Perla Adams posted:Thank you for all the replies,
I do agree with everything that has been said. I did not take in consideration all the other important factors, as location, electricity, insurance, depreciation, and, of course, the cleaning!
I admit, I am happy that people like my cookies and enjoy all the compliments. I understand that they want to be able to get cookies on demand. To know the real cost, helps me to explain why I can’t take orders. It is not that I don’t want they have cookies. I just don’t want to be rude and ask for $ 50.00 per cookie.
Thank you again,
I agree completely! Knowing your costs allows one to make smarter decisions about the type of work s/he chooses to take. While it's great to take only profitable orders, I can think of circumstances where one might choose to underprice an order just to be sure to get it or for the experience - for instance, if it was for a high-profile client who was likely to do repeat business with you or whose name you could use in future marketing, or just to have the cookies as part of your portfolio. But, more often than not, I used my pricing as a threshold for screening customers. If they balked at my basic starting prices without any decoration, then I knew they were not going to be profitable customers for me, and I avoided costly consultation time this way.