Charging for bespoke tiara designs

[White Fairy Tiaras]

Hi everyone,

I spent some time at the weekend researching and sketching some designs for a bride who has approached me with an idea for her tiara. I would say I spent a couple of hours on producing two designs and then I emailed them to her. She has received them and she seems to want to carry on looking.

As I am a new tiara business, I am ok about doing designs for free at the moment, but I will have to think about charging for this kind of service, as it all takes up my time, and time is money!

How would you play this sort of request? Would you charge a fee for the design process, which is then refunded if the customer goes ahead and orders the design? Would you add the cost of design onto the price of the bespoke tiara? Or would you continue to do it for free?

I'm a bit unsure how to proceed!

Thanks!

[Seahorse]

Hmm, how about you charge a certain amount for each design idea(let the bride say how many ideas she is willing to pay for), then if she decides to go ahead with one of your ideas you could take that money off the overal cost of the tiara.

[White Fairy Tiaras]

Yes, that might be the best idea. I don't want to put potential customers off asking for something bespoke, especially while my range is quite small, but on the other hand, I can't work for nothing! Thanks for your reply, Seahorse.

[beadsbydesign]

will respond later oof to make tea now!

[beadsbydesign]

Recently I have been doing the rounds of bridal stores with my sister choosing her wedding dress. In all those shops, we were not given permission to photo any dress or aspect of a dress until she had decided on the dress she wanted and was about to pay the deposit. The reason was clear. If she had wanted to, she could have photo'd the dress, gone away and had someone else make the dress up to order for perhaps less money, but certainly with out the bridal shop getting any money through their tills.
We have to be careful that we protect our designs etc. By sending out your designs to her, she could take them else where and get them made by someone else.
You cannot tell from meeting up with someone, whether they are going to go ahead with working with you and therfore you need to be a little protective of your designs.
I always make two tiaras up for every client. They are usually similar but with added tweaks here and there. It helps me build up my collection of samples and hire tiaras I do all consultation work face to face so that I remain in charge of the design. I travel to meet them if they cannot meet me. I supply the client with sample crystals and pearls but not with drawn designs.
Whilst you are starting out, you will do things that you later regret and things that you will improve on.

[BeadsbyLili]

Hmm, how about you charge a certain amount for each design idea(let the bride say how many ideas she is willing to pay for), then if she decides to go ahead with one of your ideas you could take that money off the overal cost of the tiara.

Some good comments here and I agree your time = money. Maybe when people ask in future you could give them a little card/flier with details of 'bespoke service available' (along the lines of the above suggestion) and then it wouldn't leave anyone wondering as to whether or not there is costs involved. (It neednt cost you alot to produce - just print some off your printer).

I also thought showing the designs instead of sending them was a good idea as you dont want anyone pinching them after all your effort & thoughts went into them !!

[silvermaid]

Another angle here... If someone has paid for a design would that mean they then own that design, so you could not re-produce it for someone else?
Otherwise could you make a stock of designs that they could browse through before choosing a particular one. The two designs you have just made could be the start of your collection.

Melanie