Actually ur wife can consider doing the business online. Take online orders & deliver them. Target clients like spa/companies/events that order for functions etc. This way, u only bake when u have orders, so everything is fresh from the oven. Can promote to friends & families & ask them to refer more clients. This is lower risk & lower cost.

Yes, building ur network of customers take the right effort & time.

Basically, there are 2 ways of marketing

1. Direct marketing
2. Word-of-Mouth marketing

Direct marketing include putting up advertisements, flyers, commercials, signboards, yellow pages

Word-of-Mouth is when ur satisfied clients talk about u. They tell their family & friends to try ur service. This is the best marketing u can get because money can't buy referrals.

Many new biz owners fail to make use of Word-of-Mouth marketing, they only concentrate on direct marketing which mostly will go to waste because the target market is wrong.

I'm a member of an international referral organization, where members meet every week to educate each other on our biz & our target market. It's a very structured meeting with it's own training & system. If u'd like to attend as an observer, pls pm me as no advertisements allowed here right.

Yes, I agree with starting small & test the market first. You must have a ready supply of customers waiting to support you BEFORE you even think of starting a business. There must be a need for your products/services. That means, you need to do sufficient homework & marker research. If you come up with something that is unique, but doesn't suit the local tastebuds, it's also a waste of time & effort.