You're BOOKED and BUSY.

You have orders booked up for weeks. People love your work. You're making sales.

So why does it feel like you're barely scraping by?

You tell yourself it's because the market is saturated. The economy isn’t as good as it once was. You need more customers and more sales.

But here's what's actually happening…

You don't know your REAL LABOR cost.

And because you don't know it, you're pricing orders based on a GUESS instead of facts. Which means you're probably losing money on every single order without even realizing it.

Lemme show you what I mean.

Let’s talk about Sara. Sara is not real… but let’s be honest, she probably sounds a LOT like half the bakers in my DMs.

She’s been running her business for two years. She has consistent orders. But she isn’t seeing the GROWTH she has expected.

Last month, she quoted a client $250 for a custom 3-tier wedding cake.

The price seemed reasonable. She figured it'd take about 4 hours to complete. She used the formula: ingredients + supplies + hourly rate ($25/hour) = price. She felt good about the price.

But then she actually TIMED herself! 

And here's what she discovered…

She actually LOST money.

The Problem Isn't You. It's Your Labor Formula.

You're using this formula:

Ingredients + Supplies + Hourly Rate = Price

Sounds reasonable, right?

It's not. If you follow this formula, congratulations, you have a NON-PROFIT organization!

Here's why.

With that formula, you're treating your paycheck like something you hope is left over at the end of the month. You're hoping profit exists AFTER you've paid for ingredients, supplies, and a rough hourly rate.

But real businesses don't work that way.

The CEO Formula (The One That Actually Works)

Costs + Labor Costs (Your Salary) + Overhead + Desired Profit = Selling Price

See the difference?

Your paycheck is a labor expense. The business pays YOU (as an employee) so you can buy dinner, pay your bills, go on vacation, etc.

PROFIT is a GROWTH tool. That money belongs to the business - for equipment, for hiring, for reinvestment.

When you confuse the two, you end up underpaid with a business that doesn't have the money to grow.

But Here's The Real Problem With Sarah's 4-Hour Estimate

She was only estimating the actual PRODUCTION time.

Let's break down what actually went into that $250 cake:

Admin: 20 minutes texting/emailing with the customer, clarifying design, creating a quote.

Shopping: Shopping list (10 min), driving to the store (30 min), shopping (20 min), driving home (15 min). Total: 1 hour 15 minutes.

Production: Prepping ingredients, mixing, baking three layers, and cooling. Total: 4 hours.

Decorating: Crumb coat, frosting, hand-piping details, and custom fondant topper. Total: 3.5 hours.

Cleanup/Packaging: Total: 35 minutes.

Marketing: Photos, editing, posting on social media. Total: 30 minutes.

Total actual labor: 10 hours 40 minutes.

Not 4.

Now Let's Do the Math

At $25/hour (which is already LOW for skilled labor), Sarah's actual labor cost was:

10.67 hours × $25/hour = $266.75

She quoted $250.

She LOST $16.75 on labor alone, BEFORE PROFIT.

And that's not even counting the ingredients ($45) or any profit for the business.

Using the CEO formula:

Costs: $45 + Labor: $266.75 + Desired Profit markup (30%): $93.62 = $405.37

She quoted $250.

She's SHORT $155.

Across 80 orders a year? That's $12,400 she's leaving on the table.

Here's Where It Gets Real

When you underprice your labor, you're not just leaving money on the table.

You're ROBBING your own household.

That $155 shortfall on one cake? Where does it come from? Your grocery budget. Your kids' activities. Your emergency fund.

You're literally working 10+ hours to make a wedding cake beautiful, and then you're paying out of YOUR FAMILY'S BUDGET to cover the gap.

The "Roughly" Trap

Most of you have NO IDEA how long your work actually takes.

So you guess.

"Mixing takes about 20 minutes."

"Decorating probably takes an hour."

"I'm pretty fast, so I can do this in 3 hours."

But you've never actually timed yourself.

When you guess, you ALWAYS underestimate. Your brain skips over the boring parts (shopping, cleanup, admin) and only counts the parts that feel like "real work."

So you think a cake takes 3 hours. You time yourself, and it takes 6.

You've been making financial decisions based on GUESSES, not facts.

And guesses cost you thousands.

One More Thing: Don't Confuse Speed with Less Pay

Some of you think, "Well, I'm FAST because I've been doing this for 10 years. So maybe I should charge LESS?"

Absolutely NOT.

Your speed IS your value.

You're fast because you're skilled. Because you’ve put in the TIME and because you’ve gained the experience.

That skill is worth MORE, not less.

If a surgeon gets better and surgeries take less time, they don't charge less. They charge MORE.

The same applies to you.

So What Now?

Step 1: Time yourself on your next 5-10 orders.

Don't estimate. Track every minute: admin, shopping, production, artistry, cleanup, marketing.

Step 2: Calculate your REAL labor cost.

Total hours × your desired hourly rate.

Step 3: Use The CEO Formula.

Costs + Labor (Your Salary) + Overhead + Desired Profit = Selling Price

Not what feels right. The math.

Step 4: Quote your next customer using the real formula.

See if they say yes. (They probably will.)

But Here's The Hard Part

If you have to do this calculation for EVERY order, it's exhausting.

You track labor. You calculate ingredient costs. You add overhead. You quote the customer. You repeat.

If ingredient costs change, you recalculate. If you get faster, your labor costs may change.

It's manual, it’s tedious, and it requires discipline.

Most of you won't do it. Not because you don't want to. But because you're already BUSY and this is ONE more thing to add you never-ending to-do list.

What If You Could Know EXACTLY How Much money you’re gonna make BEFORE you even send a quote?

Imagine opening a tool and actually KNOWING:

• What that recipe costs you to make
• How much labor is hiding inside that “simple” order
• What your profit looks like BEFORE you hit send on a quote
• Which products are actually making you money
• Which ones are COSTING your business money

That's what Costli is built for.

So you don't have to spend 10 years leaving $12K on the table every year.

Next Step

Stop guessing on your labor.

Check out what Costli actually does - the tool that automatically tracks your labor, updates your costs, and shows you your REAL profit before you quote a customer.

Because your time is worth more than you're charging for it.

Xo,

Janelle

P.S. Over 400 food entrepreneurs are on the Costli waitlist. Join them - because one $155 mistake on a cake is bad. But doing it 80 times a year? That's a choice you don't have to keep making. Join the waitlist.