Okay guys, I'm really getting frustrated!! I've only been doing this for about 5 or 6 months and I know you're not going to get business overnight, but when does this thing start picking up?? I've had 3 cake orders cancelled in the past week!! One was cancelled because they didn't want to pay a lot for a sculpted cake, another was cancelled because her husband didn't want her to spend $50.00 on two cakes (one was a carrot cake and the other was pineapple-coconut). Then I just called a lady who I was going to do a wedding cake for (I was going to charge her $150.00 for a stacked/3 tiered cake) and my first wedding cake, she said she found someone cheaper!!!!!

So, my question is how long did it take you guys to get your business going and how hard was it to get your clientele!!! Also, how long did it take to get a consistent work flow????

This time of year is either feast or famine for decorators. For me it is famine. I have not had any orders in two months. So now it is time for practicing new techniques and read up on new toys out there. So have faith it will get better.

Thanks for your reply Debi!!!


I'm BUMPing this thread because I would like to know how long did it take my fellow CC'ers to get their business going.

You sound like you are going through the same thing as I did. No matter how low my prices were or how great the cakes were all my orders kept getting cancelled and I got so sad I gave up the idea of trying to sell my cakes.

Now I just play and give my cakes away. It just wasn't worth getting streessed over.

If somone wants to pay me for a cake down the line then great. But if not, I'm not counting on it.

I'm not sure that this will help, and I don't have a cake business, but I do have a business that is based on clients and based on expendable income, my business is a little "harder sell" then cake/food items, but I find sound business in one specialty is sound business in another.

Starting my business someone told me to figure about 3 years to get the ball rolling....I thought she was crazy, I've found she was right. There are a few things I have learned, and they may help you: 1. Just because you want the item/product doesn't mean it is something everyone else desires; 2. Sometimes the area you are in can't support the business, look around and see what kind of homes and jobs are in your general area; 3. Do creative advertising, grocery stores have bulletin boards, take a cake to the PTA meeting, or sell cupcakes and hand out fliers at the basketball and little league games; 4. Don't get too discouraged too early, it may be VERY hard to "keep the faith" and even harder to stay off the emotional roller coaster, be realistic and creative, but don't give up too early, and set a date (realistically) that "I want to have the business pay for itself (not necessarily pay you) by X date," "I want it to pay me by X date," that gives you a clear goal and set time when to throw in the towel.

The hardest thing listed above for me has been the emotional roller coaster. I get someone who calls asking about one of my services, I get all excited and think, here we go, a consistent paying client, and then things might fall through, or someone wants the service but the price isn't right, or they found someone cheaper, or they end up coming to us for our service and I'm pumped! There are so many competitors out there, regardless of your service, and it is really hard to start a business, so think calmly, don't take it personal and remember there are many people out there who eat cake, your biggest battle (in my mind) is that most women can bake a cake, so your point should be that your cakes are special. And don't set your price too low. I have found that people who have money don't want to mess with bargains and cheap prices, etc. They want no hassles, no schemes, no bother. (At least that is how it is in my industry, I have heard some say the rich are the cheapest, but I haven't ran into that yet).

Thanks for your post, HorseLady!!! I'm trying not to discouraged, but I'm finding out that a lot of people are not like me, I will pay a lot of money for a cake; I've always been like that!!! I've always gone to bakeries to get my kids cakes!!

I'm not legal yet, but in my state, starting January 27, they are allowing home bakers to become legal, so that's a good thing!!!

One of our local churches (very large church, 15,000 members) is doing a wedding expo in February, I'm going to try to get a booth there, hope that helps out a little bit!!!

Have you ever heard the saying "you get what you pay for"? Don't keep going down on your prices...set your prices to what you think is reasonable and stick with them!! It will take a while if you are relying on word of mouth, but it WILL happen. I looked at your pics and they look great! Don't sell yourself short and get a freakin' deposit when you take the order so they won't want to lose it by cancelling!

