RUSH ORDERS – PART I

"In a Rush"
PBGV
Pen & Ink with Watercolor
Copyright 2013.  Anne M. Hier. All Rights Reserved.

Now that all the holiday commissions are completed you might want to rethink your policy (if you have one) on “rush orders.” There are two types of rush orders – those created by the artist and those imposed by the client. Let's discuss artist created rush orders first.

Artist created rush orders produce a lot of stress and are totally unnecessary. There are several common scenarios. For example, you receive an order and start the piece. Soon, another commission comes over the transom and you begin work on the new order. And another. Now you have several started works, nothing finished, and deadlines looming. So, you put the clients off and burn the midnight oil to either complete the work right at deadline, or worse, deliver the project late. Because you haven't allowed enough time, either you, the client, or both, are not completely satisfied with the finished piece. This is not good for your business.

On the other hand, you might be an artist blessed with more work than you can handle in the allotted time. Everyone wants a portrait for a Christmas gift, the orders are flooding in, and you must work around the clock. By the time Christmas arrives the orders are successfully out the door, but you are too exhausted to enjoy the holiday. Who needs that kind of stress?

However, the vast majority of artist induced rush orders are caused by procrastination. If you are a chronic procrastinator I'm not interested in why you torture yourself in this manner. You'll have to ask yourself the tough questions on that - which usually boil down to either a fear of failure or a self-sabotaging fear of success. You need to make the decision to change, and procrastination is a very tough habit (or lifestyle) to conquer. Nevertheless, I can offer several suggestions to help eliminate the stress of rush orders of your own doing.

1. KEEP REGULAR WORK HOURS. Too many artists spend more time taking their creative temperature than actually doing the work at hand. You can't wait for the muse to light if you told the client the commission will be done in two weeks. Whether or not you work at your art full time, part time, or as a hobby, set regular work hours for yourself and make the commitment to keep them. 
   
   
2. WORK A 50-MINUTE HOUR. If you go into hyperfocus and don't get out of your chair for five hours while you are working on a project you will be exhausted. This is negative feedback, making it mentally difficult to get back into the work. Buy a kitchen timer and set it for 50 minutes. When the bell goes off, get up from your easel and walk around, make a phone call or a cup of tea. Take a ten minute break and go back to work refreshed. Again, set your timer for 50 minutes. The added benefit is that you will become keenly aware of how much work you can accomplish in an hour's time.
   
   
3. LEARN TO SAY “NO.” If you have so much work coming in that you are pressed to complete it you have several options. When client demand exceeds the supply of your time to create the artwork you should raise your prices. Alternatively, and most importantly, you must be up front with your clients and let them know your order book for the month is full. Explain you cannot rush the order and produce quality work. If the portrait is for a gift, suggest a gift certificate. Let the client know when your calendar is available and take a small deposit to hold the date. Do not allow yourself to be pressured to cave in to impossible demands on your time and the quality of your artwork. 
   
   
4. REFER THE WORK TO ANOTHER ARTIST. Artists are surprisingly possessive of their clients to the point of disappointing a client or potential client by turning down work and offering no alternatives. With the internet and social media it is very easy to locate other artists whose work and price range are comparable to your own. If the client MUST have a portrait for a special gift by a specific deadline and you have no time to complete the job, refer the customer to another artist (presumably, an artist whom you know provides great customer service and delivers work on time). If you do so you can make two friends for life, even if the other artist never refers a future client to you. There is no sense being a dog in the manger if completing the client request is impossible for you. The great motivational speaker Zig Ziglar always said, “You get what you want by helping other people get what they want.” There are plenty of pets out there and you can't possibly paint them all. Share the wealth.
   
   
5. CREATE A WORK ORDER LIST. Create a form on your computer with the following categories: Date (order received); Deadline; Client Name; Description (size,medium, other elements); Date Started; Date Completed; Date Shipped. If you are a procrastinator it is extremely important to write this information down. Make several copies of your order list and prominently post the list over your computer, in your studio, or even on your refrigerator or bathroom mirror, if you are really a difficult case. You want to keep these deadlines before you and complete the work – preferably before the deadline, not at the last minute.
   
