I remember seeing it recently but I have been looking for the post and I can't find it.

I was just wondering if people are OK with paying that? I don't want to do the $1 an inch for my small town but I think .75 an inch will be more what people will pay.

And then do you do it straight across the board, or for more detailed work do you charge more?

Thanks!!

Heidi.

Hi Heidi -

I'm still so jealous of your new shop opening up soon. I wish you the best of luck with all that.

I've been doing cookies for 2 1/2 years now and have to say the hardest part in the beginning was knowing what to charge given the amount of detail of each different design. I decided when I started out that I didn't want to deal with "this cookie costs this much because of this amount of detail but that cookie is priced different because of more or less detail" so I priced them all the same thinking that on some orders I'd make less per hour and on some I'd make more and it would all even out. There have been lots of times when my customers simply trusted me to create something but I'd have no idea what I was going to actually do and how much detail I was going to put into it until I sat down and did the cookies. Then during the process I might decide to add sprinkles too, which is more time consuming. I'm not a big plan ahead type person...I work much better under pressure!!

I'm actually getting out of making cookies right now but if/when I ever get back into it many of my designs are already set and I will definitely charge different prices according to the details. It's insane that right now I charge the same for a detailed cookie like my bluebonnet cookies that I just posted as I would a round happy face with one color!! I've heard that some people charge by the number of colors used, but then I thought if I used black for example only on the pupils of the eyes am I going to charge for that color too?!!! There are a lot of grey areas in my experience!! I have to say it's all been good though.

I know a lot of this is learn as you go but if you can work out your designs ahead of time...maybe work on drawings...I think you'd be a lot better off to begin with and your customers would surely understand the differences because they can "see" why you price them different.

Good luck to you again!!!!

OMG bakinccc, I could have written your entire post! Everything you mentioned is exactly what I'm thinking! Glad I'm not alone in my pricing issues.

I had a pricing scale set up and now I'm realizing that it's not going to work so I'm back to the drawing board. I like the idea of doing the .75 cents an inch and then having a disclaimer that cookies with more than 4 icing colors, intricate detail or personalized cookies like wedding ones, would be priced on an individual basis. Do you think that sounds OK? I would hope that people would understand that a baby foot with pink icing and a clown face with 6 colors would be priced differently. But maybe I'm giving the general public too much credit, lol.

Or maybe I could do a base price of .75 cents an inch and then add on $$ like people do for cakes. Writing is "x" more, fondant flowers are "x" more, icing over 4 colors is "x" more. But then how would I add on for more details, like your bluebells that you did? And BTW, those are amazing!! Or a more "artsy" cookie than just an outlined and filled in one.

It would be so much easier to do like CBD and say "$6 a cookie" period. That's why I wanted to do $3 a cookie and like you said it would even itself out for more and less detailed ones, but then that's not really fair for the person who wants a simple, easily decorated cookie.

I just don't know what to do. This sucks.

what about doing something like "Starting at $xx.00" or "Cookies: $xx.00 and up" and that way it would allow you to customize the price based on the order?
I agree - pricing and putting a value on your work is SOOO hard!!

I don't see a problem in having a tiered pricing set-up. All cookies with 3 or less colors would be figured at 75 cents/inch. Any cookies with 4-6 colors would be $1/inch. All cookies with more than 6 colors would be $1.25/inch. Usually, the more colors, the more complicated the design. By buuilding in a pricing structure that takes into account that more colors=more time=more $$ will help cover your investment. You could also state that any writing on a cookie would cost a certain amount extra above the fixed cost. Hope this makes sense!

Sarah - that's so sweet of you to say!! I'm actually looking forward to the break but I fully intend to keep making cookies. I have cutters that I've never used and designs I want to experiment with so you'll still be seeing me around!! Like the sign says "This website is highly addictive!" I don't think I could give up cookies or cc if I tried!!

Heidi - In looking ahead do you think that you could set your prices right now with and then raise them in a year? You'd have a lot of your designs set and will have made it through each holiday to know which designs you'd want to do. I raised my prices by 50 cents after the first year. I felt like I had a really good customer base after that year and when I did raise my pricing noone even blinked an eye and many said I really should be charging more.