Needs Confidence !!
How do I get the confidence to charge for my cakes? People ask me for cakes and I do them for free. My family is always telling me I am crazy. I have a couple on this web site. I take pictures of all my cakes and keep them in a book.I feel that if I charge then it has to be perfect. When I dont charge then any mistakes are ok for me. I do use fondant and make cakes from scratch most of the time. I even do modeling chocolate. So how can I get over this bump?
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Eileen S on
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HI Patricia - more than confidence, I think you need to find out if it's legal to sell cakes out of your home in your town/county/state. Some states have a cottage food law that allows it, most do not. Do a little digging to find out before you get a call from the health department (experience speaking here - it's illegal to bake and sell from your home in Wisconsin).
As for whether your cakes are good enough? Sweetheart, the cakes/cupcakes you have photos of on here are great! No worries in that department. :)
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Permalink Reply by June Kowalczyk on
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Eileen is right Patricia
I sell my cakes by word of mouth mainly. I keep under the radar as I don't want my local health dept. showing up at my door!!! You need to check what the rules are in your area. And as far a family & friends goes.....the usual rule of thumb is: if YOU offer to make the cake, it is free, you don't charge, If they ASK you to make the cake YOU CHARGE, even if it is strictly for the ingredients you use. Your ingredients are not cheap, nor should your talent & time be dismissed. And Patricia....there is no such thing as a PREFECT CAKE. We can all come close, but usually there is something that is not 100%. And besides, we all tend to see the flaws/mistakes cause we are critical of our own work.
Hope this helps.
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Permalink Reply by Goreti on
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Patricia, I had to smile when I read this. I could have written it. Like you, I give all my cakes away. I see every single flaw on the cake and don't feel that I could actually charge for it. The funny thing I have seen cakes done by professionals that have a lot of flaws too. Another thing is that I really don't feel like going thru all the aggravation in order to legally sell my cakes. I love decorating cakes but I think that if I had to do it all the time, I would get fed up real quick. It's a lot of work and when you have a bad back, bad knee as well as tendinitis in my right arm (of course I'm right handed) it makes it very painful certain days.
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I am with you Goreti as far as doing it full time. I do it as a hobby, with the occasional paying customer. Just the way I like it. After doing the wedding cake for a customer, I was glad it was over, cause I get stressed dilivering & setting up. Then waiting to here back that cake was well received & tasted good. Nope, just wouldn't do this full time. Not worth all the stress.
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Permalink Reply by Patricia Soto on
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I am talking about the cost of the cake. Thank you very much for checking out my pictures.
Eileen S said:HI Patricia - more than confidence, I think you need to find out if it's legal to sell cakes out of your home in your town/county/state. Some states have a cottage food law that allows it, most do not. Do a little digging to find out before you get a call from the health department (experience speaking here - it's illegal to bake and sell from your home in Wisconsin).
As for whether your cakes are good enough? Sweetheart, the cakes/cupcakes you have photos of on here are great! No worries in that department. :)
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Best advice Patricia is to check with at leat 10 bakeries/cake decorators in your area and see what they would charge for the same cake you would produce Figure in your level of decorating, then charge accordingly. I am not a pro by any means, but neither am I a novice. This is what I have done with the cakes I charged for. Was given this advice by several cakers here on CWB.
Hope what I have explained is clear. There is good article on cakeboss.com. Not to be confused with the tv show. This site makes software for cake decorating business's. Article is "How much should I charge?" Check it out Patricia. It is a good read, and should answer a lot of your questions,
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Permalink Reply by Sherry Qualls on
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costing a cake
cost of ingredients
what does your market bear
how much do you want to make
easy peasy
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Permalink Reply by Majka Hianik on
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How do you keep under the radar???
June Kowalczyk said:Eileen is right Patricia
I sell my cakes by word of mouth mainly. I keep under the radar as I don't want my local health dept. showing up at my door!!! You need to check what the rules are in your area. And as far a family & friends goes.....the usual rule of thumb is: if YOU offer to make the cake, it is free, you don't charge, If they ASK you to make the cake YOU CHARGE, even if it is strictly for the ingredients you use. Your ingredients are not cheap, nor should your talent & time be dismissed. And Patricia....there is no such thing as a PREFECT CAKE. We can all come close, but usually there is something that is not 100%. And besides, we all tend to see the flaws/mistakes cause we are critical of our own work.
