1 hour ago, ChocoMom said:I knew I wanted an EZ Temper after reading about it, but it would require a bit of saving. But now, after just reading how Rob cranked out 400 pieces in 3.5 hours....I've moved it to the very tippy top of the birthday wish list (which I shall leave in hubby's briefcase).
I put the price in context of other items. Guitar $1500+, Melter $600~, Tempering machine $3500+
I charge $2.50 per pc for my chocolates, and my markup on chocolates averages just about $2.15 of food cost, so nearly $2 per pc covers my overhead, equipment and profit. A couple of good weekends and it pays for itself once you adapt its use ot your situation. We're all doing different things here, so it all varies. I know that the batch I made today will be gone by the end of Saturday and I'll repeat the batch next Tuesday for Valentine's. If you know about how many you can sell IF YOU CAN KEEP UP WITH DEMAND, the its easy to calculate how fast it can be paid for.
On a side note, I don't count previous equipment in my costs anymore because those expenses have long since been recouped. That makes the math easy - chocolate plus cream plus other ingredients, plus new toy=cost.
ETA - I wish I had spent some time with another chocolatier before I bought mine, who had a similar setup. That would have really sped things up for me. And I still want to do that, and hope to once I'm back in civilization. Its like buying a car, take it for a test drive first.
