http://www.cakedecorationmagazine.co.uk September 2018 | 45MUSINGS FROM AN UNDERCOVER CAKE ARTIST£100s/£1000s of work hours. Hencemy comments about managing thoseexpectations and keeping thingsreasonable all round - reasonable interms of budget, the work involvedand overall design. Bearing all thisin mind, I give thanks to whomeverinvented the currently popularunicorn cake - customers love themand they look fancy, but for the cakedecorator they're actually fairlyquick and easy to make: the perfectdesign in the context of running abusiness. If a customer has a budgetof £X amount, then only make thema cake which costs £X amount.You are in control of not workingfor a pittance.This brings me nicely onto theneed to know the market you areworking in. How much will the localpopulation pay for cakes? How muchare other cake makers charging?These two questions are very muchrelated and like any open markethave a reciprocal cause and effectrelationship.If everyone else in your area isselling three tier wedding cakes for£300, how do you justify charging£500? This is where good,open marketing comes into it - youneed to show and explain to peoplewhy yours are better and thereforemore expensive. Don't let peopletalk you down because they'remaking an 'apples and oranges'comparison - a bespoke cake IS NOT``````the same as one from M&S andthus it is a pointless comparisonto make. Someone making thatcomparison doesn't understand thebespoke element of custom cakesand probably therefore is not yourcustomer. This is why you shouldignore what M&S or Waitrose isdoing as it's not the same product.In that same area, could you justifycharging £800? Maybe not, that maybe a step too far... but this is why itis so important to do your researchand know the market you'reselling in.``````WORK COMMERCIALLYTied in with these points is the needto practice, practice and practicesome more. From a commercial pointof view you need to be able to dothings quickly and effi ciently. Timereally IS money and the quicker youare able to do something the morewill end up in your pocket. If the``````going rate for a wedding cake in aparticular style is £500 and you canmake it in twenty-fi ve hours ratherthan forty hours, then that's moremoney for you. Invest in tools andskills to make yourself and yourbusiness effi cient as it will pay offin the long run.All the things discussed hereand last month is why pricingquestions on online forums arepretty much a waste of time. As youcan see, pricing includes so manydifferent factors that what worksand is appropriate for one person isnot necessarily right for the next.Pricing is a thing which evolvesover time as your business developsand which requires the constantinput of time and effort to get right.If you're not ready to put in thattime and effort, then - and this isgoing to sound harsh - you may notbe ready to take the step of runninga business. That being said,pricing is a process and an eternalpain in the ass, which we all learnas we go along having started outnot charging near enough for theeffort involved in making customcakes. Don't beat yourself up if youhaven't been charging enough, butdo make a resolution now to getbetter at it for the next time.As I suspected I have run out ofwords, so I'll let you off this monthand we'll do the maths next time...Now isn't that something to lookforward to!``````going rate for a wedding cake in ap44-45_This Cake Life.indd 45 09/08/2018 17:54
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