I have a question about taking orders...I want to make up a form to have people fill out (with thier name, etc, but also make sure they put EXACTLY what they want on the cake, spelling of names, etc, depositis, you know that kind of stuff) I can always scan it and make a copy for myself, but what about orders you may take at their home or at work or maybe even a show? Do you have a form that makes a copy? How is everyone doing this?

Thanks again!

PS My web site is up and I would love any critiques people may have!

Hey, this may help!!

http://www.earlenescakes.com/wedcakeordfrm.htm

She has alot of great info on her site!

I bought a receipt notebook. When someone calls I write down all the info on the receipt. It has 2 carbon copies. I give them a copy with their cake and I file my extra copy. It has a space for name, phone number, amount, any notes you want to add. This has worked for me, and I just leave it by the phone. I would be interested in what others do as well.
Lisa

Hi Lisa,

I use the carbon copy receipt book also.

Here's another link, this one was posted in a thread here a while back. It's a great form!

http://www.suttongourmet.com/pdf/Custom_worksheet.pdf

Your web site looks very nice! If it were me, I think I'd take off the New Year's cake. It's okay, but not nearly as nice as some of your others. Better to show off your best stuff! Sorry, I'm not trying to be mean at all, please don't be offended. I just think the other cakes in your gallery look really great. This is the first impression people will get of your skills- your site is the place to really wow them.

The majority of my cake orders come through email. I have set up all the links on my website that let you send emails to launch an email with content on it, and a few questions to fill out, such as
"
Number of serves.


Serving size ie. coffee/dessert.


Cake type (eg. fruit, mud, white mud, buttercake


Delivery Address (if required).


Number of tiers required.


Wedding Cake - will you be wanting to keep the top tier??


If you require a cake not pictured on this website then a photo would be helpful, but a really good description will suffice if photo not available.
"

Just a comment on your website, Once you have more pictures to show, i would suggest dividing the pictures into categories. Having a wedding cakes sections and maybe all others, until you get more cakes to display. Most people looking for wedding cakes wont want to have a look through kids cakes etc.

Good work
Nati
http://www.natiscakes.com

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can anyone tell me what a mud cake is and how to make it Thank You Poppie

Also, just a suggestion.....most folks that have websites have the pictures of the actual decorated cakes listed in what is called the "gallery"......I see you have a couple of slices of cut cake in yours, you may want to consdier switching those pics. (just an opinion here!)

Your cake slices look wonderful! Absolutely add them to the flavors page.

I am a small baker, who loves baking and creating cakes. My cakes not only look good, but taste good too. I only use the freshest, best tasting, ingredients. Please allow me to create a cake for you, for whatever special occasion! I do everything from cupcakes to multi tiered wedding cakes, but my specialty is children's birthday parties.

I look forward to helping you make your occasion extra special

That line makes it sound to me like you're begging for business- makes you sound desperate. Other then that your site looks great and your cakes are beautiful!

Amber

Lorie,

I liked your site and I thought a lot of your wording was very inviting.

Some recommendations would be to remove the cake flavors in the gallery section, since I'm assuming each design could be made in any of the cake flavors you offer. You could add serving #s for each design, or just leave the title of that design.

Also, can you move your site content up on the page? There seems to be too much space at the top near your logo--it would look better if you could have your central photo centered on the home page when visitors first click there. Same idea with the gallery page--even if you have to scroll down to see it all, it should look a little more balanced when the scrollbar is in top position.


I would add more photos as soon as you can, especially for different types of occasions, so people think of you for graduations and baby showers as well as birthdays. When I visit a site that doesn't have many photos, I suspect there haven't been many cakes.

Just my opinions--I think it's great that people offer so much feedback here, and always interesting to see how different people react differently to various designs (in cakes and websites)

Do you think the navagation bars should be on top? I can do it either way...(unfortantly, I hadn't had time to really work on the design of the web site..I am not going like "official" till I complete all my licensing fun) I really appreciate all the input from everyone! You have been terrific!

Now the holidays are over (I was mainly cookie baking mode during the holidays) I hope to make some cakes to take photos of. It is very difficult to start new, isn't it?

No, I like the navigation bar on the left side. However, I would bring the Simply Cakes logo up to the top left corner and have your links immediately underneath.

I'd raise the floral cake photo to be closer to the header--and you might size that photo a bit smaller--and make the Welcome start next to the top of that floral photo--not aligned with the bottom.

I know what you mean about starting over--I have a list of a zillion cakes I want to try, and I'm trying to maintain a web site, and it gets overwhelming. Good luck with licensing fun--I like the positive way you put that!