Some of you may remember my previous post about my mom volunteering me to do all sorts of cakes I didn't even know if I could handle. Luckily (maybe?) none of them have panned out.
Now she told another lady that she works with that I would probably bake some cookies for her. She asked me what I would charge per dozen, and I said I had no idea....maybe $15. She said that was too expensive, and she had already suggested $50 for 5 dozen treats (including nanimo bars!). She told the lady that she wasn't entirely sure of the price, but she thought that would be close. I guess it depends on what type of cookie, too. I was assuming decorated cookies, like gingerbread.
Anyways, now I get an email from her saying that I can't include the cost of ALL the ingredients in my price because a batch of cookies makes more than a dozen, and this lady will want only a dozen of each type of cookie but she doesn't know what type of cookie.
Help! I don't even know how to reply to this. And if I did do the cookies, wouldn't I be losing money if I made 4 different batches of cookies and only sold her a dozen of each? And a pan of nanimo bars? I am pretty well done my baking, so I have no use for extra cookies.
Why don't you reply with an email to her telling her "If she is going to help you with sales, that is fine, but she needs to understand that the final price for such sales will have to come from you not her, or you will not reconized the order".
Tell her you have a minimum order for one type of cookie and give her a number pretty close to how many a batch makes. If you have recipes that can be EASILY halved that might help too.
I don't know what kind of bar you're talking about but if it's an expensive item to make charge her for a pan worth.
Tell you're mom you're not a bakery that can just put out the leftovers from an order out and hope they sell so you can't take a loss on ingredients.
If you were a walk-in bakery and were making batches of 10's to 100's of cookies at a time, then buying a dozen of this and a dozen of that would be ok. But if you are a custom-order only (like me), then there is a minimum buying requirement. Leftover cookie dough has no value to you unless you have another order waiting in the wings. No reason you should eat that cost.
Minimum buying requirements for custom orders. It's not unusual or unreasonable.
And tell your mother that unless she is investing the time and money into all of this work, she is not authorized to give out any kind of pricing! The answer to "But your mother told me......" is "My mother has no idea what my costs/prices are and I'm sorry she gave you a price out of thin air without checking with me first." (I had a mother like that ..... you really have to take a hard stand on it or it will go on forever. Trust me.)
I know how touchy situations with mothers can be... maybe you could suggest to her how much you appreciate her bringing you business, but it is very hard for you to quote prices without knowing all the details, so could she please give the lady your number so you can talk to her directly. Stick to your guns, don't let your mom talk you into shortchanging yourself!
I have no idea what Nanimo Bars are.... But my advice would be to gently tell your mother that she is costing you more money then earning you. Making 4 batches of cookies to sell 4 dozen is losing money espeically when you don't have any other orders to fill with those extra cookies. Now if Momma was going to buy the rest of them I'd say ok but she isn't willing to do that is she? I say you ask to be put into contact with the actual purchaser here and talk with them and explain to them you can't do 4 different dozen cookies, it has to be entire batches or none at all since it's so late in the season and all your holiday baking and orders are fulfilled you will have tons of left over cookies and nothing to do with them. Although I hear cookie dough freezes well. 
I would also explain to your mother that although you appreciate all of her help and referrals, customers and orders she's gotten you, you would rather her just put the people into contact with you instead of giving them a quoted price that she THINKS would be correct. Because once they hear that price they don't want to hear another one. I'm sure she won't be too upset or too hurt to hear this because all you're really saying is "Please have them contact me for the price quote instead of giving them one because the cost may be more then you realize" HTH
How about asking your mom to give them your phone number so you can talk directly to the customer. Ask her to please not quote prices and refer the customer directly to you. I have a friend that used to do the same thing to me. I just nicely let her know that I appreciate all the business she gets me but I would rather talk directly with the customer, no inbetween. She understood and now she just tells them what a "great" cake decorator I am and gives them my phone number. (Hope this helps.)
Yikes!! Can you make half batches of the cookies?? I know what you mean...a whole batch will make way more than a dozen plus she wants 4 kinds!!! Making cookies takes a lot of time too...hmmm what can I tell you?? Make your mom ask you for a price before she offers next time Poor thing...she probably wants to help you but she's scared of what people will think when she tells them how much your cakes and cookies REALLY SHOULD cost. It's not just ingredients but time and your hard work!! If the lady really wants cookies from you than make some that are easy and cheap to make and unless your like the road runner decorating cookings then I wouldn't get into making a whole bunch of decorated ones...
or - - - - ha ha you could tell her I won't turn my oven on for 50$ JUST KIDDING....I would never tell someone that
I charge $20. for a pan of just those nanimo bars! (here is recipe for them) Your Mom sure gets you into some predicaments. You need to tell her that YOU will make the arrangements with the orders, that is not her place. (I KNOW that will be hard for you to do ~ but she has to stop doing that to you!)
