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Hi all.

My name's Matt, and I recently began developing a little business for myself doing commission jobs for friends and then later for others over the net. I used to charge £10 per hour and generally quoted 4-6 hours per squad or tank depending on the level of quality desired. My work is generally all intended to be solid tabletop standard work, rather than display pieces. Anyhow, this method worked out reasonably well but eventually I felt it was a little too vague and potentially inconsistent. I wanted to try and mirror some of the other more established companies I'd seen doing pricing based on 'per figure' rates.

Consequently, I've gone and setup a table of pricing that emulates this. I've ensured my rates are lower than the other companies I've seen doing this. I would really love some feedback from people on what they think of the rates I've initially set. I'd like to adjust them accordingly based on what you all think to make sure I'm charging at a reasonable level.

The table can be found here;
http://www.ravensnestpainting.com/service-guide.html

Some points I would really like feedback on;

1) What do you think of the pricing in general?
2) Do you see any elements of the pricing that are out of balance with the rest and need more urgent change?
3) Is anything missing that you think should be shown or included?
4) If you've paid for commission work before, your opinion is the most useful - do you think my pricing seems reasonable compared to what you previously paid?

Please be honest but polite and I'll take all comments into consideration.

Thanks in advance guys

Your website looks well put together. I'm using google chrome to view it on a 15.4" widescreen laptop. I would adjust your splash image just a bit if possible as every page i clicked on looked the same until I figured out i needed to scroll down to see the content.

Once i figured that out it looks good. Your table of pricing is a bit confusing but the explanations below are great.

Good Luck with your commission business.

Edited cuz spelling in the morning is hard.

 darefsky wrote:
Your website looks well put together. I'm using google chrome to view it on a 15.4" widescreen laptop. I would adjust your splash image just a bit if possible as every page i clicked on looked the same until I figured out i needed to scroll down to see the content.

Once i figured that out it looks good. Your table of pricing is a bit confusing but the explanations below are great.

Good Luck with your commission business.

Edited cuz spelling in the morning is hard.

Besides this idea because it also took me a couple of seconds to understand it, I can only recommend an example for each level of painting: a small pic with a miniature painted to that level. Same thing with the bases. Pics of what you are getting always help with a decision (unfortunately I can't help with prices, I never payed a studio before, but they looked prices I would be willing to pay for. Have you considered offering a small discount if someone asked you to paint an entire army / monetary value achieved ? Again, I don't know if this is possible or no, sorry)

Best of luck mate, I really wish ye the best!

Thanks for the replies thus far guys.

@Darefsky Yeah I had noticed other companies working with similar 'level' based pricing frequently, but rarely with a good description of what each technique referenced actually meant. I thought that might help. The general design of the pages is rather limited as I use weebly for the site design. I don't have a few hundred to give a dedicated web designer, and my skills are reasonably basic. Hopefully in time I can remedy that. For now I've embellished the site with as much of my own content as I can raise.

@TheDraconicLord You're quite right, I very much want to put time to some example images of each item on offer. I can appreciate that some people might not be painters themselves (hence why they're on such a website), and might find difficulty understanding some of the terms and the necessity of certain techniques. I'll try to pop images in as soon as possible to help with that.

Please keep the feedback coming guys - What you think of the pricing, the website in general. Am I missing anything, or do you see something needing changed? Thanks in advance!

It's a little thing, but I hate it when individuals think they need to refer to themselves as 'we' whenever talking about the business.

You're doing the painting, why not say that.


Your Titan prices are dirt cheap. £20 to build a Reaver Titan? That's a full weeks work right there.

Also, do I not get my models eyes painted at Painting Level 1?

Check out below link for ideas... Plus it's been said allready, need p example for each level of painting:

http://www.ironhalo.net/price-guide-commission-painting.html


the price's... she only has 1 golden demon, (that i know of)

 AG. wrote:
It's a little thing, but I hate it when individuals think they need to refer to themselves as 'we' whenever talking about the business.

You're doing the painting, why not say that.


Your Titan prices are dirt cheap. £20 to build a Reaver Titan? That's a full weeks work right there.

Also, do I not get my models eyes painted at Painting Level 1?

The reason for 'we' is that I'm planning to look at getting modest premises and hiring staff rather soon. I'm already beginning to receive quite a regular stream of inquiries about projects, so it seems a logical step.
I had considered those were a little low, but didn't want to charge too heavily for assembly. You're right, that'll go up a touch.
As to the eyes, I would generally have considered a simple dab of colour for eyes and so on that a part of the basecoat on a level 1 model. Eyes are a fairly standard thing to me, but you're right, that's isn't as clear as I'd like. I'll amend it.

@Ironklawmadgutsmek Thanks for the reference, I'll give it a good look through.

Thanks guys, keep it coming all.

Oh man, my most sincere advice is to keep it to yourself.

You start hiring people and premises you're gonna have to declare it as an offical business, register, start paying income tax and doing self assesment tax returns.

