Guys, I'm a 56-year old career chef who developed an interest in pulled and blown sugar, as well as gumpaste florals, within the past three years. My motivation was to simply grow and develop new skill sets, to possibly fund my retirement years, and possibly to get a teaching gig sometime down the road. Now that I'm able to perform these skills with more than some measure of finesse, I'm curious how I might incorporate these in the real world as I don't plan to retire anytime soon. Between sugar warming cabinets, specialty cutters, veiners, airbrushes, compressors, silicone molds and the like, I have thousands vested in personal tools which I'd rather not bring into the workplace. It would be infinitely safer and more expedient for me to make these pieces at home where my workbench is already set up, bringing the completed components into the job for final assembly. If I should end up being hired by a private catering firm who expects me to apply these skills and tools in their cake or pastry offerings, how would I negotiate a salary so I can feel some sense of compensation for these decorative pieces? I can easily imagine working a 10 or 12-hour day on the job, followed by several additional hours at home too. How is compensation usually arranged in these cases? Thank you!
