How Do I Know What To Charge For The Cakes I Do?
Decorating By AmyB123 Updated 22 Apr 2010 , 4:46pm by AmyB123
I am doing 3 cakes for a birthday party on Saturday. One cake is a 3 layered german chocolate cake, a small simple decorated white cake, and a fondant covered decorated cake. I have the list of ingredients as well as the time I have already put into the decorations (they are by the way figurines of a man with a tripod camera taking pictures of an eagle in a nest in a dead tree with his small dog sitting next to him). I know I need to account for my time as well as ingredients but am confused as to what may be too much to charge...
basically, take the cost of ingredients, how much you want to "make" per hour and times that by hours spent to get a cost.
Say for instance you spent $50.00 in supplies and 7 hrs. on the cake (7X's oh.......$10.00/hr.)...your total charge would be $120.00 for the cake.
before I started "charging" for cakes I figured out the cost for my cakes this way....and then figured out the "average" for the cakes and figured out a cost per serving that's in line with businesses in my area (well, as in-line as I want to be......I'm actually over $1.00/serv. more than them but that's ok). When I first started charging I was "in-line" with area businesses and as I got better, my prices went up, the hours spent went down...so my profit has increased!
I know I need to account for my time as well as ingredients but am confused as to what may be too much to charge...
Too much to charge? 
based on whose opinion? Let us know where your confusion lies so we can help direct you a little better. 
As you move into the business side of caking, you need to set your pricing based on the cost of production. the cost is what it is. If folks prefer not to pay that, then walmart is available.
"Not everyone can afford me and that's ok."
As you move into the business side, remember you are not there to make friends, you are there to make money. Women, I'm sorry to say, tend to worry more about whether people will "like" them or if they will "be mad" over the price. Get over that thinking. You should worry about your profit, not their wallet.
that's not to say you should price yourself out of the market, which you can determine by lots of research. But taking an order that puts you in the red just so the other person will think you're a "great guy!" is NOT better than turning down the order.
"Not everyone can afford me and that's ok."
Here's my advice. Pricing is tricky. It's a balancing act and requires market research so you know what your local market will bear. 
http://tinyurl.com/lanq45
I saw a thread recently where a lady did a cake for a friend, spent 3 1/2 hours on it, and received a $20 bill in an envelope as a "thank you". Don't let this happen to you.
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