You'll either have to give your workers a contract, and pay them sick and holiday pay, or have them work informally and constantly check their work rates and quality - and they can turn your work down whenever they like (just taken on a huge commission? Oh, well I'm off on holiday and can't help, sorry)

It may seem like getting more help means you'll be able to fill more orders (assuming the orders are out there) and make more money - but you're just increasing the amount of effort tenfold for every penny you earn.

If your work is good enough (or economic enough), people will wait in a queue untill you're ready for them, and you'll make the same amount of revenue over a longer time period, but have more 'take home' profits.

I'm friends with a commission painter who has a 6-8 month lead time, due to his commission queue - he works full time and makes plenty of money - he has no need to take on staff.

Also - your website doesn't work very well on a smart phone. Takes about 5 minutes to load each page. Tons of people use their phones to browse the same, if not more often than a tradtional laptop/desktop, so you may wish to look at that.

Another thing I noticed. I was talking with a friend about how he didn't have the patience for painting his drop pod (Well, pretty much resisting the need to slap him silly when he mentioned GW should sell painted minis) and I showed him your site. I myself have no idea where it would fall. Is it a Heavy or a Medium vehicle. And also, what's a Light vehicle? I would say something like a Rhino, but it's pretty much the same size as Predator.

Sorry if I'm just being silly

A question you may want to clairfy in the service guide is if you are willing to do just some of the stages for a client?
So it may be just assembly and base coat or detailnig a miniature when a customer has already prepainted it.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
It seems a very reasonable rate. I would possible charge more for decals they do seem to take a while and take longer to set etc.. But it depends on your method I suppose.

Okay, let's run through these.

@ AG - I'm already registered as a business. I began through trading second hand minis on ebay, which required it. After that I began touching up paintjobs, doing some of my own, before moving into full commissions over the last 6-8 months or so. I already have the joys of accounting, stocktaking and so on to worry over, so that isn't too much of an issue. However the employee side of things is indeed something that I'm thinking carefully over. I appreciate the good advice!

Drop Pod - I would treat as a medium vehicle.

Light Vehicle - I considered this in terms of a landspeeder or attack bike. Clearly some clarification is needed on these terms, so this is all very good feedback!

Selective services - Yes, people can pick any services they want, in whatever combination. I'll look at making that more clear.

Thanks guys, really good stuff thus far!

The site looks good, nice colors, good layout, easy to read your chart. Much better than the usually copy and past looking spreadsheet I have seen other places...

I too would suggest a single mini example of the painting levels, and basing.

I will answer the remainder of the questions from the perspective as some one who prefers to paint my own minis, but has hired commission work before, but also does the occasional commission my self (mainly terrain).

Ok, on to your specific questions:

1) What do you think of the pricing in general?

This is a VERY subjective Personally, I think they fall inline with many other painting services I have seen - but I also think they are too high, personally.
But I am cheap, so do not take that as me saying your prices are too high....perhaps I think most commissions are more than I would spend....

2) Do you see any elements of the pricing that are out of balance with the rest and need more urgent change?
Yes, as mentioned the titan assembly. Also, if I had not worked on a thunderhawk commission myself, I would think the painting for superheavy is too much....maybe a page somewhere that explains why those are so expensive?
But I guess that might only be necessary if some folks say "why so much?"


3) Is anything missing that you think should be shown or included?
Magnetizing. That is actually what most of my commissions are for these days. A lot of people don't have the patience for it, and I have a lot of experience in it and find it to be a fun challenge.

4) If you've paid for commission work before, your opinion is the most useful - do you think my pricing seems reasonable compared to what you previously paid?
Again, highly subjective. Your prices are more than I would pay, and have paid - but I am cheap, and the friend of mine who did the work is just starting out.
His site and gallery are not as good looking as yours.

Best of luck on your adventures.

Magnetising is an excellent suggestion, thankyou Dave.

As to the pricing, I generally looked at some of the better known companies to judge my pricing. Generally I tried to keep 10-20% cheaper than them, but you may be right. I'll see if there's room to slightly reduce the prices on the whole I think, but increase the titan assembly charges as that seems to be the consensus.

Perhaps consider a sliding scale of prices?

Individual models at 100% your current price
Squads (5-6 models) at 95% (Single model price x6 x0.95)
Full Squads (10-20) at 90% (Single Model price x10-20 x0.9)
Maybe individual deals worked out for larger projects?

Alternatively, you could offer a sliding scale based on down payment. Larger % of down payment could lead to overall discount of larger orders?

Simple suggestions from someone who has never purchased commission and is, admittedly, a poor painter with little grasp of the art beyond absolute bare minimum tabletop standard.

 RavensNestPainting wrote:

Light Vehicle - I considered this in terms of a landspeeder or attack bike. Clearly some clarification is needed on these terms, so this is all very good feedback!

As a small sugestion for this: I don't know the limitations of weebly, but it would be nice if each line was a link that would open a pop-up with your description of what is X, Y or Z with some pics.