I was just wondering why some folks don't have their web addresses listed (indy does, tonedna does, etc.) there are some here that I would like to see their sites, but there are none listed.
Snarkybaker - is your business the one in Chapel Hill NC? I (for some reason) thought Sugarland was a bakery in TX.
Amia, not defending Snarks directly (or I guess I am) but people usually don't post good reviews. The ones that take the time (most of the time) are the ones that either had a bad experience, are just grumpy-pants, or can never be satisfied.
I do try to always either email, leave an online review &/or call the manager when I get great service. So I would take those reviews with a huge grain of salt.
Try a salt lick, try a truck full of salt licks.
If there is more than 10 bad reviews you should wonder about the quality of the bakery...and it's I'm-better-than-everyone owner. If she can't take the heat, then she shouldn't be in the biz...isn't that what all the "greats" on here tell the newbs.
K8 - take the advice you gave me awhile back...stfu. Go ahead and post whatever you like. You're so ass backwards you mostly end up arguing with yourself anyway.
I hope you all didn't take it as I don't think you have a business! No no, I just know I would love to see the sites for some of the folks here that DO! (I spend wayy too much time looking at cake pics!) Thanks for your link though - I will check it out. 
I KNOW I am not in the same league as most of the folks that post in the business section, and I do try to learn something from what is posted here. There are some folks that post a lot about their business, but there is nothing to see, no pics posted, no links to their sites, etc. - I like to look at the work that person has done, does that make sense??
Amia, yes that's true also (sometimes). But one thing that most people said was that the place looks great, so how about some pics of the inside of the shop, Snarky? And I LOOOOVE beignets and gelato!! so is a good thing I'm nowhere near you, since I'm trying to lose weight and have no self-control. LOL
Amia, BTW: I LOVE your avatar- that elephant with the knife just cracks me up. Especially 'cause my DH says I'm just like an elephant that never forgets. I'll have to show him this. LOL
There are some folks that post a lot about their business, but there is nothing to see, no pics posted, no links to their sites, etc. - I like to look at the work that person has done, does that make sense??
I've seen some folks comment that they don't post any indication of their business on here because they come here to vent and ..... as we know ..... since this is a public internet forum, that anyone can have access, they don't want any of their customers to possibly see their comments. It's like their stress-release-place .. a quiet private club where they come to safely vent some steam! 
So some choose to not post pics or websites as a business decision.
I hope you all didn't take it as I don't think you have a business! No no, I just know I would love to see the sites for some of the folks here that DO! (I spend wayy too much time looking at cake pics!) Thanks for your link though - I will check it out.
I KNOW I am not in the same league as most of the folks that post in the business section, and I do try to learn something from what is posted here. There are some folks that post a lot about their business, but there is nothing to see, no pics posted, no links to their sites, etc. - I like to look at the work that person has done, does that make sense??
Oh no, the little "I don't just play one on tv" bit was just for fun.
It's pure back stabbing to post a list of somebody else's sh*tty reviews.
The op wants to know if there's bashing going on--yes check Amia's post.
Wow--what is Amia's possible motivation to be so weak, dirty, self righteous and judgmental. Wow.
I'm sure those opinions are no surprise to Snarks but the chutzpah to post them -- don't wanna be around when this karma boomerang you've thrown returns.
There are some folks that post a lot about their business, but there is nothing to see, no pics posted, no links to their sites, etc. - I like to look at the work that person has done, does that make sense??
I've seen some folks comment that they don't post any indication of their business on here because they come here to vent and ..... as we know ..... since this is a public internet forum, that anyone can have access, they don't want any of their customers to possibly see their comments. It's like their stress-release-place .. a quiet private club where they come to safely vent some steam!
So some choose to not post pics or websites as a business decision.
This is very true. And it never dawned on me that for some who want to stay anonymous, there was a possiblity of things that they wrote, being printed off this site & shown to potential clients in their business community. That NEVER crossed my mind as I do see this as a haven.
Bella, there was even a very nice little chickie (2 maybe, my memory is foggy) that specifically said they were going straight to the review site to "talk some sh*&" after getting a not so puppies and kitties reply to her question in here from a member. 
