Hello,
I am new here, but not new to cake decorating, I have been in the business since `1989, so I am very disgusted with this new girl who has established a new cake decorating business in my area! SHE ONLY CHARGES $.75 a slice, seventy-five cents, she has lots of money from a very wealthy family and just doing it for fun, has lots of connections and a top of the line commercial kitchen, she does is not doing it to feed her family but I am! Her cakes look fantastic and taste great to, so my question to you all is what am I going to do. I own have my own kitchen as well and I am legal and licensed. I have done everything I can think of but I am not about to lower my prices. I charge only $1.50/slice, is that too expensive? I do not think so, I live in a suburban area and if you went to the city, it would cost you 3 or 4 times as much to get as good quality. So tell me what you all think. I am at my wits end. My thinking is she will get bored and stop but what to do till then, she has been stealing all my customers! HELP ME PLEASE! Sorry for all the caps just wanted to emphasize my frustration.
I don't really have any idea if it would do any good or not, but have you met her personally? Does she seem like the type that you could explain your situation to? If she's just doing it for fun, then maybe she wouldn't care about getting all the business in town. Maybe I'm too optimistic, but that's the only thing I could think of. Good luck!
First of all your price is by no means to much!
So let's see, she has you on the price but what can you do to get/keep your customers?
You need a new market stratagy. How about if you offer something she doesn't? Like homemade cakes rather then boxed? Free 1st birthday smash cake if you did the baby shower cake?
There are so many people out there who get paid the BIG bucks and they don't do anything that special. It's all about how they get their customers. Maybe you can offer a discount on the 2nd cake they buy from you. Or offer free fillings? Of course you still charge the same price but the person thinks they are getting it free.
Go to the new person and try her stuff. She what you are really up against.
I doubt if she will stay doing this for very long. She won't make any money and working as hard as we do will get old really fast if she finally figures out she isn't making a penny.
If in the end nothing works then hire a hit man to take care of her. LOL Just kidding of course!
Good luck.
Sorry to hear that it really stinks. I am sure she will get burned out before long. Are you still getting any orders?
What do you think about inviting her to join here? She might raise her prices.
OK, so you have some competition, but it does not have to be negative. When a new restaurant opens, everyone goes to check it out, the surrounding restaurants might see a drop in sales for awhile, but then the newness wears off and they recoup. Don't know if this girl is by herself or has a staff, but if she is taking alot of your customers she won't be able to keep up. She will mess up somewhere, causing your customers to return. I would not lower your prices. You might do a little detective work, or get a friend to snoop a little, sometimes its good to know some of the behind the scenes stuff. Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer. Have you kept a data base of your customers? Maybe a little post card or e-mail letting them know how much you appreciated their business in the past, and offer a special. Maybe come up with some creative products that she is not doing or can't do. Maybe free delivery for orders over a certain amount. Maybe deliver some nice warm cookies to some well placed people. There is probably alot of things out there. Try not to get discouraged, fight fire with fire. Hopefully she will burn out and go to another hobby. In the mean time don't give up, if you have had some good steady customers, they will be back. Good Luck.
What about a "frequent flyer" card .... buy 10 dozen cookies or 10 cakes and get the 11th free? I use a "referral credit" system so my brides are looking for customers FOR me. What about a post-card-like thing that your customers can give to their friends and THEY are sending customers to YOU? Ex: Alice takes a dozen or so of the cards and fills out her name and address on them. Alice gives one to Carol. Carol comes in to your place, gives you the card that says "I was referred to you by my friend Alice>". You send Alice a thank you note for the new customer with a coupon for a 6 free cookies or something. Or save the postage and keep them on file and Alice can "cash them in" when she visits you. (I personally would prefer the thank you card....more personal and THAT'S something you can give your customers that the other chic can't! It can be as simple as a postcard.)
Quote by @%username% on %date%
%body%