Help! Quick responses Needed with Pricing ideas!!
Posted by propinecone on Sep 12, 2008 · Member since May 2007 · 2842 posts
!!!! help!!!
i made some baked goods to take to a food buyer i know. i was planning on giving them to her for free just to show her what kinda stuff i can do but she told me to bring an invoice so she can pay me! which is awesome but since she didnt specify how much stuff she wanted i dont want to overcharge her just cus i made a bunch. heres what im taking her:
3 dozen pb oatmeal cookies
1 dozen apple crunch muffins
1 mini zucchini bread loaf
9x13 pan of chocolate chip cookie dough brownies
what do you guys think this is worth? ??
i gotta make a invoice up and take it to her soon!
thanks!!!!
maybe charge her something really small this time, and note it on the invoice. like charge her cost and say it's for sampling or whatever, that's not the retail price.
or just do a straight 3 to 4 times the cost of the ingredients. When I managed a pizza place that was a good food cost percentage.
but make sure you are getting a good hourly wage in there, too. option 3: maybe figure up how long it took to make each item, make sure you get whatever hourly wage you want and add twice the cost of the ingredients.
or just charge however much you would pay for it. or if she is going to resell it, charge whatever you would pay for it minus 20% or so maybe.
there's my 2 (i guess 4) cents worth.
200% of cost of supplies?
I'd make the invoice for the amount that you'd sell the goodies for and if you want to just cover costs this time, make a deduction on the bill, rather than charge less up front.
i agree with flik.
thanks guys - i ended up charging $45... i know if i do the math and the hours worked it will probably end up being low but i didnt have time to do all the calculation of 1 cup of flour costs this much... etc. plus, i figure i was totally planning on giving it to her completely for free just to try it out, so any money is really a bonus. hopefully it works out and she and her business partner will want things at least a few days a week!
*fingers crossed*
Sounds like she got a killer deal on some yummy goodness!! Next time you want to sell all of that for $45, I'll give you my address. I'll even pay shipping AND handling! ;)
As a longtime vegan caterer, I have learned to make sure I am charging enough! I didn't for a long time and actually got in the red. At the very least, you will want to make sure you are charging 3-4X your costs. That is pretty much standard. Usually, at this point, I do it by "feel" and often charge more than that, as it takes a LOT of time to do quality foods from scratch. When I used to sell prepared foods, I would get 70% of the total retail cost, so I would just determine a maximum retail cost that I thought people would pay, and people never complained. For example, my fresh Thai spring rolls with peanut sauce would retail for around $4 each and I would get 70% of that. I've been catering on and off for about 13 years and have really found that it is important to get enough compensation out of it, or else I get burned out! Groceries (especially quality organic ones) are very expensive!
It also helps to do things in bulk...for example, when I did those spring rolls, I sold them all over town. So, I would make about 150 of them per week (about 30 each in 5 different locations) and make a gross profit of $420 on the batch.
Last year, I finally realized a profound truth in my work, and it has made things much easier:If YOU value yourself and your "product" people will pay you accordingly! I stopped giving "fear-based" prices and started asking for what I really wanted. Since then, I have gotten many high paying vegan catering gigs, and also turned down many gigs I would have previously accepted (such as those paying only $10 per person).
Anyway, sounds like you are doing great ;)b...I hope this helps a little.