Joined: Jun 19, 2009
Posts: 188
Location: Sherwood Park, Alberta, Canada
Posted:
Fri Jul 03, 2009 9:04 pm
I just got into cake decorating 3 months ago and love it, love it, love it! I would love to get into this as a career but I would be doing this on the side for the next few years while we paid down some bills.
My question is this: It seems like once word of mouth gets around, there's no lack of requests. Is it really that easy to get started? Just tell people? Take a cake to work?
I don't want to enter into this business venture naively because there's a bit of an expense for me. My area doesn't allow cakes to be sold unless you have a separate kitchen and a food handling permit. I'm confident in my abilities but just wondering if the market is as "hungry" for decorated cakes as it sounds to be. Just looking for your experience.
FromScratch Forum SuperStar!
Joined: Mar 12, 2007
Posts: 5333
Location: on an island in the sun...
Posted:
Fri Jul 03, 2009 10:51 pm
No... it's not easy... not easy at all. It's hard work, late nights, listening to people say you are WAY too expensive for "just a cake", time spent away from your family, delivering a cake when you should be at a t-ball game, filing taxes, general accounting, keeping your license up to date, paying for insurance, marketing yourself, putting your game face on for tastings and shows, your heart sinking when things don't go 100% to plan... the list goes on and on (and on and on and on and on).
It's not as simple as bringing a cake to work and word of mouth... not if you want to actually make money. You have to be relentless at tooting your own horn and putting your name out there... all things you can't really do unless you are legal so if you wanted to do this under the radar, this will be a serious hurdle (not saying you are wanting to fly under the radar, but just for the sake of putting it out there). Co-workers and friends are not going to be your money making clients.
Is it do-able?? Oh most certainly yes, but not without a sound business plan and a business mind-set. Rose colored glasses have no place in any business.
Mensch Forum Addict
Joined: Jun 19, 2009
Posts: 600
Location: The Diogenes Club
Posted:
Fri Jul 03, 2009 11:15 pm
I second Jeanne.
miny Forum Fanatic
Joined: Aug 27, 2005
Posts: 1031
Location: California
Birthday: Dec 27
Posted:
Fri Jul 03, 2009 11:54 pm
Oh yes, you won't lack requests.......as long as your cakes are free or at cost, but this way you are not going to make money! I only bake for friends and family so I don't know exactly how much money you can make but my way is very expensive!!!
Happy 4th everyone!!!!!
Nchanted1 Junior Member
Joined: Apr 18, 2006
Posts: 69
Posted:
Sat Jul 04, 2009 4:48 am
If it were easy, everyone would be doing it. I STRONGLY recommend that you get the book "The EMyth". Doing the actual cakes is only about half of the skill set you need to be successful. Also, you need to to promote your business all the time. Even after you get enough of a client base that you have steady work, people move away, they stop eating carbs, their kids grow up, there's a million reasons why they stop calling. You are always needing to get new customers. It's can be tiring and discouraging.
I don't know of anyone who just started and Boom! they were doing well. It's a long slow slog.
That said, if you wake up thinking about cakes, if you get joy out of finishing a beautiful cake, if you'd rather bake than shop, well, you're a cake artist. Go for it! Just be in it for the long haul. Good luck!
cfao Regular Member
Joined: Mar 29, 2007
Posts: 154
Location: massachusetts
Posted:
Sat Jul 04, 2009 4:54 am
I agree with Jeanne and wanted to add you will have NO weekends. Over the years of doing this, we consider our "weekend" as Monday & Tuesday. 99% of the events you decorate cakes for are Fri-Sat-Sun. You get Sunday late afternoon to yourself when the last wedding has been delivered. If you have a wedding to go to yourself, chances are you will do their cake - I do them for close friends/family as their gift. I haven't been to a wedding in 20 years. I've been to the reception before everyone else setting up the cake, but not to an actual wedding ceremony.
Last edited by cfao on Sat Jul 04, 2009 7:57 am; edited 1 time in total
leah_s Forum SuperStar!
Joined: Jun 19, 2007
Posts: 5622
Posted:
Sat Jul 04, 2009 7:40 am
Easy? ::falls on floor laughing:: As long as you don't mind working 80 hours a week, all the time on your feet, give up all weekends and don't need sleep, you're golden.
