Adventures in Selling Baked Goods
I mentioned in the "(My) Cookies" thread that I have plans in the works to start selling whoopie pies (a handheld treat that is two layers of cake with a cream filling in between -- like if an Oreo cookie and a cupcake got together and made a delicious baby.) I thought I'd start a thread to track my progress, as I have no qualifications other than my enthusiasm and a willingness to work hard. :)
I'm not expecting to make millions, but hopefully it'll be a lot of fun, and give us some extra income while I continue to stay home with baby Anna.
This weekend, I'm test baking. It'll be a chocolate cake with a cinnamon cayenne whipped chocolate ganache (try saying that ten times fast!) Pictures later today when they're finished.
Introducing the Azteca:
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Testing out some packaging options.
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Send some to MEEEEEE to test the international packaging!
Sent by thought transference
Whoopie Pies are a Pennsylvania Amish tradition. ;)
What can you expect to pay for a whoopie pie in PA?
I don't know, when I see one I run away before it jumps my fat ass. :lol:
I saw many on the recent trip through PA and NY in gas stations and 7-11s. Wish I had paid attention to the prices.
We have an farmers market a few blocks from my house with Amish sellers. It's only open Fri and Sat so I will get you some information next weekend.
Meanwhile, check these links out:
http://www.padutchcountry.com/pennsylvania-dutch-country/lancaster-county-whoopie-pie.asp#buy
http://whoopiepiefestival.com/
The whoopie pie festival is Sept 7th.Strasburg is about 1 hour from the Philadelphia suburbs where many Cellarites reside.
For whoopie pie pricing you can call:
The Bakery
The Bakery at Hershey Farm ships whoopie pies and shoofly pies anywhere in the US.
Wet Bottom Shoofly Pie
Whoopie Pie
Flavors Include:Classic Chocolate with whipped vanilla filling
Chocolate with peanut butter filling
Red Velvet with whipped vanilla filling
Pumpkin with whipped vanilla filling
To place a Bakery pick-up or mail order call 1-800-827-8635 x713 or 717-687-8635 x713, or email [EMAIL="%20bakery@hersheyfarm.com"]bakery@hersheyfarm.com[/EMAIL].
For Hershey Farm Online Bakery Orders: Each item is packaged for optimal freshness upon arrival, however settling may occur. Hershey Farm is not responsible for damage occurred during shipping.
Note: The Bakery at Hershey Farm ships all bakery orders Mondays and Wednesdays.
What can you expect to pay for a whoopie pie in PA?
Keeping in mind that you'll be at Farmer's Markets, where everything is expected to be more expensive than regular groceries, and you'll almost certainly have to be more expensive than the 7-11s just to break even on the ingredients, let alone compensate you for your time. I would instead visit the markets you intend to be selling at, and look at the prices of the other homemade confections. All you have to do is be on par or cheaper than they are.
I agree that prices are regional. I can at least get prices from my farmers market. The cost of living in Florida is supposedly cheaper than in PA, so some adjustment would have to be made.
At some point she might want to consider mail order, although she's at a disadvantage because people do not equate Florida with whoopie pies.
It's really a Mid-Altantic, New England treat.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whoopie_piesThanks guys!
The last time I was at the market I checked on cookie pricing -- they were $1.25 per big cookie. I'll check cupcakes next weekend and try to price them somewhere in between.
I keep thinking that Starbucks sells cake pops -- ONE TINY BITE -- for $1.50, so I think $1.50 - $2.00 would be a fair price for a 3" whoopie pie.
Rich -- I'm making these at home under cottage food legislation, so unfortunately I'm forbidden from doing mail orders. It has to be a face to face sale.
I'm a whoopie pie fanatic. I'm going to have to visit Florida now, thanks. If you ever make peanut butter flavored filling I will immediately jump in my car.
Anyway. I think I paid $4.50 for whoopie pies at Sherman's Deli in Palm Springs. They were pretty big though, maybe 4 to 5 inches in diameter.
Ha! I took some of the extra chocolate cakes and filled them with Jif whipped peanut butter this weekend. They were delicious, so a PB filling is definitely in the works.
For the record, here's a link to the
business page I set up on Facebook, and here's one to the
donations page I have for start up money.
I've been so grateful for all of the emotional
and financial support I've been getting from friends and family. Completely blew me away to meet my initial fundraising goal in two days.
