Notes

MUST I Ever Barter Away My Stained Glass Art Or Should I HOLD ON For Cash?
In days gone by, we've, of course, had many occasions to create cash deals on our stained glass art and occasionally we've had a chance to barter our stained glass art for goods and services. Over the course of years, we've had some barters and trades that worked out well, but many trades appeared to go sour.

Most started out with each party getting the best of intentions to do right by the other, but our experience's were that each time the trade or barter was made, our stained glass went right out in the beginning of the trade and we usually got our section of the trade following the fact. Subsequently, the folks we traded with were always sure of what they were getting, but we never appeared to know exactly what we would get, so we ended up getting disappointed usually.

As we've entered into these non-cash deals, we've developed three simple rules or guidelines to help us avoid the bad deals, while leaving the entranceway open for the nice ones.

Rule 1 : WHAT THINGS TO Trade For

We've learned that if we're not careful, we could end up trading away all of the work we're able to possibly do and leave ourselves without more materials to make more glass pieces. So read more helps us in order to avoid trading away more than we can afford. As stained glass artists, we know that 10 to 20% of the retail price of a window may be the cost of the materials that go into the window and the rest of the price reflects the cost of our labor plus some profit for the business. So we've adopted the policy that people never trade away the price of the window. We shall make a trade, however, not at our very own expense. When we create a deal, we agree that at least 10 or 20% of the trade be in cash, to cover the expense of materials. And we put the cash back into the business for the intended purpose of purchasing replacement goods. This keeps us from losing on the deal, when what we trade for eventually ends up with little if any value to us.

Back when we first started doing windows, we'd a pal who wanted a specific design. She drew a sketch of a very nice pattern that was an amalgam of three different designs she had seen. We agreed that the panel will be about a thousand dollars (that was low for the amount of work) and we started building the panel. Now, up to this point, the window would be considered a cash deal, very self-explanatory, very clean. But once I had half the window cut right out, her husband made a decision to enter the act and turned the deal right into a trade. He was very aggressive in his negotiating skills and I was a wimp. He beat me down on price from $1000 to $300. Why I ever decided to that change still confuses me, but then he took the cash away from the deal and managed to get a trade for construction parts that he had lying around. The deal went from bad to worse! I was already focused on the window because the glass was cut, therefore i allowed the deal to go downhill. I ended up spending $300 on solder for the window (solder had temporarily jumped in price) and I got what the husband valued as $300 worth of construction parts. They really were just about worthless. But the deal taught me several valuable lessons. The most crucial was rule one: Know What To Trade For. I had learned to spell out what the trade was to be, the amount of money would be involved, also to get yourself a deposit or the entire balance of the cash area of the deal before cutting any glass.

Another instance vividly illustrates what Never to trade for. We've learned that whenever someone involves us for classes or even to get yourself a stained glass window built plus they start whining about cost, or acting "poor mouth" and they advance the idea of a trade, we ALWAYS lose on the offer.

April was among this type of bad deal. She came and began to take classes. But she immediately began wondering if she will make payments instead of spending money on class up-front. We agreed and then another week, she advanced the theory that maybe she could trade for 1 / 2 of the expense of tuition. We asked what she had in mind and she told us about these beautiful candles she made. So we made a decision to permit the trade. She traded us two candles which she felt were worth the $40 of class she was trading for. I'd have valued them at $10 total, but we'd already entered in to the trade and felt committed. So we allowed to let the trade stand. The candles, while overvalued on her part, also had another problem. They stunk! We couldn't be in the same room using them and we gave them away to someone who didn't find them offensive. That deal began badly and we allowed it to keep, not putting an end to it whenever we began to feel taken advantage of. We've since discovered that all those type of deals have been harmful to us, both in the trade itself and in addition in the bad feelings it creates in us. It damages our faith and trust in others whenever we get ripped off. A footnote to the instance, when April quit coming to class, she left owing us almost as much money as she had paid for her classes.

