME IN THE BAKING BUSINESS

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By the way, your license will probably cover only "plain" baked items . . . that is, bread, rolls, bagels, etc. It's best not to sell any cream pies, custard-filled pastries, or similar items that could spoil and make someone sick.

[2] Maintain good records! This is vital . . . since such data will probably be the only tool that can tell you whether or not you're making a profit on your goods. Furthermore, some of your expenses can be deducted from your bread income at tag time (yes, you do have to give Uncle Sam his cut), but you won't be able to take advantage of deductions that you forget . . . or can't verify.

Record-keeping needn't be a formidable chore if you simply make it a regular practice. For instance, before I bake anything for sale, I figure the cost of the ingredients and make up a price sheet for each recipe. Of course, that calculation does involve spending some time weighing and measuring the contents of standard-sized packages of flour, spices, etc. so that I know exactly how many cups, ounces, or whatever are contained in each package. Once that's done, though, I simply divide the price of the package by the number of cups or ounces to arrive at the cost of each unit. Then it's easy to figure up what I've spent for the ingredients in any one recipe.

I also write down all my orders in a 35¢ receipt book — the kind with carbon paper attached — and total them at the end of each month. I then subtract the ingredients cost of each order, and my mileage expense for the month (which I record in a little notebook in my car), and what's left is my profit !

[3] Keep track of your supplies. After all, a frantic dash to the midnight market to pick up the molasses you thought you had could really eat into your net income! I shop for perishables once a week and purchase staples, on a monthly basis, through a food co-op or (sometimes) a grocery wholesaler.

[4] Stick to what you do best. Early on, I tried to offer every kind of bread I could think of . . . from bagels and brioches to Swedish limpa. After a few charred fiascoes, though, I narrowed my list. My mainstays now are whole wheat bread, oatmeal bread, and cinnamon rolls.

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Maggie Glezer

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