How to Start a Home Bakery: The Step-by-Step Plan
A home bakery is one of the easiest food businesses to start in the US — most baked goods are cottage-food-legal in every state, ingredients are cheap, and equipment you already own gets you to your first $5,000 in sales.
Here's the order that actually works.
Step 1: Confirm your state's cottage food rules
Open your state page in our cottage food laws guide. Confirm that baked goods are allowed (they almost always are), note your sales cap, and check whether your state requires a food handler card or residential kitchen registration.
Step 2: Pick your menu
Don't try to be a full bakery on day one. Pick 3-5 products that share equipment, ingredients, and prep flow. Drop cookies + a banana bread + a granola is a tight menu. Cinnamon rolls + sourdough + macarons is chaos.
Step 3: Cost out every product
Weigh your ingredients for one unit, plug it into a spreadsheet, and add packaging. That's your food cost. Price at 3-4x minimum. Below 3x, packaging and labor will eat the rest.
Step 4: Take real product photos
Phone + natural window light + white or wood surface + one prop (linen, knife, plate). Shoot 5 photos of each product. This single afternoon doubles your conversion rate.
Step 5: Launch a storefront — not Instagram DMs
FoodDropr gives you a mobile storefront with your menu, photos, prices, pickup window, and Stripe checkout in about 15 minutes. Skip the spreadsheet-and-Venmo phase entirely.
Step 6: Run a soft launch with 10 friends
Don't open to the public on day one. Run your first weekly drop for 10 people you know, get feedback on packaging and pickup, then expand.
Step 7: Market locally
Three channels that consistently work for home bakers:
- Two local Facebook groups (read group rules — most ban link spam but allow weekly menu posts)
- Instagram with the storefront link in bio
- A 'thank you' card at every pickup with your storefront URL