HOW TO RUN A CAKE BUSINESS - Be A STRONG Cake Artist! - Cake Biz Video Series 

You're very welcome Laura! Glad you're enjoying the series! :)

I hope she watches these videos too! Clients shouldn't be making us "offers". LOL. That's nuts! LOL. You're VERY welcome Lulu! I'm so happy you're finding these videos helpful. God bless you. :)

You're very welcome Charissa! Thanks for the input on this video! :)

You are VERY welcome!!! That brings a smile to my face! So happy your confidence has grown! That's AWESOME! :) So proud of you! Thanks for the wonderful feedback and encouragement! God bless! :)

Hi Sol! You're very welcome! That is AWESOME!!! Glad you stuck to your guns! SEE how it DOES pay off!? Good for you! :)

Thank you Ester! That means A LOT to us! That's right! You never run after customers. You stick to your pricing and just KNOW that the RIGHT clients are out there for you! We're having a cake business webinar on Jan. 6th. Would love for you to join! Info is under the video if you can make it. Thanks again and God bless you! :)

realpinkmonkey so glad you enjoyed it! Words to live by! Thank you for watching and God bless! ♥️

You're welcome Mercedes! You ask awesome questions! LOL. Thank you so much! :)

Hi Cindy! Love you too! :) Haha! We LOVE "giving it away NOW!". LOL! You are PROOF that raising your prices WORKS!!! God bless you Cindy and may He continue blessing your business! Thank you for being with us in this series! :)

:) God bless you too! :)

De nada Maria! Nos da mucho gusto que disfrutes de los videos! Dios la bendiga! :)

Yes that's the perfect way to look at it. Less stress for you! If they don't want to pay your price then they are not the right customer. I hope your business is going great! God bless you! :)

You're very welcome! Love you too Mohamed! Hugs all the way to Egypt. :)

Amen!!! :)

Yes Dora. That's exactly what you need to do. Just thank God in ADVANCE for GOOD clients. GOOD FOR YOU for raising your prices! :) You losing customers is NO SURPRISE. That is something we should always expect when we raise our prices. Don't let it phase you though. Just keep in mind that those customers you've lost, had you been charging correctly for your work from day one, would have never been your customers in the first place. God will replace each and every one of those clients with quality clients. Don't budge or waiver. Patience is key. It WILL pay off. Guaranteed! I look forward to hearing LOTS of great reports from you in the future. God bless you! :)

Hi Judy! We hope you're doing well! You're very welcome. :) That is so AWESOME!!! You SEE!!! It DOES work! The minimum amount of profit a Cake Artist should make on the decorations is pretty cut 'n clear with the 50% mark up. The amount of profit you choose to make on the actual cake alone however, is totally up to you. Most "regular" businesses that sell products to the public use a profit margin of anywhere from 15% to around 30%. But, we have to remember that what we do is not your "typical business". Our craft is very artistic and hands on. Not done by a machine. You have to ask yourself, "what is profit margin I'm happy with?" A 15% margin for example, for us doesn't cut it, but it may for others. When Arnie and I have done the math on our own cakes, right now as things stand at this point in our careers, our profit margin ends up being somewhere in the vicinity of 27%. But again, with time that will and should increase. Remember that your price per serving should include the base price (which covers your out of pocket and your time). What you charge per serving according to intricacy should cover not only 1). your base price, but also 2). the increased amount of time you will be spending on a more intricate design, and 3). your profit on the overall cake. What I would suggest is "make up" (on paper of course) a few "pretend cakes". Give each cake a few different intricacies and figure out what you "would" charge for them using the techniques we've taught. Calculate what your profit margin % is and see if you are satisfied with it. If you're not happy with that % and you feel you deserve more, then rather than just adding a higher % profit margin to your cakes, just increase your prices per serving starting from you simplest to the most intricate. That way, when you quote a price, you know you have a good profit margin. As time goes by, I would recommend at least once a year, look at your work, see how it has improved, and recalculate your prices to reflect the level you are at. We increase our prices (therefore increasing our profit margin) once a year. I hope this helps and doesn't confuse more... LOL. Let me know if anything is unclear. I know that in my brain it all makes perfect sense but I may not be explaining it as well as I have it in my head. LOL. What do we do with our profit? About half of what we make goes back into the business and the other half is for us. Bills of course, we save for the future, and have LOTS of fun with our babies (doggies). We rarely buy equipment as we acquired just about everything we need in the 1st year. Eventually we'll buy nicer refrigerators for example, and perhaps a new delivery vehicle, but that's about all I foresee for the near future. Thank you for the suggestion on the video! We actually have that planned VERY soon. "Client communication" is so vital in the business. We actually did an entire Periscope on that if you'd like to check it out in the meantime. :) @krazykoolcakes Thank you Judy! :)

Great! Thank you very much. I think I am doing it right then and will make sure to tweak it as I go along. So grateful for you and Arnie and your willingness to share all of this information! God bless you both!!

