#8993037 - 04/03/17 03:13 PM
Re: Business Donating goods
[Re: TheRealCSnapper]
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BroKe
Post Master Sr
Registered: 09/15/01
Posts: 3833
Loc: Markham, Ontario
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Sounds like a big waste of time. Why don't you just sell them
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#8993313 - 04/03/17 07:55 PM
Re: Business Donating goods
[Re: Senor Eduardo_82]
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porschetr
Post Master Supreme
Registered: 05/15/01
Posts: 23391
Loc: WBridge
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#8993531 - 04/04/17 07:11 AM
Re: Business Donating goods
[Re: porschetr]
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LNXGUY
Post Master Supreme
Registered: 08/06/00
Posts: 106939
Loc: Barrie, Ont,
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Donation or not, there's no way I'd do this if I was in the hole afterwards. Sorry man, but you need to worry about yourself first.
Those cakes are unreal!
_________________________
-Bill The GN would OWN you, your children and your children's children. '09 E90 335 d 
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#8993651 - 04/04/17 09:17 AM
Re: Business Donating goods
[Re: 4Three]
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SW20_MR2
Post Master Sr
Registered: 08/27/01
Posts: 5282
Loc: Markham, Ontario, Canada
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For the ones that you donate, you should at least get some form of recognition or PR. Be in their program guides, advertising, etc. Put your flyers and business cards somewhere at the event. If they agreed to do this and didn't come through, they should pay you for it.
_________________________
1991 MR2 Turbo aka "The Myth"...does it really exist?
2006 Mazda3 Sport aka "Reality"...it really does exist...
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#8993884 - 04/04/17 11:14 AM
Re: Business Donating goods
[Re: 87ZCSi]
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porschetr
Post Master Supreme
Registered: 05/15/01
Posts: 23391
Loc: WBridge
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Some good points guys.
Thank you.
To an extent, I agree with some others. Put business cards next to it, call it advertising, carry the loss forward at the retail value of the cake. Fake it 'til you make it. How many times do you think someone with means wondered where the cake came from and left without knowing the answer?
Next issue is efficiency, I'm sorry but 15hrs / cake? A living wage is $25?/hr meaning that without CPP/EI/overhead you're already at $375 in labour. The COST to make these cakes is roughly $500 (you need to pay yourself, even if it's just on paper), does the market support a $1000 cake? If the market doesn't support it then it will always be a hobby and the realization needs to set in quick.
So, have you done research, and if so what is out there for competition in the for profit luxury cake market?
The market is there but many competitions.
And you have to be known to get these high end customers.
Otherwise many customers are like "what? How much for a cake?"
I believe my quality is there. Everyone so far has been very happy with the products.
Efficiency? Can't compare to the ladies who have been baking for years.
My website. Check it out if you guys like to.
http://www.layeredcreations.ca
What works for me is that I do Everything.
It takes more time but saving money for now.
I bake, decorate, take DSLR photos, manage website, use photoshop and illustrator to design cake and templates, and make cake toppers with cutting machine.
_________________________
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#8993916 - 04/04/17 11:39 AM
Re: Business Donating goods
[Re: porschetr]
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zc911
Ferrari4Sale 😎
Post Master Supreme
Registered: 01/01/00
Posts: 16449
Loc: toronto
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Weddings!!! Nobody scoffs at paying $XXXX on a wedding cake. What about going to the brial show?
I sent your link to a friend who is getting married. Very cool cakes!
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#8993926 - 04/04/17 11:46 AM
Re: Business Donating goods
[Re: porschetr]
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87ZCSi
Post Master Sr
Registered: 09/06/00
Posts: 7166
Loc: Portland and Toronto
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Real talk...
1) Let's look at a single case. What should a cake cost, from a competitor, that you yourself could create?
2) What is material cost of said cake had you produced it?
3) How many hours would be invested had you produced it?
4) If you had to ballpark, what is the cost of specialty tools you have access to?
5) Is this a career aspiration?
6) How about regular cakes to a similar crowd that are fan-fucking-tastic? There was this guy in Whitby we'd buy cakes from for every event, $50-60, German chocolate cakes, strawberry shortcakes, regular birthday cakes, whatever. They never broke the bank but everyone loved them and he was happy to take the order. At family gatherings it was always my responsibility to bring the cake because it was the BEST! He also made me my wedding cake for $800, but I think he made more from me from regular cakes because I kept going back. I had never bought one or baked one as good as what he'd make for me.
In my humble opinion (as an 8 time business owner, 5 failed, 2 sold, 1 currently operational, /notbragpost), depending on the realization from above it is necessary (knowing nothing about cakes) to:
1) keep doing pro-bono / reduced cost work
2) target it at an audience making sure that attendees MAY be interested in a nice cake, you can't invest without any expectation of return
3) get rid of the free website, that's labeled all over as a free website
4) your business cards can't be free either with an advertisement on the back.
5) don't come off as desperate or in need, and don't tell anyone a cake was ever free or discounted. It diminishes your brand.
6) in a 'cake agreement' for which a cake is discounted, you need to advertise, if they pay full price, no advertisement necessary.
My mind is overflowing at the moment but this is what I've got anyway at the moment. Don't give up, just look at it as a business for a moment and see if it is one.
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#8994314 - 04/04/17 04:06 PM
Re: Business Donating goods
[Re: TheRealCSnapper]
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OracerO
Post Master Sr
Registered: 10/07/02
Posts: 3949
Loc: GTA
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This is the first mistake newbs get into when they start their business. They do to much for to little and don't know when to stop giving until it's to late.
