Need Some Help With Business Basics.
Decorating By Brelene Updated 11 Jan 2012 , 7:03pm by TexasSugar
I am trying to get everything I need together to sell cakes from my home and my biggest glitch in getting ready to launch is to understand pricing. I get how to estimate the per serving quantity of a cake (I am using the Wilton chart) but it is the up selling extras that I am having trouble comprehending. So my pricing questions are a little more specific.
Do you add a price per flower (gum paste or fondant) Do you give people so many free flowers eg first 10 flowers included any extras $2.00 sm or $2.50 lg per stem .
How do you decide which fillings should be standard and which would get a higher price, and by how much more?
Lastly if using a foam piece instead of cake, how would you charge for that?
Do you have any other tips to make pricing more readily comprehended ?
thanks everyone for helping with this!
brenda
Do you add a price per flower (gum paste or fondant) Do you give people so many free flowers eg first 10 flowers included any extras $2.00 sm or $2.50 lg per stem .
How do you decide which fillings should be standard and which would get a higher price, and by how much more?
Lastly if using a foam piece instead of cake, how would you charge for that?
Do you have any other tips to make pricing more readily comprehended ?
1. We don't give any "freebies" for gumpaste flowers. We charge for each flower because they are so labor intensive. Some more than others. You may just have to figure out how long they take you to make to determine their price.
2. Our fillings are pretty much all the same price. We have tiers of cake flavors, but not tiers of filling flavors.
3. If using a foam piece or cake dummy, charge the same because the dummies are not cheap and it takes you the same amount of time to decorate a dummy as it does to decorate cake.
The best way to figure up a price for a cake is to figure your ingredient cost and labor (How much do you want to get paid an hour?) and how long you estimate it will take you from start to finish. Add those together and make sure to add overhead and profit.
Do you add a price per flower (gum paste or fondant) Do you give people so many free flowers eg first 10 flowers included any extras $2.00 sm or $2.50 lg per stem .
How do you decide which fillings should be standard and which would get a higher price, and by how much more?
Lastly if using a foam piece instead of cake, how would you charge for that?
Do you have any other tips to make pricing more readily comprehended ?
1. We don't give any "freebies" for gumpaste flowers. We charge for each flower because they are so labor intensive. Some more than others. You may just have to figure out how long they take you to make to determine their price.
2. Our fillings are pretty much all the same price. We have tiers of cake flavors, but not tiers of filling flavors.
3. If using a foam piece or cake dummy, charge the same because the dummies are not cheap and it takes you the same amount of time to decorate a dummy as it does to decorate cake.
The best way to figure up a price for a cake is to figure your ingredient cost and labor (How much do you want to get paid an hour?) and how long you estimate it will take you from start to finish. Add those together and make sure to add overhead and profit.
1. We do have a certain amount of decoration included in our base price and then additional cost beyond that. And for that it really just depends on how long it takes you to do different techniques. For reference, we charge $9 for a rose, $5 for a calla lily, $6 for a regular lily, etc... (sugarpaste)
2. We don't charge differently for any different flavors - ever. Our prices are based on the highest someone would want so #1) people like to hear oooh you can have anything you want and #2) people still order the basics most of the time. Win-win for you.
3. Fake cake is 75% of the cost of regular cake
Outside of gumpaste flowers, to me when it comes to fondant/gum paste decorations, if the cake would be very plan with out it, then I wouldn't charge extra, because to me that falls under your decorating labor costs. If the fondant/gumpaste decorations are on top of an already decorated cake, then I would charge extra for them based off of what they were and how long it would take them to do them.
I do not charge more for fillings. When you figure your costs for your cake, that should be added in. I would use the middle to higher costing fillings to figure price. Some fillings may cost a little more to make, while others may be cheaper, in the long run it will even out. Sorta like a white cake doesn't costs as much to make as a chocolate cake.
I am not a big fan of add on pricing. When I go to order something I want to easily know how much I am paying for it, so that is how I price my own things. I do think there are a few things that do warrent extra pricing, but that is the above and beyond stuff, not the basics.
If you will search pricing dummy cakes on here you will find some posts with information on that. I want to say most people charge 80% of what they would charge for a real cake. It still costs you to buy the dummy, to icing the dummy and you still have to decorate it.
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