With great support comes great responsibility. :lol2:
Those definitely looks and sound yummy. I would buy one. :)
Tests this week:
Chocolate + marshmallow
Chocolate + peanut butter
Vanilla + peanut butter + marshmallow
Vanilla + dulce de leche
Trying to assemble 80 pies at once. Dum dum DUUUUUM! (Dramatic fanfare)
delicious.
I just gained five pounds reading your post.
thanks for that. :eyebrow:
BigV, I think it's time for a pilgrimage. You can pick me up in Montana on the way to Tampa. Choco will have them perfected by the time we're there.
Things are moving along. I have a logo and a set menu, now.
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You see that, BigV?
Tonight, we dine in Tampa.
That's a nice array of flavors you have there. Have you had your first vendor day yet?
Not yet! I'll be filling out the market application this weekend and hearing back within a few weeks. I had been all ready to fill it out, only to discover I needed to have a picture of my stall in the application. (Boo, hiss.) So that set me back a few days, as I had been planning to cobble all that together after I applied.
Keep your fingers crossed I can get a spot at the market near home! They have about a hundred different vendors, but they like to keep it diverse so they don't allow in too many bakers.
Yum. Your menu sounds divine. Save some Azteca for me!
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Key West whoopie pies - key lime cake with coconut cream filling
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Final packaging choice.
Application submitted yesterday evening. Should hear back within two weeks. AAAAGGHHH.
If you didn't get accepted to the market, where would you sell them?
It looks like you're doing retail packaging. Could you could sell wholesale to cafes/coffeeshops? Are they prepared in a commercial / health-inspected kitchen? (In FL, does anyone care?)
There are several markets in the area -- the application I submitted last night is to the one closest to home, which is also one of the most popular. I have a back up market in mind if I don't get accepted to this first one.
I'm making them at home under Florida's cottage food law. I'm not allowed to wholesale them. :( Or to ship them, for that matter. Over time, if I do well, I'm hoping to eventually rent space in a commercial kitchen so I can expand. For now, it's a creative outlet that will hopefully bring in a bit of cash.
This is so awesome Chocolatl! I wish you the best of luck, they are looking scrumptious!
Should be hearing back from my first choice market in the next ten days. The wait is kiiiilllliiiing meeeee.
I'm between two options for my back up choice. There's a Saturday market which seems to focus more on arts and crafts, and a Sunday market which focuses on food. I think I'm going to go for the Sunday market. I'll be getting their application tomorrow.
In the meantime, all my business taxes are paid so I am officially open for business! I had my first sale last week -- a friend ordered 20 for her family reunion. :)
From the first choice: "You are currently on the list of vendors to be approved for this market for this season..."
WTG~!
I hope you sell out early and often.
Great news! I hope they sell out quickly.
You can not *sell* by mail.. however, nothing is stopping you from mailing out "gifts" to friends. Also, nothing is stopping your friends from donating you your start up costs either.. hint hint
You can not *sell* by mail.. however, nothing is stopping you from mailing out "gifts" to friends. Also, nothing is stopping your friends from donating you your start up costs either.. hint hint
PM me a menu and I will make donations to your greatness.
Aww, thanks guys! But there's also the very real fact that they would not withstand the heat from shipping -- creamy fillings and 95F yield a gooey and yucky mess. Maybe I can send some gifts out later this winter?
Spoke to the market organizer and apparently "you are on the list to be approved" means "we still need to decide on you" as opposed to how I read it, "you'll be approved soon." Back to waiting.:facepalm:
Got the email saying I didn't get approved for the first choice after all. Le sigh. On the bright side, I'm approved for my second choice and will be there every weekend starting Oct. 6! Hooray!
I'm glad you got into your second choice. Too soon to get baking, I suppose, but soon enough.
That's good news! I hope you sell a lot.
Got the email saying I didn't get approved for the first choice after all. Le sigh. On the bright side, I'm approved for my second choice and will be there every weekend starting Oct. 6! Hooray!
Did #1 say why ?
I suppose it's of interest to you only if you had significant reasons
for choosing it as your first choice. But OTOH, it might be something
you would want to know about for the future.
#1 was my first choice because it was closest to home and takes place at a beautiful outdoor mall, so it gets a lot of foot traffic.
They only have so many vendor spots available, and returning vendors get first dibs. They normally have a looooong waiting list, vying for five or six spots, so I really didn't expect to get in. They were also told late in the game they need to change the layout due to traffic concerns, so they had to cut about 20 spots.
I'm now on the wait list, so I may be able to get in next year -- or later this year if some other bakers drop out. At least it wasn't an outright rejection. :)
Very good... best wishes !
