Oh Crap!

Business By PieceofCakeAZ Updated 23 Jun 2010 , 7:31pm by PieceofCakeAZ

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PieceofCakeAZ Posted 10 Mar 2010 , 7:31am
post #1 of 32

I own a small cake shop (90+% wedding cakes) that has a retail location but we aren't open as a retail shop, we are an appointment only shop. Well, our property management company is awesome and they are always revitalizing their centers and they have recently been doing some work to ours... which was great until today.

I walk out into our consultation area and I see a huge truck outside... the kind with a crane on it. I step closer and see 3 giant new signs... one of them says BAKERY. I go outside and ask the dude what is up and he said that he got an order from the owner to make 3 signs and install them to give the complex a more uniform look. As you might expect, a huge lit sign that says BAKERY doesn't exactly say to passersby "call to schedule your consultation" icon_wink.gif

I'm not ungrateful because in 18 months or so we will be integrating some retail sales and be open to the public and the sign will be great, but in the short term we are going to have to get giant window lettering that says "Open by Appointment Only" to ward off all the people looking to buy a couple of bear claws. I'm still going to talk to them this week and see if I can convince them to make us a new one that says "CAKE" but those signs are so expensive that I expect to be laughed at... but a guy can try.
LL

31 replies
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indydebi Posted 10 Mar 2010 , 7:39am
post #2 of 32

Feeling your pain and angst! On the one hand, yes ... those signs are FREAKING expensive and that was really pretty nice of them to do it. On the flip side, geesh dude, could you have at least ASKED me what I'd like the sign to say since it's MY business that it's going to impact?

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CakeMommyTX Posted 10 Mar 2010 , 4:04pm
post #3 of 32

I'll take your sign...lol.
I need one and it scares me as much as the vent hood does ,big $$$$
Sorry about that though, I plan on being open by appointment only as well so I can totally see where that is going to cause some issues. Even if you put a huge neon sign that blinks and rotates and shoots confetti at people you will still have to turn folks away at the door looking for a bag of donut holes, all they will see is the huge BAKERY sign.

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iamcakin Posted 10 Mar 2010 , 4:59pm
post #4 of 32
Quote:
Originally Posted by CakeMommyTX

I'll take your sign...lol.
it scares me as much as the vent hood does ,big $$$$.




this made me burst out laughing icon_lol.gif

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dberck Posted 10 Mar 2010 , 5:17pm
post #5 of 32

Tell him you will trade him a "B" "R" & "Y" for one "C"!

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costumeczar Posted 10 Mar 2010 , 5:50pm
post #6 of 32

Heck, you should go get a couple of boxes of Dunkin Donuts every morning and resell them until you have your own product!

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JGMB Posted 10 Mar 2010 , 8:07pm
post #7 of 32
Quote:
Originally Posted by dberck

Tell him you will trade him a "B" "R" & "Y" for one "C"!




That's clever! icon_lol.gif

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JustToEatCake Posted 10 Mar 2010 , 11:50pm
post #8 of 32
Quote:
Originally Posted by costumeczar

Heck, you should go get a couple of boxes of Dunkin Donuts every morning and resell them until you have your own product!



Too funny!

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JulieMN Posted 11 Mar 2010 , 12:19am
post #9 of 32
Quote:
Originally Posted by costumeczar

Heck, you should go get a couple of boxes of Dunkin Donuts every morning and resell them until you have your own product!




Love this!

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CeeTee Posted 11 Mar 2010 , 12:39am
post #10 of 32

Well, um...look on the bright side. At least the owner is very proactive and so ahead of the game he's already in 2012?

That's still a very nice thing he did. I wish our office had a property manager like yours. We have a huge sign out front which says "Temp Agency" even though we've been in that building for over a decade. All he did was turn the sign upside down and put our office sign up under it in really small font and thought that was good enough. We always get people coming in asking to see if we have jobs open and don't believe us when we tell them we're a law office icon_confused.gif

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cheatize Posted 11 Mar 2010 , 4:56am
post #11 of 32
Quote:
Originally Posted by dberck

Tell him you will trade him a "B" "R" & "Y" for one "C"!




If that doesn't work, tell him to trade a "B" for "C." icon_smile.gif Shoot, I bet he could talk the sign company into swapping it for free by telling them they made a mistake or misheard him or something.

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KoryAK Posted 11 Mar 2010 , 6:41am
post #12 of 32

or just the C? Make it cakery!

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SpecialtyCakesbyKelli Posted 11 Mar 2010 , 7:37am
post #13 of 32

Well, you can look at the bright side here... at least you can just tell your customers to just look for the big a$$ bakery sign lol...they can't miss you now! icon_biggrin.gif

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KimAZ Posted 11 Mar 2010 , 8:17pm
post #14 of 32

Hey Kevin,
Glad to hear you''ll be opening for retail stuff soon. Does that mean you'll be selling decorating products/supplies/tools?

We surely need something on this side of town!

KimAZ

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KHalstead Posted 11 Mar 2010 , 8:33pm
post #15 of 32

when I first saw the photo I thought you were going to say that you walked out and saw this sign at the store directly across from you at the complex!

NOW THAT WOULD STINK!!!!

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PieceofCakeAZ Posted 11 Mar 2010 , 10:29pm
post #16 of 32
Quote:
Originally Posted by costumeczar

Heck, you should go get a couple of boxes of Dunkin Donuts every morning and resell them until you have your own product!




icon_biggrin.gif If we start getting enough people knocking on the door we could make a killing!

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PieceofCakeAZ Posted 11 Mar 2010 , 10:33pm
post #17 of 32
Quote:
Originally Posted by KoryAK

or just the C? Make it cakery!




