This post has been sitting in the draft box for a while. I’ve just been so busy moving studios and working towards Christmas that the blog has been left idle (so what’s new).
Karen over at Melbourne Jeweller recently posted about Melbourne’s jewellery galleries and retail outlets and I thought I’d broadcast some of my thoughts on the subject.
The comment I posted was “I’ve got a post in the draft stages but I’m finding it problematic as I wanted to post from the point of view of being contacted by someone who wants to bypass the gallery process. What do I say without being disrespectful to the client or to the gallery?”
I have very good relationships with all of my galleries (listed over on my stockists page) I respect them and what they do and I receive respect from them in return.
Very occasionally I have a private client. Generally this is either a friend or family or a friend of a friend or family. So, I give them a discount on the retail price. I think that this is a decent thing to do as I am not paying the high street rents that are factored into retail prices. Plus, they’re either my friend or have been recommended by a friend.
But, recently I received a phone call from someone who said “I saw your work at xxxx and got your number from your website and I would like to commission you to make my wedding ring”. As they had mentioned the name of the gallery/shop I very politely told them about the respect I have for that gallery/shop and how the staff there would do a great job of looking after them and that I would prefer that the commission came through said gallery.
But what would I have done if they hadn’t mentioned the gallery by name and just said I’ve seen your work on the internet? I would probably take the job as I can only believe this to be true. Would I charge full retail price? I don’t think so as I’d feel like I was robbing them.
However, I probably should charge the full retail price, I may not pay high street rental but I do pay rent, I pay my website hosting fee, I spend quite a lot of time doing my own promotion, I have to pay for photography for the website/blog, and I would probably have to spend at least 2 hours in meetings with the client. (after writing this as a draft, I’ve been asking some of my colleagues about this and the responses have been mixed but the ones who run successful commission practices advise to charge retail. One of the best analogies I got was of my accountant who works from her home but charges me the same standard accounting fees as the franchise accountant on the high street.)
The internet is a wonderful thing but so too is browsing in shops. And even by posting this, am I putting ideas into the heads of prospective clients (after all, even though only 2 jewellers and my mum read this blog, it is visible to all)
And here’s a photo to liven up a dreary post.
She lives in a box at my studio at the moment but she might need to make friends with people from a position on a gallery shelf.