   
6. KEEP IN CONTACT WITH YOUR CLIENTS. With email, websites, free blogs, and Facebook it is easy to keep in contact with your clients while you are executing the commission. Many artists post work in progress (WIP) so that the customer can see the portrait as it develops. This is a great help to the artist to keep to deadline. It also reassures the client that the work will actually be completed. The principal drawback of showing WIP is that the beginning stages of an artwork may confuse the client who cannot visualize the finished piece. This is a minor consideration, however. Whether or not you show WIP is your choice. Nevertheless, if you absolutely cannot meet a deadline, for whatever reason, let the client know in advance. NEVER miss a deadline if the client has a drop-dead date unless you have dropped dead yourself. Good customer relations should suggest you find a way to compensate your customer for the inconvenience of late delivery, generally in the form of a discount.
   
   
7. UNDER PROMISE, OVER DELIVER. Exactly how long does it take you to complete a painting or drawing of any given size? 3 hours? 3 days? 3 weeks? One of the traits of procrastinators is the inability to accurately estimate how long it will take to complete a project. Invariably, procrastinators significantly underestimate the time needed. If you promise a painting will be done in two weeks but it really takes you four, you will quickly develop a credibility problem with your clients. Barring unforeseen problems, you should have a very accurate completion time frame for each size and each medium you produce. Artists get in trouble when they know a certain piece takes two weeks to complete and they tell the client the work will be done in two weeks. This leaves no breathing room for contingencies. Literally, don't paint yourself into a corner. Always add more time to the quote. For example, if you can complete an 18 x24 pastel portrait of two pets in three days, tell the client the work will be done in two weeks. The work will be delivered either early or on time, the client will be thrilled and you can remind yourself how lucky you are to be paid for doing something you love to do.

In Part II we'll discuss client requests for rush orders.

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UTILIZING TESTIMONIALS

AFGHAN & CORGI PORTRAITS
Copyright 2012. Anne M. Hier
All Rights Reserved

When potential clients visit your website or blog they are not just looking at your portfolio. They need to know they can depend on you to deliver quality work that accurately portrays their pets. As you build your website or blog, be sure to include a few testimonials from satisfied customers. I never solicit these but certainly love to receive them. You should consider testimonials an important marketing tool. Satisfied customers mean a lot, especially to others who are making the decision to hire you. You may think your clientele is interested in your work - they are. But they also want to know they can trust you. Testimonials help build that trust.

Practically all of your customers are hopefully going to acknowledge that they received the portraits and that they are thrilled with your work. Some will send you follow-up pictures of the work framed and in their home. These types of images can provide a real personal touch to your site.

There are two schools of thought on adding testimonials. The first is to go for quantity – listing numerous short quotes to indicate that the artist has completed a significant amount of work. The second method, which I prefer, is to list longer quotes that are quite descriptive and go beyond “Thank you so much for the beautiful portrait of Shep.” Actually, you can probably incorporate a mixture of both on your site. Periodically update these statements to ensure that the majority of your testimonials are current and not all several years old.

One more thing – unless you specifically ask permission, do not list the client's last name, email address, or other identifying information. I usually list the first name and an initial for the last name. If you have done portrait work for a celebrity you may publicly disclose this part of your client list, “Portrait Commissioned by (celebrity's name)." However, do not publish quotes about your work from the celebrity unless you first ask and get written permission to do so. This is because celebrities have a right of publicity to present themselves to the public in a specific manner that they control.

If you would like to read the testimonial for the commissioned portraits pictured above please go my Anne Hier Studio blog.

Learning to Sell Your Art on eBay

SMOOTH FOX TERRIER
Pen & Ink with Watercolor
Copyright 2009. Anne M. Hier.
All Rights Reserved.

           DON'T UNDERESTIMATE
       THE VALUE OF SMALL SALES!

This one eBay sale (under $10), at left, of a small ACEO that is only 2.5 x 3.5 inches, resulted in an additional eight commissions from the client (including a commission for a portrait of her racing pigeon!) Later, I received another commission from a referral by this client to a friend.

A BIG PROBLEM for artists just starting out is putting a value on their time and talent. What is your artwork worth? One way to find out is to sell some of your art on eBay. There are several advantages. You will learn what images sell, what the public is willing to pay, how to provide timely service to your customers, how to price your work for profit and optimum sales, and most importantly, how to start building a customer database.

