Hi. I am not a professional cake baker/decorator, but the cakes that I have done for friends and family always get a lot of compliments. I have received offers from friends of friends who would like me to do a cake for them. Up until now, I haven't charged anyone for making them a cake because I do not have the confidence in my decorating, but, if I one day do decide to charge people, what should I charge? Is there a general rule that I should follow? As you all know, decoarting these cakes are expensive, and it's one thing if I do it for family or friends for free, but I have to draw the line for my friends' friends. Any suggestions?
Where are you located, and is it legal to work out of your home where you are? (I'm assuming that if you're asking about pricing you haven't done market research, which you'd have to do if you were opening a shop)
There's no "general rule of thumb" in pricing........ just to be honest. You have to figure out what price will fly in your area. Find out what locals are charging, and price yours to compete. Some will probably argue with my opinion, but you can't charge $10 per serving for something all the others are charging $5 per serving for and survive.
I disagree - take cars as an example!
In any town there will be dealerships for cars, ordinary cars, cheap cars, used cars, clapped out 'lemon' cars - and there will also be some dealers that specialise in Porsche's, BMW's or Rolls Royce's
They are not all the same price - but yes they are all cars!
To charge the top end prices, you need to offer the top end product. Know what they are - and if it's not what you are offering - then you can adjust your pricing.
People seem shocked when they say Bakery/Decorater XYZ is charging mega dollars, they seem not to understand, that they are getting those high prices - BECAUSE THEY CAN
You're 100% correct, Heidi...Before you set pricing you have to decide who your customer is, and that should be part of your marketing plan.
The industry standard is to price per serving (I use Earlene's chart). You set a firm price for say...a simple BC cake, no fancy, expensive to make products...such as a vanilla or chocolate cake with BC filling and icing, simple flowers and borders, something you can whip out with your eyes closed and one hand tied behind your back. Then, for every add on the price goes up. They want fondant? Add a dollar per serving. Strawberry mousse filling...more money. You just need to sit down with a calculator and figure out how much the extras will cost you. Don't forget to charge for your time and experience, delivery, boards, boxes, cupcake papers.....
I disagree - take cars as an example!
In any town there will be dealerships for cars, ordinary cars, cheap cars, used cars, clapped out 'lemon' cars - and there will also be some dealers that specialise in Porsche's, BMW's or Rolls Royce's
They are not all the same price - but yes they are all cars!
To charge the top end prices, you need to offer the top end product. Know what they are - and if it's not what you are offering - then you can adjust your pricing.
People seem shocked when they say Bakery/Decorater XYZ is charging mega dollars, they seem not to understand, that they are getting those high prices - BECAUSE THEY CAN
I guess that really depends on the quality too... you can't really compare a Kia to a BMW.
So let me modify my statement.... if you are putting out "BMW" quality cakes and the rest of the bakeries are putting out "Kia" cakes......yes you can charge whatever you want. But since we are usuing the car as a reference, I'm not paying $50,000 for this Chevy Malibu at XXX dealership when I can get the same car for $28,000 at XYZ dealership. If you get my point.
I'm not telling her to make her prices comparable with Wally world or the big chains... but if there are nice bakeries who do nice work, I don't think it would be a good idea to charge a lot more if you put out work that is comparable. 
Duplicate post, please also see:
http://cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-669850-.html
HTH
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