I thought about that when I watched him putting it up although for some reason my wife and I have always had an aversion to that word...I'm thinking we're just going to have to get over it and see if it is an option. I'm going to give it another week so I can call the property manager and honestly say "we've had X number of people knocking on our door to buy pastries and it's cutting into our production time, please have them change the first letter out"

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PieceofCakeAZ Posted 11 Mar 2010 , 10:38pm
post #18 of 32
Quote:
Originally Posted by KimAZ

Hey Kevin,
Glad to hear you''ll be opening for retail stuff soon. Does that mean you'll be selling decorating products/supplies/tools?

We surely need something on this side of town!

KimAZ




I definitely agree we need a supplier on this side of town, we order most of our stuff in but if we are out of something and need it quick, that trip to ABC stinks! However it's looking like that place won't be us... for quite sometime, if ever. Right now we turn down so much high profit cake business every week (except in the summer) that expanding to offer low profit cake supplies just doesn't make sense for us. If we ever get to the point where we are accepting the majority of the business that comes our way, we are still keeping it as an option but it could be years away.

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PieceofCakeAZ Posted 11 Mar 2010 , 10:44pm
post #19 of 32
Quote:
Originally Posted by CakeMommyTX

I'll take your sign...lol.
I need one and it scares me as much as the vent hood does ,big $$$$
Sorry about that though, I plan on being open by appointment only as well so I can totally see where that is going to cause some issues. Even if you put a huge neon sign that blinks and rotates and shoots confetti at people you will still have to turn folks away at the door looking for a bag of donut holes, all they will see is the huge BAKERY sign.




I'll sell it t you. Cash only... you come and pick it up in the middle of the night. icon_wink.gif

I wonder how much that sign company would charge to to me install the words "NOT A" in front of BAKERY. icon_biggrin.gif

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littlecake Posted 20 Jun 2010 , 6:55am
post #20 of 32

just wondering what happened? did you get the c? did you hire a donut fryer? inquiring minds want to know!

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Jeep_girl816 Posted 20 Jun 2010 , 7:58am
post #21 of 32

Yes! an update please!!! icon_smile.gif

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awatterson Posted 20 Jun 2010 , 9:53am
post #22 of 32

I thought the same thing as KHalstead, so when I was done reading it, it didn't seem as bad since it was a sign for you. Phew.

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PieceofCakeAZ Posted 20 Jun 2010 , 9:56am
post #23 of 32

Sorry I never updated... we have a 5 month old so it's been crazy and apparently I have started forgetting things. icon_biggrin.gif

We have a Cakery! They got it resolved within 3 days...but I swear we had people ringing our bell like crazy for 3 days... it was nuts!
LL

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revel Posted 20 Jun 2010 , 6:29pm
post #24 of 32

Thats awesome! I noticed the sign companies name on the truck. Thought that was funny!

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tesso Posted 20 Jun 2010 , 7:26pm
post #25 of 32

so glad they got if fixed for you. congrats on the new baby too.

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tcakes65 Posted 22 Jun 2010 , 4:35pm
post #26 of 32

Glad you were able to get the sign changed. Let us know how it works out for you. I'm in a similar situation. I have a "By Appointment Only" business in a commercial space. The landlord demanded all the businesses have signs. It was too expensive ($6000) to put our entire business name so it simply says "Cakes". We have "By Appointment Only" on the door. However, people stand out there everyday pounding on the door wanting in. I do not understand for the life of me why someone would feel compelled to do that knowing it is By Appointment Only with a CLOSED sign on the door. We also have the phone number on the door. If we don't open the door, they persistently call thinking we'll let them inside. icon_confused.gif

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costumeczar Posted 22 Jun 2010 , 5:07pm
post #27 of 32
Quote:
Originally Posted by MCC

I do not understand for the life of me why someone would feel compelled to do that knowing it is By Appointment Only with a CLOSED sign on the door. We also have the phone number on the door. If we don't open the door, they persistently call thinking we'll let them inside. icon_confused.gif




Well, they're special, and that sign is only there for everybody else, not THEM! icon_rolleyes.gif

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littlecake Posted 22 Jun 2010 , 5:17pm
post #28 of 32

hey pieceofcakeAZ....do you have a blog? i like reading your thoughts on stuff......

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tcakes65 Posted 22 Jun 2010 , 5:27pm
post #29 of 32

[quote="costumeczar"]

Quote:
Originally Posted by MCC

I do not understand for the life of me why someone would feel compelled to do that knowing it is By Appointment Only with a CLOSED sign on the door. We also have the phone number on the door. If we don't open the door, they persistently call thinking we'll let them inside. icon_confused.gif




Well, they're special, and that sign is only there for everybody else, not THEM! icon_rolleyes.gif[/quote

I completely forgot about that! icon_lol.gif

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PieceofCakeAZ Posted 23 Jun 2010 , 7:27pm
post #30 of 32
Quote:
Originally Posted by MCC

Glad you were able to get the sign changed. Let us know how it works out for you. I'm in a similar situation. I have a "By Appointment Only" business in a commercial space. The landlord demanded all the businesses have signs. It was too expensive ($6000) to put our entire business name so it simply says "Cakes". We have "By Appointment Only" on the door. However, people stand out there everyday pounding on the door wanting in. I do not understand for the life of me why someone would feel compelled to do that knowing it is By Appointment Only with a CLOSED sign on the door. We also have the phone number on the door. If we don't open the door, they persistently call thinking we'll let them inside. icon_confused.gif




I love the people that ring the bell and ask if we have any appointments available... right now. icon_biggrin.gif

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