Commision question PLEASE HELP!!
Hello fellow fursuiters. I've been thinking about starting fursuit commisions soon. Since I dont have any resin head making supplies for realistic heads can I have my customer buy a resin base from someone else and send it to me for furing and other details? Please comment! I need info right away!
You are not ready for commissions. Nobody can enter into a legally binding contract with you, as you are under 18, so you can literally take their money and run, and they have no protection. Commissions are not something you should just rush into.
That aside, if you have only ever worked with foam heads, it would be unfair of you to "practice" on a paying customers head. If you don't have the money at the moment to buy supplies and make premade heads for sale, wait until you are 18 and you can do commissions 'at the cost of materials'. It may seem pointless to you, because you won't get any money out of it, but it will give you the practice you need to produce a better quality product, and eventually you can begin to charge for your work.
It is very common for people to use other makers head bases. However, the client pays you, and you buy the base, fur, etc. It's just double postage if they buy it then send it to you.
I know it sucks to be a kid and have no money and really want to create art. Honestly. But hang in there, practice your art in other ways, and when you turn 18 if you're still interested in fursuits, pour your heart into it.
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If you do have your parents 'manage' things make sure that a.) sales are reported on their taxes properly and b.) that customers KNOW they are doing business with your parents not you directly. They need to go in eyes wide open, especially since most people wont do business with a minor whether there's an adult involved or not.
As for your parents managing things: how is that going to work exactly? Are they going to be willing to assume the financial risk of hundreds or a thousand dollars if you cannot deliver a suit that salable quality? Or something else goes wrong? Will the money be held by them in escrow until the sale completes? What about the money for supplies? How can they promise/guarantee a customer that your will finish the suit?
I know jumping into business is exciting but it is a job, based on your DA you seem very young, please- wait until you are 18. Even selling tails you are putting an unfair risk on the buyer because you are a minor.
If you insist on selling be sure and say you are a minor, it's not a fair to potential buyers any other way. They need to be able to decide to take the risk or not.
(ALSO: you cannot buy or sell on Furbuy until you are no longer a minor in the eyes of contract law. In Canada that is 18 years of age. Because an auction bid is an automatically a contract to buy(no other 'meeting of the minds' needed, that's why sellers need to be as descriptive as possible and list payment details in absolutes, and why buyers must be sure they can and will pay the amount they bid before they place a bid) both parties must of age of majority. )
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If your parents are 100% willing to help you with this business, and they might very well be!, it can be done- just make sure they get professional legal advice on how to do it properly; and again always be upfront and honest that you are a minor.
It will be a time investment and the legal advice will cost some money so you'll want to take this very seriously before you have them make a commitment like this for you. But if you really love and want to do this and can prove to them you're ready and serious, sit down and have a talk with them. Make up a time line and plan- like starting with just tails, read up a little on how to conduct a custom costume business: check out some of the big name builders with good reputations and how they conduct themselves.
Write a basic business plan to present to your folks to show you are serious about this. Have stuff like:
• Explaining how you plan to buy your fur(it's more expensive to get it shipped here to Canada for the quality stuff, remember to keep that in mind when you price things) and other supplies and where the initial money for start up supplies will come from
• How you will ship items- can you get to and from the post offices with larger or heavy boxes on your own? Will your parents have to drive you
• How you are going to budget your time towards the business that balances school, hobbies and friends as well
• Find out as a minor where it's legal for you to advertise and sell(technically no where, but some places don't explicitly forbid it); and what you parents will need to sign/write/provide to allow you to sell other places such as Furbuy
• How you plan to conduct your business; how you will take payments, how you will handle refunds, how you will handle the contract, what will your terms of service be in dealing with customers, how you will communicate with customers
• What you will charge for individual pieces that is fair balance based on your effort to build and your skill level
• How to handle receipts for tax purposes, you can't expect your parents to take an illegal risk for you by doing things 'under the table'
• How you will pay for the legal advice needed to have your parents be able to "manage" things for you
It CAN be done. I ran a business(not fursuits) under age both through a studio and 'one my own' through supporting adults. It required a lot of research and saving up before hand. Lots of heavy business and law reading(which for me is fun, but I'm weird like that *L*) and when I started things giving up a lot of social time. You have to be willing to sacrifice. You also have to be willing to know that some people just wont do business with a minor. That's fair and their right, you can't take it personally.
Also be prepared to lose money in the beginning. For example in your case the tail market is over-saturated: look at listings on the big auction sites as they are now, the fact is most don't sell. (I crunched the numbers onetime on Furbuy over a week, something like ~80% of tails/ear and tail sets did not sell)
Making heads is expensive. Buying resin bases are expensive and learning to cast yourself means trial and error and faulty bases.
(continued in next post due to length)
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If you do wait until you're 18 those years wont be wasted, you'll be honing your craft and building up a fanbase.
Just looking at the suits you've done I see some stuff that's not really okay in a suit you plan to sell- fur that seems to be sewn with the pile going the wrong way on the head, raw seam at the nose, sloppy eyes(ie: pupils and irises are not neat circles/ovals that match in both eyes), eyebrows/markings just glued on top of the fur.
In your other sewing projects you have some of the same issues- like showing raw seams.
These aren't style things that are subjective- these are technique things that need to be fixed to have a quality product that it's fair and ethical to sell.
But don't get discouraged, look how much you've learned and accomplished at such a young age! You've built a head. Finishing a craft project like that is a big thing on it's own. And with Gold's head, just based on looks, is appealing. So now it's time to focus on the nitty gritty and improving your basic sewing and construction techniques.
You've got lots of time to practice and lots of time to build a fanbase. When the time comes that you have researched the business side of things, and are either 18 or have convinced your parents to help, and have also gotten your building skill level up you'll be ready to sell great heads.
Good luck, keep at it!
(EDIT: since you added to your original reply while I was writing mine.
I was thinking of selling on a smaller scale I'm going to an arts festival in August and I am going to have some of my work there to sell.
You'll need to make sure it's legal for you as a minor to sell at the festival- your parents may be able to sign on your behalf.
Also, I'm going to be blunt, since you want to be sell and that plunks you into professional territory, if your examples on Deviant Art and your LJ account are your current sewing of plushies/construction of fursuits quality, it's not really ethical for you to be selling right now.
If you make your age clear you may get some people buying to support you taking you age into account, and that's awesome. Just keep in mind you have a ways to go to be professional quality in the general custom market. (again, not about style- I'm talking finishing and building techniques here)
I notice in your DA account you are using another artist's image of their suit without their permission and uploaded with no credit to their account.
Some of the art is traced without credit.
You need to learn some more basics of doing business before you sell is my advice- take it or leave it.
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The arts and crafts fair is actually for people of any age.
I know I need lots of work on the eyes. I plan to redo Griffin's eyes. The only reason I have raw seams is because they are my way of making healed over scars. If I have raw seam on a scarless head I fix it. I plan to airbrush Griffin's healed scars a little to give them a pink look. Just to make it look nicer. Also it looks like I glued the eyebrows on top of the fur but I didn't. I cut out a hole, glued down my eyebrow, dabbed some glue around the eye brow and stuck the fur there. I just like how it looks. However I will not do that for suits that I make people. I'll just trim the fur around the brow and leave it at that or fix anything that needs fixed on the eye brow.
I'll start to do more reasearch on other fursuiters. Thanks again for taking the time to write this and for sharing some of you experiences with me. I learned a whole lot. I'll defiantly try to do some of the things you suggested on suiting and business running. 😄
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