How well they go together, like peanut-butter and jelly.

Okay so "well" isn't the right word, more "often". Particularly apt as I despise peanut butter BUT ANYWAY.

It's a sad fact that furry artists, in general, are privileged. Particularly when they get popular/"popufur". But there's a fact about business, any business, that never stops being true;

Your customer doesn't owe you a god-damn motherfucking thing.

They've approached you, out of the hundreds of thousands of active furry artists, to bring their idea to life; whether that be editing their character into your YCH piece or a whole commission from scratch.

They've looked at your art, or seen it elsewhere, and thought "Yeah, this. This is the person I want to draw that idea."

They've then approached you and offered you money to do so; probably in line with your set charges and fees for same, if you have them posted, and if not, probably with a "How much would this cost me?" tacked on.

"Great! Business," you think, "Love me some of that."

But they still don't owe you shit, even now.

Now I'm not saying you should tolerate them being a dick about their commission, or asking for re-draw after re-draw, or refusing to pay on your terms (whether you choose to take payment upfront or on completion is your call, and I'll approach that matter later), or getting rude with you or anything like that. Hell you wouldn't take that from a customer in a shop so why should you take it from someone online?

But assuming that you, and they, are reasonably polite about the process, then you owe them everything. Once you agree to do their piece you owe them your time, you owe them your skill, and you owe them your gratitude for having chosen you out of the thousands of alternatives to draw a 10-cocked horse-dragon penetrating an entire harem of slime monsters in mid-air. (Or whatever else they've commissioned you for, IDK.)

If you request payment upfront; which is not uncommon, as so many people try to stuff you over in the community and get a freebie out of it; then once they've paid you owe them as quick a turnaround as you are capable of. Give them an estimate. Give them a "Okay, I have two or three other pieces to get done so I won't be able to start this until the nth of this month, and I should have it done before the n+1th of this month" or whatever seems reasonable to you. Don't be one of those artists who takes a commission then goes silent and provides only one half-sketched WIP six months later; that's just lazy.

If, like me, you take payment on delivery then working at a good pace shouldn't even be in question; after all you want your monies, and they want their art. Watermark your progress pieces to help prevent them doing a runner without paying, and if you've any doubt then don't be afraid to ask for upfront or part-upfront payment. Either way, get it done as quickly as you would hope someone would do for you.

Even after they've paid and the art's been delivered you owe them your thanks, you owe them a "Hope you consider me again in future!", you owe them a proverbial smile if you ever want to see their business again.

This is how I do business, and it always will be.

If you go into any business proposition acting like you've any right to the business you're being offered by the customer, you are setting yourself up for nothing more than failure, mockery, and abuse; all of it frankly deserved.

Humility is 9/10ths of being a good person. Never forget that.

(The other 1/10th is drawing 10-cocked horse-dragons. But you knew that already.)