I think I have always viewed it as EVERYONE can see it, so it can't be private!
And I agree with you on this. But I think it takes things to another level, beyond being a public site, to print off what someone says and show it in a business setting. That's a little more then marketing IMO. There's a baker here who's cakes I don't care for. If a client asks, I say"Great decorator, their cakes are not my personal taste, but lots of people like them", but I wouldn't print off negative reviews of theirs and show them to the client.
edited
Bella, there was even a very nice little chickie (2 maybe, my memory is foggy) that specifically said they were going straight to the review site to "talk some sh*&" after getting a not so puppies and kitties reply to her question in here from a member.
This is very disheartening to think soemone could be so petty.
And by the way I am in no way saying Snarky took a competitor's post on here and showed them in the business community. What she did do made me think of the possiblities of that. There are people on here who live right in my community who sell cakes, be they do it legal or illegal. Makes me wonder about posting on this site.
Jamie, just a ?. I tried looking at your pics and they were removed. Did you do it on purpose or because you're getting published? I'm sorry if I sound idiotic, but I scrapbook and when people get their cards/layouts chosen for publication they have to remove them from their websites/blogs until the magazine comes out. Thanks,
I was just wondering why some folks don't have their web addresses listed (indy does, tonedna does, etc.) there are some here that I would like to see their sites, but there are none listed.
Snarkybaker - is your business the one in Chapel Hill NC? I (for some reason) thought Sugarland was a bakery in TX.
Personally, I removed my site button because of some of the posts on this thread.
Cake central is supposed to be a place for everyone to post without being ridiculed, including someone making their first cake.
Mind you after reading some of those reviews of Snarks business you can see why she may decide not to post a link!!! MBA or not there seems to be a bit of a need to invest time and resouces in Customer Service training both for her and her team. Not much point doing tonnes of marketing if the end product is not right. One or two negatives may be put down to a bad day but so many feeding back the same type of thing does make you think there is a need to look at service.
I certainly don't have the obvious skills for cakes that snarks does but I have years and years of management experience in a customer service environment and know that in the long run you do need to get that right!
I didn't see the reviews people are talking about, but I assume that they weren't that great? I do agree that people tend to post bad reviews more than good ones (I get thank you notes all the time, but they rarely make it onto review websites).
Personally, I wouldn't show people printed documents, whether from a magazine (of which I have a few, showing that some of my competitors do things they don't tell brides about) or from online, but it is public record if it's in print and anyone can see it. If it's public record, then you can't copmplain if it gets seen.
On the other hand, Snarky's competition could be printing out bad reviews and showing them to clients, too. All's fair if it's out there for people to see. It just means that you have to watch what you say, and what's said about you.
Promoting yourself doesn't stop when you tell your clients what you can do that's different from your competition. You also have to protect your online image. etc. I'm sure that everyone knows a business or three in their area who really isn't that great, but who has a good reputation for whatever reason. People go there not only because of the product, but because of the image.
I mentioned before that I didn't have my business information on here untl recently, because I'd never participated in online forums before this one and I didn't want to limit what I could vent about. After being on here for a while I realized that I'm not comfortable getting too specific in an online forum anyway, so I decided to go ahead and put my links up. It's a business decision, definitely.
There are some folks that post a lot about their business, but there is nothing to see, no pics posted, no links to their sites, etc. - I like to look at the work that person has done, does that make sense??
I've seen some folks comment that they don't post any indication of their business on here because they come here to vent and ..... as we know ..... since this is a public internet forum, that anyone can have access, they don't want any of their customers to possibly see their comments. It's like their stress-release-place .. a quiet private club where they come to safely vent some steam!
So some choose to not post pics or websites as a business decision.
Exactly why I keep my business info private.
This thread is a perfect example of why I do it. (Although I do have some of my work posted so people can see that I am not a "non-caker" here for drama.)
CC has definitely become my outlet to vent and hang out with fellow cakers who know a little or a lot about something I love to do.
