How to start a bakery business from home

It depends on your state, because each one has its own cottage food law for food made at home and sold to the public. In Texas, you need a basic food handler course and the home-kitchen statement on every label, plus a state registration for foods that must be kept cold. A Texas city or county health department can't require a license, permit or fee for selling these foods straight to customers. In California, you register with your county's environmental health department, or get a permit from it if you'll sell through shops, and take a food processor course within three months. Zoning rules can still apply to a business you run from home, so ask your city as well.

You can sell the foods your state's cottage food rules allow, and the lists differ a lot. Texas allows any food except meat and poultry, seafood, ice and ice cream products, low-acid canned goods, anything containing CBD or THC, and raw milk products. Foods that must be kept cold are allowed there too, but they need a state registration and safe-handling instructions on the label. California allows only the foods on its approved cottage food list, which are foods that don't need to be kept cold. Its health department says eggs are fine in baked goods as long as the product is dry once baked and doesn't need refrigeration. Check each bake against your own state's list before you print a label.

Often you can, but states differ on how the food may reach the buyer. In Texas, you can take orders online only if you, an employee or someone in your household delivers the food in person. You also have to post the label details on your website before you take payment, and the 2025 law took mail order out of the rules for selling online. In California, both classes of home food business can take orders by phone or online and fill them in person, by mail or through a delivery service, as long as the sale stays within the state. Wherever you live, read how your state treats online orders before you build an order page, and keep your first orders local.

There's no typical figure we can stand behind, because it depends on your state's fees and on what you already own. So list what you'll pay before your first sale: any registration or permit fee where you live, a food handler course if your state asks for one, labels and packaging, a market table fee, and ingredients for a few test batches. Ask your county or city about its fees, and ask each market about its table fee and what it needs from home bakers. Then work out what one item costs you to make, as in the first week, and set prices that cover those start-up costs over your first few market days.

Start from what one item costs you to make, then decide what your time is worth. Add up the ingredients and packaging for one batch and divide by the number of items it makes. That's your floor: below it, every sale loses money. Then add your time, from shopping to cleanup, at an hourly rate you'd accept, plus your share of the market fee. Check the result against what the three people in your first week said they'd pay, and against prices at the market where you'll sell. If the numbers don't meet, change the bake, the batch size or the market rather than working for nothing.

No. LeapSteps is our app, and it doesn't know local laws: its AI drafts steps toward your goal, not legal answers. Check the rules with your state's health or agriculture department and with your city or county. What LeapSteps can do is hold the work the rules create. Make "Check my state's cottage food rules" the short-term step, and add each open question as a task linked to it, like "Email the county about labels". Each task shows on Today when it's due, next to the rest of your week. When the rules are clear, tap Done on the step and set the next one, such as your first market table.