Pricing questions, for first timer/up start beginner

Over the last few months (a year actually) I've been getting suggestions and requests to start selling my baked goods. I've been hesitant, for a number of reasons, but I'm kind of in a position right now to where I may be able to start doing so on a limited basis. However, I don't know where to begin. I've already got 2 orders for Thanksgiving (a pie and a cake) and just did a birthday cake. I know these are very early stages here, but it's a start, and I'd rather start small to "see where this goes"! I also anticipate more for Christmas, but we'll see. Anyways I have no idea how to price anything. I mean I've read some of the threads here and saw anywhere between 50% and 70% mark-up but I'm still lost. Please help.

First, for the time being I'm baking in a commercial kitchen (my Church has one) and for right now it's free of charge, as I've only done 2 things...but obviously if I start using it regularly that will be a cost for me right there. (sorry I don't know the cost as it hasn't come up yet...any idea what a fair price to rent a commercial kitchen say for 8 hours would be????) Second, right now I'm not using bulk ingredients (like 100 lb bags of flour or anything)....but smaller retail bags of flour etc...

And I'm not selling through a store, but basically word of mouth...(like the orders for thanksgiving, people just want a cake) with the potential to sell in a local coffee shop and a local deli/store. But again, what do I charge? Do different types of baked goods have different mark-ups? Cookies, versus pies, and cakes?

I don't want to "under" charge and then when I start renting the kitchen (if that happens) have to all of a sudden mark-up my prices to compensate. And of course buying commercial ingredients as opposed to bulk supplier ingredients probably makes a difference too, but my orders are just too small right now to order 30 pounds of powdered sugar...

Anyways, I don't want to bog down the question with too many variables, but just wanted to paint a half way clear picture here....any ideas suggestions on pricing? One order I have for Thanksgiving is a 3 layer, chocolate torte styled cake with a butter cream frosting...since I would never buy a cake like myself, (as I would just make it myself) so I have no idea what to charge. My ingredients cost came to (I think) around $10 for that cake....but if I add labor, etc...(and take into consideration a future kitchen rental) it seems like it would end up into the mid $20 range....that seems high, but again, I haven't bought a cake in ages, so maybe it's not.

Anyways any help would be greatly appreciated

 

Thanks guys! I'll continue looking in the archives for more details. And I'll definitely call a bakery or two just to see what they're charging for something similar, just to get an idea. Thanks again!

 

thanks for the links! every little bit of information will definitely help! Looks like a good place to begin. Gonna call a bakery or two today as well, just to see what they charge.

 

Thanks for the link. I'm in Northern Wisconsin, which is a good tourist area, so some of his prices seem a bit low for my area. ($10 for a pie) But most definitely $35 for a pie would be way too much here. But every piece of information definitely helps me get a general idea.

 

Thanks for the tip! I've already gotten a little bit of that, but nothing too extreme on the cost issue.

One thing I have noticed when I'm selling to people I know is they feel more . . . open, or more inclined to critique items, or give what they see as "constructive criticism". I'm wondering how do you all deal with this aspect? Obviously I'm still extremely small scale, but for example one family I sold a raisin pie to for thanksgiving, gave me some "helpful hints"....afterwards. (they'd never even heard of raisin pie until I told them about such a pie this summer)

two people said "I would prefer the crust edging be a little thinner"....(now this is a big family so it was like 2 or 3 people out of like 8 or 10). But it just seemed a bit, "odd" to me that someone would buy a pie and then proceed to tell me "it was absolutely delicious, but if I had my way I'd do so and so a little different".

I just cannot imagine someone buying a pie or cake from a bakery, then going in after the holiday and saying "it was great but I like my pie crust a little more thin." (of course other people prefer the thick edging)

As for the thin vs thick crust, how could I possibly please everyone? Most people seem to really like my thick crusts (just the edging BTW is thick, couldn't they just not eat it if it was too thick?) It was almost as if they wanted 2 pies...one thin, one thick crusted...If I'm going to take "special" orders shouldn't I be able to charge a premium for that?

Again these were just a coupe people, and everyone said they "loved it", but again, it seemed like a couple people felt more inclined to give me advice for next time than was appropriate simply because they know me. With that said, I HAVE taken this family stuff before for that explicit reason (tell me what you think of this and how it could be improved), but this to me was clearly not the case this time. Obviously I'm appreciative and they certainly meant well. But seeing as how I'm new to this, just how common is this? Do people come into bakeries and do that? Or did these folks just feel like it was more ok because I'm not a "professional"?


Again, thank you for the help. It's sometimes hard to charge something that "feels" like it's too much, but then once the work goes into it I realize it's not over priced at all. A couple of my cakes are pretty labor/time intensive and I doubt most people would put the time in even if they could. But sometimes "guilt" plays a role, so I'll have to keep that in check.