I know that most people do the $1/inch rule, but I'm very hesitant to do that in my small town. Not only is it a small town but it's a small town in Wisconsin, lol. People here usually tip around 10% at a restaurant, just an FYI.

The first prices are for RI cookies. Over three frosting colors, outlines, detailing etc...

A la carte
3" to 5" cookies
$3

By the dozen
$30

Cookie bouquet
9 cookies
$40

Party platter
4 dozen
Assorted designs by holiday, occasion or theme
$100

Buttercream frosted cookies - one frosting color with sugar sprinkles
3" to 5" cookies
$12/dozen

Different prices will apply for cookies under 2" and over 5".

Special request cookie prices will be determined on an individual basis.


This will be an in-home bakery in my mother's house and she is not charging me rent. I will cover my own utilities, equipment costs, loans, daycare etc....but even with that my overhead will be rather low. And I won't have any employees to start off. My mom has volunteered to help when needed. And yes, I know how incredibly lucky I am and count my blessings every day, lol.

I am thinking the bouquet price may be too low and also the platter price. I do want to give price breaks for the more cookies people order since it's easier for me to make 4 dozen cookies than it is to make 7 individual cookies. Yes it takes more time but I hate mixing up tiny batches of one color frosting.

Oh, and I also want to keep the prices in round numbers. No $12.99 or $49.99. I don't like that.

TIA for any advice!!

Heidi.

Heidi -

I took a look at your pictures before commenting and they're just wonderful!! It looks like you've just recently starting posting pics from what I can see so I'm assuming you may be somewhat new to this. Having said that though, I think your piping skills are really, really good and will only get more refined within a short amount of time. Pretty soon you'll be doing so many cookies and feel so confident with your skills that you'll "just know" where you're charging too little. Your bouquet price may be a bit low. Mine start at $40 for 7 cookies and $2.75 for each additional cookie added. If you want to start out at that price that's fine, but I think I'd raise it after 6 months or so. Bouquets are a lot of work!!

The biggest discrepancy I see is your platter price. It'll feel great to get orders of that size but once you actually do that many a time or two you'll know you should be charging more. I give a 10% discount on orders over 200 and that's it. No other incentives at all and people still pay. Heidi, you're cookies are really nice! I seriously would not give that much discount.

I wish you all the best with your business!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thank you so much for replying and giving so much advice!

I do know where I need to improve, my writing is HORRIBLE, and I will have the summer to practice before October 1st, my opening day. Thank you for the compliments too. It's hard for me to take them because I see all of the flaws, but it's still nice to hear.

I think I will change the party platter price. The only reason I even added that, was I talked to a friend of a friend who wants me to do a platter for her to set out at her wedding reception. She didn't want individually wrapped cookies or anything fancy, just cookies that looked nice that were her wedding colors, like simple flowers for example. So I really liked the idea of doing a larger platter at a somewhat reduced price. I think I reduced it too much though, lol. I will have to figure out a different price for maybe a different amount. There is a large Reynold's take out platter from Sam's Club that I have in mind. Or maybe I'll just say something like you mentioned about a discount for over "x" amount of cookies.

This is my least favorite part of making cookies, charging people.

Thanks again for all of the advice, I really really appreciate it!

it's me again...lol...I looked at your pics again specifically to see your writing and it's not horrible at all!!! You're very hard on yourself!! Don't worry so much about making your lettering so even like it came out of a typewriter. Go into my photos and look at the first page, fourth row down all the way on the right at my "birthday cookies" and you'll see that I try purposely to make my letters different sizes for sort of a whimsical look. Adding curls to your letters somehow "forgives" a lot of letter imperfection in my opinion! Especially in the spacing. I do it all the time! When I first started out I'd fill a piping bag with icing and "write all over a plate for practice. You'll be fine!!!

hello Heidicrumb, I'm a newbie and want to know how to view your cookies ? brendabaker

Your cookies are so-o-o nice, and I agree with bakinccc...your lettering is NOT horrible! Go with your gut for your pricing. It won't be etched in stone, so you can change it if you need to. I totally understand the dilemma about pricing (says the woman who has never sold a cookie!).

brendabaker, just click on the button at the bottom of Heidi's (or anyone's) post that says "photos" and it will bring up their album.

Heidi - I am SO excited for you! It sounds like Bakincc has given all sorts of advice regarding pricing, but I wanted to add something about handwriting. First of all, you are being to hard on yourself.

Piping lettering comes naturally for some people. I am not one of them. If it helps, here is what I do. Like Bakinccc, I practice first. To start with, I find a fun font on the computer (I often do for whimsical myself) and print it out the size you like. Make any adjustments you feel you might need (extra curlie-q's, thicker lines, etc.) Put wax paper over the top, taping down if needed and pipe over it to get the 'feel' for the letters. Once you have practiced a few times, pull the paper out of the bottom and try it on the wax paper while glancing at the printed letters. I find then really helps me and then I am ready to do it on the cookie. It just really helps me to have a font to start with, vice just piping whatever comes to mind when I am doing it. But, hey, some can do that!

If you have writing that needs to be really, really precise, you can print out your text, trace it with edible marker onto wax paper, let dry, lay it on top of the dry cookie and use a fine tip turkey skewer (yes, a turkey skewer or even a seam ripper) to trace the lettering. This will leave a fine line to follow when piping. It obviously will rip through after a while and you may need to make another wax paper template, but when I really need to be precise, I find it to be worth it. This really helped me on my Chamber of Commerce cookies as I really needed to be exact.

Again, congrats to you on this big step! I am thrilled for you!!

I am learning SO much from these Cookie Forum threads.,Thanks for the tip about handwriting, and about pricing. Not that I am ready to sell anything yet but in the future I might be.

I will be trying my hand at some decorated cookies this weekend. I can't wait! Come on 5 o'clock! I'll be sure to post what I've done. You ladies take the fear out of figuring out how to do this.