Why I hate to ask you for a budget and why it's so necessary

I hate this part of my job more than any other...

the dreaded question:

"Do you have a budget for this project?"

It makes me so nervous to ask and I know it makes YOU nervous to answer but, if we are going to work together, I need to know how much you want to spend on the design we are working on.  Why is this so important?  Why do I need to know?

• If I know how much you want to spend, I can suggest materials and stones that are appropriate your budget.

• I won't waste both of our time stabbing around in the dark trying to figure out how much you want to spend.

• I can usually work within ANY budget as long as I know what it is upfront.  You don't have to be shy.  I have made wonderful custom pieces for anywhere from $75 - $2000+.  I'm not judgmental about a budget.  EVER.

• I won't ever take advantage of your budget.  I want you to have the MOST wonderful piece you can afford!  It makes me happy, it makes you happy, it's a WIN for everyone.

Knowing how much you want to spend is probably even more important than knowing the design you want or what stones you'd like to use.  We can work on all that later but you have to give me some parameters and we can work from there.  

What if you give me a budget and we can't do what you want for the money you have to spend?  That comes up A LOT.  Here are some choices:

• You can always wait.  I will save your name and any sketches and information and we can come back to it later.  Do remember that price quotes are good for 30 days.  After that, I will have to reprice materials due to fluctuations in the metal markets.  

• We can look at doing your design smaller or out of mixed metals.

• We can think about using synthetic stones.

• I can set you up on a payment plan like Affirm or ShopPay so you pay a little bit each week while getting your jewelry up front.

Thanks for reading this far!  I absolutely love getting to know my customers by doing custom work.  It's a process, it takes time and there is a lot of give and take but in the end, the results are worth it!