I do an initial phone consultation, establish a budget, what their needs are and from there I can gage if I want to take the order on. If so, I block out 2 hour slots of appointment times on the weekends and let them have their pick of what is already open (as a standard I have 1pm, 3pm and 5pm on Saturday and Sundays… basically from February until April.
From there I let them pick out flavors to sample. They get 5 flavors. They must pay an initial $20 fee (In the start I had people who came for free cake and never contact me back) and if they book I apply that to their balance for a “free tasting”. Since I do a lot of tastings but I do this from home, I have baked up all of my flavors into sheet cakes and cut 4×4 squares of each flavor, then wrap individually and freeze. I do my frostings up in half batches and put them into those little tiny cups with lids. They get 5 flavors of those as well (only one cup per flavor). I label everything with dates and flavors and freeze. I cut the 4×4 squares up for each tasting into 4 pieces and put it on a serving tray with labels for the cakes and set plates around the serving tray on the table. It’s like a little dessert buffet when they walk in… and doing the frosting in the cups keeps it from getting freezer burn and also lets them mix and match their flavors… because that is what I do for my business. A bride may have up to 4 people including herself. If it’s just the bride and groom, they get more cake. :D
Hope that helps. It’s been slow progress to this system of mine, I used to tote everything to them and it was a hastle.
Leslie Bruckman, Owner of Nom Nom Sweeties
