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Mass Production Advice Needed to Reduce Cookie Pricing

My boss aproached me a couple of weeks ago with the idea that we take up my cookies into our range of products. He is just in love with them and thinks they are amazing. As much as I am flattered by his opinion and as much as I would love to do this, I truly doubt that we will be able to come up with reasonable prices.

 

As mentioned in another post already, I need an average of 30-40 min for each cookie. I could reduce this quite a bit if I didn't have to work in my private kitchen but had more space and more professional equipment (e.g a kitchen aid). And of course I could come up with simpler designs and not fuzz about each line so long. But I guess the absolute minimum I will ever be able to reach, without reducing quality and design to a level so low that it wouldn't be me anymore, is 15 minutes per cookie. That would mean an outcome of max. 4 cookies per hour. Simple ones I wouldn't be too happy with.

 

The costs for all the insurances needed, the space my boss would have to rent, the chamber of commerce fee, the business registration fees, the additonal charges for getting me officially acknowledged as a person allowed to sell baked goods, aso, asf, can be roughly estimated with 1000 € per month. And then, of course, I get paid as well and there are taxes on every single cookie sold. As I have a training in foreign trade, I know a bit about calculations, and what I come up with is that we will have to make at least 45 € an hour to be profitable at all - always assuming we will get enough orders 

 

This will make each cookie worth 11,25 €, and that is already very optimistic! I'd say it will border more on 15-18 € in the end.

 

You see the problem? It jumps right in the face, doesn' it? One way to lower the price would be to cut my wage - and I am not really willing to do that. Legal minimum wages were just increased to 8.50 € in Germany, and honestly, that is too low for me. I would need to leave my house and move to a small flat, give away my cats, eat dry bread, etc. I aim for appr. double.

 

So the other option I see is mass production with the help of machines. So far my research has shown that it seems hardly possible, as RI doesn't agree with machines very well. But I do have hopes that some of you have ideas about this, maybe even experience? I'd be grateful for any advice on increasing production speed. Maybe there is a way to use a device for mass coating, or mass cutting cookies?

 

Sorry for the long post, but I lie awake every night for hours and wonder if it is possible at all to make a living off decorated cookies, or if you can only make a bit additional money if you do it home-based and don't pay yourself a decent hourly wage...

 

Looking forwards to your ideas, suggestions, and opinions!

Last edited by Julia M. Usher
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