Glad to hear you're in! Good luck and I hope your sales skyrocket. :)
Thanks all for the kind words! I'm super excited. Now I'm trying to decide how many packages to take in for my first day (which was moved to October 13th). Take too few and risk running out, or take too many and let them go to waste?
At the farmer's market I go to, everyone brings their wares in big coolers, and whatever doesn't sell can just be taken back home again. Or do you bake them on demand the night before, and you're trying to decide how many to make in the first place?
Since you're a new vendor, you might consider cutting up some free samples for people to try.
It might be helpful to do a field study.
Go to the event this coming Sunday and get a feeling for how many
customers the other vendors are getting and selling their products.
Who knows, meeting up with other vendors before your opening might bring unforeseen benefits too.
The trick is the market isn't taking place right now! :) October 13th is opening day -- this one takes place downtown, so they take the summers off. All that concrete would be unbearable in the Florida sun! So I can't go scope it out.
I'm definitely planning to have samples, but legally I have to portion those out at home and not at the market. I am planning to take the whoopie pies in coolers, but they won't keep for a week until the next market day. I think I'll err on the side of plenty, at first, and then fine tune as we go on.
But then again, if you've sold out then some people may say "Wahey! They're that good she's sola out ..." and no wastage is always good ....
Sent by thought transference
One way of looking at the question of how many to make is this:
decide how much money you want to make. actually pick a number.
figure out how many whoopies you have to bake to get that money, including samples, cost of materials, etc.
make that number of whoopies
go sell them
if you sell out, you made your target, you reached your goal, CONGRATULATIONS!
if you don't sell out, evaluate what happened. did you overestimate how many you could sell? did you pick too high a number? was it close enough to be within your margin of error? was your price too high? etc.
....
Of course, you want to make as much money as possible. but there's also something to be said for just reaching your goals. when you eat, you just eat a sufficiency, not all the food you can hold, right? enough is enough. well, anyhow, until you have more empirical data about your sales, picking a goal seems to me like a useful approach.
*****
regarding the samples.
since you say your whoopies won't last a week until the next sale, can you sell them elsewhere before they expire? will you be able to eat them up at home/neighbors/friends between the end of the market and the expiry of the whoopie? what about sample *size* whoopies that could be sold in a sixpack of tinys or given away as individual "samples"?
I'm just thinking out loud here.
GOOD LUCK, THEY LOOK DELICIOUS!!
Big V has some excellent ideas!
Or you could just give away whatever you have left in the last five minutes as free samples (with the understanding, of course, that this would only work one or two times, you wouldn't want customers holding out for free ones at the end.)
Good ideas!
I like the goal idea. I'm thinking I may drop a flavor and bring it down to six to streamline production a bit. I might also lower the prices the last 30 minutes of the market day the first time out so I'm at least getting something for them and it's not a loss. I think after the first day I'll have a much better idea, so I'm okay with taking a loss the first time.
Tomorrow's the big day -- my first market day! Wish me luck! And thanks again everyone for the kind words and support. :)
Exciting! I wish you the best of luck.
Late to the most recent posts here. But now we wanna know..... Well? How'd it go?
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It went really well. Here's a hastily taken image of me at the booth.
It was utter chaos when we first got there in the morning. Though the market starts at 10, set up begins at 7:30. Considering we had very little to bring in and set up, we got there at 9:05. My spot had almost been given away because I was "late," so after a bit of stress we got set up in our nice shady spot.
Kitsune was on baby wrangling duty for the day after I was set up, and thankfully Beans was very cooperative! They both fared very well for their longest ever day without mom. :) They went to the aquarium and back home before coming back to pick me up at 3.
I went with a goal in mind, and took 36 containers to sell. If I sold 20, I'd break even for the day. I sold 26 at full price, and another 7 at a discount in the last hour of the day, so I came out a tiny bit ahead. Hooray! I ran out of samples around 12:30, so I'll definitely be taking more next time. I also sold out of two flavors by around noon, so I'll be taking more of those next week.
Your booth looks great! I'd stop by for sure!
I'm very happy for your success on your first day :biggrin:
You should think about letting Beans stay for as long as she can handle it. That's a customer draw if I ever saw one. Congratulations on your profit!
You should think about letting Beans stay for as long as she can handle it. That's a customer draw if I ever saw one. Congratulations on your profit!
I second all of this post!
You could make another label for the tip jar that says "College fund".
