Next weekend... I already have 1 wedding cake and a baby shower cake to do... which I was kinda freaking out about having 2 in one weekend... now I just got a call that a lady needs a wedding cake next weekend as well... can I charge her more?? 1) for being kinda late in ordering and 2) for being busy already???

It doesn't seem ethical to me to do that... but I'm just wondering what you guys thing... ????

you can probably charge a rush job fee on top of the cake cost.

I don't see an ethical issue at all with charging more for a late order. As for the busy-ness factor, I don't see a problem there either really. I mean have you seen the prices of roses around valentine's day? It's a supply and demand thing. You just have more demand this weekend and the same supply (supply= your time and skills). Now, if she would have ordered earlier, you could have planned better and arranged to have more supply (but be careful, if you up the price too much, you may lose an order). Sorry, my husband is in the business program here, I get alot of mini-lectures on this kind of stuff.

I agree with randipanda. But I think the real question you need to ask yourself, is are you going to be able to handle the workload. I mean, regardless of price you have to be able to say no if you've already booked yourself. I guess I'm just saying, it's good to know your limits. Good luck!

Okay... so maybe I'll just up the price a little bit...
I am freaking out about getting it all done... but when I really think about it, I think I'm fine. I'm going to do all the pre-work this coming weekend and I'll finish the 1st wedding cake on Friday since that's a Sat. morning deal and this new cake, I'll finish on Saturday and the baby shower is on Sunday, so I can do that saturday afternoon - and that one is a relative, so if I don't end up doing what I planned, that's not a HUGE deal... but that's the one I'm most excited about... so yeah, I think I can do it.

Thank you for the input... its always good to have you guys to reassure me that 'its okay'! lol

I may be the lone ranger here but I think it's completly unethcal espcailly if you plan to skimp on the design to accomadate for time.. ethier you can do the cake for the same price you do the other wedding cake for or you say im sorry you ordered to late and i'm already booked. Just my opinion.

I dont see anything wrong with uping the price. I also agree with randipanda. Its the whole supply and demand thing. If you really want something and you know it will be worth it in the end wouldnt you pay a couple of extra dollars? Just make sure you dont over price it too much. Other than that you should be fine. Will you let us know what happens?

If you're sure you can get it all done in time and still apply the same amount of detail as you would if you only had one cake to do that weekend I'd say Ok I can do it but you're going to be charged an extra $50-75 or whatever you feel fit to charge, for such a late order, one weeks notice is not enough for a WEDDING CAKE! A small cake it would be no big deal but a wedding cake needs more time and planning then one weeks notice Good luck!

I charged my mom more for the cake she just ordered because I knew she wouldn't pay me anything for it... she had my father buy the supplies so I got extra stuff I didn't need for that cake just because I knew she wasn't paying for it... it's a $56.~ cake she's getting for cost of items to make it which weren't but maybe $15.~ at the most so I got over $30.~ worth of items and even got the stuff to make the cake I'm doing for next week that is already paid for... by someone with alot less money then my mother... so I don't feel bad for charging someone extra especially when they don't give you any notice but a week... that's all the time mom gave me told me Monday night I needed to have the cake done by Saturday and to the party site by 2 pm.... I didn't have any plans on how to create it.... but she didn't care... people just don't understand how much time is actually needed for things... I'd charge her extra

Not too sure about the supply and demand issue, but I make certain to tell people, how much time I need in advance for an order and that I cann still do it after that time frame has expired, but it will be considered a rush order and that a fee will be acessed for that.

Nothing wrong for charging a rush job extra, it's your time away from the family on a weekend no less. If it's too expensive, she'll choose someone else, but you're busy anyway, so no loss to you

personally I wouldn't. either accept the job or don't, but why should it cost more? you can either do it or you can't. I wouldn't take advantage.

Well... I talked to the lady tonight, and I was misinformed by my bakery - its a wedding ANNIVERSARY cake, but still a 3 tier cake - their 50th. I've decided to just KEEP my price. I talked to my husband about it, and he kinda made me think it wasn't right. I don't really have any 'drop dead' date for cakes YET, so I felt I couldn't enforce a 'late fee' or rush fee.


