How do you deal with family and friends who wants discounts? I own a small cookie business. I make about $200-$300 per order for my work so these aren’t cheap cookies. I get family members and friends sometimes messaging me to do custom cookies for them for events for such a small (basically just covering my expenses without making me any money at all) amount or sometimes I feel they even expect it for free and it’s really awkward for me to tell them my actual pricing because I know they won’t spend the money. However, my time is valuable and making these orders is very time consuming - time I can be working on another order that’ll bring me a lot more money.
So, how do you deal and gently tell them “no” or “it’ll cost you XY amount” which would be pretty much the same as any other client? I have done a few free orders for close family and friends and a few really cheap ones but I’m done with this. I’m busting my ass for nothing.
Our family business’s policy is different. We aren’t starting up anymore, so we can afford to be generous to friends and family that supported us along the way.
We do dog grooming, so as long as you come on a slow day and aren’t under unrealistic expectations on time etc then I don’t make money. If I have to have an employee I instruct friends/family to tip the employee the amount their commission would be. If one of us do it just get us some lunch. Burn us on this and we just charge full price moving forward.
When you are first starting the most important thing is your friends and family should support you, that means full price (maybe a slight discount). If they aren’t willing then they aren’t supporting they’re taking advantage.