Though having Beans around would be great for marketing, the goal is partly to allow me some time away! For 400+ days, she has been my constant companion almost every waking hour, so this is a chance for me to do something just for me. It's essentially a hobby that pays for itself.
That said, she and Kits did come to visit midday, after their aquarium trip, so that I could nurse her before they went home. She enjoyed it for a bit then got anxious to explore. Crawling on asphalt doesn't work too well, though. Once it cools down a bit and she can walk or at least stand on her own, they'll probably hang out with me a bit longer.
well, that is a completely different situation.
I understand what your saying about Beans, but I'd buy a dozen if that cutie was there. Good luck!
Your booth looks great, Choco! Having done so well your very first week, I think you'll see a steep upswing in demand as word gets around. I'm so happy for you!
Love the Canopy :) Well done!
Great work Choco. If you get to be my ss this year, you can send me some of your yummies. :)
Thanks, y'all!
Today was a scorcher -- the 82% humidity meant it felt like it was in the low 90s. As a result, there wasn't as much foot traffic as there was last week. Took a small loss for the day. Hopefully things will pick up with the forecasted cooler weather next weekend.
What do you factor in as expenses? Ingredients, obviously. I assume there's a fee for your spot. Amortized cost of the canopy? Your time?
Dont forget vehicle expenses too. Easy to forget. Still an expense though.
Expenses for now are ingredients, packaging, and the market fee. Will add gas for the car soon. Also need to set money aside for all of the taxes and license fees.
I'm not paying myself or factoring in my time at all -- it would be totally not worth it. :) Hopefully in another few weeks I'll be able to take a small paycheck, but the real value for me right now is in the satisfaction of doing something for myself. It's been a great feeling to see people's faces as they take their first bite.
The weather was beautiful yesterday so we had a pretty good day!
Changing the menu up a bit for November. I've had people ask for a sampler pack, but I'm not sure what three flavors would go in to one. Opinions? This month's flavors are:
AZTECA-- chocolate cake + cinnamon chili dark chocolate ganache filling
BUENOS AIRES-- vanilla cake + dulce de leche filling
CLASSIC-- chocolate cake + marshmallow filling
HARVEST FESTIVAL-- pumpkin cake + maple filling
KEY WEST-- key lime cake + coconut cream filling
PARADISO-- espresso cake + chocolate hazelnut filling
Pick two combos guaranteed to please and something more adventurous.
Those all sound fantastic, choco! Can you package sampler packs on the spot? Then people could try the three that intrigued them the most. If they have to be pre-packaged, I think maybe a chocolate-lover's pack (the two chocolate cakes and the espresso cake with chocolate hazelnut filling) and a 'Harvest Holiday' pack (vanilla, pumpkin, and key lime) would cater to different tastes.
Or, put 2 chocolate with the vanilla and the two lighter cakes with the espresso (I'd go for that one).
You're doing great, keep going!
Seasonal neapolitan? Chocolate, vanilla, and the seasonal 'fruit' (ie pumpkin)?
Hmm, I think I'll try the chocolate lover's trio for this first weekend and we'll see how it does. I can't package them on the spot as the law I'm working under states everything has to be prepackaged. I am thinking of packaging a few individual pies this weekend. They're more time consuming, but I think people might buy one if they're not willing to commit to three.
In other news, I was invited to attend a chocolate festival here in town! What an honor! I had to turn it down as it's a three day event with 9000 attendees, but man -- how great would that have been!
I think the Azteca, Buenos Aires, and Paradiso would go well together in a "Latina" combo.
Those flavors all sound so yummy!
Weeeell, the trio didn't actually do well, so I dropped it after two weekends. Now I do singles, so people can pick and choose what they want to get three for $5.
The last two weekends have been pretty slow and I took a loss. Boooo. Hoping today perks up! December's featured flavors are gingerbread ('tis the season?) and peppermint cocoa -- which tastes like a Thin Mint turned into cake form. Nom nom!
Giving them more power over their purchase is usually a good idea. :thumb:
You can always have decorative signs suggesting combos with creative names.
Slowest day yet. Sold $40. Needed $95 to break even and was hoping for $150. Ouch. ::sigh::
Could you Festivize the packaging?
I'm sorry it's not going so well and sorry if I seem unsympathetic. When it comes to problems, I'm all man....
I'm sorry it's not going well.
I wonder why people aren't buying so much this week? Maybe spending money on Xmas gifts and also eating lots of holiday sweets last week is causing a lack of demand.
