The last few weeks I keep getting calls about cake prices, and right from the beginning of the conversation. I give them my base price per slice and ask how many are they serving (that way they know what the starting price is going to be for the amount they want) then I ask if they still would like a quote?  They say yes please, some of the quotes lately have been simple cakes,  the base price with $10 for the boards.  Then they tell me oh, that's way to much. This really has me confused why waste my time with a quote when it's to high for them to begin with?

ADefinitely good idea to give a base quote, you're doing the right thing. I certainly don't land every job I get a request for. Just the way it goes.

AI certainly don't go into great detail, until they are cool with the starting price. Certainly no sketching occurs, or design ideas, but a base price for serving amount and number of tiers is given.

AI just had this yesterday. Lady messages me, wanting a cake for THIS Saturday. She says she was looking for a 'fair' price. That was a red flag right there. I told her a base price, and she still continued to ask questions. I quoted her for what she wanted, and she decided on grocery store cupcakes. Whatever. I didn't want to squeeze in a cake this weekend anyway.

Oh good, I'm glad to hear giving them a base price to see if they are really interested is a good idea.   I was starting to wonder if I was starting to do something wrong.  Now that it's graduation time this has been happening about twice a week lately.

AYeah, you have to be able to give them an idea of what they're going to be spending. I couldn't imagine setting an appointment up without them knowing what their cake will cost. Not good to get thru an hour of sketching out ideas, seeing the customer's excitement, etc., and then when a price is given, being way out of their range. Talk about a waste of everyone's time, and being an awkward situation anyways. By the time I'm face to face with clients, we're already on the same page as far as pricing, and I've prepped a couple of sketches at prices around the number I gave them on the phone or email. We go over the sketches, change things if need be, and complete an order form and they make payment. I'm pretty efficient with my appointments.

ABut yeah, to address the phone calls, definitely want to get the price out of the way first thing.

"Base price for minimal detailing for that many servings will be xxx to xxx, to start. If you can give me a dollar amount to stick to, keeping in mind that starting price, I can certainly give you a more accurate price."

Something like that. I ask for a budget after giving the base price, if the call gets that far. If they are quoted $200 a s base price, but they have $300 to spend, then I know I can design something a little more detailed. If their budget was a hundred dollars less than the base price, well, then I'm not going to have to do any designing whatsoever. :D

Thanks AZ, that's exactly what I do also.  Just for laughs... about 2 weeks ago I had a lady call for a cake to feed 125 people, she wanted a 3d teddy bear in a present with a big bow and a budget of $100... guess what didn't happen... I seem to be getting a lot of this lately...lol.

Honstly, I think people just don't want to do the math. When I quote I say pricing for fondant cakes start at $x/per portion, but because of the details you are asking for it will be $y/per portion..then I ask how many servings they need.  

They are always fine with it until they tell me the number of portions and I whip the old calculator out and suddenly its "whoo I didn't think it would be that much!"

AOh you betcha, people just don't read, they don't want to do math, and no matter what, even if it is perfectly appropriate, $100 is just too much for [B]anything[/B]. My mother is famous for saying "that's too much!" in response to the price for just about anything. Doesn't matter what it is, whether or not she knows what she's talking about, she just feels the need to say "that's too much" whenever she gets a chance. Ugh!

A"Didn't think it would be that much..." give me a break people, it's simple multiplication. Good grief.

ANo cake for [B]YOU!![/B]