How do you deal with friends/ family who feel they are entitled to a discount?

[dmc0027]

Ive worked so hard these past few years to get my business off the ground. Investing so much time and money into my passion. I got a comment from a family member saying they feel bad if they got my product else where cause we’re family and I thanked them for supporting me. Their reply was well we should get a bigger discount since we support you.

How would have you responded to that comment?

Edit: wow, I was not expecting so many responses. I’m glad to know I’m not the only one put in that situation. Just a little background…

I’ve been in business for 9 years now as a fashion designer. I hustled doing pop-ups and shows for 8 years. I have always given my friends and family a discount. After all that I opened my first brick and mortar last summer. Took me 8 years to do it but I did it on my own.

When my family members said that they should be getting a bigger discount… honestly I laughed and said “if you really supported me you’d pay full price and not ask for any discount” to which they responded “but that doesn’t make sense, we support you.” At that point I just shook my head and walked away. People with this mindset will never understand. Family and friends are not the majority of my customer base and losing them will not impact my business. The fact that I have so many friends that will head over to the shop when I’m not around just to pay full price speaks volumes as to who the real one are and I know this.

 

[alpacaone]

@dmc0027 It’s a slippery slope. I do development and consulting and my approach to friends and family has always been that nothing is free. Tell me about your problems and I’ll give you high level advice, but I’m not writing a line of code without there being an agreed upon contract.

Doing business with friends can get really messy. Business is business. You can’t give the shop away… and most people are clueless when it comes to what costs and margins actually are, so their perceptions of what you could be doing for them are often wrong.

 

[straycat]

@alpacaone Tattoo artist here and friends and family are the worst. Had one guy, after I was done the tattoo try to barter me down. He has other tattoos so he damn well knows the cost of em. It was also a very technical tattoo, in which he did not listen to after care at all. His level of disrespect made it clear that he should no longer be my client.

 

[palmtreelife]

@straycat That sucks, man! I have a friend who is my tattoo artist (all but my very first) and he always under charges me. My thought is, I want my friends to succeed, and I usually end up "tipping" 100% because I feel he didn't charge enough.
Friends should be wanting to boost you up, not looking for a handout.
I feel this way with my server friends too. I tip more to my friends, where some people believe they don't need to tip their friends.

 

[straycat]

@palmtreelife He doesn't tip and never has. Which ok fine whatever, but I used to really undercharge for him.

I clarified the total price twice before proceeding, once via msg and on the waiver. He did me dirty.

 

[miracle2019]

@straycat Add what he owes you to the next visit. Get him to pay in advance. If he refuses and walks then he’s no loss.

 

[insightsoul]

@straycat I work on cars for a living. More of a make cars fast kind of thing, not so much general repair. We do general repair as a concession. I will discount for friends/family if they do NOT ask for a discount.

Typically, I will sell parts for a little over my cost (I make a little and cover cc fees) and labor I will discount a tiny bit (like if my hourly is $200, I'll charge them $175).

I learned a long time ago that pretty much anyone (friend/family or not) that asks for a discount is going to be a giant pain in the ass. I have no problem hooking a friend up, but anyone that expects it I just don't really want as a customer.

Maybe that makes me an asshole, but we've been around a while, and have been burned more than enough times.

 

[dell23]

@alpacaone I do the same. I’ll answer any questions you may have, but as soon as you want me to do something for you, we need an agreement set in place and signed.

 

[tbplayer]

@alpacaone I've noticed that it seems especially egregious with creative stuff: writing code to do something, creating a website, logo/branding/graphic design work, and so on. I think, because some of the value for those things can be subjective. Kinda like the person that wants an artist to work for "exposure."

It seems like there are fewer complaints about how to deal with friends/family with a retail/manufacturing type business. I suppose because, in their minds, the physical object has a fixed price and there's no subjective-ness to its value for them.

I don't really have any proof for any of that, it's just my own observations.

 

[alpacaone]

@tbplayer Yes. Agreed 100%. The old “I don’t think I really need a website so it’s not worth normal pricing to me” mindset.

 

[fahimjee]

@dmc0027 Any “friend” who thinks they are entitled to a discount isn’t a real friend. A real friend will pay full bang and laud your goods and services to everyone they know. As for family, well, I’d say the same except they’ll pull the blood card. Tell em full bang-or pound sand.

 

[kendalgeo]

@fahimjee Additionally, charge them 10% “supporting friends and family” surcharge. You know, since they are supporting you and all.

 

[mathewhayden]

@fahimjee

Any “friend” who thinks they are entitled to a discount isn’t a real friend

This exactly. I had a friend who saw me giving free products (I sell skincare) in exchange for honest reviews to a couple of people i know through her. I was having a conversation with one of these people in front of this "friend" about some new products i was getting in that I'd like them to test out for reviews again and my "friend" goes "why don't you give me free products?" To which I responded "you don't even wash your face..."

 

[lotus1991]

@fahimjee Yes yes yes
I have bid friends work before and a couple them said my price didn’t fit their budget and that was fine however one out of the three people that said that reached out to me two years later and said hey do you want to be in the lowest price it’s really expensive out there. Would you still be interested and building our deck? I said sure but now I gotta re-estimate it because prices have changed. They were OK with it. I built their deck and they were happy and they did they praised my work and posted it on Facebook are absolutely correct

 

[birdoftexas93]

@dmc0027 I've had several businesses before.

I always gave products and services to family at cost.

Then again, in our family we don't take advantage of one another.

If I need something, they will give it to me at cost too.

 

[jeffatespnpdotorg]

@birdoftexas93 Yeah I feel this is the line. Cost is reasonable if close family and friends as why would you want to profit off of them. But it does obviously depend on the relationship and in which service / product you are providing as time does get included in cost. No one should have to be doing anything for free from a business point of view.

If you have a 10% admin charge for example on a product then that's reasonable to add on to the base cost price (not including profit %). Same way for a service e.g. construction, they pay for materials and your labour, you don't include profit % on the job but once again can include job related expenses like travel, food, admin.

Everybody wins.

 

[lipkip]

@birdoftexas93 Same, except that my family actually doesn’t want the discount. So they are often buying things full price without me knowing.

I’ll compensate by giving them free items when I see them.

It depends on the relationship!