I hate to bring this up or ask this, but I really would like to know. I read this post earlier about a lady almost not receiving her money and everyone was discussing what she was getting for her cakes.
I KNOW that I am cheap. I feel just like her, I don't feel like I am good enough to raise my prices. I look at what they could be and what they actually are and I am just unsure. I am scared to even say what I get for I don't want to offend anyone.
What realisticly,sp?, should I be charging? I know that it depends on greatly on the area and I am in a very rural area. I am a good hour from a interest and we have one red light in the entire county. I really do hate to be asking this, but thanks for any imput you can offer. 
Happy Baking
I checked out your pics. Your work is flawless! If we were in a decorating contest together, I'd just save the time and withdraw. You work with a lot of different materials, so you have a lot to offer your clients. YOur deer cake is wonderful! Your tiered cakes are level and the icing is super-smooth.
When you say you are in a rural area, are you saying there are no other bakeries or decorators close to you? If that's the case, then since you would be the only game in town, the basic rules of supply and demand would apply.....low supply + high demand = higher pricing.
Pricing IS the hardest part of this biz. But it is what it is. It's not personal ... it's business. The cost to make a cake is the cost to make a cake. No one would dispute your right to make a decent wage on your work.
Let's say it costs you $6 in materials for an 8" cake. It takes you 3 hours to do the cake (baking, cooling, trimming, icing, decorating). Assuming $15 an hour labor, it is not unreasonable to ask $50 for an 8" cake. Because if a bakery had to pay someone $15 an hour to work 3 hours on cake, you can bet THEY would charge accordingly!
Pricing: It Is What It Is.
Thank you so much Indydebi! I really appreciate your imput and your willingness to help!
By rural I mean the only bakery is the local Wal-Mart and just last year a cater/cake shop opened up. I haven't been there yet, but I know her prices are really cheap, maybe even lower then mine! I don't how she is making it.
I want to work really hard between now and Janurary and write up a contract and change my prices. I just don't know where to begin! I do know what food items I am losing money on, I don't really know about my cakes. I know that I am getting paid nothing on small orders, only enough to cover costs. I know what polices I want to implement, just not the proper way of saying it.
I guess I am just stressed and kinda low right now. Thank you again!
Don't sell yourself short! You cakes are awesome! Like Indydebi said. . .Supply and demand! Offer something no one else does in your area! Set your prices and don't budge! I just wish the last couple of months that I got paid for my cakes! Seems like everyone in my family and everyone I know is getting married, having a baby or having a Birthday!
Elle
While at the Baker's Convention in Vegas, there was one speaker who talked about shops that opened up down the street who were cheaper than him. And he said, "And I watched them open .... and close .... over the years, and I'm still there."
You might recall that old joke about "We're losing a dollar on every unit, but we'll make it up in volume!"
It just doesn't work that way. So don't worry too much about the shop that you "dont' know how she's making it". If she's not making it, then you won't have to worry about her for very long.
I am currently facing the same situation as culinarycreations. I live in a small town of about 10,000, we have a smaller walmart with bakery and a small grocery store that does the same type cakes as WM. The nearest bakery in any direction is 30 miles.
I just started back in July, so I am a total self-taught newbie and don't feel I am good enough yet to ask prices that most of you that are more experienced would get. DH says I am too low and I don't give myself enough credit and the fact that there is no one here in town that can do this & they had rather pay a little higher price than have to drive 30 miles elsewhere. I've done some freebies for school and church just to get exposure and feedback, and so far it's been realy good, but I still am not sure about how much to charge. I have a doll cake due tomorrow and I have no idea what to charge...I am doing the dress in fondant.
TIA for any advice and I am sooooo grateful for CC!!!
Dee
I can't imagine why you feel you aren't good enough. Your 'Ole Miss cake is wonderful!
I don't know what you're charging but you are worth a good price. And your husband is right ... basic supply and demand. You have one walmart and one bakery. Do they do fondant at all? If not, that makes you the only game in town. You dont' have to deal with the statements of "I can it cheaper at walmart" ... because if walmart doesn't do fondant, then your answer is "good luck trying!"
Marketing. It's all in the marketing.
You can't compete with Walmart pricing anyway...so don't try. It took me a long time and a beat on the head from IndyDebi to figure that out. If someone mentions that Walmart is so much cheaper-they should go there! You are providing a FRESH, HOMEMADE cake with CUSTOM DECORATING...there is not a comparison. 
I actually made a wrestling cake, and the little boys mother said she wanted it to taste like Walmart's icing!
