Im just staring with this hobby/buss of cake decorating, and my biggest problem is charging for my work, A bride just called me a week ago and asked me about a wedding cake, fruit cake, fondant, 150 servings aprox, and also 150 more out a sheet cake covered in fondant also... I know im just a newbie, but i think i can do pretty cakes, not at the level of many peolpe here, but for just 1 year doing this, I think Im good. So I told her ok, send her some pic. and made and app for a testing for next week. and today I had a chat with a local experienced cake decorator who saw my work, she told me I was undercharging her, I was going to charge her just 2.25 a serving in the main cake and 1.65 for the sheet. including fresh flowers (oriental lilys) and delivery and set up (an aniversary cake), 300 servings in fruit cake for just 540 dollars!!!!! She opened my eyes and told me that around here this kind of cake is 5 dollars per serving!!! Now Im thinking to cancel this cake (glad She havent loose any time on me) Should I cancel or try to adjust the price I gave the bride? I will like to do the cake but I dont want to lose money...and time and efforts. Ineed help...againg...please...

Here's a bump for you. I'm sure someone else has experience something similar. Sorry, I'm no help.

Wow, you're in a tough position if you've already quoted your price to the bride. You could tell the bride that after you had a chance to sit down and calculate everything out that the price for what you're making her is $5 per serving but you risk loosing her business.

Maybe re-negotiate the price. Let her know that you are new at the pricing and quoted her a wrong price. Don't cancel...let her make the decision.

In my opinion, I think you should stick with your plan since you're a newbie. You're learning something new and you can always charge a higher price on your next customer. I strongly advise you NOT to call the bride and tell her that you change your mind and charge her a higher price, just because that's what the other cake decorator charge it. This will looks bad on you. If I were in your shoes, I would go ahead and make the cakes and leave the price the way it is. I know I will have a good reputation. I learn my lesson and I can always charge higher price on my next customer. Just my opinion.

It won't hurt to try to get more money out of her first before you cancel. I would just simply tell her that after you sat down and actually calculated the total cost of this cake plus the labour involved you under estimated the total cost of the cake. If she wants you to do the cake she will accept your reasoning, if not, oh well you were going to cancel anyway. Try going to a couple of pastery places nearby and ask how much they would charge for the cake that you are describing and price accordingly.
I was only going to charge $400.00 for my Snowflake cake and a local Pastery place wanted $900.00. I ended up getting $525.00 for it. It pays to inquire.

I think you should go ahead and do the cake order at the price you quoted the bride. I think it would be tacky to change your price because its not the brides fault. And I also think you shouldn't cancel for that reason either. I think if you tell her a higher price - she is going to say but you quoted me this price. And if you cancel she might not come back.

Another thing to think about is before this you didn't think you were undercharging... you thought you were giving a reasonable price. Just know for the next time that you should charge more.
amylynn

I dont know, I m confused, but I jus staring to do some numbers, and I think I will lose money on this one, We just talked once over the phone a week ago and a couple of emails since, the testing is for nxt week... Will I look bad if I say an excuse (like travel) and got out of this one? maybe gave her some cake decorator phone numbers, I feel bad for her, but I dont want to give my work for free (I did that with all my other cakes jejejeje)

i really don't have a clue--is it possible to meet in the middle, my DH has had to go back to home owners a few times and tell them that b/c of price increase the job would be more than the first quote (did u give her a quote or a firm price)

Word of mouth seems to be very critical in the cake decorating business. I'd be careful cancelling after giving a quote. Cakes are only a hobby for me so I can't help with pricing, but good luck with this situation and congratulations on your new business venture.

Just my opinion - you quoted a price and I assume made a business agreement. What if you were buying a car and the car salesperson did the same thing - changed the price - would you think they were being unscrupulous? I am not saying you are - that is just the general impression of car dealers.

I would chalk it up to a life lesson learned, do the cake for the agreed upon price, and charge the appropriate price on future cakes.

PS - I just looked over your post again and if I am reading it correctly you two don't have a deal. If this is correct, tell her you calculated the costs incorrectly and that it will be xx dollars. Then the ball is in her court.

Joan

Thanks for the answers, and advise....and no we haven't a contract, i do use one, but i just gave her an estimate, but since i havent made that kind of cake for sale, i did not know the prices of nut, dry fruits and liquours...they are really expensive. She just sendme an email with a pic of a cake she will like, now she wants scroll work on top of the fondant...

Stick to what you told the lady without question. You are doing a professional service and this would be the professional way to handle this situation. Take it as a learning experiance and you can't put a price on experiance. Charge more next time, but DO NOT charge this girl more. (she is most likely stressing over every detail of her wedding, don't add to it as she will probable take her bus. elsewhere. After all, you are at least making a little somethin off of it.
amy

If you think you are going to lose money I think you should try to reason with her. Like I said, if you really are thinking of dropping this deal what would it hurt to try to tell her that you made a mistake. If she doesn't give you her business again I'm sure you'll get it elsewhere, unless you live in a town of 500 people. I know what it's like to give away a cake for free (my own fault) and after everything is said and done it doesn't feel good. Considering the fact that I usually stay up all night doing my cakes (I have 3 kids and that's the only free time I have). Anyway, do what you think is right!

