How can I use my skills for financial gain?
I posted this on my FA journal a few days ago and got a fairly positive response, so I'm posting it here too.
So you have discovered you make really good rainbow glowing ear muffs, or people really like your custom Fredrick Nietzche plushie, or people beg you to make them a replica of your handmade toothpick statue of Maid Marian from Robin Hood. Congrats! You have developed a skill in a way that garners the attention of your e-peers and earns you respect.
Inevitably with so much attention, at least one person will talk of buying your creations. It is extremely easy to just say "Yes!" with little thought or planning to the actual process of making someone's custom commission. You might not know exactly how long it took you, or how much the materials were, you just know it was really fun to make the first one, and plus it got you a lot of positive attention. Then someone else comes to you wanting to buy. Great! Everyone loves your stuff and all those commissions can add up to a lot of money. Before you know it, you've got a full plate of owed work for others. It doesn't matter. The cartoon dollar signs appear in your eyes and all of a sudden your fun little weekend project becomes a real job.
Before you say "I will sell my work", first consider "Why?" Do you consider it an easy way to earn money for the things you want/need? Are you afraid of letting someone down by saying no? Maybe you go along with it because everyone around you is just selling, selling, selling all the time and it seems like what everyone with skill does.
What I'm getting at is that if you go into commissions without a business plan in place and a serious drive to get your owed work done, then you will face a lot of heartache and stress. Just because you can sell to others, doesn't mean you should. If more people considered logic before feeling the sway of the cartoon dollar signs, there would be more accountability in the fandom, and everywhere. A waiting list of over 30 owed items wouldn't just be par for the course, badge commissions wouldn't take years for the artist to "get around to it", and there would be a lot more general trust in artists.
Not everybody is meant to sell things. That's okay! The minor disappointment people feel when they're told no is nothing compared to the hassle some people have to face to get their owed work from an artist.
I know this one really skilled artist. She's contributed to a ton of tutorials over the years and does really adorable work. I always wondered why she didn't do commissions and I was really disappointed I could never own a commission from her. But now, after doing commissions for gosh... 7 years? 6 years? I completely understand now and my level of respect for her has grown even more. Because for whatever reason, she's decided she doesn't want to do commissions- be it the stress, the lack of creative freedom, the deadlines, whatever it is, she's not let the sway of money take hold over her logic.
Am I saying taking commissions is a bad idea? No way! If you have a business plan in place that works and can produce consistently quality, quick work, you're awesome! You are what makes this fandom thrive. Furry is almost entirely dependent on its user's creations, you are what brings these characters to life. I used to do commissions for a long time. Sometimes I was dependable, sometimes I was slow. When I was slow was during times I really should have had the discrepancy to say "no", but the cartoon dollar signs took hold of me and I took on more than I should have.
No, for a commissions business to work (and yes, the moment you accept money for it, it is no longer a hobby but a professional commission), you have to consider the following:
Do I like to draw/sew/sculpt/write/etc to another person's specifications?
-Am I willing to create work based on designs I may not like?
-Am I ready to have my work torn apart and make revisions with customer input?
Am I ready to promise deadlines and work towards them?
-Do I have set policies in place on this?
-Am I prepared to spend more on shipping to get the item to the person by their date?
Do I have a secure way to accept payments? (Paypal, AlertPay, Money Orders, cash at cons, etc?)
Am I prepared to ship people's items when they're finished?
-Do I have reliable transportation to the post office anytime I need?
-Do I have time in my schedule to get in to the post office before it closes?
-Do I have a way to calculate shipping costs accurately?
-Do I have all the necessary supplies to pack items up to ship? (ie: don't auction off a plush then realize you have no boxes the right size, making your customer wait several extra days for you to go to the store and buy a box)
Am I okay with answering customer emails at any step during the commission process, even if the customer is being difficult?
Am I charging enough to compensate for my time, materials, shipping, etc? If it's not worth your while, you won't have any motivation to do it!
Am I ready to postpone my personal projects so that paid work can come first?
Is my life stable enough that I can dedicate a reasonable number of hours a day to my craft?
And finally, after you've done commissions a few times: Do I enjoy making things for others?
For some the answer is a resounding yes, the reward of bringing joy to people through art and being paid for it far outweighs the bad. For others like me, it's not really that fun anymore. Some people like to create what they wish at will, or maybe their lives are too busy/hectic to even consider doing such a thing.
If you've decided commissions aren't for you, I respect you. If you decide you love doing commissions, keep doing what you're doing, just be careful not to fall into any of the commissioning traps of spending before you earn, overbooking, and undercharging.
This post has been a long time coming, hope you understand now why I and others no longer offer commissions, and hopefully those of you new to commissions or who are just going through the motions will read this and consider.