You're very welcome Judy! God bless you too! :)

You're welcome Catalina! :)

You're very welcome Yesenia! :)

Thank you Peggy! That's wonderful to hear! You don't have to get a tax ID from the IRS if you are "self-employed" as we are. For all of our tax purposes we just use our SS#'s as all the tax forms we receive are in our name. BUT, that's not to say that you can't. It's not absolutely necessary however if you are running your own cottage business as we are. :)

Hi Peggy, I have too. If you choose to charge extra then you would need to increase the price of your cake to make sure it covers the cost of your extra ingredients, plus any amount of time it takes to obtain the ingredients (if special time is needed) as well as if it will cause you more work than it would a "typical cake" (as far as time). This cost would probably only need to figured out once (like we did in the video where we discussed base pricing) if you make these types of cakes a lot. If each cake you make is different however, fillings, icings, etc., then instead of adding an extra $ amount per serving, you can just add an additional total cost. I hope that helps! :)

Hi Joann! Thank you so much! In the case where you are buying huge amounts like at Sam's, then of course you'd want to break it up by amount, because you know you will be able to make MANY cakes with just that one trip to Sam's. If you don't do that then you will definitely be seriously overcharging. For most Cake Artists, like us, who run their businesses from home and buy small amounts at a time, it's not overcharging because we are taking our time into consideration (grocery store trips, shopping, standing in line, etc.) I 100% agree with and support your suggestion about first buying in small amounts at a grocery store to obtain the base price of your cake. That would be VERY WISE. You're very welcome Joann and I hope that helps. God bless! :)

Ojalá muy pronto empezaremos a traducir los videos en Español Raquel! :)

Hi Maritza! Guyana! That's awesome! :) Love you too! Ask your son what he would like. That's your BEST bet. :)

Krazy Kool Cakes & Designs OMG u reply 😘😘😘 I ask him and he don't know

Krazy Kool Cakes & Designs can you please give me an idea

Hello maritza mathura, this is your beginning, I suggest you choose a design from a youtube video and stick to the one video you like. From this cake design you will learn the challenges of designing a cake and when next you design such a cake there will be much improvement, I assure you of this. It is amazing to look back at the first cakes we made. Good luck!

You are VERY welcome Alicia! This awkward situation can be VERY EASILY nipped in the bud by telling them that you "don't provide samples". If they want to sample your cakes, LOL, they have to order them. Here's the thing Alicia... You ALREADY KNOW that those ladies are not your clients, ESPECIALLY if they are saying that THAT cake they ordered was "expensive". You probably know that you would charge more than whatever she charged for a similar design, plus, you KNOW your cake would look a lot better. Right? So don't worry about that situation, and don't even see that other girl as "competition". Let her have them as clients. God has MUCH BETTER clients in store for you Alicia. You just continue being patient and thanking God in ADVANCE for promoting your business and for bringing you the right clients. I promise you it will happen! Do you know that I've learned from experience, that when business is calm and the orders aren't coming in, that just means something BIG is about to happen! God is working on your behalf (if you trust Him) and He's making things happen "behind the scenes" that you're not aware of. You just keep trusting, believing, and EXPECTING. Don't you dare budge on your prices! It's better to have no cakes, than to give away your work. At work, what you CAN do is talk to people about your cake business. Have photos of your most beautiful work on your phone and show it off to everyone! There's nothing wrong with promoting your own business to your co-workers. If they mention the other girl that does cakes you just say, "Yes, she does awesome work". Always compliment other Cake Artists. Never shoot them down (which I know you don't do Alicia). When you bless others with your words, God will bless you in return. And of course, don't ever "offer" your services to someone who you already know WON'T pay. The RIGHT clients will seek you out and come to you. Tell EVERYONE about your business. I mean everyone! That's what Arnie does on a DAILY basis, EVERYWHERE he goes and we get TONS of business that way! God bless you Alicia and I KNOW I'm going to hear great news from you in the future. Put God FIRST in your life and in your business and HE WILL make it happen for YOU! He's doing it for US, and He'll do it FOR YOU! I promise!!!! :)

Krazy Kool Cakes & Designs Thanks Laura your words really cheered me up and gave me renewed vigor :) blessing for.you guys

Maybe you and the other cake lady can become partners! Maybe that's why you ended up there.

Mikel Ibarra yea actually another cake baker is my friend not competence cause we share the love of baking

That's wonderful to hear Alicia. God bless you. :)

Hola! Al momento no tengo videos en Español pero ya muy pronto planeo en hacerlo. Dios la bendiga! :) P.S. Your English is excellent so glad you were able to enjoy this video. :)