How Long Should It Take to Decorate a Cookie?

Good question - for me, the time varies considerably depending on cookie design. Obviously, the more intricate the design, the longer it takes. I have been known to spend anywhere from a few minutes to more than an hour to detail a cookie once topcoated. The key to making any money is knowing/recording the labor in your cookies, developing some labor standards for various designs or types of designs, and then pricing accordingly to make a profit margin.

I hope calculating labour is something Amy might address in her blog from dough to dollars. I can't seem to figure it out as far as an hourly wage goes I don't think you could pay yourself even $10 an hour - if it takes you an hour to detail a few cookies?

Sarah - That's right - my guess is most people are way undercharging for "art" cookies. To make money at the prices most people seem to charge ($3-$4/cookie), you'd have to simplify designs and crank them out a lot faster. (NOTE: I no longer sell my cookies. I make my money in other ways, so that's how I can justify spending an hour or more on one cookie.) 

Basically, if you want to make a 10-15% profit margin after overhead (assuming overhead is 20 to 30% of sales if you have a physical shop and pay licensing and other regulatory fees), then your combined labor and food cost cannot exceed 55-70% of what you charge. So if it takes you 10 hours to make a dozen cookies from start to finish, and you want to pay yourself or someone else $10/hr (which is what I paid my employees 8 years ago), then your labor costs alone would require pricing these cookies at $8 or more dollars a piece.

As Aymee noted, she's purposely streamlined her designs to make her business profitable. 

Anyway, I'll point her to this forum. I'm pretty sure pricing is one of the topics she plans to address. It's a really important one.

Julia, thanks so much for taking the time to respond. This has been one of my conundrums for some time. I am super fortunate in that I don't need to support my family selling cookies - thank goodness! I look froward to learning more through this forum - thanks again for providing it!    

This is a really good topic. I too way undercharged for any work I actually sold in comparison to the time and costs involved. My justification is- I'd be sitting home anyway so better to make something then nothing- but don't forget we are in the middle of a great recession here and money is very hard to come by so I am happy to make anything at this point to help out. Sad huh? So I undersell and yet find others  even cheaper here. It's a no win.  I am just trying to get better and learn more and hope things turn. 

When I try to budget my cookie decorating time, I allow approximately 15 minutes per cookie from when I start decorating to when I finish. Most of my cookies are about 3.5" to 4" in size, are somewhat detailed, and I spend a LOT of time outlining. If I had to, I could be more effiecient, which would decrease the time allotment per cookie. And yeah, easier designs with limited colors is a good way to increase your output!