"Good cakes aren't necessarily cheap....cheap cakes aren't necessarily good" aobodessa's quote and one we all should bake by!!!

I agree with SCC, don't sell yourself short. It takes a long time & patience. Go for the wedding expo, that sounds a really great way to get known especially if you can have some small pieces of cake & a few frostings/fillings for people to try. Keep us posted on how you get on & the VERY best of luck to you.
June

You certainly should get a deposit and let them know if they cancel they will not be refunded the deposit and it will at least cover your initial time with the customer and if you have to turn down other business to do their order.

You work out of your home? Not to be ugly but sometimes people would rather buy from a shop.

I have people order and then cancel all month long. Some genuinely can't afford the cakes.

But your cakes are on the designer side and should be expensive, you could offer a cheaper line. I agree with sweetconf.chef you should not lower your prices. Just to test it out, I tried a cheaper line and very few customers order from the cheap cakes but it is an option for them.
mpc

i gues i have been lucky, in that my local bakery referrs people to me (as they don't do custom cakes).. so since this happened things have really taken off for me..

before the bakery thing, i just made up fliers and a couple of shops in town allowed me to put them up in the window.

most of my customers come from the bakery referrals now...

kylie

I found that it's just a snowball effect. You're sitting around and sitting around thinking "What the heck was I thinking?????" when suddenly you find your calendar is filling up fast and you are having to turn down clients because you're booked! So many factors ..... do you advertise or is it just word of mouth? What is your market like? I am from a small town of about 35,000 and moved to Indpls which is something like 1.5 million. Wow! What a different market!!!! It makes a big difference!

As I've seen it said on this site a number of times: "If you bake it, they will come!"

Hang in there!

I have a very small business I just opened (no store front--I use my church's kitchen) and I'm soooo glad I don't have a store front because I'd be out of business within 2 months! I only want to do stuff here and there right now because of how busy I am with school and family but YIKES some calls would be nice. I've had 3 oders in about 3 months. I just set up an order for January but it's a lady who forgot to pick up her own birthday cake (so I don't count her as an order) I really didn't want to take this order from her but decided I'd give her one more chance and after that NO more. I'm not swimming in orders by any means. ( In fact I've had a marathon of baking for the last 2 weeks for my DH to give items to his clients but I can't charge him since it comes out of the same pocket book. But that's another story)

Once word of mouth gets out you'll be booming soon after. Just look at all of these people here on CC with struggling and booming businesses. A lot of it depends on your area that you are in too.

I'm the same way. I started out thinking I was going out of business soon. I got next to no orders for so long I considered throwing in the towel. Then I got orders and cancellations. It was unnerving!

After a while, though, things started to rev up. I've been so busy for the last 2 months I don't know how to handle it! It's too early to quit my day job, but it will come to that.

I say advertise on the internet. It's gotten me a lot of interest.

Hang in there and keep the faith. I'm sure things will pick up. Your cakes are gorgeous and people will wake up, trust me!!

i got my business started out of my home by finding a local business owner that all the right people shopped at. I made goodies for free for her holiday open house and she let me hand out business cards and fliers and intorduce myself to them and my phone had never stopped ringing. In less than a year we had outgrown our at home business and now have a storefront downtown. We are only a town of 5000 people but our bakery pulls customers from a 60 mile radius and sometimes farther. Find that right person to pair with for a promo. My thought has always been once they try my product they WILL come back. Good luck!! and I hope that helps.

This information is very interesting. Thank all of you for your posts.

Theresa

I'm just getting started and am not sure how often I want to have orders. I'm thinking maybe two a month. I'm a SAHM with 3 kids 4 and under I want to help support this hobby, but not take too much time away from my hubby and kids. I made some truffles for a friends birthday (from the gym) and picked up maybe 10 orders from that in the course of 2 months. My mom is a beautician and I made some treats for her, and she bought some from me for CHristmas. I've picked up three more orders already (including a bridal shower- favors and cake!!!) There's a possibility of wedding favors too! I'm in a moms club and we're having a baby shower/ family day next Saturday and I volunteered to make the cake. Look for opportunities to get people to try your baked goods. My Godmother also tried some of my truffles for Christmas and her husband offered to tell everyone at his job (500 employees)!