I don't agree with Snarks practice of printing out threads to show her clients......I know it's public knowledge, but give the client the web address and allow them to do the research themselves.
I'm fairly confident that I haven't written anything on here in the past 15 months that could incriminate me 
BUT if I had, I would hate to think that my competition is showing it to her clients.
Which is why I wish they would make the business forums private and unprintable (added unprintable after this thread)
So having said that.....we all need to think twice about what we put out there for the world to see.
The internet is a great asset but it can also ruin a person's reputation business or personal.
Be careful.......keep it light.
Jamie, just a ?. I tried looking at your pics and they were removed. Did you do it on purpose or because you're getting published? I'm sorry if I sound idiotic, but I scrapbook and when people get their cards/layouts chosen for publication they have to remove them from their websites/blogs until the magazine comes out. Thanks,
I HOPE it's cuz you're getting published and that weirdo isn't stalking you again.
OK was curious so went to the reviews.......WOW.....and this is why I HATE the internet sometimes.
Anybody can write anything they want and there are enough idiots in this world that will believe what's written.
We don't use the book everytime, but it works. And my point to the OP was to get her game together. If someone hesitates to book with her because she's not a " real bakery", she should have her responses ready.
Ok, I never thought this thread would blow up like it did. All I wanted to know was A. Is there an article saying that home bakeries are not good?, and B. Do you think it's possible that store front bakeries could be bashing home bakeries? I think a lot of Snarky's ideas are great, except the printing of people's posts. I think the way that you word things comes off as "my way is best", and it makes people want to lash back. Not saying you should sugar coat your posts, just maybe suggest that this is what works for you, and suggest it could work for someone else as well.
Thank you for your suggestions, but I don't believe I will be going the same route as you in your marketing. I just don't know if I personally would book with someone who spends 30 minutes explaining why everyone else sucks. I will take your advice and explain the pluses to my business versus a storefront, and leave it at that. It's like the Chevy car commercial that I saw this morning comparing their car to a Honda and why their's is better. If your product is good, it will sell itself. You don't see Lexus doing that. (not comparing our work, just the way they market ) As I said in the OP, I am still getting orders, just not booking all consults this month. In reality I have had a lot of consultations this month, just didn't book 2. I tend to over-exagerate. We are still in a recession, so that could be one, and a lot of people around here are looking for the cheapest thing possible. I get quite a few calls asking what the cheapest thing they could get was, and they want sugar flowers. I then have to explain why that just won't work. Thanks everyone for your advice. I think from now on I will just be using this site for decorating technique questions only, and nothing else.
And by the way I am in no way saying Snarky took a competitor's post on here and showed them in the business community. What she did do made me think of the possiblities of that. There are people on here who live right in my community who sell cakes, be they do it legal or illegal. Makes me wonder about posting on this site.
For what it is worth, I don't use competitors reviews. I use general threads that address issues that most caking folk haven't thought about..It's one thing if I tell you the vast majority of bakers use regular ol' cake mix. It's another if I show you a thread of 4000 plus posts extoling the virtues of WASC. It's called evidence based selling.
I am not on Snarky's payroll. But there's truth and there's hype. This is Snark's first post in this thread--I'm highlighting the part that many have overlooked. That many have gone on to imagine the worst and then attribute to Snarks.
Being an entreprenuer means that you are driven and assertive if not aggressive sometimes. Being a female entrepreneur means that you have to be more driven and armor plated--having a business like that with 20+ employess is not nursery school. She's trying to close every sale that walks in --yah think?
I own a storefront. When we meet with brides who announce they are going to " shop around" or some such phrase, we ABSOLUTELY do remind them that -
1- We are the only baker in the area with an A rating from both the health department and Better Business Bureau
2- That we have a a staff of 5 full time pastry chefs and that most home bakers are 1 peson operations. We remind them that they should ask what happens if they get sick on the Thursday or Friday before their Saturday wedding. ( I them show them the print out we have of the CC pages pointing out that bakers and their kids get sick all the time, and they cancel cakes on short notice when they do, or worse yet, they actually make the cake when they are contageous)
There ARE benefits to buying your cake from a commercial bakery, just like their are benefits from buying from a home baker ( no overhead, usually more fexibility, knowing exactly who is going to make your cake etc.) It would be foolish of a storefront baker not to point out the upside of doing business with her. It sounds to me like you need to work on your sales pitch.
