Will Work for Glitter.

I posted a thread on my Facebook wall yesterday and it struck a nerve.  Here's a link to the post so you can read the comments.  There is some great stuff in this thread, so be sure to read it.  Then come back so we can chat further.  (Just FYI I can't approve anymore FB friends because of a Facebook imposed limit and I'm sorry about that.  You can 'like' my 'fan page', but I surely don't expect that!)

"I would rather not make a sale than undervalue my work. I'm tired of endless requests for discounts, freebies and favors. This is how I feed my family. I can't afford to give my work away and we can't eat glitter."  Margot Potter

Someone contacted me about making a commissioned design for them recently.  Though I generally don't sell my work at retail or do production work, I said yes and offered them a significant discount as a professional courtesy.  I actually struggled with what to charge and ended up quoting little more than the wholesale cost of materials, which is significantly less than even a wholesale rate when you factor in my time.  The piece they'd selected was created with fine materials and the cost reflected that.  I don't really know this person, but we're connected through a professional situation and I guess I felt weird about charging them retail.  I was trying to do them a favor, which was my first mistake.  The piece had several strands of chunky gemstone and sterling beads and it was one of a kind.  They balked at the price in a most diplomatic fashion, I countered by asking them what they had envisioned paying and they responded with a thanks, but no thanks.  This isn't the first time something like this has happened.

It wasn't a big deal on one level, but on another level it was.  It was a big deal because this person is a professional designer.  They get paid to design.  If I approached them about designing something for me, I imagine they'd charge me full price or offer me a slight discount, I would never expect them to design for me and just charge me the wholesale cost of materials.  They'd probably be insulted if I balked at their rate.  So what gives?  Is being a craft industry designer less important, less valuable and therefore unworthy of charging full price for your work? 

No.  My work has value.  My work is worthy.  I am not going to give discounts anymore.  If you want it, you pay for it.  You're getting not just the materials, you are getting my time, my vision and designer's eye.  I have worked hard for a number of years to get to where I am and I am no longer going to feel the least bit weird about pricing my work at fair value.  I get a lot of requests for discounts, freebies, donations and I'm quite frankly tapped out.

I decided last year that I'm not working for free stuff.  Unless there is a palpable and significant cross marketing benefit to it, I need to get paid in money.  My family can't eat glitter.  If you can't pay me for my services, I can't do the job.  If some other sucker is willing to work for glitter, I feel sorry for them.  Unfortunately it is the preponderence of people willing to work for glitter that has created a seriously sticky situation.  When other people undervalue themselves, it undervalues all of us.  That includes folks on Etsy who sell their work without factoring in cost of materials, cost of doing business, cost of labor and design.  They're losing money and they're making it hard for people who take it seriously enough to price their work so they make a profit to survive.  It's a lose/lose.

What baffles me is how often creative people compromise.  Perhaps it's because there is such a lack of value placed on creativity.  What's fascinating to me is how much we take for granted.  Without creatives, we'd have generic packages, no magazines, no music,  no movies, no tv shows, no cars, houses, artwork, home decor items, clothing and accessories, no websites or blog templates...  Creativity makes the world technicolor instead of beige.  Excellent creative output requires immense amounts of experience, thought, trial and error, planning and awareness. 

The gal who answers the phones shouldn't be your 'in-house' designer unless she can actually design.  Yet many, many craft companies are relying on cheap or free design sources.  There are magazines and book publishers that don't pay designers who have managed to convince them that it's such an honor to be within their pages, it's worth doing it for free.  Really?  Do the editors work for free?  Do the graphic designers in house work for free?  What kind of a magazine or book would it be without the work of the designers who submit?

It's up to all of us creatives to stop feeling guilty about asking to be paid fairly for our work.  It's up to those who work for free glitter to accept that they're making it hard for those who have to put food on the table to do so.  It's time we all stopped undervaluing our work because until we do, the manufacturers, publishers, retailers and magazines are going to keep expecting people to work for free glitter.

It starts with each of us taking a good hard look in the mirror and telling ourselves we are worthy.  Because we are.


Here's a video shared in that thread by the multi-talented Kathy Peterson that sums it up brilliantly.

