"Fully paid commissions obligate me to work for the client and get things done in a timely manner" but also that you were saying you choose only to work with friends, which usually ends up with people being more relaxed than they would be with other clients. (Not always, of course, but we can't tell that just from what you've written).
Maybe you didn't articulate yourself the way you wanted to, but your phrasing is lending itself to the interpretation that you don't want to charge people full price because you feel it lets you off the hook if you take too long to finish a product. Plus if you cut off that conjunction... saying you don't take "fully paid commissions [because they] obligate me to work for the client" just sounds bad. You should always be obligated to work for the client (within the bounds of the original agreement)!
Working fulltime isn't the same as being a professional, you can be professional at a part time job. So as you say you take a few weeks to make products, at max 2 months. I don't know much about the cosplay world but to me that sounds pretty quick, actually! I don't think there is any reason you should feel like you don't deserve to charge people labor. Of course you should do whatever you are comfortable with, as long as you keep up a good quality of service. Even if you just decide to take a few weeks off in the middle of a project it would be fine if you offered the client an option of refunding or continuing at their discretion when it came up. There's no real reason you should be thinking about it differently just because you are charging less.
Though I agree with basically what dinogrrl was getting at-- in my experience you get on average better clients when you charge more (or rather, a fair wage) as they are more committed to the project. Also working with friends can be murky, its possible your friends aren't taking this like a serious business agreement even if you are.
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2017-03-17 06:30 am (UTC)"Fully paid commissions obligate me to work for the client and get things done in a timely manner" but also that you were saying you choose only to work with friends, which usually ends up with people being more relaxed than they would be with other clients. (Not always, of course, but we can't tell that just from what you've written).
Maybe you didn't articulate yourself the way you wanted to, but your phrasing is lending itself to the interpretation that you don't want to charge people full price because you feel it lets you off the hook if you take too long to finish a product. Plus if you cut off that conjunction... saying you don't take "fully paid commissions [because they] obligate me to work for the client" just sounds bad. You should always be obligated to work for the client (within the bounds of the original agreement)!
Working fulltime isn't the same as being a professional, you can be professional at a part time job. So as you say you take a few weeks to make products, at max 2 months. I don't know much about the cosplay world but to me that sounds pretty quick, actually! I don't think there is any reason you should feel like you don't deserve to charge people labor. Of course you should do whatever you are comfortable with, as long as you keep up a good quality of service. Even if you just decide to take a few weeks off in the middle of a project it would be fine if you offered the client an option of refunding or continuing at their discretion when it came up. There's no real reason you should be thinking about it differently just because you are charging less.
Though I agree with basically what dinogrrl was getting at-- in my experience you get on average better clients when you charge more (or rather, a fair wage) as they are more committed to the project. Also working with friends can be murky, its possible your friends aren't taking this like a serious business agreement even if you are.