Hi everyone,

I've just been asked by a customers friend if I would like to "partner" up with her. She's opening a gourmet coffee/sandwich shop and would like me to do the pastries. At first I wasn't sure I wanted to because my main focus is customized cakes, but then she told me that I could do it from home and she would be placing orders every week. I'm thrilled since she has also mentioned that she would like to keep it simple as to the variety (cupcakes, cookies, brownies and muffins).

Now, my problem is that I have no idea how to price these items as I feel I should give her a bit of a discount since she's going to be ordering in large quantities and consistantly. Right now, for custom cakes, I charge between 3-4 dollars a serving. For cupcakes plain frosted (swirl) or fondant decorated are 2-2.50 per cupcake. As for decorated cookies, I start from 1.50-2.50. I'm hoping based on my regular prices, you all could help me figure out how much to charge per brownie, cupcake, regular cookies (not decorated), and muffins. Any ideas or suggestions would be greatly appreciated! Thank you so much cc!


Tolinda

This probably won't seem like much help, but giving a discount because of volume might bite you in the rear. Since you are working from home, high volume is going to be a tremendous amount of work for you.

Charge what you normally would and let her mark up the price for her gourmet shop. This is to be expected from any location. If you are willing to do this much work, then you should be able to make a profit from it.

JMHO

Michele

you have to realise that the prices you listed are your 'retail' prices and baking for a cafe you should charge 'wholesale' prices. i used to bake for a couple cafes and my normal price is $2.50 per cupcake but wholesale i charged $1.80 I also charged the same for muffins as while bigger they had no icing. this was a great way to supplement my work when i was starting out, but it does work out as a bit more work for less money but you have to weigh up the consistency of work versus getting paid a little less, that is why it was great to start with as i consistantly had a cash flow coming in but later when i got busy it wasn't worth it financially as i could earn a lot more on a wedding cake. just need to figure out what will work for you.

I have the same questions and will be curious to see what the responses are. I have been asked to do the same thing here in Maryland I am just clueless how to go about pricing.

Congratulations and wel done for getting such a great opportunity. I have a couple of suggestions which might help. Firstly, I will suggest finding out what other similar businesses in the area charge so you can at least be competitive. Secondly, after a brief trial period, I think you might want to get a contract stipulating the number of pastries and payment terms etc as you need to protect yourself. I will advise against giving discounts at this stage as if you have to do large volumes of pastries you
might need to pay for an extra pair of hands to help you out.

I have a retail shop and don't have a desire to get too much into the wholesale business - as when that gets big you need dumbed down recipes and products that an army of dimwits can produce w/o a lot of supervision. I have had some shops approach me recently about doing their stuff. For the same items that we already carry here, we offer 25% off as the wholesale price. For other items they want, its 15% off. I know she is your friend, but this is strictly a business transaction and needs to be treated as such.

teecakess, your puppy in your avatar is sooooo cute! As you can tell by mine, I love dogs. Is yours a Rottweiler? He/she is just adorable!

i wonder what she ment by partner..? does she want to buy from you? which would NOT make you a partner but a supplier. or does she want you to just sell your peoducts there and she get a percentage of the profits? If the latter, then mark up your prices so that after her percentage you still make at least your usual profit. if the former, like I said you'd be supplier and you shouldn't worry about what you charge, your cost is your cost. speak to her and find out exactly what she means by 'partner'
(that's my advice)

I would charge her the same as you do for a customer.If she wants to up the charge for her coffee shop then that is up to her to do...It costs you money,time,ingredients,electricity etc to bake so I wouldn't give much of a discount.Good luck..I hope it becomes a great adventure for you!!

Thank you everyone for your helpful responses. It makes sense for me to charge my usual price and so that's what I'll do. Thanks again, it does really help recieving any advice at all from people with experience.

and tootie0809, yes she's a rottweiler! That picture was taken a long time ago so you could imagine how big she is now! She's still beautiful though . Your dog is very cute too! What breed is he/she? I love dogs too! I also have a little pomeranian!