How much should you charge for a commission?

This question came up on The Breakfast Club this week. I'm pretty sure I threw a cat among the pigeons when I said that artists should charge three times the cost of a regular painting of the same size. For example, a 40 x 40 piece that sells for $8,000. A commission for a 40 x 40 piece should be charged at $24,000.

This number raises quite a few questions; the first would be: why so much? The first reason is that it will likely take the artist 3 times as long to do it, with 3 times the stress and 3 times as many sleepless nights spent thinking about it. The second reason is that you don't want or need to deal with penny-pinchers. Telling someone looking at an $8,000 painting that a commission will cost $24,000 will quickly eliminate the time-wasters. Of course, that three-times number is also a point of negotiation, but in my opinion, you should never go below double your normal price. If you start high, you have room to negotiate, but if you start low, you're stuck. One thing you might not realize is that the $24,000 number will stick in their heads. If it is too expensive for them, buying one of your regular pieces at a third of that price makes it feel very reasonable.

The biggest hurdle is having the confidence to ask for that amount since it is so far above the numbers that the artist is used to thinking in. This is a mindset issue, and that's all it is. When I was running the gallery, I was often asked to negotiate on behalf of our artists. They knew that even with the percentage we took from the deal, they would end up with more money than they could have gotten on their own. If you're not good at negotiating, and you have a friend who is, ask them to do it for you.

My next post will include a downloadable Questionnaire that you can give interested clients.

#artsales