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An open letter to all of my customers.
13 years ago
Hello everyone, hope you’ve all been well.
I am posting this journal entry because there has been quite a bit of alarm and worry about my business, and I want to publicly address all these concerns in one place, so that everyone will hopefully understand my plan to see it resolved successfully.
First of all, I truly do want to emphasize my sincere apology to those who have waited an unusually long time to receive their completed commissions. I truly feel awful that I’ve pushed many of them back and completed other commissions taken long after theirs, and I wish I could effectively express how guilty I feel for putting kind, unspeakably patient people in that position, especially after paying me firsthand. And sadly, a good amount of my clients have had or been having such an experience with me. I am also aware that I have exceeded my estimated deadlines in the past, and at this point I can only offer my condolences and my promise that I will complete all outstanding commissions as rapidly as I am physically able to complete, and I am absolutely serious about following through with this. To those who have been displeased with how long they have been waiting, I am more than happy to offer some form of compensation through art. I offer a free sketch bust or sketch fullbody picture the the customer may claim at any time AFTER a substantial or the entire amount of my current queue of slots is completed. So far, this has been very successful for all those who have requested this form of compensation.
I also want to clarify that the ridiculous wait time is due to my excessive workload, which is unnecessary and inefficient, and entirely of my own doing and my lack of thorough planning. I know people have been angry about it, but I've only opened any additional commissions so that I can meet bare essential needs. The only reason why I have such a workload is because I have consistent necessities to pay for on a monthly basis, such as food, water, heating, electricity, rent, gas money, and Internet. I can’t complete any work if I don’t have a roof over my head and electricity to work on all of my art. If my electricity were to be shut off, my Internet suspended, and in the worst case scenario kicked out of my house, my commissions would take far longer to finish. At the same time, I do my absolute best to NOT open any commissions if I don’t have to. It truly hurts me to be put in a position where I have no choice but to open a few, even simple, commissions when I know I have a good queue of wonderfully patient people already waiting for me to finish their mostly or fully-paid commission.
In addition, I want to note to everyone that I have not been exceptionally communicative because I’m trying to invest as much time as I can to working on and finishing my commissions. Also, when not making progress on commissions, I am getting back to as many e-mails and notes as I can -- my customers being the ultimate priority.
There is an insane amount of things I am juggling right now, in addition to messages and inquiries from those who are not clients of mine. If you message/note/e-mail me and you aren’t a client of mine, please don’t expect a reply anytime soon, or any at all just to be safe, until my withstanding commissions are completed. I am deeply sorry for this inconvenience, but proper organization of how I spend my time right now is utterly imperative. The sooner I complete my current queue, the sooner I can move forward and get back to everyone else.
Lastly, I want to let everyone know that while I’m working through my commissions as fast as possible (without carelessly rushing through them), I am trying to get all commissions furthest back on my list out of the way first and foremost, as soon as possible. I used to alternate my commissions between doing a new one, then an older one, then new, old, etc. However, these days I am solely focusing on older commissions until they are out of the way, and then I will work on my more recent commissions.
I also wanted to send my gratitude for taking the time to read this, and that I truly do appreciate it. I hope this has helped to assuage some fears and concerns, and that we can move forward in a positive, peaceful manner as I complete these commissions as soon as I possibly can (while maintaining quality). I also understand that simply making a journal entry won't fix anything, but I know this needed to be laid out for everyone's benefit and hopefully peace of mind.
Many thanks, and have a wonderful December!
I am posting this journal entry because there has been quite a bit of alarm and worry about my business, and I want to publicly address all these concerns in one place, so that everyone will hopefully understand my plan to see it resolved successfully.
First of all, I truly do want to emphasize my sincere apology to those who have waited an unusually long time to receive their completed commissions. I truly feel awful that I’ve pushed many of them back and completed other commissions taken long after theirs, and I wish I could effectively express how guilty I feel for putting kind, unspeakably patient people in that position, especially after paying me firsthand. And sadly, a good amount of my clients have had or been having such an experience with me. I am also aware that I have exceeded my estimated deadlines in the past, and at this point I can only offer my condolences and my promise that I will complete all outstanding commissions as rapidly as I am physically able to complete, and I am absolutely serious about following through with this. To those who have been displeased with how long they have been waiting, I am more than happy to offer some form of compensation through art. I offer a free sketch bust or sketch fullbody picture the the customer may claim at any time AFTER a substantial or the entire amount of my current queue of slots is completed. So far, this has been very successful for all those who have requested this form of compensation.
