Fellow dial Makers!
Bill Gottesman added:
>If your product is in big demand, then you can command a 100% payment.
This is certainly true but it does tend to remove a motivating endpoint
where artefact and cheque in final settlement change hands. The most
pleasureable work is still 'work' and I for one sometimes need this
stimulus to tackle the less pleasant aspects.
SNIP
> Tony Moss has a lot of experience here, and maybe will offer an opinion.
I have no hard-and-fast rule. Initially I charged no deposit at all while
being amazed that somebody would actually place an order and have
progressed to a loose range of options as demand for my work increased.
Depending on our initial dealings and my highly subjective assessment of
the client's circumstances I may ask for 100% in advance from a seemingly
'risky' client - politicians, vicars, BSS members etc! ;-) - or, at the
other extreme, where a pleasant old couple were seeking a daughter's
wedding present and flinched* when I mentioned the cost, a token deposit
to give them time to save for it. (Just a big softie that's me!) Happily
so far none has died on me or left me with an unclaimed dial but it is
bound to happen sooner or later. It may then become a 'palimpsest' and a
REAL collectors' item for the future perhaps.
One unusual client paid the full cost in advance and then 'disappeared'
for many months making no response to several urgent requests right up to
the deadline, even by 'registered mail', for specific details of the
required inscription which I normally incorporate within the general
design. So at least one of my dials has a last-minute ugly
pantograph-engraved dedication to the happy couple.
Sorry I can't offer more definite guidance.
Tony M.
* In the UK we had a newspaper cartoon character called Andy Capp, a
work-shy MCP and his long-suffering wife Florrie. When he came to sell
his racing pigeons he told her:-
'If anyone calls to ask about the pigeons say "They're five pounds"
If they don't flinch then say "Each".
If they still don't flinch then say "and the basket is extra!".
I suppose that is it in a nutshell.
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