7 Mistakes I Made In My Wedding Cake Business & How To Avoid Them
1.Posting all the cakes I made on social media
If you want to move into the wedding industry and you’re still making other types of cakes, stop posting those cakes. I know, I understand this is really difficult as you’ve spent time making them and want to show them off, they’re bespoke pieces of work so why shouldn’t we share all our work?
Well there are reasons
Ask yourself do you really enjoy making all the types of cakes you take on? If you don’t stop posting them.
People buy what they see. Your website and social media accounts are like your shop window, so if customers see certain types of cakes then naturally they will think these are what you specialise in.
If you want to move from making celebration cakes to wedding cakes, stop posting photo’s of celebration cakes.
If you want to stop making semi naked cakes, then stop posting them, and post the types of cakes you want to make.
2. Make sure you take a booking fee
This is so important to do, basically no booking fee = not secured in your diary.
What ever types of cakes you make you should be taking a booking fee.
This not only secures the customer in your diary but also pays you for any work you have carried out such as communications via email, phone, messaging for example, providing quotes, researching and anything else you may do prior to the booking.
Make sure that you stipulate that it is a non refundable booking fee too, as this also partially covers you if a customer cancels their order closer to the wedding date as it may be unlikely that you can’t rebook that date with another customer, given how far in advance customers book.
3. Not having Terms and Conditions in Place
You need to have cake terms and conditions in place to protect you and your customers, and if over time your terms and conditions change this is fine too.
Think about all the different parts to your business and what you want to be clear about.
Some of the things you might want to cover in your terms and conditions could be;
Information about your cake prices and your payment methods
Information about your booking fee
When the final payment is due
Cake components / non edibles
Collection / delivery
Cake location at the venue
Allergens
Best before dates
Cake stand hire
Cancellation policy
Force majeure clause
Pandemic postponements
Complaints
4. Completing wedding cake consultations too early
I learnt this quite early on in my cake business not to complete design consultations too early in the process.
I used to do them as soon as someone had paid their booking fee, and in some cases this could be between 1 - 2 years in advance of the wedding.
The problem with this is that most couples won’t have fully secured other suppliers, decided on their décor, and colours.
You may end up holding further design consultations nearer to the time of the wedding, and therefore meaning that you are completing further cake sketches. Bare in mind that each one can take roughly an hour to complete.
I would recommend completing your design consultation anywhere between 4 and 6 months before the wedding so you know at this point your customers will have all their information.
5. Not working out your prices
Pricing is huge, it’s something most cake makers struggle with. We will either ask other cake makers what they think we should charge, or we will look at other cake makers websites……. yes I see you!
BUT….. the problem with this is that your costings, overheads, utilities will be different from Betty’s up the road.
Some cake makers will have a rental premises, whilst another is working from home. A cake maker who has rental premises will naturally have more overheads, whereas a cake maker working from home won’t. Bills will also be different for every cake maker too. Betty up the road may be using lower quality of ingredients…. you just don’t know.
There are so many variables that need to be considered, but ultimately one you need to work out yourself.
I can’t stress the importance it is to work your prices out yourself. Yes it can be a ball ache initially, but once it’s all set up it’s then really easy to check prices on a regular basis, and update your price list.
You’re also more then likely have been undercharging too, so by working out your prices you will find it’s a bit of an eye opener.
6. Not charging for delivery and set up to the venues
Make sure that you have a clear process to use for your delivery and set up charges. I dont have my costs on my website but I have it on my costings spreadsheet so its there and ready to go.
Remember when quoting for delivery and set up you need to charge for the round trip not just one way. Also factor in your time.
One thing in the early days of running my cake business I didnt account for adding fresh flowers at the venue, Adding fresh flowers can be a timely job and one which takes me about an hour to complete if not more sometimes. So make sure you add this time.
7. Doing everything manually
How many times do you send the same email, or book design consultations manually.
To make things easier think about automating some of this;
Email templates that are ready to go
Setting up a booking system via zoom or a programme such as Calendly (so when it’s consultation season you can add lots of appointment timeslots and just send that link to all couples that need to book their consultation)
Set up a payment system - Could you use a programme such as BakeDiary where you can send invoices and link it to Stripe or Paypal, or you can use Stripe too.
Create an E-brochure and set up email automation so you can capture leads and send weekly emails
There are lots of ways to automate some of your business processes
Would you love to grow your wedding cake business?
Would you love to become fully booked?
Do you want to create professional finishes on your cakes?