Confusion with my schedule
I don't use my LJ for business much anymore, but I figured this would be worth putting here anyway!
I wanted to make a little public announcement about my work schedule! Yesterday when I opened for a huge round of digital icons (thank you all who signed up by the way!), I got some notes and emails from several concerned clients who signed up under previous rounds. This isn't directed at any one of you by the way, but the sudden concern from so many made me realize a public update might be helpful! =D
So on commission scheduling! I have found that the most efficient way of working is to make a week-to-week work schedule a few months at a time instead of working on whatever I feel like on any given day. This is useful to keep me on track, and to keep clients informed on when their work will be done! At first it really was week-to-week, I only knew what was ahead by one or two weeks at a time. But that has me feeling rushed and stressed, so on the advice of a few friends I started scheduling things 1-2 months ahead of time. Not only does that relieve a lot of mental pressure on me, it gives clients more time to prepare payment and information! It's been working out very well so far.
However, the result is that I am taking on new rounds of commissions before I begin work on previously taken rounds of commissions. I can TOTALLY see how this would worry people, I have encountered very few artists in the fandom who use this way of scheduling work. In fact a lot of the time when you see artists taking on more work before finishing what they already have, it's a bad sign. And I'll be the first to admit I have a significant backlog from before I started this scheduling thing, and I try my best to make room for that backlog every month.
I hope that by being really super clear on how my schedule operates and by communicating well and often with everyone who hires me, I can assuage their fears. In every commission sign-up journal, I have all the information people need, including the date their commission batch will be worked on. I also tell people that date when I email them with payment details to be absolutely sure. All of that information is in a short, clear list of links on my profile on deviantart, and now on furaffinity! So if there is any confusion, you can check that out! I'm happy to take questions as well, but it's likely you can answer your own question by checking out my info.
Of course I'm trying to refine the way I do things all the time to make it more efficient, productive, and fair for all parties involved! Right now this is actually working out very well, so I'm going to stick with it for a bit. I get a lot of great advice from friends who have been at this longer from the artist side and the client side too, which is fantastic and always welcome.
I hope this helps clarify things. For anyone else who is working as a full time artist operating mostly within the fandom, I highly suggest trying the scheduling thing out! It's so helpful! =D
I wanted to make a little public announcement about my work schedule! Yesterday when I opened for a huge round of digital icons (thank you all who signed up by the way!), I got some notes and emails from several concerned clients who signed up under previous rounds. This isn't directed at any one of you by the way, but the sudden concern from so many made me realize a public update might be helpful! =D
So on commission scheduling! I have found that the most efficient way of working is to make a week-to-week work schedule a few months at a time instead of working on whatever I feel like on any given day. This is useful to keep me on track, and to keep clients informed on when their work will be done! At first it really was week-to-week, I only knew what was ahead by one or two weeks at a time. But that has me feeling rushed and stressed, so on the advice of a few friends I started scheduling things 1-2 months ahead of time. Not only does that relieve a lot of mental pressure on me, it gives clients more time to prepare payment and information! It's been working out very well so far.
However, the result is that I am taking on new rounds of commissions before I begin work on previously taken rounds of commissions. I can TOTALLY see how this would worry people, I have encountered very few artists in the fandom who use this way of scheduling work. In fact a lot of the time when you see artists taking on more work before finishing what they already have, it's a bad sign. And I'll be the first to admit I have a significant backlog from before I started this scheduling thing, and I try my best to make room for that backlog every month.
I hope that by being really super clear on how my schedule operates and by communicating well and often with everyone who hires me, I can assuage their fears. In every commission sign-up journal, I have all the information people need, including the date their commission batch will be worked on. I also tell people that date when I email them with payment details to be absolutely sure. All of that information is in a short, clear list of links on my profile on deviantart, and now on furaffinity! So if there is any confusion, you can check that out! I'm happy to take questions as well, but it's likely you can answer your own question by checking out my info.
Of course I'm trying to refine the way I do things all the time to make it more efficient, productive, and fair for all parties involved! Right now this is actually working out very well, so I'm going to stick with it for a bit. I get a lot of great advice from friends who have been at this longer from the artist side and the client side too, which is fantastic and always welcome.
I hope this helps clarify things. For anyone else who is working as a full time artist operating mostly within the fandom, I highly suggest trying the scheduling thing out! It's so helpful! =D