I do think though that later on down the line when I get a little more into this than I am, more of a 'business' than a hobby that it is right now, I'd enforce things like that and I'd charge her more.

If you have a certain time line listed anywhere then I would charge a rush fee. I have it stated on all of my paper work that special orders require 2 week notice and wedding cakes require 3 months notice. If they come after that time I can make the judgement call on whether or not I can do it and if I can how busy am I?

If you do not have it stated anywhere how much notice you need for cakes, then I would say no b/c they didn't know so why should they have to pay more?

But every business is different.

I wouldn't necessarily use the term Rush fee, Consider it Overtime pay. Because if you went to a store and you told them you need it tomorrow, but they already had their day planned. They say yes but they are going to be paying someone overtime to stay longer to complete you order.

I'm not sure about the supply & demand either but I do have guidelines about short notice orders....and a wedding cake within the next week would be short notice for me. I require a certain amount of time for each type of cake (basic, 2-D, 3-D, wedding, etc). A wedding, gosh! Did something go wrong or did they just forget they needed one? I have those that call all the time (the same people believe it or not) and think I don't have anything else to do but their own personal event...they will call in the middle of the week for a cake on Saturday...and want something really extravagant...most of the time they want to play let's make a deal. I have had people get upset with me 'cause I couldn't do their cake. But I have people call 3 months to 1 year in advance about a cake. They are priority. Well, here again...this is only my opinion. There are a lot of places that charge for a "rush" job...doesn't seem any different to me.

Always think of it as "what if I ran a "real" shop? What would my expenses be for this last minute cake?"

You might have to order some last minute supplies which would cost you more because you had to buy in smaller quantities (no volume buying) or a rush order from your supplier, which doesn't meet your min truck order so there's either a surcharge for less-than-minimum, or you have to order add'l supplies to meet the min .... supplies you didn't really need.

You've already set your staff schedule for the kitchen for that week, and now you have to call in a couple of extra people, which is going to throw your payroll budget out of whack and possibly put some of your staff into overtime.

I have to budget my delivery capacity and more than once I've had to rent an add'l van or two for the weekend to accommodate the deliveries. If your delivery capacity is full, you may have to rent a van to accommodate it.

There are all kinds of legitimate reasons on why you charge extra for a last minute order. I am fortunate to have a manufacturing background (scheduling, purchasing, inventory cost control, etc) so I learned this a long time ago. Either the customer waited until we had open capacity, or they paid the premium for the overtime we'd have to incur, for the airfreight we'd have to pay to get the raw materials, etc etc.

It IS a real business expense.

It's business .... not personal.

I think it is completely ok to charge extra. I think everyone makes good and valid points for why you should charge more. I think a percentage of the total cost of the cake would be the best way to charge additional "rush" fees.
Its a good way to be sure you get your money out of the extra hours you have to put in.

What about thier payment? Should they pay up front and not when it's delivered since it is a rush/ late order? ..Just a thought.

If it is under the minimum time I need payment, 2 weeks for a wedding cake then yes they need to pay for it all up front.

For my other cakes I usually require 50% at time of order and remaining at delivery (although I haven't had anyone that hasn't paid the full 100% right up front) So for a rush order I might do 75% of the cost so if anything happened then I would at least have my time covered for the extra trip to the store or extra ordering online.

I book my cakes by the hours I estimate they will take to complete. If I get a call for a cake and I am under 40-50 hours in a given week I do not charge extra for labor, (if its a rush I just charge to cover any rush delivery fees on supplies). If I am booked to 40-50 hours that week (and have capacity to put in the extra hours) I quote the price based on an overtime labor rate. I explain this to the client so they understand what my standard price would have been and why they are paying a premium.

As far as payments go, if there is less than 2 weeks to the event date and it is a cake over $100, the balance is due at the time of the order.
I try to accomodate as much as possible on busy weeks, but in the end you have to make sure you take care of yourself.

Like indydebi said, its business.