I never even thought about selling cake. I took cake to work (still have full time job) to be nice and have been selling every since. I was offered $20 for a poundcake by the man that sits next to me and it snowballed from there.
It gets to the point sometimes that I have to turn down orders. Then they wanted decorated cakes so I took the Wilton courses. I am very glad I had no orders this week because I was whipped after Christmas.
When I am on vacation or have a few days off I try new recipes and take it to work for tasting. I also take samples to my dentist's office and have got orders from her and her staff. I give my DH samples to take to work also and have a few steady customers from his work.

your cakes are great!

when i opened i took a week and just went to all the schools with a price list and a half sheet decorated in the school colors...i just took it into the teachers lunchroom...FREE CAKE!

teachers really know how to get the word out!...it started picking up pretty fast.

i took an ad out on the radio...that didn't seem to help as much as my teachers so i dropped it.

When I first opened, I did everything from brownies, cookies, pastries, a sack lunch program for companies in the area, cakes, full meals, and the list goes on. I wanted to get my name out there. I also do catering. It took probably about a year to get a good repeat clientele, and some of these people I have had for years. I guess it depends on how much you want to do, this was my livelyhood, so I had to get on the bandwagon and create a need for my area. I still do whatever a customer wants, I am probably one of the few in my area that will do what people want. Your reputation is critical, so preserve it well. Good Luck.

I am so glad that this topic is being discussed because I am sort of in the same situation. I am trying hard to get the word out that my friend and I are getting into the baking business and we've had several orders per month, but no constant flow of orders. There is a small store across the street from me that wants to get some of the cakes and sell them, but we need to get into labeling and getting legal and all that formal jazz, so it's just a matter of time before things begin to grow...Keep your head up, stay focused and always have fun, the clients will come.

Hey, if someone has any info about getting labeling for cakes(in Michigan), please let me know.

This is a really interesting thread! I liked reading all your different stories.

Just wanted to add that sometimes all it takes is just ONE person to get the ball rolling! For me, a friend recommended me to do a baby shower cake for one of the teacher's at my son's school. Then, one of the mom's at the shower saw my cake and gave one of my photo cards to her friend. Since then her friend has ordered 5 cakes, 6 christmas cookie towers, and 6 boxes full of cookies. The same woman who ordered these cakes also recommended me to a director at a hospital, who ordered a sculpted baby cake for a shower at their office. So I got the chance to show my cake to a whole new audience! It's not really a lot of orders....but all the cakes were scuplted or other complex designs. I usually tell people right up front that I'm expensive and that anything sculpted will be at least $100 and that only barely covers the time it takes me to make these cakes. I live in a smaller town, but people have $$$.

That is so true!! I recently delivered the cookie boxes to the husband of the woman who ordered all the cakes. I went to show him the bill, where I had broken down the cost of the cookie towers and cookie boxes and he didn't even want to see it. He just had his checkbook out and was like "What's the balance??" LOL!

Courtney

mypastrychef: The Knot costs me $85 a month. Respond.com is $14.95 for the ad plus $4 per inquiry that I respond to. I have it set up with a $50 limit. When I am close to that limit, I am notified so I can either decide I'm done for the month (budget) or if I want to replenish the account ahead of schedule. I choose which inquiries I respond to. Between the 2, I probably spend anywhere between $150 to $225 a month in advertising.

But in my case it is WELL WORTH IT. Both ads have more than paid for itself many times over.

I prefer these 2 methods of advertising because it is focused advertising. I want to connect with brides and these 2 sites are where brides are found.

aundron, I was looking at your cake pictures and I was wondering how long did it take you to learn how to do those cakes? Did you take a wilton class? Or you always knew how to bake? B/c I don't know how to bake, not right now anyway, and I am so excited about getting into this cake business.