Raised portrait prices from 400 to 650 zl and got more commissions, not fewer
I put off raising my prices for almost two years because I was sure the interest would just evaporate. I'm not a name, I have no gallery, I draw faces on toned paper in my kitchen.
In January I finally changed my portrait price from 400 zl to 650 zl. I sat with the cursor over the save button for maybe ten minutes, which sounds dramatic but is true.
Since then I've had more commissions than the whole autumn. Same photos, same posting, same me. Two people told me they'd assumed I was cheap because the work looked "student level" at that price, which stung and also explained a lot.
So I don't know what the lesson is. Maybe that people read the price as information about the work, not about the work itself. Or maybe it's just luck and next month it dries up completely and I'll feel stupid for saying any of this out loud.
Is there a price point where you noticed the tone of the emails change? Not the volume, the tone. People are politer now, which is a strange thing to be glad about.
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Honey, that ten minutes with your hand over the save button, I know it well. I quilt, and I sat on my prices longer than I care to admit because I was sure folks out here would rather buy a machine blanket from the store. What I found is people read the price before they ever read the work. Too low and they stop looking close, they figure it must be thin or fast or not really made. Raise it and they lean in.
That "student level" comment stings, I won't pretend it don't. But they told you the truth about how folks shop, and you listened instead of folding. Same photos, same hands, same kitchen. Nothing changed but what you decided you were worth, and the work been worth it the whole time.
650 zl for a face somebody loves is not a small thing to the person paying it, and that's the point. Let it hold. 🙂
The machine blanket bit, yes. That is exactly it, isn't it. Something made by a person has to be worth more than the thing from the store or people assume it isn't really made by a person at all.
And you're right that they read the price first. That part still feels unfair to me somehow, that the number is doing the talking before the work gets a chance, but I can't argue with what happened. Ten minutes staring at a save button and then the whole autumn changes.
Quilting, though. That is hours and hours of hand work nobody sees. I hope you raised yours properly.
The machine blanket comparison lands harder than I expected. I do pastel portraits and I've kept my prices low for the same reason, telling myself it's because I'm not a name yet. What you say about people reading the price before the work, I think that is true and I've been avoiding it.
The one part I'm not sure about: does raising it ever feel like pretending? That's my fear, that I charge more and someone looks close and decides I fooled them.