Struggling with Birthday Cake vs. Wedding Cake Pricing - Page 4

Quote:

Originally Posted by BomCakes 

 Loving the process and the decorating and the look on the customer's face when they see the miracle you pulled off for $1.50 per slice is the reward. 

This is just not good enough  - I'm running a business, not a charity, and if the look on the client's face was the only payment I received I'd have gone bankrupt years ago.

Quote:

Originally Posted by jason_kraft 

A basic 8" BC party cake for $48 is about right for a midmarket customer. Assuming you have an efficient process in place, that's less than an hour of labor so you would be pretty profitable at that price point.

Of course, if someone is looking for 24 servings for a party I would sell them a 12" round, an 8" wouldn't yield nearly enough cake.

Yes, and at $48 that cake is profitable for me. This is why I think I feel  more comfortable having a base price/cake and then adding on for the time and cost of a more elaborate cake. I guess my fear is getting trapped in a per slice price that doesn't reflect appropriate pricing for me or my client. I have no problem asking for the money, i just don't want to get bogged down in a system that leaves me wondering if it's fair. 

I purchased the Cake Boss and I'm slogging my way thru that too. For me, all the details start to confuse me and I panic.  I know this isn't everyone's problem. I'm a bit challenged in the spatial relationship dept.  Thanks, everyone for the replies. They do help!

The smile on my face when I get an absolute bargain is pretty big too. My face is not so happy when I can't get paid a decent wage because there are other people who will do the same job for way less than what is fair. 

Quote:

Originally Posted by jason_kraft 


Fixed that for you.

The goal of most bakeries (and most businesses for that matter) is to provide a great product, period. Not a great product for an artificially low price.

Yes, that definitely needed fixing. Nothing to add.

Quote:

Originally Posted by kikiandkyle 

The smile on my face when I get an absolute bargain is pretty big too. My face is not so happy when I can't get paid a decent wage because there are other people who will do the same job for way less than what is fair. 

Isn't that the truth? I am not smiling when I do a cake for bargain basement prices, and it takes much longer than I wanted it to, and I figure I have made $8 an hour or less, after expenses. I am quite strained when dropping it off, or when it is picked up.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ellavanilla 

 

 

Yes, and at $48 that cake is profitable for me. This is why I think I feel  more comfortable having a base price/cake and then adding on for the time and cost of a more elaborate cake. I guess my fear is getting trapped in a per slice price that doesn't reflect appropriate pricing for me or my client. I have no problem asking for the money, i just don't want to get bogged down in a system that leaves me wondering if it's fair. 

 

I purchased the Cake Boss and I'm slogging my way thru that too. For me, all the details start to confuse me and I panic.  I know this isn't everyone's problem. I'm a bit challenged in the spatial relationship dept.  Thanks, everyone for the replies. They do help!

Something that might help is this: try to get just a general idea of what you prices tend to be for the average cake you make that way when you get an order for something less elaborate you kinda have a clue what your price for it would be, and the same for something more elaborate. As I do more cakes I am able to gauge quite well what the price of a cake will be even before I use the Cake Boss software. Feels pretty awesome when I finally crunch the numbers (to generate a quote) and end up with very close numbers. Takes a bit of the pressure off using Cake Boss. Besides I have starting prices which I will not go under, and those numbers are based on basic designs so I'm not crunching numbers and 'nickeling and diming' for a basic cake.