Holiday Baking!

It's been a busy couple of weeks! Over a month has passed since I found my starting point for my start-up sweetery. I have formally begun work on the website and brand development.I have had a domain hosted for years but never really did anything with it. I am playing around with several content management systems to develop the website, specifically Joomla and Drupal. Both are free and open source but have a learning curve. I *can* program in html if needed but I am hoping for something a little less time consuming. I also found a CMS named Dotnetnuke that has a free edition as well as a dedicated site with skins and modules. The only downside is that most of them cost money and are not very editable. Unless I saw a skin that had the perfect colors and font I wanted, I would have to put a ton of time in to customize it. Might as well start from scratch!

I have been making the rounds of bakery sites on the net, looking at the various styles, noting layouts that I like, and generally just trying to get a concrete picture of what I want the site to look like. I have identified several things that are important to me for the site: A gallery for pictures of the merchandise; a calendar for upcoming special treats related to holidays (US and Japan); a links page to various vegan supply stores, vegan bakeries, personal fun links; and a section for this blog.I am really glad that I am not pressed for time and can leisurely draw out the site map.My full time job closes for Christmas on the 24th and does not reopen till January 3rd so I should have ample time to sit down and FOCUS!

On a fun note, I have been trying out some recipes!

Chocolate Crinkle Cookies

Espresso Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies

Peanut Apple Pretzel Drops

Mexican Chocolate Snickerdoodles

First day of searching

Well, I found a starting point very quickly. :) A bunch of links, all on one page, specifically for New Hampshire!
How to Start a Business in NH

As I am not sure when I will be actually moving, I am wondering how many steps I can actually do in the process. I have thought of my business name so now I have decided to design my logo. I have asked a friend for help but if I have to, I will pay someone. I have decided to use the colors pink and chocolate. Once I nail down the logo, I will flesh out this blog. Sounds so easy right? :) I wish I could draw or at least had access to an image editing software. I don't really like to have to ask someone else for things. It won't be just the logo, I will need help designing the layout for the website. I plan to do as much as I can on my own though.

So in looking over the page for How to Start a Business in NH, I immediately saw what I need to do, like, tomorrow. Trademark my bakery name! Luckily it appears that I won't be having a lot of competition in New Hampshire. Coupled with the fact that I will be a totally vegan bakery, I should have that niche cornered.

I'll give more information as I start through the trademark process :)

And so begins my journey...

I have started this blog to document my journey towards opening a bakery. I am moving to New Hampshire in 2010 and plan to start an in home bakery while I work. I honestly haven't the first clue how to go about opening a bakery or even where to start so I plan to document my search for knowledge and share what I find in this blog!

Creating this blog was my very first step! My second step will be to create my logo. I want to use the logo as a profile picture/avatar in as many places as I visit online so that when I finally do open my business, my little logo will already be out there :)

I hope that, in the end, my dream will be successful and maybe I can help some others out there that have the same dream!