Love
Madge

Service is a Two Way Street

(Today's blog is rated R for language. You have been duly warned. I'm quoting someone here, but honestly Madge has a potty mouth even though she's been trying very hard to keep it in check.)

I waited tables for twelve long years. I also was a manager and a hostess and an occasional bartender. During those twelve years I worked at diners, cafes, steak houses, fine dining establishments...and I was faced with one of the most stressful jobs and some of the most stressful situations imaginable. Because I was a good waiter, I was often slammed with far too many customers and far too little help from management. People get a little snarky if you can't attend to them.

What I came to realize was that people weren't really there for the food, they were there because they wanted to feel pampered, valued and...loved. They wanted to feel important. So if you were too busy to pamper them, they felt under valued and unloved. When trouble would arise, I'd deal with it head on. I'd take the plate away and come back and kneel down so we were face to face, put my hand on their arm and I'd look them in the eye and I'd ask, "What can I do to make you happy?" This almost always completely shifted the dynamic. But sometimes no matter what you did, there was no way to make a customer happy. If they went from unhappy to abusive, I fired them. Yup. I did. Contrary to the popular cliche, the customer is not always right.

I spent a summer working at a small cafe called The Snow Lion at the foot of the Berkshires owned by a Tibetan Buddhist named Kitch Lee. Because this was a tourist area, sometimes entire busloads of people would pull up to the cafe and it would be just me and the diabetic chef who occasionally wandered off because he had insulin issues. I was the waiter, cashier, busser and dish washer. When the place was slammed, it was insane. On one occasion I was so busy, I was beyond my ability to serve anyone. A woman came in the front door and was waiting to be seated. I was taking orders, pouring coffees, delivering food and ringing out a long line of customers at the register. I acknowledged this woman several times over what was probably a five minute wait at the door and said I'd be there as soon as I could.

She became more and more agitated until she burst out "Why are you ignoring me?"

Everyone in the restaurant got quiet.

"I'm really not ignoring you, I'm just insanely busy. I will be with you in just a moment."

"YOU ARE PURPOSELY IGNORING ME! I WANT TO SEE THE MANAGER IMMEDIATELY!"

Now at this point it was clear that this woman was really angry about something entirely unrelated to not being able to sit down. She stormed over to the register and got right in my face demanding to see the manager. At this point I was pissed off. How could this woman not see that I was overwhelmed and that she was not any more or any less important that the restaurant full of customers?

"I am the manager. If you'd like to speak with the owner, he's here in the evenings. I wasn't ignoring you, I'm just busy." I snapped.

She stormed out threatening to get me fired and slamming the door behind her.

I felt awful. Was I wrong? Should I have made everyone else wait while I cleared a table for this woman? I told my boss when he came in because I was afraid this woman really was going to get me fired.

Kitch stared at me for a moment, sighed and smiled and then he said, "You tell her...fuck off."

My jaw dropped and we both burst out laughing.

Service matters, but it's not a one way street. If you want good service, you need to be a good customer. You're creating a relationship and you get what you put into it. It's not about the food, it's about feeling valued.

Why am I sharing this story? Because I think designers often feel as if they have to bend over backwards for clients, manufacturers and publishers and they're so busy trying to please them that they forget to ask for what they deserve. You have to remember that it's a relationship and that you both want to be valued. You have to assess your client and their needs and tailor your designs and your correspondences to suit their personalities. You have to treat them with respect by meeting deadlines and creating quality work. You have to treat yourself with respect and value your time. Seriously. Is it worth ten dollars, twenty dollars, fifty dollars an hour?! Think about it, deeply. Your clients need to treat you with respect by paying you well and on time and treating your design work with the care it deserves. It's a relationship. People want to feel valued.

And if they treat you like crap even after genuine efforts to create connection...just remember what Kitch Lee said, "You tell them...fuck off." And you can do that figuratively and with love and intention my friends.

Sometimes love is a rubber biscuit to the forehead.

When you allow someone to abuse you, you're not doing them or yourself any favors.

Life is too short to allow people to rain on your parade.

xoxo
Madge