I also want to clarify that the ridiculous wait time is due to my excessive workload, which is unnecessary and inefficient, and entirely of my own doing and my lack of thorough planning. I know people have been angry about it, but I've only opened any additional commissions so that I can meet bare essential needs. The only reason why I have such a workload is because I have consistent necessities to pay for on a monthly basis, such as food, water, heating, electricity, rent, gas money, and Internet. I can’t complete any work if I don’t have a roof over my head and electricity to work on all of my art. If my electricity were to be shut off, my Internet suspended, and in the worst case scenario kicked out of my house, my commissions would take far longer to finish. At the same time, I do my absolute best to NOT open any commissions if I don’t have to. It truly hurts me to be put in a position where I have no choice but to open a few, even simple, commissions when I know I have a good queue of wonderfully patient people already waiting for me to finish their mostly or fully-paid commission.
In addition, I want to note to everyone that I have not been exceptionally communicative because I’m trying to invest as much time as I can to working on and finishing my commissions. Also, when not making progress on commissions, I am getting back to as many e-mails and notes as I can -- my customers being the ultimate priority.
There is an insane amount of things I am juggling right now, in addition to messages and inquiries from those who are not clients of mine. If you message/note/e-mail me and you aren’t a client of mine, please don’t expect a reply anytime soon, or any at all just to be safe, until my withstanding commissions are completed. I am deeply sorry for this inconvenience, but proper organization of how I spend my time right now is utterly imperative. The sooner I complete my current queue, the sooner I can move forward and get back to everyone else.
Lastly, I want to let everyone know that while I’m working through my commissions as fast as possible (without carelessly rushing through them), I am trying to get all commissions furthest back on my list out of the way first and foremost, as soon as possible. I used to alternate my commissions between doing a new one, then an older one, then new, old, etc. However, these days I am solely focusing on older commissions until they are out of the way, and then I will work on my more recent commissions.
I also wanted to send my gratitude for taking the time to read this, and that I truly do appreciate it. I hope this has helped to assuage some fears and concerns, and that we can move forward in a positive, peaceful manner as I complete these commissions as soon as I possibly can (while maintaining quality). I also understand that simply making a journal entry won't fix anything, but I know this needed to be laid out for everyone's benefit and hopefully peace of mind.
Many thanks, and have a wonderful December!
So, take your time! Waiting for something amazing is well worth it when you can trust it will happen.
There are a few things you can do to help prevent this problem in the future and still be able to earn what you're currently making in commissions. Most simply, by increasing your prices. But let me explain a little further. There are ways you can increase the value of your time without making direct changes to your current price line. First you really need to asses how much time you're spending on commissions and divide that by how much you're charging. If you're not earning at least an average of $10 an hour for each of your packages, then any package that doesn't meet this quota should either be dropped, or the priced increased to meet that bar. This is not to say that you should charge hourly, no, but your packages should reflect the amount of time it takes you to do them rounding out to $10 hourly or more. If you're already working at a $10 hourly scale then maybe you need to consider that you need a raise. Taking just a quick browse through your commission examples I would say something such as this should probably be closer to $200-$300, so price yourself accordingly. I'm just gonna go based off of $10, since that's what I work at.
Next you need to asses which packages give you the highest value with the least amount of time invested and promote those more. From this journal it is apparent that you have a lot demand for your art, just not enough supply (or time) to meet the demand. So for instance, pretend your sketch busts take you 1 hour to do. At $20 your sketch busts are an excellent price, especially if you're getting a lot of buyers for them. On the other hand if your sketch fullbodies take you 6 hours to do, then you should drop them because you're making less than $10 hourly.
Now say that someone who's commissioned you before wants another sketch fullbody, but they don't see it on your price list. So they pm you asking for another one. That's when you give them an updated price, $60 instead of the original $50. If they ask why you raised your price just tell them the truth; it was taking too much of your time. This is just an example of course, I'm not sure of the time it takes for your work, so I cannot give an accurate assessment, but I hope this helps you understand what I mean.