Hope this helps.
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Ok
I will try to explain. If you distribute flyers about your cake business, go to wedding shows & set up a booth, a local craft show, or something similar & set up a booth. Print out business cards with your cake decorating name ( business ) & are agressively handing them out, you open yourself up to scrutiny. I cake shop owner I know was working out of his home, and these are the things he was doing to bring in cake business. Well he is 99.99% sure another cake business phoned the local health authorities on him. Then the jing was up. He didn't meet their "standards", so he had to decide...do I spend the money to bring my house cake business up to code, or rent a building where I can set up a actually cake business. After a year of renting out kitchen space at churches etc. for his baking, he did decicide to open his own shop. It is too bad he is a hour away from my home because he is passionate about supporting the home/hobby baker. He has 4 kitchens in the back of his shop, and he rents out space to the home/hobby baker for peanuts to bake & decorate for their own business!!! Pretty darn good if you ask me. He doesn't feel "threatened" by their business. Plus, as a smart business man, I am sure most of those home/hobby bakers buy most of their supplies from him. A win win situation. One of the decorators who runs my local cake club I know for a fact feels that home/ hobby bakers should not consider themselves "pros" unless they have certificates of training before running a cake business. I can tell you, if she felt a home/hobby baker was taking cake orders from her. She would rat them out in a heartbeat.
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Well I dont do any of that stuff. I would love for someone to open up a kitchen for rent here. I feel the same way as June. I love doing it as a hobby. I have been asked by a Supermarket here If I wanted a job there, but turned it down because I dont want to hate decorating cakes and baking. Here in Massachusetts we can bake and sell from the home as long as we have that cottage (something) Licence. I did check that Eileen. Thank you everyone for the advice. I love this site.
June Kowalczyk said:Ok
I will try to explain. If you distribute flyers about your cake business, go to wedding shows & set up a booth, a local craft show, or something similar & set up a booth. Print out business cards with your cake decorating name ( business ) & are agressively handing them out, you open yourself up to scrutiny. I cake shop owner I know was working out of his home, and these are the things he was doing to bring in cake business. Well he is 99.99% sure another cake business phoned the local health authorities on him. Then the jing was up. He didn't meet their "standards", so he had to decide...do I spend the money to bring my house cake business up to code, or rent a building where I can set up a actually cake business. After a year of renting out kitchen space at churches etc. for his baking, he did decicide to open his own shop. It is too bad he is a hour away from my home because he is passionate about supporting the home/hobby baker. He has 4 kitchens in the back of his shop, and he rents out space to the home/hobby baker for peanuts to bake & decorate for their own business!!! Pretty darn good if you ask me. He doesn't feel "threatened" by their business. Plus, as a smart business man, I am sure most of those home/hobby bakers buy most of their supplies from him. A win win situation. One of the decorators who runs my local cake club I know for a fact feels that home/ hobby bakers should not consider themselves "pros" unless they have certificates of training before running a cake business. I can tell you, if she felt a home/hobby baker was taking cake orders from her. She would rat them out in a heartbeat.
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Then Patricia, I say go for it and the next time someone requests a cake from you, tell them how much it will cost. :) You're an excellent decorator and worth every penny! :)
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I wish we had a "cottage law" here in Ont/Canada, but we don't. Health authority makes the rulings. One hard & fast rule for home based cake business here is you MUST have a separate kitchen, and wash up/clean up area from your own household kitchen. Funny,.....so far nobody has died from all the cakes I have made!!!!
But like you said Patricia, having it as a hobby makes it enjoyable. The lovely lady who got me into this, God rest her soul, advised me never to start a business if I wanted to enjoy cake decorating. She did, and after 15 yrs., gave it up cause of the stress & pressure, and as she said.....it just plain wasn't fun anymore.
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