No Business Yet..feeling Blue

Baking By spsjj Updated 26 Mar 2008 , 12:23pm by Mac

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spsjj Posted 26 Mar 2008 , 10:37am
post #1 of 7

I have done a baby shower free, handed out tons of free cookies, did a birdal showere free. All to get my name out there Everyone says how beautiful and good they are but I am not getting any orders. What should I do. I plan to keep pluggung away but how long does it ttake Thanks cookie friends

6 replies
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yummymummy Posted 26 Mar 2008 , 11:22am
post #2 of 7

Boy do I know how you feel! I too did a baby shower for free and also brought a few cakes & cupcake bouquets to my children's school w/ business cards. Everyone said I did a beautiful job...but now orders for like 3 months. Then last week we went to parent teacher conferences and my sons teacher ordered 2 cakes on the spot. A communion cake and a 50th Anniversary cake! I was stunned! On the way home my dh stopped by our local pizza place (where I'm embarrassed to say they know us by name now!) and the girl behind the counter ordered a b day cake! 3 cake orders in less than 2 hours! # days later, dh came home and wanted a grinder, went back to said pizza place and the other girl ordered a cake for sons b day! In the meantime, my friend got in touch w/ me saying the girl that threw the baby shower the last time I did the free cake, wants to book another baby shower cake in May! icon_eek.gificon_surprised.gif So...5 cake orders from total despair thinking my business would never go past family or friends!

It will happen! Try your local school...I'm sure they won't mind a few free "practice cakes" in the teacher's lounge! Don't forget to bring business cards and maybe a flavor chart and price list!

Hope that helped! Don't give up. thumbs_up.gif

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tippyad Posted 26 Mar 2008 , 11:26am
post #3 of 7

Keep your head up!

The first thing I did was send an email out to all my family/friends with pictures of cakes that I made and let them know to call me if they wanted a fresh baked cake for any special occasion. You can make lots of small 6" round cakes for your examples and when they see the picture they won't be able to tell the size.

I'd hesitate from doing free cakes b/c they'll expect you to do this all the time. I only donate cakes to charity events.

You haven't posted any pictures. Let us see your cakes. And if you'd like opnions on how to make your design/decoration better, then post it on a forum so you can get feedback. I have a long way to go before I get as good as our famous "cakers", but I still enjoy caking.

GOOD LUCK!!! thumbs_up.gif

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yummymummy Posted 26 Mar 2008 , 11:40am
post #4 of 7

I agree w/ tippyad, free cakes do get expensive. I only did a few and stopped because my pocket book was empty! I did just enough to say...see what I can do. One is all someone needs to remember you!

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playingwithsugar Posted 26 Mar 2008 , 11:55am
post #5 of 7

When I joined CC and other forums, I read several threads where people mentioned giving away cakes to drum up business, but no business came as a result of their donations or gifts.

My conclusion from those threads is, and I hate to have be the one to tell you this, but you can't get any business because you have given too much stuff away. Now, they all expect your products to be free.

Next time someone asks you for a cake or cookies, give them a price. And do not negotiate that price further. Your price is your price - your cost, your time. If they don't want to pay, then they don't want your products badly enough to honor your skills by paying properly for them.

Theresa icon_smile.gif

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miss_sweetstory Posted 26 Mar 2008 , 11:58am
post #6 of 7

Also, if you do free cakes, ask the friends and family that you do them for NOT to talk about the fact that they were free. That will limit the "You made that cake for free and now you want to charge me $$$." sort of thing.

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Mac Posted 26 Mar 2008 , 12:23pm
post #7 of 7

Business will come but I agree stop with "free" cakes unless it's a party that YOU want to give a cake as a gift--then knock their socks off!

I use to take my practice cakes/samples to the office just because I didn't want them sitting around my house for me to eat. THey ordered ONE cake from me, took forever for them to pay me--gave them an invoice when I dropped off the cake and then had to drop off a SECOND invoice before I finally got a check. I guess they got PO'd at the 2nd invoice or didn't expect me to charge them but now they get their cakes at Wal-mart. Needless to say, when we have a party--I don't eat the cake. When they ask if I want a piece..I tell them if I want a piece of cake, I want a good piece of cake and not a supermarket cake.

Yes, I AM A CAKE SNOB!

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