Gift Certificates

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.

Claudemir Bonfim · 11-09-2005, 07:27 PM

Lacey, thanks for the idea.

Terri, I liked your example very much.

Lacey Lewis · 11-10-2005, 11:01 AM

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 · 11-10-2005, 01:18 PM

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 · 11-10-2005, 01:31 PM

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 · 11-10-2005, 03:47 PM

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 · 11-10-2005, 05:13 PM

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?