And you said you can't bake and sell out of your home? Well, then you will HAVE to rent space and that begins to cut into your profits, so you have to be working in volume - not a part-time thing.
You must be LEGAL to sell food to the public.
PinkLisa Frequent Member
Joined: Mar 31, 2009
Posts: 234
Location: New Jersey
Posted:
Sat Jul 04, 2009 8:11 am
Can anyone think of ANY easy way to make money? I cannot.....
Due to the ease of this business I missed my favorite uncles 60th brthday party this year...made the cake though...but I had to sent it with my family to Georgia while I stayed here in Detroit in the middle of March I had a wedding that weekend plus a couple of baby showers. I have been hospitalized due to a combo of anxiety and exhaustion. I never get to see my nieces dance recitals all the way through. Only their parts then it is off to finish or deliver a cake. etc...etc...etc.
This is truly a labor of love. You spend all your time and the majority of your money. You bleed sometimes and cry a lot. You dont get to sleep for days in summer months and your back and feet ache all the time. And I wont even mention the clients who watch the food network and think they are pastry chefs because they can pronuonce fondant.
This life we've chosen is not for the faint of heart. If you are tough and detemined and strong like bull you can do it. But dont for a minute think it is an easy way to make money. You dont make near the money you should doing this.
leah_s Forum SuperStar!
Joined: Jun 19, 2007
Posts: 5622
Posted:
Sat Jul 04, 2009 8:18 am
Well . . . Pink, I've heard about an easy way to make money, but it involves street corners . . .
littlecake Forum SuperStar!
Joined: Sep 18, 2006
Posts: 2245
Location: the fine line between genuis and insanity
Birthday: Nov 21
Posted:
Sat Jul 04, 2009 8:25 am
you make pretty good money....too bad sooooooo much goes back into the overhead.
i haven't had a weekend off since the early 90's.
and it can be hard on your hands and wrists.
don't do it unless you've got a passion for it, i've come home many saturdays hardly able to walk from standing 12-14 hours
majormichel Frequent Member
Joined: Apr 22, 2005
Posts: 456
Location: Nova Scotia but from the Bahamas
Birthday: Apr 23
Posted:
Sat Jul 04, 2009 8:25 am
leahs wrote:
Well . . . Pink, I've heard about an easy way to make money, but it involves street corners . . .
lol
majormichel Frequent Member
Joined: Apr 22, 2005
Posts: 456
Location: Nova Scotia but from the Bahamas
Birthday: Apr 23
Posted:
Sat Jul 04, 2009 8:28 am
leahs wrote:
Well . . . Pink, I've heard about an easy way to make money, but it involves street corners . . .
lol
Debluvs2bake Junior Member
Joined: Dec 26, 2008
Posts: 99
Location: South Central Kentucky
Birthday: May 07
Posted:
Sat Jul 04, 2009 8:28 am
There is NO easy money in cakes! Making a great cake is the easy part, making money off it is the difficult part.
aligotmatt Forum Fanatic
Joined: Jun 22, 2006
Posts: 1030
Location: NC
Posted:
Sat Jul 04, 2009 8:29 am
I agree with everyone! I have not really struggled to GET business, I'm pretty good at marketing myself. But sending my kids and husband to the beach while I stay home and work, sending them to the parades, airshows, birthday parties, ballet classes... because I can't leave.
April, May and June are exhausting months for me, I just work and work, sleep 5 or so hours a night and then work some more. In those months I don't get my monday off because I spend it doing meetings, shopping, catching up my books... because there is no other time in the week for it. This May I was so exhausted I couldn't see straight, I was tingling from exhaustion. By the end of May I thought I was going to die and went to the doctor, turned out I had worked the whole month with pneumonia! I didn't even know, because the exhaustion and general soreness are part of the job. I had to go into the hospital on a Tuesday, they wanted to keep me in to rest and do breathing treatments but I told them I HAD to be released because I had 2 weddings and a grooms cake. And I left and got back to work. They told me to rest 12-15 hours a day to recover, I was like, yeah... I think I have some time to do that at the end of July...
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