What is so abrasive here? This is a balanced resposne.
We don't use the book everytime, but it works. And my point to the OP was to get her game together. If someone hesitates to book with her because she's not a " real bakery", she should have her responses ready.
Ok, I never thought this thread would blow up like it did. All I wanted to know was A. Is there an article saying that home bakeries are not good?, and B. Do you think it's possible that store front bakeries could be bashing home bakeries? I think a lot of Snarky's ideas are great, except the printing of people's posts. I think the way that you word things comes off as "my way is best", and it makes people want to lash back. Not saying you should sugar coat your posts, just maybe suggest that this is what works for you, and suggest it could work for someone else as well.
Like she did in her first post quoted above?
I just don't know if I personally would book with someone who spends 30 minutes explaining why everyone else sucks.
Yeah for sure --and not that Snark suggested that either right?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
And in general in this thread is a ton of naivety. Y'all just now figured out this is the world wide web. Please.
We don't use the book everytime, but it works. And my point to the OP was to get her game together. If someone hesitates to book with her because she's not a " real bakery", she should have her responses ready.
Ok, I never thought this thread would blow up like it did. All I wanted to know was A. Is there an article saying that home bakeries are not good?, and B. Do you think it's possible that store front bakeries could be bashing home bakeries? I think a lot of Snarky's ideas are great, except the printing of people's posts. I think the way that you word things comes off as "my way is best", and it makes people want to lash back. Not saying you should sugar coat your posts, just maybe suggest that this is what works for you, and suggest it could work for someone else as well.
Like she did in her first post quoted above?
I just don't know if I personally would book with someone who spends 30 minutes explaining why everyone else sucks.
Yeah for sure --and not that Snark suggested that either right?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
And in general in this thread is a ton of naivety. Y'all just now figured out this is the world wide web. Please.
That wasn't her first quote. I think we all realize that our posts are not sacred secrets, it's just that people would use them in such a way.
Just like Kate, I see nothing wrong with Snarky's OP. If that is the way she markets her services then kudos to her for finding what works. As businesses, we ALL want to convert and inquiry into a sale, don't we? I don't imagine Snarky leading off with "here, lemme show you why homebakers are bad news." I imagine that if it comes up in conversation with the client, she says what she has observed and can pull out the printed pages as evidence to support her claims.
Like I said, I have no problem with how Snarky chooses to market her business. I do have a problem with people attacking her and her business simply because they don't agree with what she's doing. Now that's foul!
Brides come to me and tell me what they have learned from other bakeries. They tell me about the bakery that charges $65 just to wrap a ribbon around a cake. They tell me about the bakery that charges extra to put dots on a cake "....because they have to put them on one at a time." I always laugh and tell my brides, "Well, DUH! We put ALL decorations on one at a time! Tell them you want the one that they put on all at once!" 
How do I use this info?
First, I ALWAYS encourage my brides to do more comparison shopping. "If I'm the first person you've sampled with, I encourage you to do one or two more samplings. You're about to spend a lot of money on this event and you want to be sure you get what you want, in the style you want, to fit the budget you've set." (yes, they ARE amazed when I tell them that.)
I proceed to tell them, "As you do your comparison shopping, here's some questions you need to ask. What does their base cost cover? For example, one of my brides told me about one shop that charges $65 just to wrap ribbon around a cake, so ask about that. What kind of decorations cost extra (tell story of dots, not using bakery names)." I then remind them that I dont' charge extra for that.
I cant' see how that's 'talking down' anyone. It's educating and informing the bride, just like snark does. The feedback from my brides is that they find this type of info helpful to them. They view it as a positive.
It's all in how you use the info and all in how you present it.
Good sales people have it mastered.
As a friend said to me years ago:
"Those who have it .... flaunt it. Those who DON'T have it, b*tch about those of us who do!"
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