Very Upset...and Want To Know What Yall Think!!!! (Long)
Decorating By lillykaci1 Updated 1 Apr 2007 , 2:35am by LaSombra
I did a cake for my husbands work. They called me on Monday and asked if I could have them a sheet cake doen by today at 4am so my hubby could bring it to work with him. So I told them yes because I was told that they would "take care of me"!!!!! WELL THEY TOOK CARE OF ME ALRIGHT!!!!
Monday night after I got off work at 11:30 I went to the store and got the stuff to make the cake...I got up feed the kids and started making the cakes. I did both cakes and some icing up befor I had to go back to work on Tuesday night. I got off at 11:30 again and stayed up all night icing and decorating that cake!!!!
My hubby gets up and I put the cake in his truck I went to bed to get a little sleep while the kids were still sleeping, and he calls and say how much would you charge for that cake. I told him cuz of the flowers and all it would be like a $75 cake....They paid me $37 because that's how much they could get a sheet cake for at H-E-B ( kinda sorta like wal-mart type thing) I am soooo mad and they want me to make an other sheet cake for them on Monday and then again on April 17th. I feel like I should cuz it's my hubby's work, but I can't aford to only get $37 a pop!!!!! HELP I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO ALL I KNOW IS I'M MAD CUZ I PUT A LOT OF WORK INTO THE CAKE AND I DON'T FEEL LIKE I WAS "TAKEN CARE OF"!!!! I tried to get the pic to load but it wouldn't so it's in my photos under spring cake Please tell me what yall think!
I´m so sorry to hear this is happening to you... I would very nicely tell your DH fellow co-workers to take their $37 and go to Walmart and get that sheet cake their money can buy. This is taking time away from your sleep just to break even, maybe not even that.... again, very nicely tell them that you already have plans or orders for that day. 
I think your cake is worth way more then $37. I wouldn't make another one for that amount. Just have your husband tell them thanks for the offer but it cost you more to make it then what they pay you. So it would be best to go buy one at the store. However, if they want to pay you what you get from others you would be happy to make the cakes for them.
SOME NERVE!!!!! If they want to pay H-E-B prices.. let them get it from H-E-B then!! why should you do all that work for nothing?? Sorry this happened to you and I don't blame you for being upset. People just don't get it when it comes to specialty cakes. BTW Your spring cake is VERY CUTE!! Love the ducks. (they won't get that from the grocery store for $37 bucks!!!)
My personal opinion, you are NOT H-E-B!!! If they want an H-E-B cake tell them they will have to go there and buy one. Tell them from now on it's $75.00 or whatever your prices are and that's that. Maybe if they order 5 cakes they either get a discounted one or a free one (totally up to you - just an idea). I had a company who started ordering cakes from me and started paying low prices, I didn't say anything (my bad) but after they got a few of my cakes and ordered from my competitor because I was too busy, they appreciate my cakes more thus started paying me more. I also got a glowing email from the manager of the company which was truly great!
Anyways, just my thoughts!
My personal opinion, you are NOT H-E-B!!! If they want an H-E-B cake tell them they will have to go there and buy one. Tell them from now on it's $75.00 or whatever your prices are and that's that. Maybe if they order 5 cakes they either get a discounted one or a free one (totally up to you - just an idea). I had a company who started ordering cakes from me and started paying low prices, I didn't say anything (my bad) but after they got a few of my cakes and ordered from my competitor because I was too busy, they appreciate my cakes more thus started paying me more. I also got a glowing email from the manager of the company which was truly great!
Anyways, just my thoughts!
Ohhh it´s the cake baby... 
If that was a "Spring cake for HEB", then WHY aren't they getting it from the HEB bakery?????
I would tell them (for the future orders), "Thanks for thinking of me, but I'm booked for those dates already, Sorry."
NO WAY to do that cake for $37!!!!!!!!!!!
I completely agree - tell them that you charge $75 and that they should go to this other store. Alternatively walk into a designer clothes shop, get something gorgeous off the rail and pay $10 telling them that you could get similar item from a local discount shop. Then inform the shop keeper that you'll be back several times to do the same thing again. See how far you can walk before the store detective catches you.
They're actually stolen from you and if you let them do it again you may as well paint road signs on yourself so they can carry on walking all over you.
Well, many thoughts cross my mind. First, I feel your pain! It totally bites not to be paid what your cakes are worth. However, I daresay I would have discussed pricing with them a little more clearly than was done in the situation you described. If you are as upset as you sound, it may be worth your while to approach the workplace and explain that while you have no problem servicing them with cakes, you are a one man band as it were and cannot compete with the prices of el Cheapo Brando markets. Yours are custom work, homemade and handmade, theirs are not. If they cannot appreciate this, or choose to discontinue your services over the other market's, then you can either accept it or take the bite. I know, it hurts because they aren't seeing things as you do, and many people don't appreciate what truly goes into a cake. My suggestion -- better communication. I'd let this particular cake incident slide (money wise) but be more clear in the future. But that's just off the top of my head...
