I've been feeling a bit prickly about my crafting lately. A few very small things have come up that have made me really rethink my approach to sharing my crafts. Sometimes people are forgetting to thank me, or being kinda demanding about me making them stuff, or not paying me at all. I've been posting more of what I've been making for myself on my Facebook account and it's garnering a lot of attention and requests. Like so much attention I'm quite taken aback really. I know readers of my blog will identify, I'm feeling a little . . . hmmm, not used exactly, but a bit like a Craft Monkey that can just churn out cool things for free for anyone at any time. I'm a bit frustrated because (as everyone really does know) these things take a lot of time and money . . . and I have other things to do in life. Crafting and creating isn't my primary occupation, nor is it a meaningful source of income. Admittedly this is mostly my fault. I don't pay a lot for my craft supplies, I create just for the sake of creating because I love it, I'm pretty generous by nature, so I don't really care 90% of the time to just give stuff away. But . . . I think I might be at a bit of a wall on this one. So, I've decided I'm going to start charging and charging what I think it's worth. This doesn't exclude gift making by any means, but for crafting requests that I want to take on I will not sell myself short. It feels icky when I do, and I make really nice things that you can't find in stores.
This said, many, many of these requests are accompanied with the offer to pay for the piece & my time and sometimes people even pay me more when they think I've undersold myself. So I'm totally not slamming anyone here, I just realized that I'm at a point where my crafting has hit another level and that if I feel like I should be paid for something, it is up to me alone to open my mouth and say something.
I would really welcome any comments from my readers about how the negotiate this. I think all of my readers are crafty and generous and many of you have struggled with these same kind of boundaries, I know.
For me, it has primarily been my kids who ask for things, and I can't charge them! They also know that things will probably fit into my schedule later, if it's not something they neeeed. My friends haven't asked for things without saying they'd buy it, so I guess I've been lucky. I do think you should be up front about asking to be paid, and most people will understand. You could also say you're not doing custom orders right now, but when your schedule frees up, you'd be happy to do it for $xxx. Good luck!
ReplyDeleteBe strong! You are so brave to say no and also to write about it here. People always ask me to mend things for them. Instead, I offer to show them how (sometimes). Just because I know how to do it, doesn't make it fun to do it.
ReplyDeletei find something that helps is telling people right away, when they tell me what they want, how much i think it will cost - and that i can't be 100% sure without actually finishing it.
ReplyDeletei made a few mistakes where i fixed something, etc. and the person said a gleeful 'thanks!' and went on their way (without paying), and i realized that it was my fault for not saying right up front what the cost was.
to determine costs, i've started using this formula.
i track how much time it takes me to source (or approximate, if you already have the materials - i.e. were they hard to find, did you visit a ton of bead stores to find them), the overall material cost (clear breakdown + whatever markup you may see as fair), and then determine what i think my time is worth. usually, if it's just stringing, i tend to charge less on an hourly basis, than if it's a structured or complicated piece. then, i figure out how much time i spent on it, added to the time i spent sourcing, added to the overall cost, and ta da! price point.
this may only work for me... but perhaps it will be a good starting point?