Would You Charge Extra For This?
Decorating By yellobutterfly Updated 8 Jan 2015 , 8:23pm by cakesbycathy
ACustomer wants a cake that has rainbow layers on the inside and covered in sprinkles on the outside - would you charge extra (since it may be a PITA)?
Ai mean there's extra work there but no special fillings to make so it'd be a trade off there for me but i'd use buttercream and charge for fondant to cover the extra work/headache
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i mean there's extra work there but no special fillings to make so it'd be a trade off there for me but i'd use buttercream and charge for fondant to cover the extra work/headache
Thank you! My regular buttercream starts at $2/serving, my basic fondant at $3/serving, so I wasn't sure where this would fall because even though it is buttercream, it will be tedious ;) I'm sure the client won't be disappointed even with my fondant rate - she was quoted by two different decorators = one was $96 for 24 servings ($4/serv!) and the other was $132 for 24 servings (so $5.5/serv!)
I had a two tiered cake to do in the entire sprinkles and didn't charge extra. If I ever have to do it again, I will, those sprinkles weren't the cheapest and it took quite a bit of them to cover the cake. It did go rather quickly though, especially since I didn't have to bother with the icing being perfectly smooth. It also created a bit more of a clean up, because even though I tried to be very careful, those little things ended up everywhere, lol Good Luck!
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Thank you! My regular buttercream starts at $2/serving, my basic fondant at $3/serving, so I wasn't sure where this would fall because even though it is buttercream, it will be tedious ;) I'm sure the client won't be disappointed even with my fondant rate - she was quoted by two different decorators = one was $96 for 24 servings ($4/serv!) and the other was $132 for 24 servings (so $5.5/serv!)
you're not making much money for all the work you're putting in -- which can lead to burn out -- food for thought -- you should be somewhere in the $4.75/serving range and up imo
best to you
AKate even for buttercream? My bank account would certainly love to get a raise, but I only do a few orders a month and as it is & I lose a lot of potential business because they balk at my prices after getting a quote...
Well, I already charge enough to make most decorations all inclusive so since the outside is simple, the inside would offset that to make it the same as a decorated outside. With that being said, your prices are VERY low, I feel like you should charge extra for any decoration beyond plain cake smooth buttercream.
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Kate even for buttercream? My bank account would certainly love to get a raise, but I only do a few orders a month and as it is & I lose a lot of potential business because they balk at my prices after getting a quote...
yes $2 is way low for custom work -- if they are balking at your prices then they are not the clientele you are looking for -- yah gotta kiss a lot of frogs as the saying goes
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so say things start to pick up and you start booking twice as much -- you'd be cultivating a bigger and bigger group of customers that pay too little -- no bueno
Tip! I had to do a sprinkles cake the other week and fount that it was VERY helpful to get some kitchen towel fresh off the roll (so still curved) and make a little 'moat' under my turntable. The kitchen towel removed the bounce out of the sprinkles when they fell off and they all stayed there...WIN! It's amazing how much those little suckers bounce on a kitchen worktop!!
K8 said: .........you should be somewhere in the $4.75/serving range and up imo......
yellowbutterfly said: Kate even for buttercream?........
Definately :) You are way under pricing. It *hurts* other decorators - even those across the country.
Slowly raise them up. Not all at once but a $ every couple of months until you get up to speed.
AI'd charge extra as well.. My regular prices are $4/serving for buttercream and 5/serving for fondant...so is charge in the $4.75-$4.85/serving range. Are you sure you're making money by charging just $2/serving?
Please make sure to include ALL expenses, including utilities, insurance, % of rent/mortgage ..and not just the cost of ingredients!
So do you have 6 pans to bake all those different colors in? It's not just coloring your batter into 6 colors - you have extended baking time with this one if you don't have all the pans. I did this one for $175 which came out to $4.86 a serving... clean up was the big PITA on this one. I was finding sprinkles for days! I used buttercream and rolled the cakes in the sprinkles.
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Kate even for buttercream? My bank account would certainly love to get a raise, but I only do a few orders a month and as it is & I lose a lot of potential business because they balk at my prices after getting a quote...
Most people baulk at cake prices. You're not alone. You should try to price yourself the going rate in your area. I rang cake decorators and pretended to be a potential customer just to get prices. I'm not proud to lie, but I'm too shy to actually say I was canvassing for my own business. I got a good idea what people charge- some were on the low side, some were higher.
the cake goes on my footed turntable -- a cake pan goes underneath -- 'round and 'round we go -- if they splash out too much do like snowbunny says and put in a towel on the bottom of the pan --
It's extra work to get all those colors so there should be an extra charge.
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