Do you use tangible photos in an album or your computer? Do you use prints or one of those books you can have made online? I am just wondering as I will be opening shop soon The actual consultation space will be off of home kitchen in what is called the mudroom, see the photo (this is before it has been converted, before we closed... so before we owned it, it will be my office.) The actual bakery is in a detached garage which was converted to an apt and will now by my space, so I need to know which you would or do use as the medium to show customers their options when they come in with that I have no idea what I want look

Use both some customers will be able to have access to your work at their convenience.

I don't have either of these yet as I have not completely set everything up but I will have a website with galleries and on site I will have books with wedding/celebration cakes in a book/photo album for them to look through.

I use a regular photo books of my work,because I always take a picture of my cakes. I use a lg notebook of pictures I am wiiling to do, & have collected over the years, from books, brides, internet. I place them in clear page saver. I organize the photo album & notebook in sections, one for stacked ,tiered, fountians, Sm Wedding cakes, Anniversay& grooms cakes. I tab each section so I can turn to it quickly. I then number each picture. as you add to over time, you may have to go 22, 22a,22b & etc. That way I know which picture they picked out put it on their order form.
I also have a photoshow on line .A lot of these are free or have a much smaller fee than a web site. This is really handy for you & the customer, who wants to come by & pick out a cake, or a bride who is out of town. Just give them your site. This has been great for me! Mine is free it comes with my comcast cable internet service. If you'd like to see, go to
http://photoshow.comcast.net/vcrushing & take a look. Good luck ! Sorry this is so long!!!

I have a website that I update on a weekly basis with all my new cakes. I'm lucky though, my dh designed and maintains it.

I also have a photo album that I keep up to date as well. I keep that on my table in my office/consult room.

I find that I can send a lot of people to my website, and after that they sometimes flip though my photo album.

I like having a photo album to bring to shows (bridal) for brides to look at right then and there

When I meet with brides/clients, it is not at my baking location. So I have my laptop with me, and I show them a collection of cakes that I can do. I also have the pictures of the cakes from my website.
Funny that vcr mentioned this, because I am in the process of making a notebook of cakes too (good minds think alike, I guess, lol!)
If there is a certain flower they want, and I do not have a current picture of my work, I will do it the next day (or two) and email it to them to make sure that the styles and colors are what is expected. HTH

It is important to have both books and a website. Even if your website is an online photo album - more and more poeple are looking online to find and see things!

I have done, and still do, both.

Ever since I first started doing cakes, I have taken a picture of every cake, numbering each one on the back. In the past, Moms had to pack up their kids and make an appointment to come to my house and sit in my not-too-child-friendly family room (with my china teacup& saucer collection) to look at photos. Over the years, the albums got bigger, and more tattered after being handled by moms and kids. I eventually dismantled my albums and filed all my photos in numerical order in boxes. I scanned most of the photos and uploaded them to my website which a good friend created for me.

Now my clients can sit at home in their pajamas and look at my website at 3AM if they want to. If my client sees a photo on my website that they like, they give me the file number, and I can go to my file and pull out the actual photo, so there is no question which "teddy bear" or whatever cake they mean. These days the photos are taken with a digital camera as well as a film camera. The digital ones get uploaded, and continuing with a practice I have had since the beginning, I give a copy of the picture of their previous cake to my clients the next time they order a cake. Most of them say "Oh! Thank you! I am so glad you took this picture! We forgot to take a picture before we cut the cake." Little things can make a big impression, and tell clients you care.

Additionally, I do have a couple of small albums for display use when I offer a cake gift certificate as an auction item at a charity event, like a fundraiser for Girl Scouts. The albums have a variety of cake examples, duplicates of photos in my file boxes.

I want to offer a serious caution. Be sure to back-up your photos on CD or on another hard drive, in case something happens to your computer. All my cake photos are backed up on my laptop and on my desktop computer, as well as on photo CDs.

sorry! the post got duplicated

I have a photo album and then I have a few cds that I made on the computer that has all of my photos so they can take it home to look--or at work on break. So far I have gotten them all back.