Pricing time and cake decorating?
Pricing time and cake decorating?
And how Cake Coach Online can help.
When I was thinking about writing about pricing time and cake decorating I had a thought to help think about pricing time.
I used to manage a team of international interior designers at one time. We had different ways of pricing design time.
Whats this got to do with cake decorating?
Because all designers sell time.
Fact
And pricing time and cake decorating is only one kind of design
Doesn’t matter what kind of design. Graphics, interior, garden, cake….it all starts with a concept in someone’s mind. The scheme comes to life via the ability of the designer. Who needs to monetary reward for their skill.
All design can be charged one of two ways.
You could either give a fixed price for the time spent, guessing how long it would take. This is a fixed fee.
The other way is to charge the customer for the actual hours spent on their contract. This is time charged work. And every hour has a charge.
Ultimately the final price is billed, after the work is completed.
The advantage of time charged work was we knew we could never shoot ourselves in the foot. The designers could get paid, because simply put…we had charged for all their time.
I accept that customers for cakes expect a fixed fee nowadays.
Something that suits their budget and not an open ended price, with potentially a nasty shock at the end.
Incidentally it does make me smile. I wonder what if worldwide every single cake decorator used ‘time charged’ work to be paid. Whether the entire industry could simultaneously raise their prices.
The bargain hunters could stop expecting just a cheap cake from any bespoke designer. And the cake designers would be happy to be paid for their talent. Anyway ….a dream…to think about.
But there is no reason not to predict the time spent on a design and charge a reasonable rate for your service. Even when charging a fixed fee for your cakes.
When talking about pricing time and cake decorating – I have seen all kinds of suggestions.
Charge by the inch,
Go to grocery store, find similar cake and double it.
Look at what others do and copy their prices
And so the list goes on.
Indeed you may have already got my Cake Coach Online Cake Pricing Guide – detailing no less than 10 ways to price a cake. (I since discovered 3 more!)
Stop…..
Right….
There….
If you are choosing a random way to price just stop.
There is an art to pricing time and cake decorating. And if you are not getting to grips with your true costs, let alone your time ..you are losing money.
You need a way to track time and price this as well as ingredients.
Whilst I accept customers normally expect a fixed fee for their cake(s). That is as opposed to being charged for all the hours spent upon completion…we must get the true costs nailed.
As the only ultimate loser is us.
I have never yet heard a cake designer complain of being overpaid.
There are other issues too. With discussing prices with potential customers. And nailing these issues leads to ultimate business success.
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