Has anyone been a cake decorating instructor with a store? I was approached by one of the craft stores about working with them as an instructor.....Does anyone have experience doing this? I would be an employee with the store, so taxes I wouldn't have to worry about, but then there is another part where I'd get paid by the Decorator Manufacturer (dont' want to drop names, they are well known starting with a W) for demonstrations, etc which I would be considered a Consultant with them so I would have to report as income that hasn't been taxes yet.
Does anyone have any insight for being an instructor and how much out of pocket expense you really have? I'm a stay at home mom now (hard to give up my full time job when I did) and I'm looking for something to make some extra $$ at but not get hit when taxes comes around.
Thanks
Janet
There are several of us Wilton Instructors on the board here. If you are going to be a Wilton Instructor at Michaels, you are paid by Michaels only. I don't know about the other stores. You are paid according to how many students you have in class.
You are required to bring in a cake for Course I lesson 1 only, the rest of the time you are demonstrating with the students icing and boards. Anything you use to demo with is usually out of your pocket - so count on that. It is up to you to make your own in store advertising most of the time. You do get paid for making displays for the store.
I do it because I love decorating, and I was asked to take over the store that I took lessons at, the one who taught me was leaving. You also will have had to have taken all 3 Wilton courses to be considered for an instructor position. I had to send in photos of my cakes too.
I have only been teaching since Feb. I am sure some of the others who have more experience than I with all the details will fill you in too. I have a great time with my classes - and the people I work with at the store are wonderful too. (and they LOVE the cakes I leave for them!!) 
I am an instructor at Jo Ann's. It is the same there, I am paid by Jo Ann's as an independant contractor. It is based on the number of students you have.
I love to decorate as well and love teaching other people how to decorate. You also get nice discounts at the store and through Wilton.
If you have an opportunity to become a Wilton Instructor...go for it. It won't make you rich dollar wise but it will give you an opportunity to share your talents and your love for decorating to others.
Good luck and keep us posted.
I am A W.... instructor. I taught at Hobby Lobby. At the end of the year I got a 1099, so I had to report that income. The only good thing is you can write off your expenses. There were alot of things that was required to have in order to teach. On your first class you must bring your mixer and show them how to make the icing. You must buy the stuff in order to demonstrate. Your pay is determined by the amount of students you have.Don't think you will make alot of money because you won't. Consider your gas and time. There is alot of preparation and paperwork to keep track of. They will usually give prizes if you teach a certain amount of students, usually it is in product. You will also get a 40% discount on your purchases from them. Make sure you check out the store and check with management. Make sure you have a descent room to teach and not the employee break room. Also make sure they are willing to teach their employees how to properly register your students.If you are going into it for the fun of it and have time and some extra money, then go for it. The biggest reason you are there is to help push and sell product. They only offer it so people will spend their money. I may sound bitter, but from experience ..... mine was not good. Had a bad manager and a piece of garbage for a classroom. I did however love the students and how excited they would be when they finished a project. I enjoyed the teaching part, just wish I had a better store.
Cupcake,
Are you still an instructor? You might want to think about talking to the regional supervisor and switching to another account besides Hobby Lobby. I hate to hear that you are unhappy there.
I am in inactive status now. I spoke to a regional and requested another store, don't know if they solved the problems at the store, but I would think they would have since the store just added another whole aisle of Wilton products. I will have to wait until there is another opening. I was driving 50 miles to my store, I would prefer one closer especially since the price of gas has gone up. I live in a rural area, and most of the stores that offer classes are 30 miles or more from me.
I'm an inactive Wilton Instructor. I started at Michaels and then moved to an independent store before taking an extended maternity leave. At Michaels, you are considered a Michaels employee. At the independent store, I had a choice of how I wanted to be paid and I chose to become an employee so as not to worry about taxes. Out of pocket expenses would depend a lot on what you already have. If you already have the equipment you need to begin teaching, then that's most of it right there. As a Wilton Instructor, there are supplies for baking cakes & making icing but anything you need from Wilton is 40% off and for project classes you get the supplies even cheaper. If you are definitely going to be paid as a consultant, your best bet is to set aside a portion of each check that will go to end of year taxes. You'd have to check with an accountant as to how much that would be. You should set up a separate savings account (maybe an interest earning one) so you are not tempted to touch that money.
HTH
- jennifer
How does it work about pay when say Michaels store offers half price classes? Does the Instructor still get paid the same per student as if the classes are regular price?
Also, I thought that if you are a Wilton instructor they are the ones that pay you.
TIA
Yes, a Wilton Instructor gets paid the same amount of money for a class despite whatever promotion the store is running. Really it's not the cost of the class that the stores make money on. It's the cost of supplies for the class and then the ongoing hobby that has started. Wilton doesn't employee any of it's store instructors. They are either employees of the store or 1099 consultants. The benefit of being a Wilton instructor is not the pay (at least for me). It's the extras like the 40% off supplies and gift certificates to use at their "store." You end up with lots of free products.
With the 40% off for Wilton instructor product orders from the company...what does the shipping add to the decrease in that discount....does it change to more like 25%???
I'm just starting as an instructor next month on a Michael's account; sure would be nice to be able to use the 40% off on the Wilton products at the Michael's store by being an instructor and not have to pay for the shipping!
Congratulations.... I think that's a pretty cool honor! 
Thank you to everyone who posted. I know I won't get rich or support a family on this, but it's something as a stay at home mom to 1-Get out of the house and have adult interaction, 2- make a little extra $, and 3-have fun doing what I like. I was an instructor before I became mom so it's kinda my nitch.
I know with wilton, you only get the 40% off when you buy from them, if you get a discount at the store, it's normally less like 25%.
I do have all the stuff to teach because I took all 3 classes and bought little extras along the way, so I guess my out of pocket will be lower, just the cost of the occassional cake and icing.
Thanks again - My main concern was the tax hit at the end of the year - I was an independent SALES contractor before and didn't care for the tax part of it.
I let you know what happens!
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