Artists (and others) - Do people want your services for too cheap?

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

I remember reading a thread about this years ago, but I can’t find it. Must have been on a different board.

I don’t have many stories like this, though there was a time when a “singer” wanted me to help him record a demo. He was appalled when I had the audacity to charge him $10/hour of my time, knowing full well that it’d take about 3 hours. I guess since he was unemployed, I owed him.

Earlier today I was talking to someone who mentioned her art. She was approached by someone in her office that wanted a self-portrait on commission. “I’ll pay you $25”, she said. When the artist said that for something like that she’d charge more like $500, the approacher got really mad and said something like “But art is fun for you! You don’t need to charge that much!” and didn’t speak to her for a week.

She got a similar request from a surgeon in her office. “But you’re my friend!”, he said. “I’m not your friend, I’m your employee, and you make ten times what I do”, she replied.

Do you have any stories like that?

2

I think this is why my husband didn’t do well being self-employed. Granted, he is construction, but really has quite the artisan/craftsman mentality. His bids were always too high and never got very many jobs. When he did get one, the bid was too low to account for the level of detail that he puts into his work and he’d complain about not getting paid enough.

It seems like the walmart mentality has taken over nearly everything. I dabble in stained glass work, and am astonished at how cheap (and shoddily made) some stained glass stuff is in stores (generally its the sloppy solder work). However, I would never be able to compete, because I put too much time and effort into it, and to get a decent hourly wage, my stuff would be priced out of the market.

3

It’s a common fault, and one that artists aren’t immune to, either. In the theatre world, there are some incredibly naive would-be start-ups that promise the world to their employees, having done their financial projections based on bad assumptions (i.e., full houses every night to see some truly awful self-written work), bad business models (“What do you mean I have to pay a royalty on that work? We’re a non-profit!”), or forget to actually run their business ("I paid that bill practically on time!). Honestly, if these people wanted to start their own theatre company, they should have been business majors in college.*

And I do it too- I always balk at the cost of original art. But think about it; even a small painting probably took five hours of the artist’s time to actually execute, let alone to plan, finish, and market. Add in the cost of materials, and the fact that this is skilled labor, not minimum-wage labor, and it’s silly to expect anything good for less than $100 at the bare minimum.

*And I know one who is, and her I’ll gladly work for.

4

Sounds like a good deal: she simply points out that a self portrait is necessarily painted by the person it depicts, pockets the $25, and goes on about her business.

5

All the time. That’s why I set my prices so high, to keep the riff-raff out.

6

I am not an artist but I work in IT and people asking for help with all kinds of things from programming to database design to hardware support comes up a lot. I have a rule that I don’t do discount work at all. I already have a full-time job and my free-lance rate is set competitively but it is still way more than individual people want to pay so I just give someone that rate if I really just don’t want to do it. However, I will give free help but it is at my discretion in case I want to bail out if it gets too long and involved. I do that for friends and family and they do favors in exchange later. I don’t think discounting your own skilled services generally does anyone a favor and tends to end badly so I stay away from it.

7

Yup. I do portrait photography and I have a terrible time in my area because people do want Walmart prices for my work. I offered a friend a wedding package recently for $100 off what I normally charge and was going to throw in the CD (to make it easier for me actually. I like taking the pictures, not the busy work of getting prints and delivering.) She was ok with the price, but her son the groom was appalled that I would charge so much. They have hired a friend of the bride for $75.

I hope they like their $75 pictures. shrug it would have been nice to have the job, because pretty pictures are the first things to go when money gets tight and I’m not working much right now, but there is no way in heck I shoot a wedding for $75!

8

I love to knit. I make really nice afghans - intricate patterns, big enough to cover a bed. They take a lot of yarn and a WHOLE LOT of time. Even if I was to charge sub-minimum wage for my time, plus materials, I’d still have to charge $200 for a small, simple afghan and up to $500 for a large, complex one. In a local craft shop, I saw where someone was asking $35-$50 for smaller, ordinary afghans - I’m guessing they just doubled their material cost.

I work in clay and I’m not all that good, but I’ve sold a few pieces. I think as I improve (assuming I do improve) that I’ll get better at pricing my works, and maybe someday I can complain about people not valuing my art! :smiley:

Many years ago, I commissioned an artwork as a gift for my husband. The artist sang in the choir with me. I showed her some photos of the sort of thing I wanted, talked to her about a few details, and asked her what it would cost. I don’t know if she cut me a deal or not, but it was not cheap. Still, she did a good job and it’s a special piece to both of us.

9

I have been making and selling jewelry for over two decades and every few years I wash my hands of the industry and skulk away, so depressed at the constant battle to justify my existence with my art.

