How Many To Feed? 35. Whats Ur Budget? £30. Grrrrrrrrrrrr

Decorating By Embles Updated 1 Apr 2013 , 11:28pm by Embles

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Embles Posted 1 Apr 2013 , 6:29pm
post #1 of 18

AI hate having these conversations, trying to word a reply is a bloody nightmare. Yes id love to make you a cake . No I dont want to work for 1 pound an hour. Rant over feel better

17 replies
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kazita Posted 1 Apr 2013 , 6:52pm
post #2 of 18

ALol okay that was a very SMALL rant. I don't know how much a pound is but obviously you feel its not enough glad you told that person so or are you working for that price?

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manddi Posted 1 Apr 2013 , 7:03pm
post #3 of 18

AA pound is close to $1.50 us...

No cake for you!

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jason_kraft Posted 1 Apr 2013 , 7:58pm
post #4 of 18

AIn these situations I usually just tell the customer what the starting price is for the number of servings they want, and let them decide what to do.

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costumeczar Posted 1 Apr 2013 , 8:01pm
post #5 of 18

I just say "I'm sorry, I can't do it for that. A cake that size would be ___"

 

People really have no idea they're lowballing you for the most part. It's pure ignorance and they're not doing it to make you mad. It's irritating but not malicious (usually).

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Embles Posted 1 Apr 2013 , 10:18pm
post #6 of 18

AHa it was a bit of a rubbish rant messaged her back telling her the cake would be 70 pound (about 130 ish dollars I think) she messaged back asking what if she took this off and tgat off. I resisted messaging back straight away and came back to message agreeing to the iriginal price lol patience is a virtue and all that.

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Embles Posted 1 Apr 2013 , 10:22pm
post #7 of 18

AAnd totally agree that she wasnt doing it to try and be malicious but im a grwat big softy and usually charge too little, my husbands a hard arse and tells me off ha. I decided this weekend that I will no longer undercharge and it worked tonight woohoo

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Evoir Posted 1 Apr 2013 , 10:24pm
post #8 of 18

Haha...I had a woman ring me for a "very small cake" to feed three people. I said $60 for a 5" round. She asked me how much cheaper the 4" round would be because she only needed a really tiny cake for three, and I said "its still $60". Well, wouldn't you know it, suddenly 5" was what she wanted!

 

I do agree with costumczar though - most people have NFI, they aren't low-balling, they just haven't ever bought a custom cake before and hence have no idea about your processes and how many hours a week it actually takes to run a cake business, let alone decorate one cake.

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jason_kraft Posted 1 Apr 2013 , 10:30pm
post #9 of 18

A

Original message sent by Embles

Ha it was a bit of a rubbish rant messaged her back telling her the cake would be 70 pound (about 130 ish dollars I think) she messaged back asking what if she took this off and tgat off. I resisted messaging back straight away and came back to message agreeing to the iriginal price lol patience is a virtue and all that.

That's why I always quote the starting price. If she wants to take this and that off the order that's fine, but it still won't make the price drop below the starting price.

It's even better if you prominently include starting prices on your web site, some people won't read it but at least you can head off some inquiries.

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kazita Posted 1 Apr 2013 , 10:34pm
post #10 of 18

AWow a whole $1.50 An hour yeah no cake for him.

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Embles Posted 1 Apr 2013 , 10:34pm
post #11 of 18

AGood advice everyone, I have to take alot of the responsibility for being a little wishy washy, I know what my ingrediants and time costs and I need to set a minimum price and advertise as such rather than asking what their budget is. I shouldnt start like this as it doesnt matter what the budget is it wont make the slightest bit of difference to my overheads lol jyst habit me thinks

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jason_kraft Posted 1 Apr 2013 , 10:39pm
post #12 of 18

A

Original message sent by Embles

Good advice everyone, I have to take alot of the responsibility for being a little wishy washy, I know what my ingrediants and time costs and I need to set a minimum price and advertise as such rather than asking what their budget is. I shouldnt start like this as it doesnt matter what the budget is it wont make the slightest bit of difference to my overheads lol jyst habit me thinks

Starting out asking for the budget and number of servings is still an important step, since it gives you an idea what kinds of designs would fall into the customer's price range. Having a minimum price just makes it easy to cut off the conversation in case of an unrealistic budget before you waste too much time.

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Embles Posted 1 Apr 2013 , 10:48pm
post #13 of 18

ASo jason do you detail a basic fondant and bc by portion as a minimum

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Nixs247 Posted 1 Apr 2013 , 10:51pm
post #14 of 18

Wow £1.00 per hour, I would have kindly stated my starting price is.... and also suggested that they are welcome to go to Asda, Sainsbury's or even M&S if their budget could afford M&S that is.....lol

 

Some customers really do not have a clue - so with that knowledge you can't take it to heart....BUT...there are other customers who want to play you against another fellow cake maker/company - so I simply advise them to stick with the cake maker/company..lol
 

A lot less hassle.... and its about finding that middle ground.

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jason_kraft Posted 1 Apr 2013 , 10:56pm
post #15 of 18

A

Original message sent by Embles

So jason do you detail a basic fondant and bc by portion as a minimum

For single tier cakes (which is most of our business, e.g. simple birthday cakes), our minimum is $44 for a basic 8" round BC cake ($74 minimum with fondant), and we include starting prices for other popular sizes. For multi-tier cakes the minimum is $5/serving, again for basic BC.

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kazita Posted 1 Apr 2013 , 11:17pm
post #16 of 18

A[quote name="Embles" url="/t/756352/how-many-to-feed-35-whats-ur-budget-30-grrrrrrrrrrrr#post_7377758"]Good advice everyone, I have to take alot of the responsibility for being a little wishy washy, I know what my ingrediants and time costs and I need to set a minimum price and advertise as such rather than asking what their budget is. I shouldnt start like this as it doesnt matter what the budget is it wont make the slightest bit of difference to my overheads lol jyst habit me thinks.

The one cake that I've ever charged for ( I'm a hobby baker) I made the big mistake of not asking her budget and she really messed me up with she didn't know how many servings she was all over the place with it.so we ended up going with her maximum amount of severings as I gave a way to low of a quote she was way happy with my quote or so I thought I later found out that she proceeded to continue to get quotes for the cake , she ended up going with me and my stupid low quote Iater came on here and put up a post saying please help me I don't want to be known as the cheap cake lady because she kept telling all her family and friends my low price. I finally had to turn down making cakes for them.

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costumeczar Posted 1 Apr 2013 , 11:20pm
post #17 of 18

I once reponded to an email asking where the reception was and what her budget was, becasue she had said it was in a town quite far from me. I said that the delivery fee would be higher than normal so I wanted to check that the budget would be okay before we set up an appointment. She emailed me back with a super-rude message asking me what my issue was and that she didn't even know if my cake was "acceptable" and why was I bringing up budget?  I wrote her back explaining that I tried to keep within people's budgets, so I like to ask what that might be, and that it sounded like she might be happier going elsewhere. Some people apparently don't like it when you bring up budget right away (not that I'll stop doing it.)

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Embles Posted 1 Apr 2013 , 11:28pm
post #18 of 18

AYou lot are great, what started out as a rant has turned in to some very helpful advice, thanks everyone.

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