Pricing to friends and family
 

Mary Smith brought this up in another thread and it's a problem I'm juggling with now. What is proper pricing etiquette when approached by friends or family members who are serious about commissioning a portrait? Do you give them a discount? If so, how much?

Renee Price

For the hours it takes me to do a portrait and at the prices I charge (even after recent price increases) my hourly wage is still probably way lower than what most of my friends and relatives earn. I don't offer a discount.

Renee,
 

I'm notorious for being overly generous to my friends and family. I used to give everyone such a break that I was basically making minimum wage.

I have stopped doing that for everyone EXCEPT my family and my children's Godparents, and then I give them half, which I really don't think they appreciate. I almost think THEY think I should just give it to them, which is making me start to think that Michele's approach is the only approach.

I think it was fine to do it this way when this was my hobby and I was childless. But now, it is my source of income and my time is extremely precious. I can't afford to make less than I'm paying the sitter, ya know?.

Where are you in NC? I'm in Shelby.

I give paintings to my family for free, whether they want them or not. Everyone's getting paintings for many Christmases to come. I don't think it's right to charge my family, but that only applies to the people who lived in the house with me growing up (and on my husband's side).

I don't offer discounts to friends or distant family members, and then I don't get stuck doing portraits for them either. I'd hate to have bad feelings over something along the lines of "there's something wrong with the mouth."

Every time I've discounted my rates for any reason, something bad has happened. It seems like people who dicker have the least respect, and the most changes to request. As soon as there's an adjustment in price it seems to open up the door for everything. They're not happy, they're not committed. It's the folks who I say It's such and such, and they say Sounds great - those are the people who are the nicest to work with. They respect me, and I am grateful to them.

Well
 

Now, Lisa, I have to say my mother falls under the category of always getting it free, and poor thing she is probably getting a little tense knowing that Christmas is around that corner and she will have something ELSE to hang! My husbands parents are deceased so that isn't an issue and my brother never asks or wants. So I guess that takes care of the immediate family!

To clarify, my family members haven't asked to commission portraits from me, though I have given some as gifts. (Even a steeply discounted price would be too high for them, given their various economic circumstances these days.)

Just as a comparison, I pay my sister (who is a professional landscape photographer) full price for prints and notecards of her work.

I do not give away paintings to family anymore - not since we moved to TX and discovered 50 more relatives of my husband's...who all wanted one.

I do have a nephew who has quite a collection though. He has routinely found canvas' I have thrown away and nabbed them. He has about 7 paintings now. They all are horrible! He thinks they are wonderful. I've tried to take them back, but I can't. He is a single dad and is very sentimental. It means something to him that his Auntie Kim painted them. If it weren't for those horrible things I do not think he would have anything on the walls.

Thank you Michele, Mary, Lisa, and Kimberly! I've done portraits for my mom and dad of course, but I have 2 dear friends who are interested in portraits and I've been apprehensive about quoting prices to them. Breaking up the fee into an hourly wage is a good way to look at pricing.

Tom E. gave me some great advice about determining prices a couple of months ago. He said that after researching what other people are charging, decide what you want to charge then work very hard until you feel like your paintings are worth that price. And when you can look at yourself in the mirror and not feel like you're ripping people off, that's when you start marketing. I'm still in the working hard part, which is another reason I haven't quoted prices to them yet.

Renee

P.S. Mary, I live in a very small town on the NC/VA border called Eden. It's about 45 minutes north of Greensboro.

I do discounts for family. My prices are low to begin with but I offer a 20 - 25% discount for them, partly because they wouldn't be interested in a painting if they didn't have a family connection with me; i.e. these aren't people off the street or who have simply found me via my website. I would also expect some discount for them, were I to need their services.

It's also partially in deference to their economic situation; most are not the sort of people who drive $40k cars.

Another consideration is that I don't usually have a waiting list, although I have one I'm painting and one pending currently. Were I busier I'd probably reconsider that. But my painting is a second career after retirement so I don't depend on the income, which is an aspect to consider.