Renee, I told you before the cakes are gorgeous!! If they taste as good as they look. . .well, send me the grand opening invite! I will make the trip to support you.
Cupcakes are getting to be 'big' nowadays. Thats an angle to think of if you are having a 'by the slice bakery'. People have kids. . .
Also, now, before you begin officially, you can start getting clients and a base and good word of mouth (no pun intended!) if you bake cakes for friends/neighbors and don't charge except for supplies/ingredients. It will give you experience right in your own kitchen without loading all those calories on your immediate family:) Schools have cake walks, churches have socials. All these are good places to get the word out about your extraordinary cakes. You might also want to look into renting out commercial kitchens at night or during their down times. Some restraunts have limited hours or days and this would be possible. My sister (more below) did this, and was properly licensed and legal to make food to sell commercially. That may be a way to nudge your way into the business community without the whole investment in a retail/food establishment. See how it works for you.
Personally, I love tea. . .so a bakery and tea room would be awesome for me. Having a place for ladies groups to get together for a light lunch or 'tea' would be wonderful in many communities. If you can master scones, you will have it made.
Having financial and personnel help is a great blessing. Be VERY prepared. Do a business plan, read all the books you can on doing this effectively. An inspiring book I read was by the Smith and Hawken founder. Might want to read it. Mrs. Fields wrote one too, I'll bet.
My sister did this, only more of a wholesale cookie business. She could make a great cookie, and used the best ingredients and all that. She never made much money at it because she really hadn't counted the cost-literally-of doing business. Know how much every kind of cake will COST YOU, in money and in your time. Evaluate the cost effectiveness of wi-fi--will you get folks who take up space all day and buy one cup of coffee? If your space is cheap-it could be worth it for the happy neighbor effect, I'm not sure. But that is why a business plan is really important. I have thought of a few ideas, and early in the planning stages realized that for one reason or another, they would not work for me personally due to time, money or my own abilities. You have the ability, you have financial support to start. You need to find out if the thing can take off and make it. The commercial kitchen would be something you could rent out sooner, become licensed under the name you wish to use and get known for your 'sweet cakes'.
Shelly
PS, do a really awesome carrot cake with pecans and you may possibly be worshipped.