If you know you can do it and you know you won't lose money, Why wouldn't you want to build your wedding cake portfolio and get your product out to 300 new people?

Some people do party cakes and they don't want wedding cake business, If that is you, maybe you feel better turning down the order.

One way you can start out is by charging 1.75-2.50 per slice, then upping the price with every cake or every couple months while you are building a portfolio.

The only thing I couldn't say is whether or not fruit cake was much more expensive to make than other scratch cake. I use all butter, and more expensive chocolate, and I still can make a profit of 175.00 on a cake for 150. And I only charged 1.75 per slice.

If you can get more money, nothing's wrong with that. I think you could reasonably tell her that on second thought, the sheet cake will be the same price as the reg cake, since she's pretty much getting her decorating for free. I charge the same price for extra cake since it's usually the filling, icing, covering in fondant that is the most effort anyway.

Good luck, whatever you decide!

Since you didn't have a contract, then i would simply tell the bride that you didn't realize the prices of nuts, liquor, etc. and how detail she wants the cake. and then give her a new quoted price and she what she says. hopefully she would be understanding.
good luck!

What good is cancelling or backing out of it going to do for you? Absoultely nothing. I think we've all "undersold" ourselves until we get enough cakes under our belts to feel more confident about our prices.

When you gave her the quote, was it very informal? If so, then maybe you could raise the price a bit saying that you've actually priced the ingredients. But I wouldn't go up that much. Like the others have said, that's not really good business. And cancelling completely REALLY isn't good business.

That's one of the reasons I don't give off-the-cuff type estimates anymore. Take time to think about it and plan it before you give a quote.

Yes, I think I had to learn the hard way.. Im not sure, and I will talk to my pillow about it, but I think I will call my bride and at least get the sheet cakes at the same price as the regular cakes, and forget about the intrincate scrolls!!!! then she can go fron there, maybe the price I gave her was the reason why she said yes so fast and did not was interested in a testing, i had to tell her and offer her one... I feel very depressed

I agree with most of the other posts in that if you cancel, you may be setting yourself for some "bad press" before you've even begun. Word travels fast, especially in the cake/confection world. When you talked to the bakery cake decorator, you have to understand that there's a lot of overhead that they are paying for out of the cake prices. But with your quote, I think you have a couple options. Sit down with her and tell her that you didn't realize how expensive the flowers and certain ingredients are. Tell her that you calculated the actual cost, and in reality she's basically just paying for ingredients, not your time. I think that honesty will get you so much farther than pretending like you're going out of town, or something like that. I think telling her something like "after you sat down, the cake should have been $xxx.xx amount, but since she was quoted $yyy.yy, you'll give her a 20% discount and charge her $zzz.zz . This way she's still coming out ahead because she's still being "undercharge" and you're also making some money as well.

Most importantly, I don't think you should feel depressed. You learn by making mistakes. Yeah, some are a little more frustrating, but you'll learn for next time. There are atleast 100 potential new clients coming to her wedding, so think of it as advertising. Cancelling should be a last resort, I think. Good luck...let us know what you decide.

Hi Claudia,

I can sympathise with you... I guess we have all been through this... we undercharge and then have second thoughts.

My opinion...

1) Yours was an estimate... defined as "to calculate approximately" Therefore as you do not have a contract yet, or any agreement verbal or otherwise, you do have scope to increase the price a bit, once you meet the bride face to face for the tasting.

2) I would not cancel. This looks like a good chance to show-case your lovely work.

3) As far as the advice you got from another decorator, if she is already established, she is able to command much higher prices. It would be better to start lower, and increase at intervals, as your reputation as a cake artist grows. But .... Do NOT lose money!

Just my opinion,
Best of Luck,
Karen

I think you should stand behind your word. Word of mouth is the best and worst advertising in the cake business. If you can do this and 300 people eat your cake and like it, I am sure you will pick up enough business in the future to cover your losses. I personally charge $4.00 per serving for all of my cakes, and that balances out the cakes I do not make alot of money on. You will come to a happy medium for your pricing. Remember, your time is your money. My time averages $65.00 per hour, and I stay booked each week (5 weddings this weekend)

In regards to changing the pricing though, even though it was an informal quote, think about what this bride is going to feel like. You told her one thing over the phone, she's basically said yes, wants to book it, and then when you meet you have a higher price? She's going to think that's very unprofessional, no matter what the reasons you had for doing it.
I think it makes you look very unprepared.
I'm sure every experienced person on here (maybe even some not) will tell you that we've lost money or barely made money, just to get our business growing. It's how you get the word out, so this is all about how you want to look to a potential client, how you want your business to start it's reputation and how bad you want the order?!

