Helpful Advice For Pricing And New Business Owners:

Business By cakeschmake Updated 14 Oct 2009 , 4:14am by littlecake

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cakeschmake Posted 13 Oct 2009 , 2:01am
post #1 of 15

My sister is a photographer who is about to open her own studio. I have been sharing with her some of the great advice I learned here on CC.

She sent me an link from photographer Jodie Otte who gives some great advice about pricing your work and making money as a business. I thought a lot of this can apply to cake businesses as well;

I hope you'll check it out!

http://mcpactions.com/blog/2009/10/12/how-should-i-price-my-photography-words-of-advice-from-jodie-otte/

14 replies
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Motta Posted 13 Oct 2009 , 3:47am
post #2 of 15

Oooh, I loved this article. Thank you for posting it! Great advice.

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LaBellaFlor Posted 13 Oct 2009 , 4:48am
post #3 of 15

Ooo, what I great article. I hope everyone reads it. Thanks for sharing.

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jenmat Posted 13 Oct 2009 , 4:50am
post #4 of 15

really good advice- if not a little depressing! I think I needed to read that!

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Shawnswife Posted 13 Oct 2009 , 7:46am
post #5 of 15

Great article! icon_smile.gif I love how she broke everything down in numbers! Money talks, and she proved this perfectly! And I really love, "Remember, IF WE DONT VALUE THIS INDUSTRY, NO ONE WILL."!! Sooooo true! icon_biggrin.gif

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cakesweetiecake Posted 13 Oct 2009 , 2:38pm
post #6 of 15

Thank you so much for sharing this!

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online_annie Posted 13 Oct 2009 , 3:03pm
post #7 of 15

I do hope everyone takes a moment to fully read the article. Thanks so much for sharing!

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ccr03 Posted 13 Oct 2009 , 3:09pm
post #8 of 15

Love it, love it, love it!

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cakeschmake Posted 13 Oct 2009 , 5:55pm
post #9 of 15

I'm glad you all think it's a good article. It may be a little long, but worth the read.

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dandelion56602 Posted 13 Oct 2009 , 7:43pm
post #10 of 15

Did it make anyone else feel like they should throw in the towel before starting? I'm curious how much cakers spend on equipment every year. I'd better be along the lines of Cakegirls or Carlos Bakery before I spend that chunk of change. And when it's put on paper it really makes you HATE taxes---my dh & FIL experienced taxes first hand when they sold their business this year, govt got 40% (YES almost 1/2). I would like to know if anyone does have numbers like this for caking/baking. I don't think I'll be asking the local bakery, since there is only 1!

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ccr03 Posted 13 Oct 2009 , 8:06pm
post #11 of 15

On the contrary dandelion56602 - it wants to make be strive to be better! And actually, you might be on to something. It could weed out the people not cut out for this business. More business for me. icon_wink.gif

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dandelion56602 Posted 13 Oct 2009 , 9:14pm
post #12 of 15

Not that I don't want to, but to think having to make $100,000 to take home $50,000 is soooo overwhelming. I'm only one person & to think about that much in sales per week for one person is something I can't comprehend at this point. maybe when I sit down w/ dh (he's the business minded) it'll all come together.

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indydebi Posted 14 Oct 2009 , 12:51am
post #13 of 15

dandelion, hate to throw a dart in the bubble of reality, but any business that has gross sales of $100,000 and clears $50,000 is doing REALLY SUPER GOOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Get me in that business TODAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'll easily gross over $100,000 in gross sales and will clear no where NEAR $50K! (Heck, I pay close to $25K just in RENT!)

I said this in another thread, but in this industry, you cannot decide to open a "little" business and expect to have smaller start up costs. To be a wedding planner, you need to invest in a fax machine, a phone and a filing cabinet. We have these silly little health dept rules we have to follow and those are expensive!

The commercial convection oven costs the same money no matter if you bake one cake a week or 100 cakes a week. The 3 compartment sink costs the same no matter if you wash one pan or wash one pan 147 times during the week. The light bill is the same every month whether you have orders or not. Rent is the same whether you bake one cake or 100 cakes.

this article is a great reminder that "liking to makes cakes" is at the bottom of the list of "Reasons To Start A Baking Business" If you (the generic you) just like to make cakes and if you think 4 or 5 cakes a week is big volume, then you're just not ready to take the plunge.

If you think grossing $100K to make $50K is overwhelming, then you'd have a heart attack over the reality of this biz. thumbs_up.gif

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cakeandpartygirl Posted 14 Oct 2009 , 1:22am
post #14 of 15

This is a really informative article definitely makes me reevaluate my goals and visions.

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littlecake Posted 14 Oct 2009 , 4:14am
post #15 of 15

the first 9 months we were open, we sold over 90K.....by the time we paid the bills, (i had a partner then) we each made 13.5K.

great article tho

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