Hi everybody! I have a question... How do you calculate your labor costs? What things do you have to in acount to charge for a cookie? Does it depends in how many colors do you use or the details?
Thank you!!
Original Post
There are a lot of factors that go into calculating labor costs. It's not just how much time you spend decorating the cookie. There is the shopping for ingredients, baking, making and coloring icings, researching designs, clean up, packaging, and delivery (if you do that.) Then there are all the things you do while not specific to that order are part of your overall business expenses. I can't accurately factor everything together and get a specific labor cost per order. I have been charging a base price per dozen. However,i realized that I was not being fair to myself or my customers because each order is different. Some may be a fairly easy design whereas others are highly detailed. Of course the size of the cookie matters as well. I am in the process of converting to Sugarbelle's price chart. You can find it on her website. You should adjust the prices based on your level of expertise and what your area will reasonably pay.