Quick...somebody Get The Knife Out Of My Back!
Decorating By jstritt Updated 3 Feb 2007 , 5:50am by cakemommy
So 75% of my business comes from making cakes for my husband's work. I mostly do cakes for promotions or birthdays. Well DH comes home today and tells me that since many people's birthday's have been missed, they are no longer doing cakes for individuals but are doing them quarterly with everyone's names on them. A committee decided to do this, and one of the girls who just recently took my class (I am a Wilton MI), was on this committee. 
And guess who is now doing the birthday cakes...drumroll please....that girl!!!! 
She only took course one from me, but said she was going to take the others, so I gave her the Course 2 and Course 3 books to review. Guess what? She never took the other two. Ouch! Stab #2.
I really thought this girl was someone who I could really become close friends with. I have only known her for a month or so, but we are so much alike. No only did I lose business, but I also lost a potential friend.
This just sucks. Man, what a crappy day!!!
Yeah-....That is tough to take.Looks like she was just using you for the books etc...Oh well..what can you do..You can bet her decorating isn't as good as yours!!
OUCH! Especially since your husband works there. I would understand since she is an employee there that they would want to use someone from within, but you are an insider too! I assume they weren't unhappy with your cakes so to just cut you out, that just stinks!
See? it really doesn't pay to be nice! ugh. I know that most people are going to post that she will get hers in the end and she just might...without your experience, her cakes are not going to look as nice! and eventually you may still get the calls...but right now...you don't need to hear that..lol
what I would do, is print up your price list and have your hubby hand them out.
If the company no longer wants to buy a cake for individual birthdays doesn't mean that people aren't going to buy one to take to their own events at home.
Most my friends and family have cake decorators that they have been buying from. I would never expect or want them to stop buying where they are doing business to buy from me. I would feel so guilty that I took business from someone else.
I will never understand selfesh people. I don't know if you should be mad or hurt, I guess both.
I'm sorry this happened to you. 
no longer doing cakes for individuals but are doing them quarterly with everyone's names on them.
Does that mean that they are going to one large cake with everyones name on it? Are they trying to save money? If it was just one large cake you my not have lost that much. Risquebusiness is right have hubby hand out price list for you . You my have more business than you think you my get whole families and not just that one person that works there's cake. 
Now go get hubby to get that knife out 
You guys actually made me laugh, and I haven't even had a drink! And as much as I hate to admit it, Risque, you are right. It doesn't pay to be nice when it comes to business. I guess I should know better, seeing as how I have a marketing degree and I work in title insurance. You have to be tough to be a business person. If she wants to play hardball, I will do so as well.
The interesting thing is, that no one ever did cakes for anyone at my husband's unit until I started doing them. Suddenly everyone wanted one. It was amazing. This girl who stole my business just recently moved here, saw one of my cakes, took my class, then took my trust and my business. She barely even knows anyone at their unit and I have known these people for years. She is not saving the Coast Guard money because the orders were from individual people. She just saw how well I was doing, and she undercut me. What a b**ch!
I hope she does one soon so they can see how inferior her work is. Her abilities were quite limited in class, so unless she has been practicing, all I can say is good luck!! She even said she wasn't a good cook!!! I suspect they will come running back to me on their knees begging.
Oops, I think I'm getting mean. Enough whining. Maybe it's time for that drink.
Cheers!
Man it sure does suck when you take a chance at being nice and it bites you in the butt. I'm positive her cakes will not be a 1/5 of the quality yours were. She probably even suggested the "names only" on the cake just to keep the decor simple. I don't understand how someone can just do that and feel good about themselves.
I'd also still send in a price list with your husband - making sure she does not get one. She'll be copying/undercutting that next!
If they loved you, they will still love you. And they will wonder where you're at when they take the first bite of her cake.
That is so irritating! Is she actually IN the Coast Guard? I know many Coasties (my daughter for one) and they seem SO not like that!! She is definitely the exception not the rule.
I bet if you get your prices out there in a little cute handout that people will still order from you because they are used to (and already like) what you have to offer!!
Things happen for a reason, it'll work out. Maybe not how we think it will sometimes, but it will work out...
I would send in cakes for the various holiday's with the flyers as a way to keep your name in there. Do small, extravagant cakes that really show what you can do. Everyone knows you can't learn it all from Course 1 even with books. The hands on experience is irreplacable. It is too bad people do things like that.