Most of the time, your eBay online auctions will not bring as high a price for your work as you could get in your studio, a gallery, or through your website. However, I have been selling on eBay since 1998 and fully 40% of my sales are REPEAT CUSTOMERS. Repeat customers are the gold standard in any business. Additionally, many of these clients have gone on to commission portraits from me. Further, I have made art sales throughout the United States and Canada and almost two dozen countries in Asia, Europe, and Australia. I never would have made these sales without the worldwide reach of eBay. Thus, eBay not only is a great selling tool but also quite an effective advertising medium for your work.

Keep in mind that eBay customers like to think they are getting a bargain. Plus, while we all want to get high prices for our major works, you should seriously consider selling to a variety of price point customers. The highest price I have ever received for an eBay sale was $400 for a small painting. However, I now concentrate on pieces that are 5x7 inches or smaller. In particular, I create a great number of ACEOS in both pen and ink and colored pencil. Many eBay customers are not willing to pay $100 for one piece of art. But, I have had plenty who are willing to pay between $3.99 - $10.99 for smaller works. Small sales? Small sales margin? Yes. Nevertheless, I consider these sales an investment in my future business. Over time, many of these same customers have spent hundreds of dollars with me in repeat purchases. Indeed, I have one client who will never bid over $10.99 for any single piece on eBay, yet has purchased over 60 ACEOS total. I can count on her to purchase something practically every time I list a batch of drawings on eBay. Further, she has commissioned a total of 17 portraits from me for herself and as gifts for friends.  And she paid significantly more than $10.99 for the commissioned works. Even better, I am currently working on a portrait commission from one of her friends. Word of mouth referrals are still the best form of advertising. 

 

A loyal clientele is built on trust. If eBay buyers discover they like your work and can trust you for a small sale, many of them will buy more in the future.

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Surely, You Want to Donate Your Artwork to Charity! Don't You?

"Brothers." Block Print. Copyright 2010. Anne M. Hier.

Every year I get dozens of requests asking me to donate artwork to various charitable groups or organization fundraisers. There are plenty of worthy causes out there and a lot of them relate to animals. But, if you have decided to paint for a living, you must limit how much of your time and art you give away for free.

If you have properly set yourself up in business, it is presumed that you take appropriate legal deductions to offset and reduce the amount of tax paid each year. But, here's the problem. If I create an artwork and sell if for $400, my client can hold that painting for 18 months and then donate it to a charity and receive a full Fair Market Value (FMV) deduction of $400. ( Let's face it, for most of us, our niche work isn't going to radically appreciate in value over a year and a half. Therefore, in most cases, the FMV will be the purchase price. Additionally, this sale is well below the $5,000 threshold that would require an independent appraisal for FMV).

But, what happens if I donate my artwork directly to the same charity? I donate the artwork to the charity. That's it. Oh sure, I can take a tax deduction for the cost basis of the artwork, but NOT for my hourly rate for labor, my overhead, or for the full FMV. Thus, for a 5” x 7” colored pencil drawing that I would sell for $75, my cost basis is the rock bottom cost of the materials and the sales tax. But wait, I have to pro rate that. If I buy a pad of paper for $9.99 and it contains fifty 12” x 12” sheets, that means I can get two hundred 5” x 7” pieces of paper to work on. In other words, the cost basis of the $75 finished artwork is only .049 cents, plus a few extra cents thrown in for the pencils I use. This is not worth my time and trouble to list as a deduction on my tax forms.

Is this fair? Well, while plenty of artist's groups don't think so, not allowing the self-selected deduction by artists makes sense. Believe me, if I could donate my artwork for FMV I would be painting my fingers off to deduct my way to a zero tax bracket.

So, what do you do when charities come with hat in hand asking for a donation of artwork? Here is what I do:

1. I tell them I limit my art donations to those breed organizations with which I am actively involved (Bulldogs and French Bulldogs).
2. I offer to list several drawings or paintings of the requested breed online for sale at a discount to the organization's members. These members can then purchase the art at a discount, donate it to their cause, and know that it will probably bring more at auction than the price they paid for it. (After all, it is their charity – not mine).
   
   

There are other ways to handle such requests. Many artists donate a portion of the proceeds of all their sales to named charities and this method forestalls endless requests for donated art to other groups. However you choose to donate to charitable groups, make sure it is on your terms and that you know how you will handle any requests for your time and talent in advance.

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