One other thing you could do (which is a problem that every artist has) is limit yourself to how many hours a specific commission will take you. Say to yourself from the very beginning that you will not go over 4 hours on XX commission. Then you're not stressed and once you reach that 4 hour mark just stop whether its finished or not. Usually by then you're only doing minor details anyway and unless its something that's necessary to the character (which the client will tell you), then leave it as is. This is very hard I know; we always want perfection, but you're skilled enough that your client won't notice if you didn't put much detail in the cattail in the swamp behind the character. Focus only on what's important and let the viewer imagine the rest. If you can limit yourself to 4 hours then you can take on 2 commissions that day and you've done an 8 hour day, earning $80-$160 depending on your hourly goal.
So to sum everything up you need to focus on selling commissions that you know will only take you 4 hours or less. This will bring you the highest value to time and it will keep your prices reasonable at $20-$40 for your clients. Plus then you can be more selective on which commissions you take on and you can also guarantee a timeline for your clients. I usually do 1-2 weeks, but up to a month is acceptable.
I hope this helps, and I wish you the best of luck in your scheduling so that you can finish your current commissions. Please don't feel that I am critiquing you or that I mean any offense. My intention here is simply to help you find ways that you can improve the value of your time and decrease your stress. Good luck!
Good luck with everything! Others have given you excellent organizational and business tips, but I'll be happy to give you some advice as well if you want.
You know I'm always doing my best to help you as much as I can.
As I said in my email, I'll see about sending one more tip of $20.
Just to help you along some.
I have a bit of money for Christmas.
Just call it a Christmas gift.
Good luck Cach.
I know you can get through this.
Thanks for keeping us up-to-date! I'm personally not really phased by the wait-time, because I know the finished picture will be worth it when it's completely lined/colored. :)
Many thanks for the wonderful journal, and happy December to you too, pirate-cashoo!
Hoping to see a list of those who you owe art to, doesn't really feel like you're holding true to your words here - I know it hasn't been long since you posted this but I haven't seen any updates from you. If you have the time to write up this essay for those who feel it's all the needed versus what they paid for you should have some time to go through emails, and notes and writing out usernames and progress levels of those who have commissioned you and are still waiting on commissions since 2011.
I'm still watching you over at DA and I've yet to see you reply to anyone's comment in your last journal before your apology letter like you said you would, and a lot of people keep bringing up that you are pretty much ignoring and/or refusing to take others advance on getting a job, especially during this holiday season.
But... I've been on her for a while now for my piece back from May that she promised would be finished several times in the past 8 months. Now I have a new deadline of DEC. 21st, so we'll see. I certainly hope for her sake she finishs it for me.
It's not about time, either. People keep harping about how customers are "impatient jerks" ... etc. etc... that is SO not the case here. When someone tells you something - you expect them to mean in, especially when you're paying them good money. When they don't - you get upset.
I was even told by PC that my commission WOULD have been done a few weeks back if it weren't for having to finish NEW commissions NOW in order to get the client's payments in full.
THAT IS JUST NOT FAIR or right.....
If I had known this, I never would have paid her in full months ago.
I haven't even waiting that long, I commissioned her when she moved to her little cottage which was back in September or October but the lack of communication or attendance on any of these sites she posts to makes it feel like an eternity.
I was lucky enough to finally get my piece on DEC 22 - she worked on it the 21st - the deadline she gave me but she did finally finish it at least so I am happy. I hope she pulls through with her promises for others as well.
I almost think she'd have better luck just asking for donations for a month instead of taking commissions. Or even doing a little "donate xx$" and get a free quick sketch - like a 20 min sketch or something.That would be great if she felt too guilty about just asking for $.
Though I know many people would probably help her out if she were upfront about it.
It seems she is a perfectionist (not a problem, overall) but it cuts into her work A LOT, as she tends to draw and re-draw many times over instead of sticking to a set limit on pieces and dealing with it. I am glad she's worried about perfection, but when it causes you to get months behind because you just can't settle on a piece, well that's bad for business.