This and That and Everthing in-between

It was all fun when I was doing it as a surprise, but once it became expected, it felt more like a chore. And I thought - I wonder if people would pay me for this? I mean, they seem to really like my stuff… so, I started asking people to cover my ingredient costs. I quickly realized this was not going to be enough. Baking is a labour of love, and decorating is often a lengthy process.

Just a few of the cakes I made for free:

I really struggled with valuing my time, my work, and ultimately, myself. I still struggle with this! But I am a big fan of the scientific method. Of evidence. Of facts. And I figured I could convince my emotional side, if I could just show her the numbers.

So I started a spreadsheet to track my ingredient costs, my materials, the hours I worked, and my profit margins. Surprise surprise… I was losing money. Until I had it all laid out in front of me, I didn’t realize how quickly costs add up. Especially when a single cake box runs you about $4.50! Just to package the dang thing! Not to mention, how time consuming all of the steps are: baking and decorating, but also - consulting, planning, sketching, grocery shopping, photographing, packaging, clean-up, marketing, training, researching, etc, etc, etc.

The nice part is, I knew I wasn’t alone. Sadly, it seems MANY home bakers undervalue themselves - whether it’s from lack of awareness or lack of confidence. I thought, how can I help others learn what I learned the hard way… a little easier? So I re-vamped my spreadsheet to make it more user-friendly (rather than just the dumpings of my scattered mind), making it fillable and entirely customizable.

Now, this Customizable Cake Pricing Guide is available in my shop - including a sample spreadsheet with my chocolate cake recipe as an example, a video walk-through, and direct email access for any questions.

More free cakes:

Why a spreadsheet though? Why don't I just tell others what I sell my items for? There are too many variables, that change too often. For example: I have a friend who lives in California who can buy butter for $3.49 a pound. Up where I live, it's $8.99 a pound! If her grocery trip costs her $50, and mine costs me $70, should we charge the same amount for a cake? Nope. The spreadsheet also factors in your time - some people work faster than others, some cakes are more complicated than others, some areas have higher minimum wage, some people place lower monetary value on their time... it's up to YOU! When I first started out, I payed myself below minimum wage; I was actually a student at the time, so really any money was good money. Now that I have a full-time job, I pay myself nearly the same hourly wage as I get from my employer - because that is what my time is worth. I have also greatly improved my skill level over time, which means I am comfortable with pricing that is comparable to other bakers of similar skill in my region. It's also important to consider your cost of living, and what people will pay for goods and services in your area. This is something that can be factored in to your "hourly wage" pretty easily.

It's also important to regularly check in with yourself on pricing. We all see those grocery store prices flyyyying up thanks to inflation... So you need to re-evaluate your own prices! The spreadsheet makes it easy to adapt to changing costs. If butter goes up by a dollar overnight again, instead of having to re-calculate everything, you can just swap out that one number in one column, and everything else with auto-adjust for you.

Here's a sample of the "Ingredients" tab of the sheet, where you can plug in all your grocery store costs:

Building this spreadsheet is when my business really shifted. I started to understand the importance of paying myself, and making a profit! Otherwise, running a business is not sustainable, which helps absolutely no one in the long run.

If any of this post resonated with you... I suggest you start crunching your numbers! And if building a sheet yourself isn't something that sounds doable (or enjoyable), grab my customizable guide here:

Happy baking!

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