Rule 2: Get Your End First

It's human nature to be quite excited while you're about to get something, but to reduce interest once you've gotten your side of the deal. The donkey who follows the carrot on a stick is an effective example. Provided that that carrot hangs on the market nearly at your fingertips, the donkey will keep moving, but when the carrot is fully gone, the donkey stops. We even lose a few of our enthusiasm for completing a project when we've been paid, but we usually have plans and patterns which have been occur advance, so our part of a trade or perhaps a business transaction continues on whether you will find a promise or a reward.

This is not the case with folks we've traded with. So we're fighting two negatives if we do not get our area of the trade in advance. First we're dealing with something (an item or service) which is sight unseen and we're fighting another persons natural lack of enthusiasm for the trade because they've already gotten what they wanted.

A good example of a confident barter was whenever we traded for some essential oil diffusers for Christmas presents with a client. We got about $400 worth of product in trade for some work we did for them. Over the course of the year, we could actually complete their design and obtain their windows installed for them. Then at Christmas time the next year we traded for some essential oils for the total amount of what they owed us. This is a good trade since it allowed us to save on the expenses of Christmas presents for just two years also it got them a beautiful entryway which will provide them with years of enjoyment.

A trade which didn't go so well involved a custom rocking chair built by way of a friends brother. The trade went fairly smoothly except, we didn't just like the custom rocking chair once it had been completed. It was too much, and didn't rock right. It had been beautiful and we gave it to my sister and her husband. They loved it, he was taller and the rock of the chair was perfectly for him. In cases like this, the deal went in the same way it will have, but we were just trading for something sight unseen.

Rule 3: Give More Than Expected, Lower Your Own Expectations

To really get a deal to work in the favor of both parties, you've got to give more than another guy expects, always attempting to make the offer better for them. And you will be less disappointed once you lower your own expectations. When I handled the husband who traded construction parts if you ask me, I learned that many times, the other guy doesn't care if you get a good deal. This man was only interested in getting a good deal for himself, and he did. But I never traded stained glass with him again!

A good barter arrangement is one where both parties are worried with others feelings. When we made a trade having an artist friend, some large windows for a painting, the deal changed several times. They agreed to purchase the materials and we would get two paintings, in line with the amount of time that it would take to build both of the art projects. She later decided that two paintings was an excessive amount of so we agreed to get one and some design time on glass projects. When it turned out that the completed painting couldn't be published in the magazine we'd thought it could be placed in, we felt that the ultimate value of the painting was greatly diminished. So the deal did continue steadily to go downhill, to become less valuable to us, through no one's fault, just circumstances. But we'd already lowered our expectations and our friend had become a greater friend and we have enjoyed many hours doing art projects together.

We have another friend, whom we build pieces for on a fairly regular basis. The trades never go well for us, she forgets that we have credit with her and she wants more glass, we shall never get "even" but we've lowered our expectations. We realize her, know she "needs" the pieces we trade with her and figure that the task we do for her is more something special than a trade.

If you can reach this point, where you anticipate little in a trade, where it's more about opportunity, art and building beauty, bartering my work out for you. When you are feeling ripped off, you need to probably avoid trading your art and stick to cash deals. Even they will occasionally go south you.

Trading stained glass for services and products has frequently been a way for others to get the glass that they want, if they really wouldn't have already been in a position to afford it for cash. It has seldom been a good way for all of us to fill our bank account, nonetheless it has often been a means for us to build up relationships with others which have become dear to us and contains become a method for our art to be seen by others. It frequently leads to other deals we'd never have imagined, providing us with sales in the most unlikely places. It's like that scripture about casting thy bread upon the waters and it'll return to you ten fold. An excellent trade is like that. It returns to us rewards we never could have imagined.

David Gomm started building stained glass windows professionally back 1983 and has become a specialist at many areas of stained glass building, design and repair. He writes a monthly newsletter at [http://www.betterstainedglass.com].

He also has a website with a great many other articles
My Website: https://studenttcareerpoint.com/so-why-is-seo-help-your-online-internet-marketing-strategy/