Hi! I was wondering what you guys thought about commission based pay for a wedding cake designer. I've been working for a start up custom cake business for 2years now. I am the lead cake designer/manager. I do all of the difficult designs, sculpting, modeling, sugar work, meet with clients, draw up sketches, help design, I also take classes on my own time etc... We have been getting a lot of beautiful unique cakes and I LOVE my job and I LOVE my boss.  I get paid hourly and I have not received a raise in 2 years, because it's a start up, not because of performance. I was going to talk to my boss about a commision based salary. Starting off with a base pay and weaning myself off the base pay to straight commision. I have the ability to bring in more clients through vendor shows, social media, and blogging. What percentage should I ask for? Any thought? 

I don't know. Just reading your post and trying to imagine how it would work out for you. 

We pay commission in our company but that's like when our guys literally drag in a client and even there we are careful they don't cheat cause some just "happen to be there" when they get to us and tell them to say they brought them. But that's a complete different business....

Would the clients refer to you? Is your boss willing to agree to that deal? Won't those potential clients not come anyway if they like your work? 

I would try and agree with him on a bonus on top of your base salary I think. Something like "turnover average for month April was x last year, if you top that, you get paI'd a target bonus. For example 1000$ more than X and you get so and so many %, 2000$ more and you get ....% and so on. It's a win win situation. 

But just a thought....

Am curious what all the cake pros will suggest.