I make cakes and I give them away only because I am not in the business. People NEVER ask me to make it free for them. I ALWAYS volunteer to make it for free for them. But I can truly understand and sympathize how much work and expensive it can be.
I guess I don't have much of a backbone, because I've given away too many cakes to count!
I finally have a fix--I went to FatCow and created a website. (FatCow is fairly user-friendly, there is 24-hr. customer real-person-to-talk-to support, and it's free!) I posted pictures of several of our cakes, and the price of the cake next to each picture. I also posted our pricing guide on the website. Now when somebody asks about a cake, I give them our web address and ask that they go to the website, look at the cakes to see if there is a cake they might like, then ask that they give us a call when they are ready for us to work up a design for them. Since doing this, nobody has asked if we could make a free cake for them!
Great idea 
less pressure on you! Do you tell them they are estimated prices in case they want a whole bunch of changes to one of the cakes on the website? Also thanks for the FatCow idea for a web site host! I had never heard of it. Gonna have to check it out!
[quote="jason_kraft"]
[quote="jason_kraft
But if a thread deals with pricing or other business-related matters, you'd better believe that the legality of the business in question is a big factor.
People might be asking price and business questions before being legal to see if its worth it for them. You know how much price shopping I did before taking the plunge. If I knew about this website then I would have been asking here. You can't fault people for being a a different point in thier journey. You have to do the research before jumping in. So don't fault people for asking not knowing thier whole story either.
@ Caralovescake - be careful what you say around here about selling illegally...there are those who will hunt down your IP address and turn you in! lol
AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! As funny as this is, this is , on this site, aboslutely TRUE! I've seen it.
As far as free cakes go, I have done them. I will NEVER, EVER do them agian, unless I want to present it as a gift. And for the people who have "friends" who want discounts, cuase they are your "friend", like someone said, that's not your friend. I have a friend who has paid my $700 light bill, who took me & my family in when my husband lost his' job, who has been there for me through better tor worst then my blood family. Now she can always have a free cake from me, no questions asked and I always thought she knew this. You know what she said one day,"I was going to ORDER as cake from you for my boyfriend's birthday, but then I was like I can't afford your prices". Now that's a friend who appreciates what I do and has respect.
I'm just a newbie who came by CC to learn about making a cake for my girls' b-day party. But upon reading this thread, I'm shocked people would be so...I don't know, greedy? I mean, really?
Before I decided that I wanted to give making the girlies cake on my own, I contacted friends who do this as a hobby. My second question (after my #1 question of "do you have time to do a cake?") was always, "how much will it cost me?" These are my friends and there's no way I'd take advantage of them by asking for a free or even a discounted cake.
One of the two friends I approached gives her cakes in lieu of gifts, but I know how much time and effort she puts into them, so I think I'd still kind of feel bad about accepting it. The other friend was putting together a price for me, as she also does this as a hobby (ahem...since we're also talking legality here, the price this friend was calculating was based on material costs).
I just don't get how people can expect something for nothing, family and friends or not. I can already see that I'm probably going to really enjoy cake decorating so I guess I'd better learn to bake myself a pair of cake balls now, LOL. 
ETA: I forgot to mention that my friend who gives her cakes as a gift is going to come and coach me through my cake. Since this is an imposition on her time already, I plan on making it worth her while, with good company and possibly a refreshing adult beverage or two. 
I agree, pull out your cake balls - LOL People who are taken advantage of, allow themselves to be taken advantage of.
Stand your ground girl!
Cakes ARE NOT FREE.
Jennifer
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