ShirleyW i had that sticker on the side of my computer monitor for years. My wife said I need to remember to look at more often. For the life of me I can't figure it out LOL
As for stabbing you in your back remember that you most likely learned from someone else. But she is young and most of the young people sorry to admit only think of themselves. The ME ATTITUDE, not that every young person is like that but alot of my generation thinks that way,but that doesn't make it right. Maybe you are jumping to conclusions, you may not know if she is even the one to suggest she would make the cakes. Maybe someone on the committee new she took the class and suggested that she do them for now on
I see your point, JasonL, and maybe I am jumping to conclusions, but the whole thing sure does smell fishy to me. And I don't mean a little fish, I mean a BIG fish.
Thanks for letting me vent. DH left for his part time job right after he told me about this, and I couldn't vent to him, and I am at home alone with a sick child.
Have a good evening. Gotta go watch Greys Anatomy (love love love McDreamy). 
Well...how was that drink?? 
In with good .....out with the bad....In with the good...out with the bad. 
Don't worry.....something tells me you'll be swamped in cakes before long......if this girl (##%%@@) does cakes like she treats people.....like I said, no worries.
the suggestions you got here are priceless, small special ocassion cakes that your hubby can bring in to share. These small cakes are also a great way to practice new techniques too!
sending your price list, priceless..knowing what your competion is capable of..even better!
no matter how this came about, she could've spoken up for you..especially if she is too untried and unpracticed.
but don't sweat it..and more than happy to be the ones you can come to when the hubby is not there to listen to you!
lol
If I were that girl, knowing that you had been doing the cakes all along, I would have declined the offer from the committee to do the cakes. What she did is completely unscrupulous. She should have been adult enough to contact you first and say "Look, they asked me to do this, how do you feel about it?"
Now, if it were me in this situation, I would have no problem confronting this girl to let her know how her actions made me feel, not to mention the uncomfortable position she put your husband in!
If she is young, and sounds like she is, she is probably unaware of what she did. Youth is like that, as JasonL pointed out. If she's older, she may just be clueless or tactless, and some people are like that.
I would still say something to her, in a civil sort of way, that what she did stinks and it was not appreciated. She may not show emotion or regret on the outside, but she will remember your words every time she brings in a cake to work.
I am sooooooooo upset for you 
I would be fuming if that were me.that was very rude of everyone,for her piping up and saying "I can do it now", and for those associates accepting does nobdy think you have feelings too!!!!!!but just find other ways to get your buiss,I'm sure your decorating and experience is far better than hers.good luck to you
Oh come on, she knows what she did.
Also just wanted to say hello, I am a coastie wife. Hi there! : )
Well valentines day is coming so why don't you send the most beautiful, scrumptous cake work just for your husband(he'll share of course because it'll be a large cake 
) Then for DH's birthday send him another special birthday cake. and hopefully his birthday fall around the same time that the company's quarterly cake comes out and people will see the difference. And make sure to stock your husband's pockets those two mornings with some business cards and price lists 
So I found out more info on the cake making situation. The head of the department made the decision to make one big quarterly cake, but it was his understanding that I would make the cakes. He even told DH that he assumed I was the one doing it because I was their "cake lady" and had been all along. The b**ch girl just nominated herself and told everyone that she was doing it. DH asked the head of the department if he knew that girl had nominated herself to do the cakes, and the head of dept. said no he had not heard that. She did stab me in the back. I was right all along. She did it on purpose. It was intended for ME and she took it away from ME.
Well, first off, get the books back and talk to her about it. I'm all for getting stuff like this in the open. If she needs books, let her get her own and if she wants to do another course, she can go elsewhere. Hopefully the cake she does bring in next time will taste bad as well, but if it doesn't, the people will see how much better your techniques are anyway. But even if the company decides to go with her bc of monetary reasons, nothing you can do about that, you still have your name in there for the private parties. Just keep on reminding the people where you are by sending a beautiful cake in with your hubby on his bday.
What a little $#@#$% I'd smack her for you if I could--the absolute nerve! Now it's up to the head wheather or not to let her make the cakes or have their trusted cake lady do it. Hopefully, it will be you! Ask for your books back but in all honesty you might as well let her keep them, she may not know what to do even with the guide lines in there, but need someone over her shoulder telling her how. You are the better person and decorator here so don't let it get you too down. At least her true colors came through before you wasted dany more precious time on her.
That's so sneaky, to say the least. I also was giving her the benefit of the doubt until I read your last post! So, if I were you, I would call the dept. head and say something like "Oh, I was told we're doing just one big cake every quarter...I was just calling to check on what date you had in mind for the first cake..." I think that might fix things.
My second call would be to the be-otch to get your books back.
and, forgive me....I'm totally not being sarcastic....but what does the Coast Guard guard in kansas?
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