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Karin Lindhagen · 11-09-2005, 05:49 PM

I have made "sort of" gift certificates on 3-4 occasions. Or I might be misinterpreting your question, since I am not absolutely sure what the English word "gift certificate" means. Anyway, this is what happened:

I was contacted by someone who wanted to offer a portrait to his wife or to her husband or to their father. The birthday was coming up soon, so there was no time to finish a portrait in advance.

I set up just a normal deal with the person who contacted me (seeing this person as my client for invoicing purposes), and drew some funny sketches on a little card saying something like "Congratulations for your xx:th birthday! You will recieve a portrait of yourself painted in oil on linen by portrait artist Karin Lindhagen. Please phone tel.no xxxx to decide on a good date for photographing" or something along that line.

As normal I have charged 10-30 % before starting to paint, and the rest when the paintiing was finished. No different to what I always do. I do not worry much about the risk of not getting paid in the end - not after recieving the initial payment. I think to myself that surely, it would be just too embarrassing to offer someone an exclusive gift and then not pay the gift in the end?! Also psychologically, I like to have the payment waiting for me in the end as my reward for a good job. For that reason, I do not fancy being fully paid in advance.

I have never tried selling Gift Certificates on a larger scale. When showing my paintings at trade fairs, I have simply collected appointments.

11-09-2005, 05:49 PM	#3
Karin Lindhagen Juried Member Joined: Jan 2005 Location: Ulricehamn, Sweden Posts: 11	I have made "sort of" gift certificates on 3-4 occasions. Or I might be misinterpreting your question, since I am not absolutely sure what the English word "gift certificate" means. Anyway, this is what happened: I was contacted by someone who wanted to offer a portrait to his wife or to her husband or to their father. The birthday was coming up soon, so there was no time to finish a portrait in advance. I set up just a normal deal with the person who contacted me (seeing this person as my client for invoicing purposes), and drew some funny sketches on a little card saying something like "Congratulations for your xx:th birthday! You will recieve a portrait of yourself painted in oil on linen by portrait artist Karin Lindhagen. Please phone tel.no xxxx to decide on a good date for photographing" or something along that line. As normal I have charged 10-30 % before starting to paint, and the rest when the paintiing was finished. No different to what I always do. I do not worry much about the risk of not getting paid in the end - not after recieving the initial payment. I think to myself that surely, it would be just too embarrassing to offer someone an exclusive gift and then not pay the gift in the end?! Also psychologically, I like to have the payment waiting for me in the end as my reward for a good job. For that reason, I do not fancy being fully paid in advance. I have never tried selling Gift Certificates on a larger scale. When showing my paintings at trade fairs, I have simply collected appointments.