Maybe Its Me???? Customer Wants More 4 Le$$
Business By MasterPieceCake Updated 3 Apr 2013 , 8:31pm by MasterPieceCake
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Original message sent by MasterPieceCake
[COLOR=404040]He told me I should [B]STRONGLY [/B]reconsider. This is for his son's 1st birthday and he is expecting over 100 guest who will see this cake. He is more than sure I will get some repeat business! [/COLOR]
Ha ha ha! The few that ask for the referral will also be expecting the same discount while promising all Their friends will see your great work. No thank you!
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Original message sent by costumeczar
Don't you love this? I know a DJ who says he gets this line all the time. He says that when someone tells him how much business he'll get from their event he says "That's great, let's put a referral program in place. You book your event at full price, and whenever one of your guests books an event [B]at full price[/B] and says that you referred them, I'll send you $100. I'll put it in your contract, and you should be able to earn a lot based on the number of people you said will book events from seeing us at your party. That will be a win-win for both of us." He said that most people shut up right after that and the subject of discounts never comes up again.
You could contact this customer again and say that you have taken his advice and reconsidered, with the counteroffer as above. Stress that it would only take X referred orders (based on your referral and final price) to end up with a FREE cake (after rebate).
We can't make everyone happy. And we can't let ourselves be taken for a ride either. You are worth so much more than he was willing to pay. Remember that next time. If you want to practice make dummys and add them to your portfolio. Or make cakes and donate them.
I'm really glad you turned it down. 
Thank You so much for your advice. I will most def. be looking into the dummy cakes for my portfolio purposes!
Don't you love this? I know a DJ who says he gets this line all the time. He says that when someone tells him how much business he'll get from their event he says "That's great, let's put a referral program in place. You book your event at full price, and whenever one of your guests books an event at full price and says that you referred them, I'll send you $100. I'll put it in your contract, and you should be able to earn a lot based on the number of people you said will book events from seeing us at your party. That will be a win-win for both of us." He said that most people shut up right after that and the subject of discounts never comes up again.
OMG!!!! I love this and I will be using this from here on out!!! I'm thinking about typing me up something really "Fancy" with these terms, so next time I can say, "Great Idea... Let me tell you about my referral program" lol
Just like the BIG chain stores. I'll make it a "Mail In Rebate" policy
I am glad you decided to decline. If you lowball now you will forever be known as the cheap cake lady, and you will never turn a profit and it will be near impossible to raise your rates later on. It isn't worth doing unless you can make a profit, many new cake artists especially those doing it from home underestimate the cost involved with being a business. And if you sell it even for one cent you are a business! But also, NO ONE should be doing copyrighted cakes. Again those that risk it hurt the entire industry. You must obtain written permission from the license holder to be able to create anything that has the copyright image especially if offering for sale. Just because the other cake people do it doesn't make it right, and I for one do not want to put my and my family's financial well being in jeopardy. If caught you could loose EVERYTHING! Use Decopac or Bakery Crafts images or kits only for copyrighted entities. This is the only legal way to do a cake with a copyrighted image, and typically they are sheet cakes or single tier 8" rounds. But my charge for the cake he showed you would be $10 per serving so 6/8/10 would be $740. And I am in a little town north of San Antonio. I use to be in Houston, and did not change my prices when I moved. I personally would have actually laughed at him ;) Next time ask the person what they do for a living then ask them if they are willing to do that job for below minimum wage. If they say no then reply "then why would you think I would work for below minimum wage?" LOL!
Use Decopac or Bakery Crafts images or kits only for copyrighted entities. This is the only legal way to do a cake with a copyrighted image, and typically they are sheet cakes or single tier 8" rounds.
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