Nanimo Bars
Crust:
1/2 cup butter or margarine (1 stick; see note)
1/2 cup granulated sugar
5 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa
1 egg, slightly beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups finely crushed graham crackers (about 30 squares)
1 cup finely chopped coconut
1/2 cup finely chopped nuts
Filling:
1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened (1 sick; see note)
3 tablespoons dry instant vanilla pudding mix
2 cups powdered sugar
Topping:
4 ounces semisweet chocolate
1 tablespoon butter or margarine
To make crust:
In top of a double boiler over simmering water, place ½ cup butter, sugar, cocoa and egg. Cook until butter melts and mixture begins to thicken. Remove from heat, stir in vanilla. In a bowl, mix together graham cracker crumbs, coconut and nuts. Add the cocoa mixture and mix. Press firmly into a greased 9-inch square pan. Refrigerate until firm, 1 to 2 hours.
To make filling:
In a medium bowl, combine ½ cup soft butter, vanilla pudding, powdered sugar and just enough milk to give it a spreadable consistency. Spread on top of the crust. Refrigerate about 1 hour.
To make topping:
Melt chocolate with 1 tablespoon butter. Spread over the chilled filling; refrigerate. Remove from refrigerator about 20 minutes before serving. Cut into small bars -- they are very rich.
Note:
Use real butter, not low fat spreads or margarine.
Thank you for the suggestions. I will email her right away at work and let her know that before I can even estimate a price, I will need to know what type of cookie she wants. Then I will ask for this lady's phone number or email address, and that way when she tells me what kind of cookie she wants, I can see if the recipe can be halved or not, and from there I can determine a minimum order.
I am sorry, I guess nanaimo bars are a Canadian thing! They are soooo good. Here is a link to what they look like and a recipe or two.
http://www.dougbelcher.com/nanaimo-real-estate/nanaimo-bar-recipe.htm
Quadcrew, we must have posted at the same time!
Your mom seems well.
If she wants to help, maybe you could give her a price list of some sort so she could better refer to it. Making sure that this price is just an idea price....put at the bottom that prices are subject to change w/o notice...also put on there min. order amounts, etc.
Make sure your email, etc. is on there so the customers can talk directly with you...which is what needs to be done anyway.
I have a mother that has always tried her hardest to help me in so many ways...a lot of times she makes big mistakes and sometimes sticks her foot in her mouth thinking she is doing good.....it's hard to be mean to someone, let alone your mother, even if she drives you crazy sometimes, lol.
Good Luck to you!
Quadcrew, we must have posted at the same time!
I think we did too!! 
I think some people (especially those of an older generation) do not like or think the prices for today are fair. They still think things should cost what they did in the 50's or 60's and unfortunately, that CAN'T be the case! I think giving Mom a price list would be a good thing too ~ and tell her NO discounts unless YOU approve it first.
meghanb:
Your posting remindes me of a situation my husband and his friend just had. My hubby does car detailing at a set price & his friend just got him 2 new clients and his own price. My husband said to him unless you are going to help me with the job, keep your pricing to yourself.
P.S.....my husband refused to do the job!!!!!!
I think this is what they call "between a rock and a hard spot".
I think the price list will probably be the best idea. Sit down with your mom and go over it - she might appreciate that and feel somewhat a part of it. You might want to emphasize that you would really like to tie up the details of the order with the person directly though.
My momma does the same thing - getting me orders. However, she never quotes a price; just tells EVERYBODY how beautiful they are. She's great!
I guess I'm alone in the fact that my mother doesn't help me at all lol. She would soon go to the store and buy a cake for a party rather then ask me to make one. I made a cake for her office for halloween, one of the guys thought it was from a store bakery because of the container it was in, she did stand up for me and say that I had made it not bought it and they all loved it but she doesn't refer any of them she doesn't drop my name or hint around or out and out tell them I'll do one.... she's kind of the opposite... she doesn't want to see my succeed in anything so that she can continually say "Since you aren't working" or remind me that I've failed at everything.... being a mother, being a wife, etc.... although my marriage and my daughter are happier and healthier then her marriage and her children... hmmmmm lmfao anyway I think it's nice everyone's mother helps out even if sometimes it brings in trouble like this.
Some of you may remember my previous post about my mom volunteering me to do all sorts of cakes I didn't even know if I could handle. Luckily (maybe?) none of them have panned out.
