Hi everyone!
I'd like to say, that here in chile, the cookie business is not too high (at least the good cookie art) what's trendy here is the cake business. Most of the people who sell their cakes and pastries are 99% women, and of course, cakes are more expensive than cookies, that's why i decided to start my own cookie art business (i create my cookies and then sell them) and what i've noticed about this, is that people find the prices "too high", since they think: "well, this is just a cookie". That's pretty offensive, considering all the art work behind it, the time spent, and creativity. I've seen cookie prices (on Etsy) that rounds the 35$ per dozen, and i find that pretty incredible, because the price that i came up with (after analyzing the costs, materials and time) is 23 - 24$ per 2 dozens (approx) and even so, many people still find it "too pricey". Someone once told me: "people don't care about how hard you worked for your cookies, they only care about eating them"... i think it's wonderful when people tell you how beautiful your creations are, and how much they admire your cookie art, but when they directly tell you "i think they're too pricey, in the end, they're just cookies" it's kind of offensive, cause in my case, i take my cookie art very serious, it's what i love to do and it's what fills my soul.
I stumbled over your Price of $ 24 per 2 dozen. That seems incredibly low. I don't know about wages in Chile, guess they arge lower than here in Germany, and I also don't know about business costs (such as various insurances, taxes, etc.), but that means that you charge $ 1 per cookie. How long do you need as an average to finsh one? I'd guess about 10 min. per piece, based on your uploaded pictures, maybe even longer (and don't cheat yourself, cleaning time, preparing the icing, customer corrspondence, maintaining an onlineshop etc. has to go in this as well!). That would let you make appr. 6-7 cookies per hour = $ 6-7 per hour. Now deduct all the costs you had: cookie dough, colors, icing, electricity, baking paper, bags for packing, taxes, and so on, and so forth. That will probably leave you with $ 1,50 an hour net profit - this seems very low to me, even for Chile. And especially low for this kind of artful product.
I have pricing going on a lot on my mind lately, as I consider opening up a cookie business together with my boss - and I honestly have to say that I will either need to charge 20-40 EUR per cookie (yes, per cookie, not per dozen or whatever), or I will be working for no money at all. I need an average of 30-40 minutes per cookie and I am not very slow - I had the opportunity to compare my speed to people who actually do this for a living and I am about their speed, too. If I had a professional working area and made large amounts of identical cookies, I could be a bit more faster, but even then, no chance to make any of my designs with profit for less than 15 EUR per cookie. Ofcourse, we do have very high side costs in Germany, which make about 40% of this price.
I have to admit that I am reaching the conclusion that it is not worth it. Nobody will pay these prices and I am not willing to work for a couple of bucks an hour. Not if I have to make a living of it.