My SIL is supportive of me and my new small business adventure, she placed 2 orders with me and is wanting to pay full price. (which I love her wanting too) However, she always is buying my kids clothes and giving me her daughters expensive-hardly worn hand me down clothes. I don't feel right charging her full price. In a situation like this how much of a discount do you offer?


her order was for 4 dozen decorated cupcakes and I delivered them to my neices school which is near-by (I'll post what happend in a different thread )

the 2nd order is for today and it's a birthday cake that she said I could do anything I wanted to it. (so I made a soccer ball cake)

This is always hard! I offer a "Friends and family" plan of 15% off orders. I think if you just decide what it will be and always offer that, then it won't be awkward. If everyone feels uncomfortable about the pricing, then they won't want to order from you and will feel bad ordering somewhere else. Just give her a reduced price. If she pays full price anyway, accept gracefully. She obviously wants to do it because it makes her feel good to help you.

I offer Family and our church a 10% discount. I'd like to get to the point when I have an income that I give the church a greater discount.

alright I'm a sucker and just gave her the soccer ball cake for free since she does save me a lot of money in clothes for my kids. She was kind of upset that I didn't charge her for the cake but I said it's part of my gift to Ericka for her birthday. She did pay me for the cupcakes though and gave me a $6 tip. I will definantly do a % off for family of probly 15% or a little less. Just to keep things kosher---you should see my family

I do 30% but then again I am expensive!

but your work is amazing so you can be espensive!

I don't charge my family for cakes. They are a nice way of giving a gift that is made especially for them.

I just charge them the cost of supplies, and the decorations are a gift from me

thanks for all the replies. I just made a soccer ball cake the yesterday for my nieces party and they wanted to pay me but I said no. I have a large family so I don't think I can do give them away for free often but I know I can do a discount with no problem.

The other thing you can do is give them something extra for free. Charging full price and then always throwing in 2 dozen cake balls or 2 dozen sugar cookies. Somehting you just keep lots of in the freezer.

Personally, I give a consistent discount that all my family knows and no one assumes. Make sure they know when others ask, "how much?" they are to quote the FULL price. My family all know to keep the discount to themselves.

you are so right, I didn't even think about them saying the discounted price which now that you mentioned it I know they would because they all love telling people what killer deals they got on any item.

I do not charge my FAMILY. I don't feel like whatever my prices are that they warrant charging my family. They do not take advantage of my services. As for friends, they pay me for my services, full price. I give discounts to schools, churches and worthy non-profit organizations. Although I started out giving my friends a discount, they were insistent on paying the full price. I have been in this business a long time, and over-charging is a sore subject for me. There is thing called reasonable. I am known for being fair, equitable and honest, and I stay busy. I suppose if someone is willing to pay more thats fine, but I have to look in the mirror everyday.

I have a very large family so I know I have to charge for my services, and they charge me when I use the services they provide and I get a discount. I want to keep things kosher with the family because there is already enough termoil between certain members. I am priced on the average end and am very careful about overcharging but the area I'm in is mondo cheap so they think I'm priced high

I have a big family too. I started charging them when I started selling wedding cakes for real. One weekend I had 2 wedding cakes and my s-i-l called and asked for a cake. I told her I just couldn't do a free cake when I had so many professional obligations. So she asked if she paid and chose something really simple could I squeeze it in. That is when the discount was born. She was happy and I wasn't bitter about freebies taking away from paid work. Of course, I should point out I have fabulous family & in-laws. Not everyone is so fortunate.