Hey Everyone,
I have a dilemma. I brought in a fondant covered cake to school for my teacher. She of course shared it with her colleagues and one of them asked me to email her some of my cake pictures.
I was super excited and said yes. The problem is that I live in a small town and she kind of expects my cakes to be walmart prices.. maybe $30 at the most. She also liked the fondant and that's 10 bucks already ... 
I guess she expects them to be kinda cheap cause of my age. I want her business but don't wan't to be paying for half the cake myself.
How would i explain that?
Help??? 
My standard line: "I'm NOT priced like walmart. If you're looking for a walmart cake price, then you have to buy what walmart sells. Sorry."
A co-worker of my husband called for a special cake recently. When I asked how much she wanted to spend ... and when she hesitated .... I jumped in with "I'm NOT priced like walmart .... the smallest, simplest cake I do is $50, and what you're wanting is not small or simple."
It took her 3 days to decide, but I'm making this cake for her.
(Psst! You all just wait until next month when I post the picture of this TOTALLY FONDANT COVERED cake that I'm doing! Yeah! No Kidding! I really am! 
)
Don't let her discourage you at all. Charge your prices, and so what if she squirms a little. She knows how delicious and beautiful your cakes are, she will either pay or she can go to walmart. 
INDYDEBI, OMG!!! You are really going to do a fondant covered cake???? I truly can't wait to see it!!! I'm sure it will be wonderful, (as if it could be anything but) I'll be watching!!!
INDYDEBI, OMG!!! You are really going to do a fondant covered cake???? I truly can't wait to see it!!! I'm sure it will be wonderful, (as if it could be anything but) I'll be watching!!!
I took a babystep this weekend ... did one tier (styro) in fondant. It's the blue skirted cake in my photos.
INDYDEBI, OMG!!! You are really going to do a fondant covered cake???? I truly can't wait to see it!!! I'm sure it will be wonderful, (as if it could be anything but) I'll be watching!!! I took a babystep this weekend ... did one tier (styro) in fondant. It's the blue skirted cake in my photos.
Debi, that is TOTALLY BEAUTIFUL!!!! that color blue is eye popping, was it hard to get that shade???? WOW!!!! I'm gonna have to save to my favs. I just love it!!!
Leahs, this is the cake I told you about that I bartered for a van. It was going to be "cake + $450", then they said "Cake + $250" but after the wedding, the folks with the van told me they'd call it just an even trade. I said, "The cake wasn't worth that much." He said, "First ... yes it was. Second ... neither is the van!"
The couple got married on "less than a shoestring" so a lot of folks were pitching in to help them. I heard later the bride told the groom, "Never in my life would I ever have imagined I could have afforded a cake like that." Of all the horror stories we hear about folks who dont' appreciate all we do .. this couple was AWESOMELY appreciative!
It was really fun watching people line up to take a pic of the cake! It sure helped my ego and confidence on my first fondant thingy!
So my 16 year old is really looking forward to her first car being a cargo van! .....NOT!!!...... I told her "Gosh, honey, you'll be the only one in school with one!" Uh .... that didn't make her feel better!" 
Hi orianadalyyorkshire8656
I started making cakes about a year ago. At first, I didnât mind selling my cake for a low price, because I needed to gain the experience (I never baked anything before that didnât turn out like a rock). But, as my talent grew so did the quality of my cake decorations, and unfortunately, my friend become very comfortable with the steep discounts I gave them. Even when my cakes became more involved, they still expected to pay ¼ of what they were worth. Iâve since stop making cakes for a while (I explained to them that Iâm redoing my house and need to direct all my attention there), but when I start making them again, it will only be for people I donât know. Luckily, when I do start again, I have a couple party planner contacts waiting for me to do their cakes.
So, think very carefully before you start discounting your cake creations, because you put your heart and soul in them and should get what you believe they are worth.
Good luck.
that color blue is eye popping, was it hard to get that shade????
I used Choco-Pan (which is made here in Indpls) and I bought the already colored blue one ... which by the way, around here is called "Colts Blue"!
Thanks Debi! Yup looks like Colt blue to me!! I'll have to check into them. Coloring fondant is a royal pain in my "tookus" !!! It still looks wonderful.
I wish I had a comeback like you did for your 16 yr old. My parents made me drive around in an Opel station wagon, green with the fake wood grain down the sides, and a nasty roof rack. I would take a cargo van over that wagon any day!!!!! ha,ha,ha
OMG Debi.. you are doing a FONDANT CAKE?????????????
Ooooooooooh..... I'm tellin!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 
For the OP.. I would simply state your pricing in the beginning so there are no misunderstandings. Like Debi said.. we are not providing walmart cakes so they don't get walmart prices.
::thud::
Indy - is that really you?
I'm with Leahs here!!!!
LOL... we all had our high school beater car that now makes us appreciate our vehicles we're driving around... I had a Oldsmobile Cutlas Sierra Diesel! A TEACHER nicknamed it the "Mosquito Fogger" because anytime I had to fire the thing up the doors and windows to the school needed to be closed otherwise the smoke from having to rev the P out of out would fog the place out... (it had a starter issue, so to start it, I had to pop the hood, put a hive tool between two bolts, scramble to get back into the car, crank it over, rev the p out of it, and after about a minute of doing that I could go close the hood because it would stay running.. Heck, I was ready to get a job to purchase a $5000 (A LOT of money back then) Geo Metro so I could have something that would just simply WORK...
Getting back to the OP... Whether you like the teacher or not, you've still got production costs. This is why the prices of goods go up and when you have the buying power of a huge corporation you'll have earned the privelege of getting quantity discounts... It's the economics lessons they aren't teaching you in school and a good one to know that businesses aren't in business to gouge, they're there to survive. If you lose 50% of your input at each sale you can't survive. You need to charge what you need to to pay your bills even if it does mean turning away orders because by not spending that other 50% you're money ahead. Your college fund is going down by selling cakes to this teacher instead of up.
Small town or not, in many a post here we've got the line "I am NOT WALMART, I am not a multi-billion dollar company that found a great niche, I'm a baker and I deserve to be paid for my time, talent, and materials at a rate which compensates me properly. There is nothing wrong with being a profitable business (as long as everything is legal of course)."...
Raise your rates so you can afford to be doing these works of art. If she wants a Walmart cake, she can go there, or she can pay you $30 for your time and she can purchase the materials for you to combine...
Quote by @%username% on %date%
%body%