I wondered that. Or if it's just too hot there when people are really wanting to feel a chill?
I really believe beans would be a great marketing aid
I'm not sure what the deal is. It's not just me -- the market hasn't had a lot of foot traffic. Some of my fellow vendors go the whole day without a sale or only make one or two sales. Kitsune hypothesizes maybe people are hitting the malls for their holiday shopping instead of browsing street markets. :-/
The mood is winter even if Florida's weather is not.
Plus, families only have so much $ for holiday spending,/
Once it's spent, it can't be spent again and merchants know this.
.. so we have Black Friday on Nov 1st... next year it'll be Oct 15th
Kitsune hypothesizes maybe people are hitting the malls for their holiday shopping instead of browsing street markets. :-/
Probably true, dedicated shopping expeditions complete with the gnashing of teeth and renting of cloth, looking for the only toilet water Aunt Edith will accept.
I'm not sure what the deal is. It's not just me -- the market hasn't had a lot of foot traffic. Some of my fellow vendors go the whole day without a sale or only make one or two sales. Kitsune hypothesizes maybe people are hitting the malls for their holiday shopping instead of browsing street markets. :-/
fwiw: I have done the bulk of my holiday shopping at street markets, (Pike Place Market and Portland Saturday Market), with a total of five gifts so far. clodfobble had a nice post about shopping for gifts.... my strong preference is to vote with my wallet, and I like to vote for local/independent producers.
I wish you the best.
Thanks all for the good wishes. I had a MUCH better market day today. I took less product and was able to sell it all. Not huge profits, but enough to buy supplies needed for the next two weeks. Hooray!
Also a milestone: today was the longest I've ever been away from Beans! 7.5 hours. Hard on Mama's heart, but she and Kitsune did just fine.
Congratulations, Choco! Maybe having less on display prompted some people to buy before all the pies were gone ...? Less supply, more demand sort of thing.
Hmm, could be! I don't usually display them all at once, but maybe having fewer flavors helped. The weather was muuuuch cooler than last weekend so that helped a lot! I also advertised that I can do party trays so hopefully that'll result in some orders over the course of the week. :)
Great idea! You can do flavor combos for both adult and kid parties.
And for offices ... people bring in all sorts of goodies through the holidays. Hit up some professional offices with your brochures, and any government offices you can get access to. I think you'd see orders out of that ...
Considering you're a newbie to both the location and the business, I think you're doing fine. :thumb:
Thanks all for the good wishes. I had a MUCH better market day today. I took less product and was able to sell it all. Not huge profits, but enough to buy supplies needed for the next two weeks. Hooray!
Also a milestone: today was the longest I've ever been away from Beans! 7.5 hours. Hard on Mama's heart, but she and Kitsune did just fine .
WTG!
PS, this will probably remain a melancholy ache, like a mostly-healed bruise for a couple decades.
Only seven weeks left in the market season. Never did pull a paycheck, but I've continued to make enough money to pay for ingredients and keep coming back week to week. Not bad for my first year out. :)
Yes, it's all good. The people have to find you, so what you have is an investment in next year, and so it will go as long as you like it.
Cool, making a profit or not it's getting you out of the house, socializing with people, on a regular basis. And that's increasingly difficult to do without costing money these days. :thumb:
Getting out of the house and having an identity other than "Mom" has been priceless for me. I've loved it, and hadn't realized how badly I needed it.
Over the past few months, I've shifted more towards singles and fewer three packs. For some reason, verbally telling people "you can mix and match three singles for $5!" has made a difference. They feel like they're getting a deal, even though the price difference is only a quarter. :)
The past two Sundays, there have been big festivals at the park across from the market and so we've had a lot of foot traffic. I sold out both weeks!
This past Sunday, a trio of cops on bicycles rode through and suddenly one of them stopped, looked at my booth, and said "YOU'RE the whoopie pie lady!" A part of my brain went "uh oh." Turns out, a fellow vendor who was at the festival was promoting me to passers by! So the cops had said they wanted to come check it out. They had some samples and loved them, and one officer bought one.
At 3 pm, as I was packing up, the cops came back for more. Sorry -- sold out! They were very disappointed, but also very happy for me. One of them pulled a serious face and said "Now you've got a problem. You've got angry cops on your hands." It was pretty funny, and very encouraging to know the word is starting to get out.
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Part of what my display is looking like these days.
That's brand marketing. It's awesome.
