Image Designer Archive

hey all.. just made master image designer a few nights ago. I have a standard pricing plan and it is as follows:
800 for the first change, to be given at the beginning of the session. If nothing is changed in the end, the money is guarenteed returned.
for each additional aspect changed, its an additional 200 added to the charge.
iow, someone comes to me and wants their hair, hair color, and eyebrows changed and all three are successfully changed to the satisfaction of the customer. That would result in fees of 800 (hair, no matter how many attempts are made) + 200 (hair color) + 200 (eyebrows). And i just simply mention that if they felt i did a good job, to leave a tip and that i use tips to measure my performance. And that if they don't want to leave a tip, i'd like to know why and how i could improve my services in the future. One mission taking less than 5 minutes (at least on tatooine) to pay for a hair style i don't think is a bad charge.
a tip to keep in mind, memorize the starter outfits for all the classes. If you see the distinct "brawler" outfit or some other outfit being worn on someone coming up to you, especially if they add on that its their first time getting this done, you very well may have someone who has no money, or no more than the starter 250 credits. I've had two people who refuse to pay my prices, one was someone who just started on the server and wanted to change his hairstyle changed called my price outrageously expensive and the other who thought i benefited from getting exp from doing the job. Just let you people out there know, i can get much more exp practicing on a friend than spending time to slowly find what works for you even though designing on a customer is much more interesting. That was from my pre-master days so then it might have been a valid point but now that i'm a master, the argument is lost. If they wont' pay a mere 800, getting their image changed obviously isn't important enough to them. I'll try to contact you Natalia, i'm on the Eclipse server as well and am opening a hair salon with some other Master IMage Designers.

I think it's a big mistake to allow your services to go on a tip basis. Your income shouldn't depend on the economy, it should depend on your xp.

Much better to start high and lower your prices (if they do need adjusting), than to start low and raise your prices (then you're just asking for problems).

Stop taking your hard-earned xp for granted.

I had a really bad experience of working on someone for 30 minutes after which they thought it was ridiculous to pay and started maing suggestions of things I could do to get money to them that didn't involve ID. Since that day I have charged an initial fee of 1k to weed out those kinda of people (as people said...I could be doing other things that bring income). I charge the 1k initial fee and say that it covers about 10 minutes....anything else they wish to give is up to them and how they liked the job. On average that give me about 2-4k a person and sometimes more from the people who appreciate the profession better.

I can tell you from a medical perspective, that working for tips is rediculous, and you get way more jerks than good people.

I spent 2 hours in the med center yesterday, I was just getting xp, so I didn't care about the cash, but I made a grand total 1000 credits. In most cases I spent 3-8 minutes per person, and burned through 8+ charges over multiple stat kits, which I have to pay for materials to make.

Most people do not understand the practice of tipping, and think that you owe them your services, unless you tell them otherwise. I recently decided to start training Image Design due to there not being many people who play them (I like being unique). It didn't occur to me about prices until reading here, and it just struck me as funny that ID's are facing the same troubles that Medics and dancers/musicianshave beenfacing.

I tip every service profession I garner a benefit from (including someone who trains skills for me), and from what I have seen others say, I tip well. 1000 credits for any service is the minimum, from me anyway. I am a pistoleer as well as my other side jobs, so I know that getting money isn't hard for any combat class, as I have played them all at least to intermediate before settling on pistol. All you IDers who aren't charging for your services are really short changing yourselves, and hurting the people who are primarily IDs, and have minimal skills in other areas.

Working for tips in this game might sound like a nice idea, but it is not a good practice, unless you truly want no money for your services.

Expect ignorance, greed, and intolerence from people, and you won't be disappointed, but you willbe presently supprised in many situations.

Just my two credits, but I charge a blanket 1k for all changes. 1k for hair, 1k for face, 1k for body and 1k for markings. It works great for me. Last week, I made over 125k in tips alone!

"Thats it you should feel good knowing you brightened someones day by changing there Tat."

Hehe yea, I feel a whole lot better when I get 6500 for the change to. And I fail to see the danger of survey/sample in the confines of a city, which I see so many do. My example was VERY valid. Survey/sample is no-risk time consuming, much like ID practice. But you would still not just give yoru resources away would you? So why should we just give our talent away?

Lady China

I did my first "professional" haircut today. When asked, I said it was a 200 credit haircut, but the gentleman tipped 1000! It seems that 1000 isa good price, all things considered.

/\/\/\

Faulty logic, back when the game started, before I had reached master ID, but had all the hairstyles thanks to hair4, I charged 2K for all cuts. Many of the intial palyers were previous beta testers who wanted their beta hair back, the girl I changed, not only gave me the 2K but tipped me an additional 19K to help pay for my training.That doesn't mean i should charge 21K for a hair style. I'mnot attack you though, tips are based on the person. Even with hair styles costing 5K or a 10K boob job i still get tips from people who like the way i treat them. Your best bet for a pricing scheme is to find other Image designers on your server and talk about how much you've been charging. Mention those tips, figure out what the most is you can charge that will compensate you for your time, yet put the client out too much. It's a balancing act, and it goes to remember that unless someone has just gotten into the game, they have money to spend.

-Soon Mot

Master Image Designer

Lowca, Naboo, Theed