For those who sell cakes - particularly wedding cakes - what do you wear when you meet with new or potential clients? Jeans and a t-shirt? Matching suit? Something in between? Also, do you have a storefront or do you meet them somewhere else entirely? Do you think this effects what you wear? What do you wear to any subsequent meetings? The same, or more casual?

I'm just really curious as to what everyone else does.

I don't have a storefront, so I usually end up meeting my clients either at their home (sometimes) or at Starbucks (usually). I typically wear nice trousers and a botton-down shirt, but on subsequent meetings I'll sometimes wear jeans and a more casual shirt (still not a t-shirt).

So........ what do you wear?

i don't ever meet clients- i jsut do a litle word of mouth business, typically don't meet until i deliveer the cakes. but, if i did. i have visions of having kind of a "uniform" maybe khaki pants with a pink top/blouse (depending on how formal) maybe an apron or shirt with "smashcakes" embroidered on it. he he

My clients call for an appointment and come to my home to discuss their cake. I usually just wear something casual since I am at home. Casual, but neat and crisp. Then when I deliver my cakes, I wear a chef's jacket with "Sweet Creations" embroidered on it, with black dress slacks. I also have a chef's hat with "Sweet Creations" embroidered across the front of it, but I don't really care to wear it, I feel weird in it. So I make sure my hair it put up or something so it's not flying around. I also have 2 woman's pink (to match my logo) baseball caps, I wear them when delivering birthday cakes, but don't feel it looks right for weddings. Anyway, that's what I wear! - Ellie

I've got a chef's jacket too....bought it on ebay for about $25, shipping and all. Had it embroidered with my logo by a family member for free....they have one of those computerized embroidery machines, so I just saved the logo onto a little memory card she gave me and she was able to do it....rather, the machine did it and she supervised! LOL I have t-shirts and ball caps with my logo/design on order...should be arriving within then next 2 weeks or so. I'm soooo excited about that!! That's something I can wear any/all the time and be advertising while I'm out and about! I generally wear very 'comfortable' clothes on a day-to-day basis. I have 3 kids, one of which is in school, and run LOTS of errands...LOL. No sense in getting all 'frou-frou'd' up everyday...

I usually meet with clients at their home or the coffee shop, or anywhere else that is convenient for them....have even met a few at their offices before. And I usually wear my chef's jacket for that....just looks the part for the customer, especially if they're a first time customer. But I don't do wedding cakes... ...by choice. I catered an entire wedding once and the bride was just so horrible that I don't have the desire to work with another one on something as important as the cake...sort of self-preservation, I think...LOL. I do wedding favors, though...just not cakes...the brides don't seem to get so crazy over the favors. I do, however, have some customers who are very 'well-to-do' and that professional look is important to them, so I give it to them. For the times I don't wear my chef's jacket, I just go 'dressy-casual'...maybe jeans, but 'dress jeans', not my comfy ones..lol..and a nice top with any kind of shoes but my tennies or flip-flops.

Before I had a store, I did the same thing as you--met clients in Starbucks wearing slacks and a dressy shirt. I only wore a chef jacket to bridal shows and conventions. Now that I have a store, I keep a clean, pressed chef jacket for client meetings and wedding cake deliveries. It looks a little more official. Sometimes, I still deliver in a t-shirt and jeans, especially if it's a really heavy cake that's hard to lift (I just find a chef jacket very constricting). Hope that helps.

If you want a chef jacket that looks great on women (not like a big unisex paper sack), I highly recommend the Women's Nouveaux jacket from ChefWear (www.chefwear.com). I always get compliments on mine! It's a little pricey ($65), but it's not that bad if you just need one for special events. It has a back tie adjustable waist, so it looks very slimming.

My office receives so many unsolicited magazines and one caught my eye. It was full of nurse uniforms. This was just yesterday and I browsed through it and saw a few tops that in my opinion could be worn to meet with a potential client. You could even get some of them embroidered. I'll have to check to see if there is a website listed.

Awesome! It's good to know I don't do anything TOO different than most here!

sweetchef, thanks for the site! I will most definitely check that out!

I think this is site for the magazine. I know, I know, call me crazy but here are a few pics of items I thought would fit for a meeting with a client. Very casual.

http://www.jascouniform.com/ecom/showdetl.cfm?&fromcatalog=yes&OrigCatPage=12-13&Product_ID=10298

I like these tops too.

http://www.jascouniform.com/ecom/showdetl.cfm?&fromcatalog=yes&OrigCatPage=16-17&Product_ID=10282

http://www.jascouniform.com/ecom/showdetl.cfm?&fromcatalog=yes&OrigCatPage=16-17&Product_ID=10245