An article aimed at customers: Money matters...

Hello! I thought you guys might be interested in reading a short article that I wrote to send to my customers, basically because I’m tired of people falling off their chairs when I quote them on cakes, a reasonable price, considering the amount of hours put in…

Being a passion-driven business, cake decorating is sometimes a difficult career to follow because of the fact that generally, consumers don’t really want to pay a big price for something that is eaten in a few fleeting moments.

It is definitely considered a luxury to purchase a piece of edible art.

Let’s put cake prices into perspective:

I’ve done a bit of research~ and found the following to be current South African statistics for some common luxuries:

• The average South African woman spends R 1000 per month on beauty treatments, including hair, makeup, massage, nails and clothes. (That’s R 12 000 per year)
• The average South African woman spends R 152 per month on take-away coffee/ cappucino. (That’s R 1824 per year)
• The average middle-class South African family spends R 300 per week on take out/ eating out.
  Let’s break this down a bit…it’s R 15 600 per year.
  As you would need to eat anyway, roughly R 3870 is spent on restaurant profit per year. ( I’ve worked it out on a 33% profit rate for restaurants – which is below average).

These are just a few consumables that are very short-lived, but add to the quality of our lives. I’m sure there are many more luxuries we indulge in that are important to us individually, so we can live happy lives.

The average price for a one-of-a-kind cake with matching cupcakes, purpose designed just for your
child, for 1 day in a year is R 1000 -R 2000. (This is a rough estimate, as this depends on personal choice and size.)

We’ll take a look, now at what that means for you, the consumer:

• A surprise/ happy reaction from your child on their special day.
• A delicious home-baked cake, made with quality ingredients and no added preservatives.
• A piece of art to build a theme around and boost colour schemes.
• The opportunity to take awesome photos of your child’s birthday, allowing for good memories which will be treasured forever.
• Let’s face it, it makes you ‘look good’ in front of friends/ family, showing that you can pull off a wonderfully themed party, right down to the food.

Yes, that moment is fleeting, and that money could be saved for something more important, but if you look at all the other luxuries we indulge in, this is one small price to pay for more than a spoonful of happiness.

- Chef Sam
~Sources: Property24, Health24