Thanks for reading! <3
So you have discovered you make really good rainbow glowing ear muffs, or people really like your custom Fredrick Nietzche plushie, or people beg you to make them a replica of your handmade toothpick statue of Maid Marian from Robin Hood. Congrats! You have developed a skill in a way that garners the attention of your e-peers and earns you respect.
Inevitably with so much attention, at least one person will talk of buying your creations. It is extremely easy to just say "Yes!" with little thought or planning to the actual process of making someone's custom commission. You might not know exactly how long it took you, or how much the materials were, you just know it was really fun to make the first one, and plus it got you a lot of positive attention. Then someone else comes to you wanting to buy. Great! Everyone loves your stuff and all those commissions can add up to a lot of money. Before you know it, you've got a full plate of owed work for others. It doesn't matter. The cartoon dollar signs appear in your eyes and all of a sudden your fun little weekend project becomes a real job.
Before you say "I will sell my work", first consider "Why?" Do you consider it an easy way to earn money for the things you want/need? Are you afraid of letting someone down by saying no? Maybe you go along with it because everyone around you is just selling, selling, selling all the time and it seems like what everyone with skill does.
What I'm getting at is that if you go into commissions without a business plan in place and a serious drive to get your owed work done, then you will face a lot of heartache and stress. Just because you can sell to others, doesn't mean you should. If more people considered logic before feeling the sway of the cartoon dollar signs, there would be more accountability in the fandom, and everywhere. A waiting list of over 30 owed items wouldn't just be par for the course, badge commissions wouldn't take years for the artist to "get around to it", and there would be a lot more general trust in artists.
Not everybody is meant to sell things. That's okay! The minor disappointment people feel when they're told no is nothing compared to the hassle some people have to face to get their owed work from an artist.
I know this one really skilled artist. She's contributed to a ton of tutorials over the years and does really adorable work. I always wondered why she didn't do commissions and I was really disappointed I could never own a commission from her. But now, after doing commissions for gosh... 7 years? 6 years? I completely understand now and my level of respect for her has grown even more. Because for whatever reason, she's decided she doesn't want to do commissions- be it the stress, the lack of creative freedom, the deadlines, whatever it is, she's not let the sway of money take hold over her logic.
Am I saying taking commissions is a bad idea? No way! If you have a business plan in place that works and can produce consistently quality, quick work, you're awesome! You are what makes this fandom thrive. Furry is almost entirely dependent on its user's creations, you are what brings these characters to life. I used to do commissions for a long time. Sometimes I was dependable, sometimes I was slow. When I was slow was during times I really should have had the discrepancy to say "no", but the cartoon dollar signs took hold of me and I took on more than I should have.
No, for a commissions business to work (and yes, the moment you accept money for it, it is no longer a hobby but a professional commission), you have to consider the following:
Do I like to draw/sew/sculpt/write/etc to another person's specifications?
-Am I willing to create work based on designs I may not like?
-Am I ready to have my work torn apart and make revisions with customer input?
Am I ready to promise deadlines and work towards them?
-Do I have set policies in place on this?
-Am I prepared to spend more on shipping to get the item to the person by their date?
Do I have a secure way to accept payments? (Paypal, AlertPay, Money Orders, cash at cons, etc?)
Am I prepared to ship people's items when they're finished?
-Do I have reliable transportation to the post office anytime I need?
-Do I have time in my schedule to get in to the post office before it closes?
-Do I have a way to calculate shipping costs accurately?
-Do I have all the necessary supplies to pack items up to ship? (ie: don't auction off a plush then realize you have no boxes the right size, making your customer wait several extra days for you to go to the store and buy a box)
Am I okay with answering customer emails at any step during the commission process, even if the customer is being difficult?
Am I charging enough to compensate for my time, materials, shipping, etc? If it's not worth your while, you won't have any motivation to do it!
Am I ready to postpone my personal projects so that paid work can come first?
Is my life stable enough that I can dedicate a reasonable number of hours a day to my craft?
And finally, after you've done commissions a few times: Do I enjoy making things for others?
For some the answer is a resounding yes, the reward of bringing joy to people through art and being paid for it far outweighs the bad. For others like me, it's not really that fun anymore. Some people like to create what they wish at will, or maybe their lives are too busy/hectic to even consider doing such a thing.
If you've decided commissions aren't for you, I respect you. If you decide you love doing commissions, keep doing what you're doing, just be careful not to fall into any of the commissioning traps of spending before you earn, overbooking, and undercharging.
This post has been a long time coming, hope you understand now why I and others no longer offer commissions, and hopefully those of you new to commissions or who are just going through the motions will read this and consider.
Thanks for reading! <3