Should you ask other cake makers what you should charge for your cakes?

I see it all the time…

I’m in lots of different cake forums on social media. Many of them are purely for one purpose - price!

“How much should I charge for this cake?”

“How much would you charge for this cake?”

“What would be a good price for this cake?”

“Have I charged enough for this cake?”

And so on and so on

But should you be asking other cake makers what to charge for YOUR work?

In a nutshell - NO! (but also maybe… a little bit ‘yes’…find out why at the end)

So, why shouldn’t you ask other cake makers how much your cake should cost?

There are a number of reasons why you shouldn’t ask other cake makers how much your cake should cost. Let me break them down for you…

1) You are not comparing like for like!

Their cake and your cake are not the same.

Their business and your business are not the same.

The quality of ingredients you use, and the quality of ingredients they use will not be the same.

The standard of finish on your cake and the standard of finish on their cake will not be the same.

Your experience level and their experience level will not be the same.

It’s like comparing chalk and cheese.

Just because someone says they charge more of less than you, does not mean you should follow suit. Your business is exactly that - YOUR business.

Would you go into a cafe and eat someone else’s sandwich?

No?

Then why are you taking someone else’s price and using it as your own?

2) What do they know?

When you ask on a pricing forum for guidance on how much you should charge for your work - how do you know the people who answer you know any more than you do?

They are probably just taking a stab in the dark.

They probably undercharge for their work so are telling you to do the same.

They have probably never worked out their actual costs or even understand how they should be calculating them.

Or possibly, they are a highly experienced cake maker at the top of their game telling you to charge premium prices.

It’s only ever going to lead to failure if you follow the path of someone else.

They are not you and you are not them. So neither should your prices be the same.

3) Work out YOUR costs

The only way to REALLY calculate price is to know these things:

Your costs - what does the cake cost you to make? And how much does it cost you to run your business?

Your time - how long does it take you to make the cake and what do you want to be paid for that time?

Your profit - how much profit do you want to make from that cake for your business?

When you truly understand all of those elements, you can properly and precisely work our the cost of your cake. If you listen to other people about what they think you should charge, that figure will be based on their costs, not yours!

4) They are NOT your ideal customer!

The only person you should be concerned about when pricing your work, is your ideal customer. Is the price of your work going to attract those ideal clients to you?

Too cheap - they will not come to you.

Too expensive - they will not come to you.

But if they see the VALUE in your work and can clearly see and understand why you charge what you do, they WILL come to you!

Do you really want to attract Susan from ‘Sticky Buns Cake Co’ to your business?

Nope? Then why do you care about what she thinks you should charge?

Final thoughts…

By all means, if you are lacking in confidence with pricing, use cake pricing forums as a rough guide, a starting point if you like. But just don’t take it as gospel that that’s what you are going to charge for your work too.

However, the more we can open discussions on pricing and cake designers around the world understanding that they can be paid properly for their art, the stronger the cake industry will become as a whole.

And it’s always good to see that there are people out there who are commanding those higher prices - which gives those of you just starting out on your journey - hope that you can get there too.

My biggest piece of advice:

Don’t start out charging too low in the beginning, even if you think no one will pay - they will pay higher prices than you think - and the journey to get to those premium prices (when you have more experience) will be a much longer and harder one if you set the bar too low when you first start out!

Food for thought?

Let me know. You can email me here.

Do you need a bit of help?

Are you looking for a bit of help in working out your costs? I have some great pricing tools to help you in ‘The Pantry’. Check them out here.

But NO - I’m not going to tell you what YOU should charge for your cake, I’m just going to help you to properly work that out for yourself.