Hi, I have got a group of ladies who want to learn how to bake and decorate cakes and cupcakes. But am not sure how to charge them and how to go about it....could someone please help me....this is the first time I will be conducting classes which will be at my residence itself. Thank you.
I would do two separate classes, one to decorate cakes and one to decorate cupcakes. If you are providing ingredients, figure out how much you need of everything (cupcakes, couplers, tips, buttercream, food coloring) and then split that cost evenly amongst the participants. Then, figure out how much you want to pay yourself per hour and add that on to each person's cost. If I were holding such an event, I would put $10 on to the cost of each person in addition to the materials cost.
As for teaching cake decorating, it all depends upon the point at which you are starting. Maybe you can have 3 or 4 pre-baked cakes and teach torting, filling, e.t.c after which you show how to do basic decorating. You can have the participants come from the cupcake class and use their previous materials. I would still add $10 on to the cost, though.
So, it won't be an inexpensive class if you are providing the materials....
Or, you can have everyone buy their own supplies and bring their own cakes/cupcakes and just charge the $10 fee.
It would depend on how many you will be teaching, and how long the class would be. if you have five people and work for an hour, you would earn $50, if it was for 2 hours only $ 25. I can't imagine a class less then 2 hours, and 3 might even be better, so you will have to decide on what rate of pay you need, along with the cost of the ingredients if you will provide them or not.
Figure out the cost of materials-- ingredients, boards, boxes, colors, multiple decorating bags if you will all be doing buttercream, cupcake liners if you are baking cupcakes, photocopying charges or paper if you are giving out instructions, etc. All of that and some I probably forgot is the materials cost. If you will just demonstrate, the cost of materials will be much less than if you need to give everyone bags, icing, tips, etc.
Then, figure out how long it will take you to shop, prep, clean up from prep, teach the class and clean up from that. That is the hours of labor. How much do you want to earn per hour? Add that to the materials total.
Will there be any overhead? In other words, will this impact your electric or water bill, your phone bill? Gas for going to the store? Do you need additional insurance in case someone cuts themselves or slips on dripped icing? If you think you may have extra costs, add those in.
When you have all that figured out--materials, labor, and overhead-- you will know your cost. You can divide by the number of people in the group and that could be your price, or, you could add a little in for profit.
$10.00 over the cost of materials may or may not cover your expenses and time. The only way to know if to run the numbers.
If you charge $10.00 each over materials and teach 5 ladies for three hours you will collect $50.00. and cover materials. Divide 50 by 3 and you will make just under $17.00/hour for the 3 hours but your shopping, prep and clean up will be done as a public service for free and you could be donating gas for shopping, electricity, water, etc. That's not an issue if you are doing it on purpose, but makes it less fun if you are not.
As a Wilton instructor (March is my last month since my shop is in the early stages of opening our storefront!! :D), I get paid based on how many people are signed up. Each student usually pays $22.50 and has to purchase all of their supplies. The tuition just includes the student book. When I have 4-6 students, I am paid $32.50 per two hour class for the course classes. I've had 15 people a few times and I am paid around $60 per two hour class. So my hourly wage is between $16-30 depending on how many students I have to teach. Wilton is fairly ridged when it comes to what I can teach. There is also another cake supply store in town that does classes. Tuition is $39 for their four-five week session classes and you have to purchase your supplies. SO I think you should charge more than $10.
Another thing you could consider, if you are planning on teaching more classes, is purchasing supplies for the students to use during class. You could charge a higher tuition but say supplies are included. I know there are tools that my students are required to purchase for Wilton that they don't end up using. OR tools they purchase tools that are of poor quality and are frustrated. By supplying the tools they need, everyone has the same starting point. You could also order more for them to purchase from you. Just depends on how you plan on operating.
Have fun! I love teaching and hope to do it again in my shop.
AConsidering you are in Kuwait, I recommend doing some market research to find out how much other people charge for this type of service in your area. The cost of ingredients alone may be considerably different than the US.
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