Now she told another lady that she works with that I would probably bake some cookies for her. She asked me what I would charge per dozen, and I said I had no idea....maybe $15. She said that was too expensive, and she had already suggested $50 for 5 dozen treats (including nanimo bars!). She told the lady that she wasn't entirely sure of the price, but she thought that would be close. I guess it depends on what type of cookie, too. I was assuming decorated cookies, like gingerbread.
Anyways, now I get an email from her saying that I can't include the cost of ALL the ingredients in my price because a batch of cookies makes more than a dozen, and this lady will want only a dozen of each type of cookie but she doesn't know what type of cookie.
Help! I don't even know how to reply to this. And if I did do the cookies, wouldn't I be losing money if I made 4 different batches of cookies and only sold her a dozen of each? And a pan of nanimo bars? I am pretty well done my baking, so I have no use for extra cookies.
I haven't read the whole thread through so I don't know if this is already addressed, but I wanted this to get to you straight.
It doesn't matter How many cookies someone buys from you...1 or 101...you price your cookie accordingly.
you take the cost of ALL the ingredients that you use....after you get that total..you divided it by the number of servings or cookies you get from a batch.
in other words..if your flour costs..X amount and is a 5 pound bag you divide X amount by 80 ounces ( since you're going to be using cups..and that translates as ounces)
Everything you break down to your ounces...
if you use 1 cup of flour...8 ounces you times that by the X amount you got..let's say for arguments sake that you got the price of 5 cents an ounce of flour...
5 cents mult. by 8 ounces ( a cup ) equals 40 cent's worth of flour your recipe cost
you do this with EVERY ingredient.
then you take the total and divide by the yield, portion or piece, and that total get's multiplied by an industry standard....3% ( to take into account the hidden costs...things you can't price like dash of this or that...)
( the NFSC that they post here someone said they can get about 50 business card sized cookie from 1 recipe)
so, let's say it COST YOU...39 cents to make EACH cookie and a penny to pack, label and seal your cookie
40 cents YOUR COST...you can then times that by your profit margin....2/2.5/3
these will be the figures...
.80 cents is mult by 2
1.00 mult by 2.5
1.20 mult by 3
so..you can take the price of the cookie and mult by 12...and you can work your "DEALS" from there...
80 cents x 12 ...$9.60 cents ( you go to your local bakery and see if a dozen chocolate chip cookies that you've price at 9.60 is comparable, if it is...you are in the ball park!)
lol
I should do a pricing tutorial..!! I love this...!!!!!
I agree with the majority...call the client directly and tell her YOUR price. As for your mother, how about just giving her your business card and tell her to just give them out, no prices please mom! I have grown children and try my best to stay out of their lives. It's not easy when they're constantly calling me with their problems so maybe tiptop57 has the right idea, maybe I should think of moving but I think they'll probably follow me! LOL
Good luck, remember your momma loves you and is just trying to help but it's YOUR business.
Jeez Meghanb......
If I have told ya once, I have told ya twice......ya gotta moooooooooove! At least two states away!
Heck, I only moved 1/2 a state away and it works! 75 miles is a great distance ..... those back home think it's too far for them to drive to my house, but somehow figure it's closer for me to drive to THEIR house!
I read the title of this thread and my first thought was ME TOO! ME TOO! I need help with my mother too! 
I feel for you, being in that situation. I found a wonderful book for people who only want a few cookies at a time. It's called Small Batch Baking by Debby Maugans Nakos. The recipes serve 2 - 4 people, so it makes between 3 and 8 cookies per recipe. I usually double the recipes so I have a half dozen or a dozen. It's been great to have this book and I heartily recommend it. I reviewed this book for our cake club here: http://www.sugarwonders.com/bookreviewsDNSBB.html so I won't bother retyping all the things I love about it. You could PM me if you wanted recipes for certain things, and I'll see if she has small-batch recipes of those types of cookie.
Deanna
You guys are so awesome. My mom replied and asked me if she could find a few more people if I would consider doing it for $50 for 4 dozen cookies and 1 dozen naniamo bars, so I said yes. I know she means well, and heck, if she can find 3 people who want that....$150 would be very useful right now! Less the ingredients, of course....
Tiptop.....I wish I could move! Too bad my hubby loves his job so much.
I can't imagine how some of you have dealt with this for so long...I have only been decorating since April, and I am already tired of her "suggestions"....we've even talked about it. Maybe it's time to remind her!
Just as I was actually looking forward to doing some more baking.Quote by @%username% on %date%
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