I agree with the other comments. You should stick to your original quote. About the intricate scrolls, you could say that they are more involved than what was originally talked about, so you would charge her a little more for them. You shouldn't readjust the price completely, but maybe charge her $2.50 per slice instead of $2.25 per slice for the extra detailing.
And like someone else said, it sucks that you are not making much money on this project, but at least you aren't losing money.
Oh, but you may want to casually mention to the bride that you are undercharging her (but don't seem bitter!). That way she won't tell all her friends how inexpensive you are, since next time you will be charging more.
Good luck!

Look at the positive side of this. You're just starting out and now your cake will be on display for hundreds of people who could be future customers. I do think that if she adds more decorations you need to adjust your price for that and let her know your quote did not include the extra decorations.

Okay, why don't you call her & be honest with her. It doesn't sound like the price you gave her was set in stone. Maybe tell her that you are not used to making fruit cakes & you had no idea the cost was so much higher than regular cakes. I'm not saying to charge her $5/serving, but maybe you guys could come to an agreement. It really is an awful low estimate even on the sheet cakes if they include the fresh flowers.

I guess if I called about a wedding cake & the decorator quoted me at 2.25/slice, but I knew that fruitcake is usually $5/slice I would jump on it too...especially if I was getting sheetcakes for 1.65/slice, but if all I got was an estimate, I really wouldn't be upset if they called back & said....I priced out ingredients, blah blah blah & the total cost including fresh flowers, delivery, set up, etc....is going to be $2.75/slice...thats still 2.25 cheaper than all the bakeries.

I think mendhigurl has offered a great solution. As others have said, when you give an estimate that's exactly what it is, just an estimate. When she comes back and adds more, such as the intricate scroll work, she has to be made aware that this will add on to the price. When I get inquiries as to how much it will cost to serve x amount of people with _____ cake, I tell them the price STARTS at $xxx.xx. That way they know that it could be more depending on the design or flavors they choose. I can identify with charging enough. I can only think of one cake that I think I got enough for.=) Hope everything goes well.

I totally agree with mendhigurl....be honest and let her know that some of the ingredients were higher than you were expecting and since you are building your business, you would gladly do it for $x.xx which is a little higher than the original estimate, but it is really only covering your costs. Then add "please don't tell anyone what you paid for this cake" - that'll make her feel like she is REALLY getting a deal.

I also agree that backing out would be BAD. As long as your ingredients/supplies are being covered, suck it up and just do it.

Let us know how it goes!

I haven't read thru all the responses, but I think once you quote a customer a price, that's it. I have been a promoter of all decorators having a price & flavor list & contract ready for when you start to get orders. I have the price list on my website & you can copy that. Helen

Has she came for the testing yet? If not then tell her that yall need to schedule it to somewhat set in stone what she wants, what you will need to get, and the price you will charge. Tell her that you want tto do this so that she can have a set price to plug into her budget and make financial planning easier. Try to be as sympethetic as possiable to the stress she is going through. Tell her that the contract is more for her protection and peace of mind in that it states what your responcibilities are. See if she wants you to do the table set up (can you charge for that?) Offer as many services as posiable to make things easier on her and make more money yourselfe. When it comes to the $ part, be prepared. Have printouts of all of the suplies such as cake ingredients, flowers, and other aperatus like stands or whatever you are going to use. Also have quotes of local decorators on the same cake. Have atleast one quote from a very good reputable decorator, and one from someone more new to the business. Tell her your delima and explain that as long as you are not going to lose money, you are more than happy to do it as long as she agrees to give good word of mouth. Be very cheery and honest. You shouldent be depressed because if its something you love to do, at lest you will have fun doing it.

My DH put a very high end comercial security camera system in a lcal huddle house at cost (most get about 3 grand in labor) with the agreement that they would spread the word and let us show the system in their store to potential clients. We just won a bid with a large oil company in MS this week to put 8 camera systems in 32 of their stores at 7 grand per store. The man who contacted us was the brother in law of that 1st costomer and would never have heard of us other wise. Sometimes a little lost proffit really pays off in the end

I say stick with what you quoted her. Yes, for your area you may be undercharging her but you are just starting out. I have been doing cakes on and off for about 10 years but just about a 1 1/2 years ago started with the wedding cakes. I charge $1.50 a serving and that is for cake, punch, coffee, nuts & homemade mints, cups, plates, forks and I decorate the cake table. My mother-in-law has been doing cakes for 20+ years while I think I can do the same as her, she charges $2.00 a serving for the same thing. ( And people think we are expensive!) I feel she does have more experience. The more experience you have the more you can charge. JMO

I definately would NOT cancel!!!

Good Luck with what you decide to do!

Missy