Okay, if you told them a price then that's what they should have paid. but I think that's has happened to us all at least once.
As far as you feeling obligated because it's your husband's work, you should ask your husband his opinion. I'm not married, but my dad has a pretty high position at his work and if I were asked to make a cake for his work at a lower cost, I would probably do it because I wouldn't want to jeopardize his job.
However, that being said, I know that my dad would not let them underpay me - especially after I gave them my price. And if they wanted me to more cakes at that same price, I know he would tell me not to because he knows all the work I put into it and it's my way of making a little bit of money on the side.
I hope all that makes sense and is helpful (I'm half asleep and baked cakes for nearly 5 hours straight tonight. I'm exhausted! 
)
Your cake is pretty! It looks like a full sheet. Hubby's company or not, if it were me they'd be getting their cakes at HEB from here on out. I always get paid either at the time I take an order or on delivery. I've never done a cake without having the price set first. I'd hate to see you keep getting ripped off just because it's your hubby's work.
I totally and completely agree that you should not said getting ripped off.
I can just understand you feeling obligated.
I'm still amazed at how they decided to pay you what they thought they should pay you instead of what the price was. I agree with emmascakes - I'd like someone to try to do that in a designer store.
Your cake is beautufil and I understand why you are upset. I would suggest talking to you your husband and ask what his opinion is and then do what ever he asks.
I also agree that you need to be really clear about what you charge for your cakes. I would make up a price list and present that the next time.
I hope that it all works out.
Tell them to go to the H E B...and make sure your hubby tells them that the cakes at chain stores come in frozen...that they are NOT fresh made and the icing comes in, in buckets...that is why the $37.00...yours is fresh...not frozen for 6 months...BOY, I wish people understood that about the chain stores......they do not bake those cakes......I used to be a manger at a chain store and even though we dated our products, we were allowed to have them on hand for 6 months...YUK!!!!
To some people a cake is just a cake.....yes they could get a cake at HEB for 37.00 and to be honest I think maybe a lil cheaper. So unless you are clear on what you charge then dont expect for them to pay what you think you are worth! I have done that before and I have been burned!!!!! I personally do not do sheet cakes anymore, for this reason I feel I make specialty cakes and somehow when its layed out in that format its just not appreciated.....So now I almost always work in rounds or squares....and if more servings are need I go up to larger size of stack them. Since my cakes aren't the same shape as HEB's they cant compare by any means..... and I have been able to charge more! I can make an 6 or 8 inch and charge 50.00 Just because I wont turn on my stove for less than that and no one blinks twice. Anyways in all my rambling....... my point is make it clear what you charge and you will have to decide if you can live with being turned down! In the end you will find that the people who order from you will actually be the people who appreciate what your craft is worth.......the others are people who wouldnt have cared if it was from HEB anyways!
lillykaci1, did you tell them what you charge for cakes this size when they called to place the order? Because to my way of thinking if you didn't then you need to discuss it with them for future orders, but I don't see where there's any room here for anything other than taking the bite and learning the lesson. If you did tell them "the cake will cost $$$" and they didn't pay what you asked, then rant and rave and we'll all rant and rave with you!
Thanks for the comments you all have been great help. I feel much better and will talk to my hubby in the morning, and will call his store tomorrow and find out what they plan on paying for the cake they want for Monday, cuz if they say $37 I'm going to call the bakery and order thier $37 cake for them and then charge them for the call!!!! lol I'm not bitter...hehehe
I told him before I left for my real job tonight that he better make sure his boss calls me sometime next week for the cake he wants on April 27th(personal birthday for his son) a sheet cake with a soccer ball on it with the sport ball pan, cuz I am going to be very clear that he WILL NOT GET THAT FOR $37!!!!! I guess if they can't deal with that then I got a day free to find someone who needs a cake that can deal with that...lol Fine by me
I can see why you're mad, but if you didn't specify a price when you accepted the order, then I don't think there's really anything much that you can say.
I only charged $25 for the Weenie Dog cake in my photos. With all the work I put into it, I felt like charging $50. And it didn't help when other people were telling me they would have paid $100 for it...ugh. But since I didn't specify a price, they were perfectly okay with paying me just $25 for it, and there was nothing I could say - they were friends, and I didn't want to rip them off.
The only thing I can say is...
Now you know what they are willing to pay. Always make price negotiations FIRST from now on.
