Glass Community

Family should not intrude on your livelihood I wouldn't think. Now having stated the obviously impossible ...

Having owned, operated & sold 3 successful business' in the past it is probably impossible that whatever you are selling a family member won't need it sooner or later. Personally I add up the materials and add ten percent to arrive at the "family" price. The ten percent in my mind accounts for the things we commonly forget like the gas money to pick up replacement supplies, or the postage costs. I also remind the family member that surely their friends must purchase gifts just like they do and I would be very happy if they would refer their friends to me. Over time several family members have referred clients to me as requested.

Also I think you have to draw a line somewhere relative to size of a piece and overall value of your time. When I replied as above I am talking about sun catchers and even a large sun-catchers, but not a panel. If it came down to a panel I would discount my retail markup by 30%. I think I could live with that as long as it didn't become a habit anyway.

How do you handle it?

On this site under Tools -> Pricing Your Work I use the "Direct Price" for family and friends - a markup of 3x on actual cost of materials + labor. This takes into account the fact that you didn't have to do advertising & marketing to obtain the client, but it is 0.5 more than wholesale because wholesale implies efficiencies in bulk orders. Of course like GlassOfManyColors I use my own judgement on the price too - sometimes once you add everything into the calculator it looks way too high so you can adjust the markup level until you get a price that covers your effort & materials but also meets market expectations.

I now do wholesale prices for family. this ensures I get an adequate return for my efforts, and the family get a very good deal.
Stephen

I've often commented on how expensive some of the materials/supplies/equipment is for glass work. Most of my friends and family know I give them the best possible price for items I create for them.