My wife owns a cottage bakery. She does a lot of what I would call bougie cookies and cakes. She works with her clients a lot getting there vision correct, with a lot of back and forth, research and creativity. I only say that because it’s not just here’s a picture make that. There’s a lot going into orders before they’re even started. So we disagree about what she charges. I’m not greedy, but I do think she puts in a lot of time and effort into these cookies and shorts her self on what she charges. I don’t want her to gouge people, I just want her to get a fair market price(or even a little to be competitive. That’s were I need you’re guys help. It’s hard to figure out a fair market price because the majority of her business is niche and she does have to turn down a lot of business because she gets a lot of orders. She agreed to let me post a couple examples of her cookies. We are based in the dc/Baltimore/dc region. We don’t usually do extsy, and have free delivery with a 20-25 minute radius. I just want to know if I’m crazy or if she isn’t charging what she is worth. We’ve had different points of view on this for at least five years and me and my wife would love to have the opinion of people in the business to help settle this. Thanks.
by bdmail
4 Comments
Price is a difficult thing to determine and honestly only the business owner can determine that. Many things go into pricing, ingredients/packaging/time/overhead/marketing ect. Charge your worth, but that can also only go so far depending on what people are willing to pay in your area and the skill level.
I suggest she look into the cake cost app. It’s really helpful. You enter in all your related costs, and how much you want to pay yourself and it calculates the total cost for you.
That being said, these cookies take a loooot of time, and you’re never going to get paid well per hour on them in my opinion. No one wants to pay a baker what they’re truly worth. I was charging around $90-$110/dozen for mine at the highest, and I was still making minimum wage per hour BEFORE expenses. It’s a high turnover business due to burnout and low pay, or usually just a side gig for most of my cookier friends. From my experience I’d say hers fall under the $50 range, but that’s depending on your area.
I do see you’ve said that she has to turn down orders. If you are turning people away, you need to up your prices! Find the sweet spot pricing that makes you just as busy as you’d like to be. Slowly increase prices and see what happens.
I read a while back that somebody here charges $65 a dozen…not sure where they live tho.
To your wife:
If you’re in the DC area you should be charging like $60 per dozen! Also, charge for delivery! I charge $15 to deliver 5 min away! Get paid for your time!
I have a base price of $57 per dozen and that includes up to four designs per two dozen cookies. And the more complex the designs, the more I charge. Or if they want 10 designs on 24 cookies, upcharge. I’m on the verge of making my minimum order 2dozen, because $57 for a days work isn’t worth it. I live in the Portland Oregon area, and while it’s decently affluent it’s not a very showy town. There’s way more “keeping up with the joneses” vibes on the east coast or cities like Dallas and Houston.
(I also post my base prices on my website. It reduces the amount of ghosted inquiries I get.)
I understand being afraid to increase the prices. Bump it up $5 every month until you’re at a better price. When I finally started charging more than $35 a dozen I actually felt better about my work, didn’t feel as stressed, and wasn’t spinning my wheels.
Also, find local fellow cookiers; cottage biz, domestic license, small shops whoever! Even local commercial bakeries. Building that network to refer customers around, borrow supplies/equipment, advocating for more small biz laws/bills… even just an occasional meetup to whine about the price of butter and how much your hands hurt! 😅 Being on the same page about pricing with your local community will also help you from undercutting each other/not getting paid as much as you could! (Community not competition)
Good luck! Your stuff looks great!
I live in KY and charge $60/dozen for this level of detail and this many colors.