Price increase notifications

[Mary Sparrow]

I'm getting ready to change my prices. I have three questions.

1) Do most of you let potential customers know when a price increase is about to happen? If so how do you do it? A note card or email? Do you give them a time limit saying that the old prices will hold firm for anyone that goes ahead and secures a spot on your list? Or do you just quietly raise them?

2) I notice that most of you charge by the body part instead of the size of the portrait. I have always charged by the canvas size. But am thinking about switching this around. Which way do you do it and why?

3) For repeat customers, do you offer them a discount? I have several customers that have several children. All of these children are done when they reach a certain age. In the past I just let them pay for the second one what they paid for the first one regardless of how much I had gone up. But the gap is getting too wide for a few of these coming up and that just won't work.

Thanks!

[Michele Rushworth]

I have heard of artists notifying their past clients and anyone else they think might be interested a couple of months in advance of a price increase. Email is less expensive than a postcard of course, but less personal. I had not notified people in advance of my last price increase, but will next time.

I charge by body part. The complexity seems to be what takes the time, not the number of canvas inches I have to cover.

I offer discounts for multiple portraits that are completed at the same time, or, in one case, for two portraits completed a year apart but where the client paid the full 30% deposit for both up front.

I will be painting five children in a family over the course of eight years, as each child reaches a certain age. They will be paying whatever price is in effect at that time. For this particular family however, price is no object. For another family I might negotiate something else, if they wanted, but I would not hold my prices at a level from several years ago.