Ever wonder what it takes to start a small business? Passion, patience, trust, confidence, support (and lots of it!). It also doesn't hurt to have an amazing business partner. So many wonderful people have helped us this far in our journey, and this is just the beginning. Here's what we've been up to...
First things first. Well, you can't just call yourself a business. It's got to be official. The Tipsy Goat became a registered LLC business in the state of Missouri in April 2016. It's official!
Now what? Got to have a place to bake. After a few kitchen disappointments and flat out "no's", we were so lucky to find Carondelet Bakery. No longer in business, Carondelet Bakery is the oldest bakery in St. Louis. They are now using their bakery as a culinary incubator for start-up businesses like ourselves. How cool is that?! High ceilings, old rustic wooden tables and a massive oven. It really was love at first sight.
But not so fast, we had to do some paperwork before we could break out the oven mitts...lots of paperwork.
That meant going downtown to City Hall and working with a super awesome woman who knows her stuff. We had to register The Tipsy Goat with the state for tax purposes and to obtain our retail license. Then, we had to fill out a lot of paperwork for the business license (and pay a lot of fees). Turns out, it's not too bad, especially since we found someone who really streamlined the process. A huge thank you to Dorothy. Not only is the lady super sweet, she'll get the job done.
Ok, next step? We took the occupation waiver, letter of authorization, establishment inspection report, and proof of license (along with basically every other paper we possess) to the health department. Luckily, Linda, the owner of Carondelet Bakery helped us out tremendously by having all of these papers ready for us and by answering all our questions. You rock, Linda!
So, what's next? Well, we're almost there! We just have to meet with a health inspector, and finalize our insurance. That's it. That's it!
Soon we'll be in the kitchen, testing out new recipes and sharing them along the way. We're also constantly looking for local businesses to partner with, and local farmers to support.
We've come a long way and we couldn't be more proud of our accomplishments. We have some amazing plans in the works that we'll be announcing soon. They're pretty big. You should be excited.
