Hi

I wondered if you could advise me on how to work out prices per serving?

I normally add up the cost of my ingredients and estimate the time it should take me to do a cake and charge, say £6 per hour. That total would be the cost of my cake. The problem I have with this is that if I'm out and someone asks me for a price of a cake, I have to call them back when I get home just so that I can work out the cost of the ingredients!!!!

If I knew the price per serving, I could give them the cake price immediately.

I would really appreciate some advise.

Thanks

I know my price per serving.... the basic price. I almost never give a price immediately, but have to think a little first if the design needs an extra charge.

If you know how much it costs you to make it, and you know how much you pay yourself in time, then take that number and divide it by the number of servings in the cake.

I mean there are other things to make sure you include in the equation like making a profit, but you sound like you have some idea of what you are comfortable charging now.

Think about the last cake you quoted and how many servings it was.

Say you know it will cost you $40 to make a cake, and it is going to take you 6 hours and you feel your time is worth $10 an hour, you know you have to charge atleast $100 for the cake. Say this cake is to serve 40 people. Then your price per serving on that cake is $2.50.

I just pulled numbers out of the air, to give you an idea. I'd say look back to what you have quoted lately and see what your average would be. And then compair that to what others in your area are charging and consider if you are making a profit on top of the expenses.

I also would rather get some information an get a chance to go home and figure out the quote. Just because they want a cake to feed 30, doesn't always mean the cake you bake will feed that exact number, and you need to charge for the size you bake if it is different than the size they need.

Thank you