My buttercreams consist of a all butter that most descibe as vanilla ice cream flavored and a Crisco that has lemon, vanilla, and almond flavoring. She was family so I went through and found a recipe and made it taste very greasy and no real flavor! That mess was horrible to work with!! - Thus the reason the cake isn't uploaded! I didn't get a thank you, screw you, or anything!! 
So, my finance and I had a nice little talk and I now no longer do cakes for his family unless they can give me some decent time and order something that I provide!!
Anyway, - Don't shoot me, please- I only charge $1.00 a servings on birthday, anniversary cakes and on wedding cakes I only get $1.25-$1.50. 
I know that I can't rasie my proces all at once, but I would like to bring regular cakes up to $1.50 and wedding cakes up to $2.00. I know that this is stil cheap, but I think that may be enough to raise them right. Also,I do my cakes per serving based on Earlene's. I feel like her size charts are very generous, should I be going by another one?
There's a few ways to look at this.. you are working hard and should get PAID for it, and if you set your prices to dirt cheap (and that's what they are) you make it that much harder for other decorators to charge the higher prices because "Well Sally Sells-Herself-Short down the road will do it for $1/serving why can't you?".
Your cakes are great! You are NOT Wal*Mart and your prices don't have to compete with them. You offer a custom product that is well thought out and nicely executed. I only started working with fondant this year.. do you think because of that I am not going to charge people for it?? No way!!! I offer options that not a lot of places around here will offer.. no one does 3-D carved cakes around here.. I offer scratch cakes and homemade fillings and the one on one attention that is lacking in many places around here. You need to stop focusing on the negatives.. you are new.. so what! You do a great job. If you keep giving away (or losing money on) your cakes you will grow to HATE decorating. Charge no less than $2.00 per serving and don't do tons of detail for that a border and writing and that's it. And use the wilton wedding chart to calculate your prices.. I wouldn't touch my oven for under $40.00. It's just not worth it.
We are our worst critics, so that always makes us judge our cakes and see all the bad things that we know happened and that only we see. I by no means am as great as some of the Cake Wonders here at CC, but I am one of the few (I think ) that actually has OK prices. I charge $3.50 for BC and $4.50 for fondant on celebration cakes (in other words-non wedding cakes) Then I charge $4.50 for BC and $5.00 for Fondant for wedding cakes and $8.00 for 3-d cakes. I might not have all the experience that some here have but I know that as time goes on I will and practice makes perfect. The other thing is that I offer what others around me don't and like indydebi mentioned "low supply + high demand = higher pricing". I use fondant and no one around here does, so I get a lot of those customers. But even if they did why would I sell my self short, I still put work, heart and soul into my cake. You need to have pride in your work and stand behind your work. The way I see it is, if I don't think that my work is good enough then why am I selling someone a cake. I feel that I have to look at my work with my judgemental eyes but they aren't going to look at it through my eyes. They are going to see what they don't know how to make themselves and they are going to be happy with the work that I do know how to do. I really hope it all makes sense. We price according to how proud and worthy we feel, and I think that is the hardest thing to do, is pat ourselves on the back for the work we do and find that our work is worth something more than the sugar, flour and eggs that we used, otherwise people wouldn't want nor pay for our cakes/talent.
My two cents on the pricing issue.
Vicky
There's a few ways to look at this.. you are working hard and should get PAID for it, and if you set your prices to dirt cheap (and that's what they are) you make it that much harder for other decorators to charge the higher prices because "Well Sally Sells-Herself-Short down the road will do it for $1/serving why can't you?".
jkalman is right. While we don't want to get into a conversation that can be construed as "price fixing", we do want to be sure our fellow cake decorators are not selling themselves short. As a homeowner, I have a responsibility to my neighbors to maintain my home so it gets a good resale value ... because any home that sells for under-market price, brings down the value of the other homes.
Any cake that sells for under-value brings down the value of other cakes.
However......
Don't be afraid of statements like this, either. It's harder work, but you CAN battle this.
I had a bride who was doing her comparison shopping and she had it down to me and another decorator. This bride had a design that is "engineering-challenging" so there were lots of phone calls and questions after the sampling.
Turns out this other decorator charges half (HALF!) of what I charge. My response to this bride? "Well, obviously she doesn't do this to make any money."
Who's making the cake for this bride? ME!! At twice the price as the other lady!
I made it clear to this bride, "If you are shopping for price, then you'll obviously get a better deal from her. YOu've tasted my cakes, you have my quote. I only ask that you let me know what you decide, either way."
WHen you are confident in what you offer, your confidence sells itself and your product....at the price it deserves to get.
So if you are sitting there wringing your hands and worrying "If I raise my prices, they wont' buy my cakes!" .... I here to tell you that you are WRONG!
Marketing. It's all in the marketing.
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