To start, 90% of jewelry sold in America has been manufactured in third-world countries where labor is often .50¢ to $2.00 a DAY and many jewelry molds are designed to be very light and thin. When I am selling at street fairs or boutique stores, people want earrings for $15 or $20 in Sterling Silver (which costs $18 an ounce).

Here is an example – this necklace, randomly chosen from Amazon, is selling for $21.00.

If someone came to me to make them a necklace like that, there is no way I could create and produce that necklace for $21.00.

The worst part is when I am selling at street festivals and people want to haggle. I’m out there trying to make my rent and I get asked to sell $25.00 earrings for $15.00. It is offensive and rude and I am barely making a living as it is…

Okay, the truth is I am NOT making a living and am looking for a “regular job” because two years of this life has almost impoverished me.

10

My brother and his now-wife asked me to take pictures at their wedding - I’m just a hobbyist, and an average one at that. I told them that I’d do my best, but I’m not exactly a professional photographer. But they accepted that and everyone came out happy :smiley:

I’m a professional web developer. I do not freelance, at all. I don’t need to deal with the crap that goes with it.

11

I did portrait photography for years… working for someone else, and therefore not really concerned with pricing.

I gained a lot of knowledge and skill, and I looked into striking it out on my own.

With the company I had been employed with, a family shoot, at an outside location, would have been about $200 + for the session, alone. The actual photographs would be substantially more, plus editing and printing… we’d generally end up with about $1400 for a “normal” shoot.

I was hired by a local business owner to photograph his family of 15. I spent over 4 hours doing a million photographs. I explained pricing to them before giving them the proofs. I said they could just write their order on the pictures, and I’d edit and print as they wished.

I can’t remember exact pricing, but I’d say I priced 5x7s at $8.00, 8x10s at $14, etc… whatever was industry standard 10 years ago.

They ordered TONS of pictures. TONS. I initially added the cost, and it was about $3000.

I explained this to the man who hired me, and, feeling guilty, I cut the cost 50%.

I edited and printed the images.

When I delivered them to him, he offered $400.

Total.

I had spent countless HOURS editing each of the 20+ images they had ordered. I spent nearly $300 printing them.

And he wanted me to do it all for $100? A task that took probably 15 hours total, plus supplies…?

If he had thought the images were low quality he could have choosen NOT to order… even after I intitally warned him of the cost… he agreed.

I was so mad and insulted.

I constantly have people tell me “you should sell your stuff”, “you should photograph weddings!” etc… and all I have to say is…

No Thanks.

12

I’d do it for that price if they pay for the bullets.

13

A surgeon, huh? Cut-rate portrait today, cut-rate surgery tomorrow! Criss-cross, see?

14

It depends. As an artist you have a real conundrum on your hands pricing artwork. If you pay yourself a fair wage, then the cost is really high and a starting artist will be a starving one doing that. On the other hand, if you are trying to make a living off of your art, you don’t have much of a choice but to pay your bills. Mostly people seem to think that your prices will be high regardless an you built in padding to negotiate. I sell my sculpture work on ebay. What I do is start the bid at the price I want for piece and be done with it. I price fairly. For example the Current piece available I have started at $50.00. That is what I need to pay for the materials and about half the time I put into it. Considering the size and complexity of the piece, that’s fair. It becomes more difficult the larger and more complex you go though.

15

As a science professor many people in my neighborhood ask me to tutor their kids in math and science on a weekly basis. One girl is junior and I’ve been helping her since eighth grade. A tutor for these subjects makes easily 30-40 bucks an hour. Only one person offered to pay and I didnt take it, but was touched that they at least offered.

16

Do I have the site for you: Clients From Hell.

Full of direct quotes from cheap clients (there seem to be mostly graphic designers and web designers, but also some illustrators, I think).

Like the OP says, there’s this idea that because some people doodle for fun or digital cameras cost $100, all artists are just working for kicks (I guess they pay their bills with napkin sketches?).

17

Production Diary – Death of A Filmmaker: Anyone Can Shoot Video, Can’t They?

Read the rest of the article. It fits this thread.

18

sorry, dupe post.

19

And these are the same workers who are knitting and crocheting all those handmade items, too. The manufacturers are getting their materials at volume discount pricing, whereas an individual crafter might be able to get some materials at wholesale, but the individual will have to get much smaller orders, and the bigger the order, the bigger the discount.

20

Back in the day, about 1987 or so I go t asked to embroider a mage’s robe for a ‘friend’ to wear as a costume to a con … he was amazed that it was going to cost several hundred dollars … the amount of embroidery he wanted done to it would have taken about 100 hours. Just because I could have actually done most of it sitting at work had nothing to do with my pricing on it.