Yes I told my hubby what it would cost and they said the would take care of me....and boy did they ever!!!!!
Oh, heck naw! You gotta nip that in the bud, now. They KNOW your cakes are better than the $37 dollar cakes. It sounds like your schedule is packed anyway. Just say you can't work it into your schedule.
Well, at least you got SOMETHING for it, instead of them expecting you to just do a 'good deed' and donate it.
I can't tell you how sick and tired I am of my brother's friend's parents calling me up to bring cookies for the class parties. No, I can't just bake my wonderful homemade white-chocolate-macadamia cookies...they want the cutouts, elaborately decorated. I don't know of many seven year olds who get such nice cookies that often...haha. Does anyone offer to pay me for ingredients or time? Nope.
Seriously, being a decorator can be so frustrating. People take advantage of you, and they think because you are good at something, that it's automatically easy and NOT time consuming, and that you can just pull a cake out of nowhere anytime. It's ANNOYING!
I agree with you on that one people just think there is all the time in the world...and that seeing that you like doing it that you don't mind doing it for Free WRONG!!!!
I'm glad that they did pay me the cost, but I'm upset because they didn't pay me what I said, and I guess more upset that my DH didn't stand up for me more...Yes I know it's his job, but someday I would like to make my cakes my JOB. Oh well guess I better try going back to bed I'm dead, but I can't sleep. Thanks everyone.
I agree that you should be uprfront about the price. Let them know that you'd be happy to make the cakes, but for a price that is more reasonable. Go one better and make up a a cost sheet. Put in the cost for ingredients and time (in hours; including clean-up) as well as cost for dry goods like cake boards and disposable bags. Business men understnad things like that and my be more willing to pay what it's worth.
Most people really don't know how much work goes into every cake. And, men dont' typically see the beauty in a cake, they just see it as something tht goes in and out.
You both work hard (and you have a family, and you work nights - which I think is a much harder than regular hours) and the expectation is that you should be making a financial loss, not to mention all the other things you might be doing instead? Since when did we go to work to earn money to subsidise our colleagues enjoyment of cake!!! Donate to charity yes, donate to work colleagues.. I think not.
I have had the same problem also so now if someone wants a cake i have a sheet with with all the cakes that I have done and the prices on them. There fore they know what I charge before hand . I have also notice that it is true some people would actually think you should be cheaper then walmart or sam's .
I agree with you on that one people just think there is all the time in the world...and that seeing that you like doing it that you don't mind doing it for Free WRONG!!!!
I'm glad that they did pay me the cost, but I'm upset because they didn't pay me what I said, and I guess more upset that my DH didn't stand up for me more...Yes I know it's his job, but someday I would like to make my cakes my JOB. Oh well guess I better try going back to bed I'm dead, but I can't sleep. Thanks everyone.
The thing is, perspective is different from each side of the table. It's not a question of paying "what it's worth"... it looks different from each side of the table. That's why it is so important to be clear up front as to what they are buying. Most craft items are not competitive pricewise because they require a lot of labor, and that is the high cost of it. Our own labor cannot be appreciated vs a mass produced product, so please don't even try to measure worth in this. It comes down to a business transaction and what they are willing to pay for cake. It may not be important enough to them to pay for custom product vs mass produce and that is fine...no hard feelings... just pick your market and be prepared to sell what it is you are producing. I do stained glass, and the labor of hand crafting those pieces makes it difficult to sell in any market. I do it because I enjoy the art of it, but if I had to live off it, I'd have to move to a very rich part of town where they don't count their money anymore for the sheer volume of it lol... As things stand, "what we are worth" cannot be measured when pricing our cakes. It comes down to what we are willing to do for what dollars, and a clear accounting should always be a part of that. Take the $37, subtract the tangible costs, and divide the rest by the number of hours put into the thing. Let me guess...that's about two bucks an hour? Hubby's work will understand that you can't work for that. Don't be upset over this. It's just a matter of making sense or making cents in the end. Give them the breakdown of the costs on the April 27 cake and what you have to charge to make it worth the while of giving up your time. That way, they can feel good about paying you, or going elsewhere, and you can feel like you did not put it out for nothing.
Do it because you love it, and expect to be remunerated, but please don't confuse "worth" with value... like diamonds in a starving world, they are pretty useless next to cake. Good luck with this... and get some sleep...you've earned it! (Nice cake btw).
Please, don't ask them what they plan to pay for one of your lovely cakes! Tell them what your charge will be.
My husband's rule of thumb is "estimate your overhead costs, and the price of your time, then add $15.00-$25.00 to cover the unexpected." Then he always adds, "You're worth it."
So are you Lillykaci1.
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