Would You Butt In If Your Friend Was Undercharging?
Decorating By LittleMom Updated 25 Apr 2007 , 10:06pm by TexasSugar
My DH and I are friends with this couple, and she bakes cakes. Her DH was venting to my DH that she just sold a full sheet cake to someone at their church, decorated for a baby shower, for only $20.
That won't even cover ingredients!
I already know there's no way I can pretend like I didn't hear this, and knowing me, I'll probably steer our next conversation towards how much most people charge for cakes...
I was wondering if you guys would butt in, or whether you all would just mind your own business. I'm always a huge butt. 
Maybe your friend hasn't really priced out the cost on how much the ingredients are. Or maybe she was doing it cheap for this certain person. another reason could be that like me, she doesn't have a lot of confidence and if someone doesn't like the cake they can't get mad because they didn't pay a lot for it. LOL!
I think you can ask her how much she charges and find out the reason for it. Maybe she honestly doesn't know how much to charge. Go ahead and say something, she might really appreciate it!
I had that conversation with a co-worker years ago. She had just started decorating and was very enthusiastic. She and I would trade off on who was bringing the cake in for pitch ins, etc. Once day I heard she was charging a really low price and I told her, "You need to charge more than that. That is really low for the work you do." She told me that I was upset because she was my "competition" and she was undersellling me and taking my business.
Fine. I told her, "Honey, at those prices you can take all the business you want. Because eventually, I won't have to worry about you as "competition"."
So if you choose to talk to your friend, I hope she takes it as good advice from a friend wanting to help her be properly compensated. I share this story so you won't be surprised if she turns out to be like my former co-worker.
If she was a good friend I totally would! But only you would know how she would react. You at least have to cover your costs. I am sure that if you said it in a nice way it would be fine. I am suprised her hubby has not said something! Mine sure would! 
I am the worst when it comes to charging, but am getting better. Some folks balk at the price but I am not going to charge less!! Especially when I am up at 2am finishing sometimes!!! Then I am glad I charged what I did.
Do you use the pricing matrix - if so maybe you can show her how to use it and then she would really know the costs!
Good Luck!
I think you shouldn't worry too much about what she is charging people. Maybe this was a friend of hers from church and so she discounted it. If she's pricing low out of insecurity, then maybe you could give her a boost, and let her know that her cakes are worth a lot more...
But anything beyond that would probably get on her nerves. Pricing needs to be her decision.
I understand how hard pricing is..I'm probably the worlds worst for undercharging. Maybe its lack of self confidence regarding her cakes. I know i see what beautiful cakes people do on here and what they are charging and I know my cakes are never that perfect..so no way even if I did the same design..i would feel comfortable charging the same price. I even checked into Walmart pricing..and when i mentioned the price of their tiered all-occasion cakes. The reaction I got was "I would never pay that much".. and that is a walmart cake..So people around here are not going to pay alot for cakes...and if you want to get the business and beable to practice your skills you either do the "el cheap-o prices...or you decorate dummies.
I agree with Indydebi completely! If you feel compelled to discuss it with her because she's your friend, then by all means...do it, but be prepared for a negative reaction just in case!
I used to feel guilty about charging certain prices, but not anymore. This is a business I'm trying to run and I won't be in business if I don't have control of my costs/pricing! So now I strongly believe....if they don't like my prices, they can go elsewhere! No skin off my back! Maybe your friend will appreciate your advice and start charging what she's worth!
Maybe next time you are just chatting with her you can tell her you were reading on the internet about charging for cakes and it really made you think about how much you charge (or would charge if you don't sell) cakes. There are tons and tons of posts here that ask about how to charge for this or that or how much for this cake or that cake. You can even invite her to join the board. But if you don't want to go that far you could atleast just mention some of the things discussed.
You don't have to do it in a way tha says I think you should charge more, but in a way that says it opened my eyes to this or that, and maybe she will take some of the information with her and think about her prices.
There could be several reasons she charged what she did for the cake, and I wouldn't ask her why she did, but giving her the infromation you have would give her a chance to change her views, if she wanted to.
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