Charity work is good to a point. You can't do charity work 100% of your time. Like a lot of others stated, you need to make sure you're getting exposure. If my products were for a charity cause, i would have left some sort of branding on my products OR have them sign a contract stating what kind of exposure and credit is to be given to me (trust me they will sign anything if you are giving away a free product).
Or if you have a company branding banner, have them put it up as part of the contract for the exposure. I'm all about giving back but you can't go broke doing it, you can donate your profits, but you shouldn't go into debt doing it.
So my wedding is in coming up and we ordered a 3 layer cake for $375 w/butter cream, fondant flowers on the edge of the bottom tear and second tear. Each tear is a different flavor as well. My G-unit shopped around from local cake makers on random local wedding forums and FB.
I would suggest you start post whoring your products on all these forums, wedding, parenting forums, etc. It's a business and you have spend the time for marketing. Do this consistently like every other day in the mornings or something. Make it a habit.
Edited by OracerO (04/04/17 04:12 PM)
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#8994377 - 04/04/17 05:08 PM
Re: Business Donating goods
[Re: OracerO]
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porschetr
Post Master Supreme
Registered: 05/15/01
Posts: 23391
Loc: WBridge
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Weddings!!! Nobody scoffs at paying $XXXX on a wedding cake. What about going to the brial show?
I sent your link to a friend who is getting married. Very cool cakes!
Ya, I've participated a couple of months ago.
Thank you. I haven't got any PM though
Real talk...
How about regular cakes to a similar crowd that are fan-fucking-tastic? There was this guy in Whitby we'd buy cakes from for every event, $50-60, German chocolate cakes, strawberry shortcakes, regular birthday cakes, whatever. They never broke the bank but everyone loved them and he was happy to take the order. At family gatherings it was always my responsibility to bring the cake because it was the BEST! He also made me my wedding cake for $800, but I think he made more from me from regular cakes because I kept going back. I had never bought one or baked one as good as what he'd make for me.
Unfortunately I am not equipped to produce ordinary cakes. I mean I can't compete with bakeries that makes 100 cakes a day and sell a strawberry short cakes for $30-40. I like those moist cakes too but it won't be profitable for me to make one at a time.
how good are your cakes?
i mean, i can tell that they look fucking dope but how do they taste.....
if the actually taste well and you don't just use betty crocker mix and dress it up with pretty fondant, i can see if can refer you to friends.
parents would pay top $$ for a cake for a kids birthday....
I only use Duncan Hines mix...jk
No shortening or artificial flavours used in my cakes. I use nothing less than Swiss Meringue Buttercream,tried 4 different vanilla cakes because I wasn't happy with others.
My friends would tell me if they suck. It's been very positive.
I use the same ingredients for those give away cakes as well. Doesn't matter how nice they look. If they taste like turd, no one would come back.
So my wedding is in coming up and we ordered a 3 layer cake for $375 w/butter cream, fondant flowers on the edge of the bottom tear and second tear. Each tear is a different flavor as well. My G-unit shopped around from local cake makers on random local wedding forums and FB.
That is very cheap. I would like to see how they can do a 3 layer cake for $375. Though 3 layer cake could start from 10" base or 8" base. Makes big difference.
And fondant/gumpaste flower prices vary as well. It can easily go $20-30 per flower.
Round the cake edges with my flowers, I probably have to charge $375 just for the flowers.
Buttercream as well. There are many ways to make it. You can just mix powder sugar and butter (American Buttercream). Like mentioned above, I won't do anything less than Swiss Meringue Buttercream.
I can also save time and material by not covering the cake board. If someone must pay less, you have to cut from areas like that.
Example of an unfinished cake board. (not mine)
_________________________
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#8994409 - 04/04/17 06:10 PM
Re: Business Donating goods
[Re: titty sprinkles]
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Denis Si
Post Master
Registered: 04/11/01
Posts: 2798
Loc: T.O.
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Your cakes look sick man!
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#8994414 - 04/04/17 06:18 PM
Re: Business Donating goods
[Re: Denis Si]
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Risky Business
Provides a Great Work Environment. he/him
Post Master Supreme
Registered: 05/17/10
Posts: 44790
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Your cakes look great, you shouldn't have problems selling them, but i am assuming you are not very good at pedaling your own product?
If you are not developing any leads with every free giveaway it's a waste of time. I will take a contrarian view to most here...I would totally focus on free cake giveaways, in particular ones with high exposure and high probability of leads. If for every free cake I can sell 3+ as a by product form the event, yep I am winning. Think of the free cake as your advertising cost, you have to be crafty about it tho.
If you did this for the veterans you had a perfect platform to scale to a much larger audience, the veterans' families, for 1 vet you have 3-4+ potential customers. Did you hang around and work that angle, heck if you just bought a cheap ass snapchat filter for $20 for the veteran giveaway (provided there were kids) that would've been crazy exposure for you, this is all super basic.
I mean i recall even here Civic Dude reached out to you about cakes, did you follow up and close that? Even if you sold it to him at cost or deep discount you would've had 100% ROI as someone on here would buy from you if Civic dude vouched for the quality. Right now i don't know you, you are just as good as a kijiji person, but if another member vouched especially a reputable one then it totally changes the dynamic.
Not sure your efforts are focused in the right place, product looks good tho. Good luck.
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#8998550 - 04/09/17 08:39 AM
Re: Business Donating goods
[Re: Risky Business]
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porschetr
Post Master Supreme
Registered: 05/15/01
Posts: 23391
Loc: WBridge
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