I was thinking about including cupcake and cookie bouquets in my product line, which I think would move a lot faster than party cakes, but I was thinking deliveries might end up being a pain. Making deliveries multiple days/week versus just once or twice/week could eat up a lot of time. But I'm in a metro area, so even a 10 mile trip could take 60 - 90 minutes round trip depending on the time of day.
What does everyone else do about deliveries?
I live in a rural area where everything has to be delivered. When taking orders I ask if cake needs to be delivered. If they need it delivered I add a charge for that depending on distance. I let them know when ordering and add delivery price to total price.
~Kim
Can you not offer them as pickups? I offer pickup for most of my cakes and most people prefer that, even though I'm a home baker.
I don't necessarily LIKE them coming to my house...but on the other hand there's no way I could deliver them all...esp here in the "metro" area that we live in, too....I get orders from all over including NJ and such, its so much better if they can just come to me....then I save my deliveries for the weddings and bigger parties, or people who want to pay to have it delivered.
Most of our deliveries aren't very far and are included in the price, as long as it's no more than 20 miles away. If it's more than that, we add an extra charge. We always give them the option of picking it up too, if they can get it on the way to the party, or sometimes we meet at a halfway point, so it's not as far for either of us.
People could pick up party cakes, but cupcake and cookie bouquets sound like something that would be ordered for someone and delivered as a surprise, like a flower arrangement, kwim? It was just an idea to get some traffic, but it sounds like more trouble than it's worth.
Can you not offer them as pickups? I offer pickup for most of my cakes and most people prefer that, even though I'm a home baker.
Not saying it is like this for the OP, but in the last town i lived in I could have a home based baking business, however i could NOT have customers pick up product because I was in a residential zoned area of the town.
To the OP, just tell them what the delivery cost is. If you can have people come to your house for pick-ups then let them decide if they want to pay for delivery. Just make sure that you cover your TIME in the delivery cost and not just charge what the government will reimburse you for (which really doesn't even cover what it's supposed to)
You're right, it does eat up time. I have a free delivery area...outside that area, there's a fee. I try to make the trip out for deliveries multi-purpose by picking up supplies, mailing items...if they're in that area as well. Depending on how busy things are, most times, I am able to retain delivery services from one of my daughters for the day/week...most times...other times, I just have to suck it up and bust butt to get it all done.
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