I had a visit from a lady who is selling advertising in a new bridal magazine for southwest Ohio. For around $700 I can have a 1/6 page B&W ad and a half page color photo spread. It sounds really reasonable to me. The magazine will run for a year.
My DH asks me a lot if I'm ready for the volume of business this will bring. I work out of my home (legally) and can't make more than 1 (or 2 if they're small) wedding cakes per week. And I still have a part time pharmacy job that has weekend obligations (every third). And 2 kids.
I guess I'm wondering if this is a smart move. I plan on puttin in the ad it's a home business, which will probably limit interested parties somewhat. Would it be harmful to get a lot of inquiries and have to turn a lot away? Or will the selective nature of my business be a positive, urging people to sign up early? I'd want to get use out of my nearly $1000 advertising, but sometimes I can be pretty limited in how much I can do.
I know I will ultimately have to decide this for myself, but I wanted some different opinions. Sorry this is so long.
well i didn't take an ad out....
but the local paper came and did a full front page story on me.
it was a mixed blessing.............
it did really really increase business.......but.......
holy cow.........it got to be way to much for me to handle....
after awhile i had to start turning down business....there are only so many hours in a day....it got pretty overwhelming for awhile....i was talking to so many people about orders there was hardly time to make the cake!
I might verify where your ads will be placed. 1/6 page BW sounds a bit like those listings they throw together in the back of magazines, or on a page with 6 other cake decorators.
The 1/2 page color spread - sounds impressive. Is it 1/2 page across 2 pages next to each other?
How many issues? A year for them could be anywhere bewteen probably 24 and 4 issues.
In MI we have a "Michigan Bride" magazine, sold nearly everywhere. Is it a large publication that's sold many places or one that you can only find in select locations?
Things like that may sway your decision.
If it's decent ad placement in a publication that's widely used, it's probably a good price. But you could call around other places where you might advertise to find out their prices, if you haven't already.
I wanted to mention that I don't think being a legal, home-based business will limit you too much. When I got my wedding cake (this was pre- my cake decoation classes and obsession!), I was actually MORE impressed with the home-based bizs than the large bakeries. I loved the more personal experience it gave during a search for a group of "wedding service vendors". In the middle of trapesing around town to hall after hall, florist after florist, it was soooo refreshing to me to go to the cake decorators house and sit down in her kitchen and chat about cakes!
Good luck! If you think it's a good deal, then it probably is if you've done some homework!
If you started getting more business from this ad, would it enable to you give up your other job in order to do more cake decorating? If so, is that what you want to do? Sometimes people have to keep their "other job" for the benefits. Would that be a factor for you? Are your kids in school? If you started getting more cake business and your kids are home all day, would you be able to handle the "pressure" of doing alot of cakes with kids around?
I would say if doing cakes is really your passion and you would love to find a way to make it happen, you go for it, girl. If you're unsure about how much business you want and are kind of wavering on that issue, then ALOT of business may be too stressful.
Hope this helps. Just brainstorming, of course, and thinking out loud. I commend you for asking for the advice of others, as sometimes it can be so very helpful. Best of luck to you. Listen to your heart AND your head on this one. 
I am not a big one on advertising, you have to look at what the potential is in the investment. 700 is alot of money if you only get one or two cakes from it. I tried the YP display the 2nd year I was in business, it cost me 2500 dollars for the year. I did not recoup my investment. My best form of advertising has been word of mouth, and it has brought me more business then I can do. I had to turn away 4 orders this week because of my work load. I hate saying no, but sometimes you have to.
Maybe having too much business would be a real opportunity to develop your business and take it in the direction you want. For example; if you get loads of enquiries you can start turning down the type of cakes you don't want to do or up your prices and start doing ones with more detailing etc.
This is a loaded question that I think only you can answer. Others can put input in but it still boils down to what you want. If you are home based and you have 2 little ones and a part time job I think you are probably busy enough. Advertising of that nature will generate more orders and perhaps cause you to stress out completely and remove the joy of decorating. Perhaps if I were in your shoes I would want a little more freedom to be with my family than juggling cake orders. The time may be better at some point in the future when the little ones are more able to care for themselves. Good luck though it is a tempting offer. Think it through well!
Kathy
Thanks for your input everyone. I'm still trying to make up my mind, but your input is helping.
My kids are going on 10 and 11. But I don't want to abandon them to cakes either. They might decide they don't want anything to do with me and then as we approach teen years, I'm screwed.
I don't know if it's pride, wanting to see my cakes in a magazine, or what. I can't quit my day job because it brings in too much money, and we of course have expenses commensurate with our salaries. My son has a trip planned as part of a student ambassador program, and my DH and I have been saving for a cruise for this summer with my mom and dad, and our family vacay and Christmas are coming up. Not a great time to give up the job.
My DH made the crack that if I got tons of orders he was calling Merry Maids. Which made me feel like he thinks I don't do my job around the house.
I guess I could just be jumping in too fast, but I'm worried I'll miss the opportunity to have lots of wedding cakes displayed in a public manner. A few brides that have called from my internet advertising have asked to see more photos of my work, and all I have is the 4 or so on my website. So if I did this, I would make 6 different ones for the pics, and that would help bring in wedding orders.
AAAARGH!! What to do???
I still have some time to decide, I guess I'll sleep on it. Thanks everyone for pitching in, I really do appreciate it.
Print advertising is tricky. Is this an audited publication? Do you have a media kit from them? I learned a bit doing ads for my business, and from my mother, who has an MBA with a focus on marketing.
--In general, it's not worth buying anything less than a full page ad. Statistically, not enough people will pay attention to anything smaller to make it worth your while.
--It should be on the right page, not the left page, to catch max attention.
--People read ads like a big Z. You should have your business name prominantly displayed on the top line of the big Z, your main message (the picture, "we make the tastiest cakes!", etc. on the diagonal main part of the page, and your contact information on the bottom right of the page.
You're probably going to need a professional photographer to get the kind of resolution and quality you'll want for a print ad. Then you'll need a professional graphic designer who can put together a slick ad in the correct format for submission. I know a great lady who does freelance design work if you want a referral. She designed our logo, and our full page ad for Modern Bride.
In general, I'd be VERY wary of a new publication. If they're not audited yet, you'll want to wait until they are an audited publication to see if they have numbers that justify their prices. If they're not audited yet, let them know that you expect a full page ad and a further discount for taking a chance on them.
I just got a call back from this lady. I had pretty much decided against it since I couldn't afford a full page ad. She says now I can have a 1/3 page color ad for $400, and they would make me an ad for $50. So that plus the half page with 6 color photos of my cakes, I'm wavering again. It's still a lot of money, but now it's half as much for and ad that's twice as big and in color. Sigh....I knew I shouldn't have answered the phone! 
Quote by @%username% on %date%
%body%