How to Book Wedding Cakes at Bridal Shows

I remember when I did my first wedding show for my business. It was in the BIG (I mean BIG!) convention center in Downtown Denver and I had no idea what I was truly getting into when I signed up. 

The day was CRAZY!

Swarms of brides kept coming to my booth, I was constantly talking, and while the day went by like a breeze, it wasn’t successful. 

I paid tons of money and I didn’t get anything in return. 

But, I learned lots of lessons to help you easily and effortlessly sell your cakes at wedding shows. 

1. Have a system to book consultations at the show. 

The #1 purpose of a wedding show is to book customers. Generally at these shows, the show participates are browsing and collecting information from various vendors. 

They are not in the purchasing mindset. 

Your #1 objective is to book cake consultations at the show so you have a filled calendar of cake tastings with brides you’ve already met with at the show. 

When the client comes to your cake tasting, you already have a great rapport with and the cake tasting should go smoother.

If you need additional support with booking more clients in your cake business, download my free 9-page checklist that has my best 4 strategies to help you book more cake orders today! Grab the Free Checklist here! 

2. Have a helper or two. 

You are the face of your business and you should only be talking, being friendly, getting to know the brides who come to your booth. 

Have a helper or two book your cake tastings for you, help distribute cake samples, give additional information, and introduce potential clients to you. 

You only want to focus on building a rapport with your potential brides and having a good time! Let your support, support you with helping the flow of your booth. 

3. Don’t worry about samples.

You will run out of samples. People eat more than one sample. Consider, do you even want samples at your booth?

Your #1 objective is to book cake tastings where they will eat a full sample of your cakes. 

Don’t expect a super small sample to sell your cakes! Just focus on booking cake tastings.

4. Showcase the work you want to book. 

This is your BEST opportunity to create designed dummy cakes that showcases your BEST work and work you want to reproduce. 

Don’t showcase cakes you aren’t crazy about or cakes you don’t like to make. You will attract the brides who want those designs if you show them those designs.

Only showcase the work you are absolutely in LOVE with and work you want to book multiples of in your cake business. 

This step may seem obvious but you may want to look at your cake portfolio and ask yourself, “Do I LOVE these cakes?!” If not, go back to the drawing board and design again. 

5. Be preprepared to invest in your booth. 

Take the time to sit down and think about your booth design. What’s the theme? What’s the feel you want to portray? What kind of bride do you want to attract?

From there, your booth needs to reflect the type of bride you want to work with and that means you need to invest money in creating a vibe that separates you from all the other cake vendors at the show.

Wedding shows are just one way to create a booked solid cake business. If you are struggling to book more cake orders in your cake business, I have an AWESOME ebook to help you to have a Booked Solid Cake Business.

Are you struggling to book high-end cake orders in your local area?

Ready to Double your Cake Orders month after month and have the blueprint to make that happen?

Do you need the BEST booking strategies that will work for you in your cake business?

I have a free eBook that will help you learn my Top 4 Booking Strategies to Double your Cake Orders in your Cake Business and apply them to your cake business today!

There are countless other suggestions I have to make wedding shows work for you but I believe these top 5 will work wonders for you. 

Do you have another suggestion for this list? 

I’d love to know! Comment below!.

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How to Pay yourself in your Cake Business

Are you paying yourself in your cake business to design the beautiful cakes you are creating?!

If not, WHY NOT!?

You deserve to pay yourself for all the hard work you are putting into your cake business. There’s so much blood, sweat, and tears (of course not in the cake I hope!) you should properly pay yourself a wage from creating a cake from start to finish. 

I remember when I started my cake business, Aspen Charm Cakes & Pastries, how I was busy booking cake orders but at the end of the month, I didn’t have any money!

It was extremely frustrating because I really needed to financially support myself from my cake sales.

Inside my private cake community, I see TONS of cake designers practically giving their cakes away and I can immediately tell they are undercharging and not paying themselves. 

Running a successful cake business means you need to financially support yourself and your family! 

This is the time to look after YOU so you can keep your cake business and your life going financially! 

Permission to be 100% selfish! (well it’s really supporting yourself).

After I was tired of being broke, I got clear on how and how much to pay myself from my cake business. 

Use these strategies to start paying yourself in your cake business and begin to give yourself a paycheck!

1. While quoting your cakes, get clear on how long it will take you to design your cakes. 

I quote my cakes based on how many hours it will take to design the cake. I talk about this EXACT strategy inside my FREE pricing checklist that you can grab below!

When you are clear on how long it will take to design your cakes, assign an hourly rate to design your cakes. Some cakes are easy, peasy. Other cakes take an extremely long time to design. 

Most cake business owners understand how fast, slow, long they work. If not, time yourself while working on your cake order so you can make a more accurate quote. 

2. Deposit your Paycheck into a separate account. 

If you don’t have two checking accounts, get them! After you’ve determined how much to pay yourself in your cake business, actually PAY yourself and deposit that money in a separate account. 

This strategy will get you into the flow of paying yourself per cake and you can use that money for your personal life. 

The rest of the money should stay in your business account to keep your cake business running. 

3. Believe you DESERVE to pay yourself.

Cake designers whohave a hard time paying themselves can have the underlying belief they don’t deserve the money. That belief is keep you broke and struggling!! Let’s break that habit!

When you understand that you need to support yourself and your family in your cake business, you start to truly build your self-worth and confidence levels.

When you know you deserve to be financially support and you will also begin to raise your prices.

As I began to raise my confidence and understood that I deserve to be financially supported, raising my prices and paying myself became easier and easier because I demanded it from myself! 

Guessing at what to charge for your cake orders?

Still confused if you are charging enough for your cakes?

Do you know you aren’t charging enough for your cakes?

No worries!

I have a Free Cake Pricing Checklist that you can download right now and learn everything you need to learn how to price your cakes for Profits.

If you are guessing, you probably aren’t charging enough for your cakes. You can’t guess your way to success!

I want to hear from you! How do you pay yourself in your cake business? Do you have a different strategy?

Comment below!

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