When we were on tour, I was the 'Bitchin' veggie bagel' guy. I had regulars, and all I had done was write that on the front of the cardboard soda flat I carried them around in, and hollered it out as I walked around. Well, the bagels were really good, too, which is key.
I've heard that the best way to be profitable with food is to have a small menu of top notch items or meals. If you only did one confection, your ingredient cost would be more manageable, and the product would be more consistent. You could print up cute little menus that offer your other stuff that could be ordered for parties, etc. Offer delivery to the local area, custom orders and volume discounts. Tony could make you a Web site.
Now that you can go out alone, is it possible to go without the stall? Would the fair organizers allow and charge you less.... Or nothing.... If you were to wander the ground with a flat that could be carried easily? You could make a T-shirt that says Whoopie Pies on the back, and try selling only those one week. If that's what people are talking to each other about, and referring to you as, you should roll with it and see where it takes you.
Make the flat fancy, with a strap that goes from the two front corners, over your head, so you can free your hand or hands to transact the exchange.
Do you have one of those credit card swipers for your phone? A coin dispensing belt thingy? Could you write a song, and walk around singing it loudly? You have a fantastic voice, and a catchy jingle would make you memorable. You get over the stage fright quickly.
chock full o' fun ideas, that jimbo.
:)
Great ideas! If you've become known as 'The Whoopie Pie Lady', roll with it, is my thought. Focus on those and on what sells (as you say, singles 3/$5). Whether you want to go mobile or let people come to you, you may want to exploit that concept. If you decide to maintain a stall, can you put up flyers directing people to your stall? Or advertise in the local papers a couple days ahead?
Keep your individual identity going no matter what ... you are, and will always be, 'Mom', and that is priceless ... however, Beans will gain so much from learning, as she grows, how multifaceted her mother is. Not to mention the benefits for you. Keep on, Choco! You're inspiring.
Thanks for the ideas, guys!
Whoopie pies are the only thing I make, but I have several different flavors. There are other vendors at the market who do tarts, cookies, cakes, etc. so it's nice that I have something unique and specialized. When I first started, I was taking seven types each week, but I've narrowed it down to five which has helped to lower costs. I freeze them after I make them, and then only take what I think I can sell for the week. As the year has gone on, I've gotten better at estimating how many samples to take, and how to factor in things like the weather and events going on that might affect how sales are for the day. Just this week I switched to having to hand out the samples -- I used to have them out for people to just grab, and entire families were coming up and having each member try a sample of each. Seriously, folks? (Some people are wonderfully sensitive about the small business thing, and others are completely oblivious.) So I've been making tweaks here and there that are helping. I also made some fake whoopie pies out of modeling dough, and put them on display, since a lot of people down here have no idea what a whoopie pie is. (My favorite compliments are from the Pennsylvanians who tell me mine are better than what they get back home, or better than their grandma's. Yeah!)
The problems with going mobile are several. One is that the organizers would charge me the same, because a vendor is a vendor whether you take up your alloted 10 feet or not. Also, because we are a weekly market, there are regulars who come every week, and being in the same spot is beneficial because they know where to find me. (There was one week that I got moved to an entirely different spot because the Oscar Meyer weinermobile was in town, and business was awful that day!) There is one guy who beelines toward me every week, plops down his $5, points at a box and then steps a few feet away to inhale all three in one go. lol. So I like being in the same spot for that. The biggest perk of the stall? SHADE. Standing out in the Florida sun for 5 hours would be lethal -- not only for me but for the whoopie pies, even in winter. For next season, I am planning to get a nice teal shelter, so my tent will stand out and be visible from a distance. I like the idea of a flat, and might try it in the future if I do any one time events.
I have a card swiper, I set my prices so that I only have to deal in quarters, and I do sing out that I have samples. :)
It's been an awesome learning experience, and I'm really looking forward to starting strong next fall.
Damn, Apple will probably be courting you for CEO.. :D
Chocolatl
I have heard numerous stories on the radio lately about the dramatic change in tip revenue due to subtle changes in the software used to present the bill to the customer. Can you change the checkout screen on your phone/swiper/doodad to prompt for a tip? Easy, free money....
Just sayin.
Most likely, "Keep the quarter".
I've actually been surprised by how many people actually want their quarter!
I actually don't have them sign because it's such a small amount of money. When you're only paying $1.75 or $5, you're not really inclined to tip. I'm also not *doing* anything -- I'm not doing any work on the spot, so tips are really very rare for me.
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The menu
And now I'm hungry.
But nary a whoopie pie in sight.
Thanks for that. :-/