Gift Certificates

[Lacey Lewis]

Hi!

I wanted to know about how anyone here has dealt with gift certificates, so that I can avoid any mistakes. The holidays are coming up and I will have some work on display at a local library, and wanted to offer gift certificates as an option to anyone interested.

How do you handle payment? Do you do as you normally would with a regular commission, and take a deposit of half up front and then accpet the balance once the work is completed? It seems like it could easily become a sticky situation, if one person is expecting a portrait but the person commissioning the portrait isn't paying.

Do you charge the full price up front in the case of a gift certificate? Do you make any of it refundable? Is there anything else I should know before offering this option?

[Terri Ficenec]

Hi Lacey--
Depending on your price point, I would think it might scare potential clients away charging the entire amount up front.

I've done a 'Gift Certificate' once in the past for a Christmas/Anniversary Gift, so my experience is limited, but here's what I did. I normally handle the contract signing and 30% deposit at the initial sitting/photo shoot. Since the gift was being given as a surprise and I wouldn't be doing any actual work (short of printing up the gift certificate) before the holidays, I had the gift giver sign a standard contract with the addition of a non-refundable 10% preliminary deposit. The remainder of my normal 30% deposit was handled at the photo shoot and from there the portrait proceeded like any other commission.

My 'gift certificate' was done like a horizontal greeting card and stated on the front:

'In honor of the 35th Anniversary of your Wedding, A portrait of __________ has been commissioned by ______________.

Note that it says 'has been commissioned by _______' it is a nice way to notify the recipient of the gift of the commission, not really a 'gift certificate' that's just outright redeemable in the traditional sense. I guess to fully protect yourself, you might want to state somewhere that the final delivery of the finished portrait is condition on the gift giver fulfilling the terms of the commision agreement. . .? (I didn't in this case.)

On the inside it included information on the portrait process, etc. and how to contact me and get things started. In this case, the gift giver as well as the recipient were subjects in the portrait, so it was easy to maintain contact with the client throughout the process.

I'd consider that the gift giver is your 'client' in this case -that's who you're contract is with-and you'll want to collect final payment from the client prior to releasing the portrait., although you will be working to also please the recipient. (Note: If your model's release is incorporated into your standard contract, remember you might also need to get a separate model's release from the gift recipient, for example, if the gift giver is a grandparent, . . .)

[Karin Lindhagen]

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.

[Claudemir Bonfim]

Lacey, thanks for the idea.

Terri, I liked your example very much.

[Lacey Lewis]

Thanks very much, this is exactly the kind of input that I needed.

Terri- I agree that it would scare clients away to charge it all up front, but I wanted to see what others' experiences were before completely tossing the idea. I see now where simply spelling it out that this is being commissioned rather than giving the idea that a gift has already been purchased will help a lot.

I'd likely charge closer to 30% (maybe more) up front because my prices are on the lower side and I still want to know that they are serious about the commission, as opposed to an impulse buy that they might not follow through on. I can count that as covering consultations, the photoshoot, and a preliminary sketch.

Karin, thanks! What you are describing is exactly what I am talking about. I would think it would be awfully embearassing to not follow through on the final payment for a gift like this, too, but I have known people who wouldn't be so concerned.

I am not thinking of selling these on a large scale, but for the first time my work is going to be in public and while I have completed some of my paintings in a short amount of time, I want to avoid doing a 'rush job' on anything. It would be very tempting for me to rush a commission for the holidays because I still don't have an income, but I would hate to have it turn out to be a disaster!

Thanks for the advice and for sharing your experiences! I think I've now worked out a good balanced idea of how to proceed if someone is interested in such a thing.

[Carol Norton]

I would be very grateful to learn from those with experience some successful ways of creating and presenting gift certificates. From a past post , I read of someone, whose name escapes me, who presents their client with the gift certificate beautifully wrapped in a special box. (I've been unable to find that information after a search.) Any and all information would be greatly appreciated as I have just created a holiday postcard advertising my work and ... of course, offering a gift certificate. Yes, it's the cart before the horse here, but having a claim to dislexia, I tend to do that.

Thanks to anyone willing to take the time to share this information.

[Molly Sherrick Phifer]

Carol,

You might be thinking of Linda Nelson. Her boxed certificates are pictured here . Scroll down the page to see the photo.

Great ideas!

[Carol Norton]

YES, Molly, that was it! Thank you. Hand made boxes?? ? Sounds like a labor intensive project, however a beautiful presentation. I'm still interested in the creation of others' presentations.

[Lacey Lewis]

I imagine that it wouldn't be too hard to find similar boxes premade (shallow, hinged boxes that is). A stroll through the paper section at an office supply store should yeild suitable paper. The rest would be doable... print up the certificate, pring a note, glue it and add a bow.

Or, maybe a fancy card with nice paper and a lined envelope would be suitable. Something similar to a wedding invitation?

[Julie Deane]

If someone could let me know where suitable boxes could be bought, I would really appreciate it. I spent several hours two weeks ago, looking through office supply and craft stores, to no avail. I'm trying to put together a gift box to display during Christmas season at a gallery showing my work. I'll be cutting and gluing pretty soon, I'm afraid.

(By the way, Linda Nelson, if you see this, I am very impressed by the beautiful box and packaging you made up!)