Starting up a business

yes I totally agree with Janine, I wouldn't do portraits either, since you cant be in someone's head to know truly what they want. I have run into trouble with massage, some people come into my loft and insist they want deep pressure and they can handle it and then I give them exactly what they ask for and they complain that I'm hurting them! And I even have in depth consultations with all my clients before we start so they know exactly what is coming and some people still walk away unhappy. If I've learned anything from owning my own business its that you can't make everyone happy. But at the end of the day as long as your doing what makes you happy, the good clients will come to you.

Thanks guys, it's frustrating isn't it when you put yourself out to try to make someone happy and there doesn't seem to be anything you can do to please them! I think I'll see how the pet portraits go for now, but I'm never doing one of an adult ever again! It's not like I even have a photo realistic style, I told those people my work is more illustrationy and show them loads of examples of stuff I'd done! I know what you mean about ending up out of pocket Janine, even without taking this painting back and fixing it I've earnt about £3 an hour on it! I think I need to get tough!

On a slightly different note, I had a message from someone working for a subscription box thing. I will never register for one of them again after the amount of money they told me was the budget.

They wanted an item that involves a lot of hand cutting so takes around an hour and a half to make, sometimes more, and costs £19 to buy from me. They offered me £2 a piece because the advertising I'll get is "priceless".

So, taking it conservatively, at 1 hour per piece and they wanted 500+. That's at least 500 hours. The materials cost £2. So, I get the money for the materials. Ok, so, 500 hours in days is 20 solid days. That's not including breaks or even sleep. 20 days unpaid. In the meantime, I can't earn any other money. Even if I spread this out over a couple of months, I still couldn't earn enough to keep me on top.

I was, frankly, insulted and shocked that's how they work. I signed up for one once, but it was all big manufacturers that provided the goods (apart from one item that looked like it was from a slightly smaller business). They can absorb the costs of this kind of thing better. It's impossible for me. I've never been able to answer as I don't trust myself to not get nasty lol

That's a pretty shocking offer! 500 hours work with no profit is just plain unreasonable to ask of a person.

I think back to some of the stuff I used to do before I knew better and I used to believe people who told me I'd benefit in experience or exposure and I can't believe I did them. (The other week I saw a van with a logo on that was taken from a flyer I did as a favour for the people running the company when they were opening their first shop – at first I thought 'that font looks like my handwriting' then I realised it WAS my handwriting when I remembered the company name! I never even got so much as a freebie from the shop for that!).

It really irritates me when people ask me to do stuff for them but then they pull out when I say I need to charge them (usually at a price that only just covers materials and a tiny profit for me)- like it's my job, I wouldn't expect them to give me cost price on my groceries or jeans or whatever they work with!

I've definitely run into this problem a lot with my massage business, everybody thinks that just because I can massage means that every time I go to a friends house or to a family members house that I should give them a massage for free! Like do they realize what they are asking! It gets so irritating sometimes, I feel like I can't go anywhere without someone asking for a freebie. How would they like it if I came and asked them to work while being off the clock and then get not so much as a thank you after an hours worth of labor that leaves me tired. They would hit the floor if I charged them for all the free massages I gave them, seeing as I get $75 / hour!! But I do keep tally, lol. I think for Christmas everybody is getting a bill from me.

I can imagine Emmer, one of my friends does reflexology and she often offers to do it for me to keep her in practice (she doesn't do it for a living at the moment) but I still always feel guilty! She will never take money for it but I always at least bring her wine as payment.

I always think back to when I was really little and my gran (who was very old school glam and never washed her own hair, always got it washed and set by her hairdresser) used to try to encourage me to be a hairdresser when I grew up so that she could have it done for free – my mum used to go crazy as she isn't into glam stuff at all and wanted me to focus on more intellectual pursuits! Sadly neither of them got their wish and they got a scruffy artist instead!

Good for you not falling into peer pressure! Its funny you said that, my parents wanted me to be a pediatrician, and instead got a massage therapist, lol. But they are loving the benefits of me being able to work out all the aches and pains  ::)

Yes I can imagine you come in handy haha! (no pun intended!)

I have been also currently launching my own online business. My number one task was creating an effective and powerful website with useful content. Setting up a website wasn't a great issue as a good friend of mine is a WordPress guru, so he helped me a lot.
Writing valuable content was my biggest challenge. I have always been bad at writing, even in school. So I used  business writing services company to help me write useful content. I know, that the key to a successful website is having clear, relevant and keyword-rich content that delivers the right message with power and conviction. They have created the content for my website that targets my audience, engages them and persuades them to take action.