Do you ever give "new" customers disclaimers? I bake at home for family & friends but sometimes a new friend or co-worker finds out I bake cakes. I always give two disclaimers to them either in conversation or through e-mail - they usually go like this:
1) I cannot compete with Wal-mart or Kroger's prices on cakes. I can't order ingredients in bulk and I don't sell 50 cakes a day - so I can't make cakes for that price. I also make my own icing and I can bake your cake from scratch or from a mix to save a little money, but I cannot compete with Wal-mart. So if your budget is smaller, then I would recommend going to Wal-mart or Kroger or someplace like that - I won't be offended.
That being said, my cakes usually are priced by the cake - meaning I don't know how much it will cost until we decide how many servings, what flavors, fillings (if any) and design. Then I can give you a better idea on price.
And
2) I bake from my home. I am not licensed. I cannot and will not bake for your cousin's sister's friend's daughter. I do not do wedding cakes. There is too much liability involved. Kentucky does not license home bakeries so even though my mother's home (where I bake from) is pretty dag gone clean - I cannot do cakes for weddings or for large catered parties, etc. I can only do cakes for people I actually know or maybe the immediate families of people I know.
I usually say it all in perhaps a nicer manner and I thank them for their interest, send them pics of my work and ask them a bunch of questions like # of servings, flavors, etc..... that way if they are interested, I've asked them questions - and if they're not b/c they're really really cheap, then I don't have to feel bad or feel "guilted" into doing the cake.
Do you all do any disclaimers like this w/ your friends/family/ and co-workers?
i think its a great idea! i don't sell cakes, just sometimes get reimbursed for ingredients. but if i ever do i think that would be very important to make sure people understand what you can and can't do right up front. btw, im from louisville! moved to cincy 2 years ago, but i still visit fam and friends there. just wanted to say hi!
I think the disclaimer is a great idea..lets people know right up front how you do business. I wish I'd done the same especially the pricing thing.
I did a cake for my son's teacher (referee shirt in my pics) and charged her a very low price, $25, because I she's wonderful and she's good to my son. One of the other teachers saw the cake, loved it and wanted me to do her daughter's birthday cake. She kept saying in our conversation, "Now that cake was $25, right?". That seemed to be all she cared about. When I asked how many people she needed to feed, she said, "Oh, just a cake the same size you made for the other woman.". I did the cake for $25, it was a 9" round (the kimono shirt in my pics) but found out later she had over 40 people at her party. Why couldn't she just ask me to price out a cake for 40 people?
This woman has since called me to do another cake and I told her I had something else happening because I don't want to have to even get into the pricing thing with her. My fault for not setting her straight with our first cake together.
Cindy
cindww, that's exactly what I try to avoid! 
I have made some cakes on a "sliding" scale. For instance, there is a family that I used to give my Wilton class cakes to and I've done some cakes for them since - they're on a really tight budget. I want to help make their kids' birthdays special b/c I know they don't have a lot of money to spend on them. PLUS, they are friends of my mom's and are really great people. She always asks, "is $___ enough for a cake? Are you laughing at me b/c that's too low?" BTW - I don't laugh at her. B/c she's a friend of my mom's, I usually do things for her at a lower cost.... but I also know she has smaller parties so I probably won't have a lot of people asking about the cakes. I still try to keep them fairly simple.
One of my first questions I ask people is "What is your budget"? I tell them my cakes start out around $35 - $40 and then we go from there depending on decorations, serving amounts, etc. That way they know right away they aren't getting a cake for $15.00. Most of the cakes I've done have ended up in the $40 range. I know I should charge more but I enjoy doing the cakes and I'd rather do a little more for practice and experience than just "keep it simple" as most people tell me to do - they say to keep it simple b/c they don't want to "put me out" in doing the cake.... of course if I ever do get to become legal, my prices will jump! There's so much more involved in legal business w/ paying all the bills, taxes, etc. so prices go up! And I'd rather be a little more elaborate then make sheetcakes all the time!
I don't do the disclaimer. I'm not Wal-Mart or Kroger, and I don't want to talk about Wal-Mart or Kroger. If they come to me, they don't want Wal-Mart or Kroger. I don't justify or explain why I charge more than Wal-Mart or Kroger, there's no point. If they want to go there, that's fine with me. If they look at me and say "I can get it cheaper at Wal-Mart or Kroger", I just say, okay, go there. There's no point. I think I may have had someone say that two, maybe three times. It doesn't happen that much.
My customers don't care whether I'm licensed or not. I do cakes for fun, I don't have a business. My cakes come from word of mouth. If they ask, I tell them the truth. I'm just having fun. If they care, they go elsewhere.
JulieB,
I understand what you're saying. I've just had a few people come to me and ask me to do a cake - I ask them a bunch of questions and stuff and spend time looking at designs, etc. and then I tell them how much - THEN they say "oh". I've just wasted all that time looking at designs, finding out how many servings they want and flavors etc - all for both of us in the end to be disappointed - me b/c I'm not going to get to do the cake, and them b/c now they can't give me business, they feel bad for asking me, and now they can't have that really awesome cake we talked about. I also don't want to give people the impression that I'll do cakes for free or for "donations" b/c I've read so many stories here of how people take advantage of that....So I just like to "lay it out" on the table.
I've also had people ask if I had business cards & such - I just don't want to end up doing a cake for someone I DON'T know b/c I don't know if they're going to be a good person to work with or if they end up being nasty. Plus it's not worth it to me to be heavily fined by the Health Department b/c someone reports me - and I don't believe my close friends & family would do that. I just don't want to get a call out of the blue from someone. So that's my reason for my "disclaimer".
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