Deposits For Birthday And Small Occasion Cakes?
Business By sweetpea8 Updated 6 Apr 2007 , 12:03am by peacockplace
i am slowly starting to gain orders through word of mouth. i have a cake for a christening due at the end of this month and the woman finally decided on what she wants. so, i sent her a price quote and she is happy with everything. now, in the past, i have just accepted payment when the customer received the cake (delivery or pick-up). but, all of my customers have been family members or very close family friends. this woman is my first "friend of a friend of a friend" customer.
i hadn't given much thought to the whole deposit thing as i'm only doing birthday and occasion cakes at this time. i figured deposits come in to play when you're raking in the big bucks with the wedding cakes feeding 150.
now, that she has made a decision as to what she wants, she asked me if i need money beforehand and it got me thinking. i don't know this person. never met her. would i be naive to just take her word for it? or should i change my policy and take a small deposit?
if so, what percentage would you all recommend? 50%?
sorry for all the questions. TIA 
I don't bother with deposits for celebration cakes unless they are huge and/or mega bucks (in saying that, I did a canoe & a guitar cake (in my photos) recently that fed 100 altogether and I charged E275 for them - and I didn't get a deposit for those either!). I get a 50% non-refundable deposit at the time of booking for wedding cakes though. If I were to insist on a celebration cake deposit, for whatever reason, I would make sure it at least covered the cost of the ingredients etc, so that would be anywhere from 25-50%.
I have a very strict policy of not letting a cake leave my possession without full payment - no money = no cake (I'll even wait for them to go to the atm if necessary!)
I have had the same thing happen to me this month. I have a 1st Communion cake at the end of the month and although it is not a wedding cake it is very elaborate and a small version of a wedding cake. After all the details were worked out the customer asked me about a deposit. I hadn't thought about it before then so I decided to just go with the same as I do for weddings....50% upfront. She had it in the mail the next day. I think I will do this from now on on big special cakes like this.
I had someone ask me that too, that I was not familiar with, I said it was ok we were good, and everything was fine. But if you dont know her and she offered, I would say yes, 25 - 30% is usually what I see charge around.
I have seen places that say they want up to 50% but that is for over cakes that server over 150.
Good Luck.
If I ever sell any of my cakes I will ask for a deposit that covers the cost of my supplies. That way, even if something goes wrong, and the customer backs out, at the very least my supplies are covered. I also agree with the person who said "no money, no cake"! People don't expect to leave the supermarket without paying for their groceries, why would they ever leave with one of your cakes before they pay for it?!?
i don't take the cake out of the van until i get all the money. i was stiffed a couple of times, so i learned the hard way. now, if i don't get the cash, they don't get the cake. twice i have driven off with the cake and they have jumped in their car and followed me home and actually found that they had the money in their pocket all the time. what a suprise! on another ocassion the mother of the bride who ordered the cake had given the money to the best man to pay me when i arrived. he told me that they had said they were going to mail me a check. when i got home with the cake i had a frantic call from the mother of the bride wanting to know where the cake was. the best man had told her that i never showed up. i had a parking stub to show that i had been there. i told her she could come pick up the cake if she wanted it. she was a ball of fire when she stepped out of her car, until i showed her the parking stub and explained that in my opinion the best man was trying to steal her $800.00 second payment. sorry to be so long winded....... get as much money up front as you can, as soon as you can. for some reason when they are ordering the cake it is the most important thing in the world, but on the day of delivery it drops to the bottom of their list.
i until i showed her the parking stub and explained that in my opinion the best man was trying to steal her $800.00 second payment. sorry to be so long winded.......t.
omg! I can't believe the galls of some people...
You took the words right out of my mouth!
I bet that guy got an earfull once the Mother got back!
That wedding would have been a best man short!!! I can't believe people. What was he going to take off with the ring too?!?!?! I would really get a deposit for the cake seeing that you don't know the person that you are going to do the cake for. I'm doing a wedding cake for some friends, but I'm not so sure about them making the payment that day so I'm getting it before the cake is done. NO MONEY NO CAKE!!!!
Wow not only am I going to have to start charging more I'm going to have to get the nerves to ask for money up front too. VERY insightful thread. I think the people who offer you money up front are likely, not the one's you have to worry about. But wow I try so hard to hope there aren't such people in the world, and yet there they are! Definately going to use the tip to keep the cake until payment in full. Even if I get stuck with a cake at least they didn't get the better of me, then DH would have something to say to them......My hero 
For wedding cakes or very large/expensive celebration cakes I require the payment in full beforehand. But I recently got stiffed on a smaller cake (by a co-worker, no less!) so now it's no money, no cake. Like nannaraquel said, they can't leave a supermarket without paying for a cake ~ so why should I wait for payment?? But that said, I don't bother with deposits on smaller cakes...they pay in full beforehand or cash upon delivery.
For weddings I take 50% when they book. It's not "booked" until I have that cash. Then I take the remainder 2 weeks prior. So I don't have to chase anyone down.
For celebration cakes I take full payment 1 week prior for cakes over $50.00 ( not too many of my cakes are less than this).
For under $50, if they don't pay I bring it home and enjoy it. 
For weddings it's 50% up front (tried the reserve the date for $150 and didn't like it) and the rest 3 weeks prior.
Celebrations cakes are paid upon ORDERING. No $$....no order....not on my books. I've been stiffed twice by people I let slide and now my policy is my policy and if you don't like it you can go somewhere else!
I had a lady actually email me the day before pick up (one of the two I let slide) and tell me she had a family emergency and had to leave town. She said she needed to cancel her order and would re-order later. Well, the facility where the birthday party was held called the day of and asked if I could deliver a few extra cupcakes with this lady's order for the staff and I said..."she had a family emergency and the party was cancelled." The worker hung up with me and verified with the lady that the party was still a go and called me back to let me know! 
I was pissed! This order was for 100 cupcakes that I had already baked, iced, decorated, and were sitting in my fridge! You know, the last family emergency we had was when my brother was murdered. Lying about something like that is just not cool!
People are so lame... That's why you have to CYA!
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