Pta Wants Me To Make A Cake Each Month
Decorating By notjustcake Updated 1 Sep 2006 , 12:51am by notjustcake
I have said it all!!!! The president knows I have been taking classes and they were trying to find ways for the PTA to do something nice for the teachers without going over their budget. They used buy them each a little inexpensive gift but that was getting expensive at that and a hassle sometimes there was more than 3 bdays a month so they came up with the cake idea and I think they have stretched their donators to the max. I want to help them and I want to practice my cakes but she asked how much would I charge for a cake I told her quite honestly I am not good enough to charge anything but donating one cake a month won't break my bank either but also how will I get out of this deal after so many donations??? I don't know! Has this happened to anyone? Is this trouble waiting to happen or a good investment for the far future or just practice and a kind donation I am well known in the school and donate all I can and participate in all kinds of fundraisers, volunteer my time and all I am about to have a baby so this is of course something I can do out of my house. What should I do?
Could you say that since you are just trying to get the practice for now, that you will do them for free this year, and when your business picks up in the future, you can still do the cakes but at a discounted rate?
I started doing this same thing at the end of last year and did a few cakes for PTA. Then we received a notice that the school board has implemented a new policy that anything brought and served to the school has to be "store bought" with ingredient labels!!! AHH! I was so bummed! Oh well, Good luck!
hey, they were willing to pay you, you should've taken the money!! practice and get paid..woo hoo!
lol
Well, they are only talking about 12 cakes a month, if you REALLY want to donate them, I would suggest these ground rules to benefit YOU.
1. They can tell you how many they need to feed, but you pick the design ( this way you can practice all types of techniques!) you can even throw in a couple of "CUPCAKE CAKES" in the mix!..lol
2. They can be limited to flavors, this way you dont have to go nuts looking for ingredients...and if you have a deep freezer, you can bake 2 or 3 at a time! to cut down on your bake time. After all you don't know how your baby's personality will be, the baby may be a quiet one ..or one that demands all of your time!! if you have a deep freezer you can even do frozen buttercream transfers ahead of time!! Cool beans!
3. You get all the "referrals" first. If you can't do them, then they can refer someone or someplace else.
4. Next year, if they are happy with what they have gotten all year 'round, your baby will be older, you will have more 'experience' and you can be a judge of your time and expense and you can charge accordingly...but give them a heads up at least 2 or 3 months before your 12 free cakes offer expire..lol
Good luck in your new venture!
i think you should do the donation for the school but if someone ask from the school to do an outside of school party or event, you should charge. but when it comes to an event to for the school then do as a donationto built you profolio ( i think thats how you spell it). thats what i do.
Luckly our school still allows homebaked goods!!!
I think "restrictions apply" is a good way to go by.
I never planned to do this for money in fact it is still a hobby and I always wanted to take classes, a friend of mine says if they are willing to pay cost to charge them something. They do have it in the budget to do so. I guess giving them free for the first 10 cakes (we only have school 10 months) is a good idea then I would just charge them cost I would get plenty of practice and not just with sheets cakes I can also do all kinds of crazy things if I want like practice my stacked cakes.
As President of the PTO, I want to remind you that you can always say no & always draw the line at what you do (like RB said).
Now if i understand correctly you will be doing 1 cake per month & that's for 9-10 months, am i right?
Go back to the PTA president & tell her you do need to know if she will be calling you with a request or if you just bring whatever cake you want on a certain day--if she wants to request--then tell her that will be fine, but always within reason or you will have to charge (or just tell her that after thinking this over, the supplies will run you a little more than you thought & you may have to ask for a small fee).
I'm taking my first batch of decorated cookies to the school tomorrow for my DD class & to the office staff. I think whatever way you choose to go--that it's very nice of you to do this for them & i think word will get around & you will get some business out of it. When things slow down for me, i'll be taking cakes to the school every couple of months (i want them to remember that i was a great president--maybe then they will ignore my speeches)
I think these are all good ideas and make sense too I would like for them to let me do whatever I want for free for the first school year, it may benefit them because I would go crazy with all my practice cakes, I really want to practice all I have learned.
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