Having stable work is every artist’s dream. In today’s economy, that often means that you run your own small business where you take commissions from the general public. With the rise of social media and the proliferation of online businesses, you can easily transform your hobby into a money-making venture. If you’ve accepted a few commissions but you’re looking to expand your operation, here are some things you can do to make art commissions work for you.
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Keep an Organized Schedule
Keeping an organized schedule is one of the most important things you can do when it comes to working for other people. When someone hires you to create a piece of artwork just for them, they are going to expect a timely delivery of goods. If you aren’t a very organized person, this is an area where it’s very easy to misstep, which can have a detrimental impact on future commissions.
There are many programs you can use to track your orders and work hours and plan ahead using calendar and task management tools. You can also go the old-fashioned route and buy a paper planner to make sure you stay on task.
Create a Customer Feedback Survey
As your commissions pick up, you can create a customer feedback survey to help you improve various areas of your business practices. While there’s always room for interpretation when it comes to art, customer satisfaction is still important in terms of communication, timeliness, professionalism, payment options, and more.
The most crucial question you should ask is how likely is it that your client will recommend your services to others. If you’re regularly scoring in the range of six to seven, then you want to find ways to improve your services so that your NPS trends toward nine and ten. This score, the Net Promoter Score is a powerful metric that can help you grow your art commission business.
Develop a Consistent Fee Structure
The only way to truly benefit from art commissions is to make sure that it’s worth your time, which you can do by developing a consistent fee structure. Depending on how many different mediums you work in, you will quickly learn how long it takes you to complete a piece based on complexity and the requested art medium.
You can either base your fee structure on the time it takes or the size of the completed piece. Both of these methods have worked for many other artists over the years. When you set your fee structure, remember to check general trends in the market and adjust based on your standard of living costs.
Maintain Realistic Expectations
It’s great to see a large amount of commission requests come your way, but you have to maintain realistic expectations with your clients. If you know that you either don’t have the skills or the time to fully execute a project, then you may have to decline a request every now and then. The key here is clear and honest communication. When your clients know what to expect, there’s a better chance that the finished product will satisfy them.
Keep Copies of Written Agreements
To protect yourself from unnecessary confrontations, make sure to keep a local copy of all the agreements you make with clients. You might accept orders across various channels, such as in your direct messages, email, or mobile phone chat. Some of these platforms don’t save your communication automatically.
If a user decides to delete an account or remove their own messages, you may have no evidence to back you up when you need it. Remember to take screenshots and save conversations related to every order. Keep your files organized so you always know where to look if you need to trace the history of a commission.
The fact that you can take your talents and turn them into opportunities for income is truly unique. If you look at each commission as an opportunity for growth and personal development, you’ll see that the potential for success is limitless.
