Illustration artist uses a commission calculator for providing instant quotes for his custom art

Building a portfolio website is a must for any artist right now. No matter what’s your industry or form of art, a web portfolio is one of the main channels to get more exposure in this competitive environment. And also increasing the chances of going viral.

As a professional portfolio website is not only for showing your art it’s important to use modern tools that can help you - the Jack of all trades, to handle other freelance hurdles apart from your true passion. It’s not easy to be an artist, accountant, customer support specialist, and few other positions in one, once you work for yourself.

You probably noticed, that all website builders now include templates for personal portfolios, however, I want you to know there’s more you can do than what the general templates offer. And that’s what we came here to talk about. This blog will be of use no matter if you already have a portfolio website or just thinking about building one.

Background and challenges

Flooderino is a freelance artist who draws cartoon illustrations of anthropomorphic animals. His clients range from all around the world of the furry community and his main focus is drawing their online persona. It means if someone is looking for an original piece of artwork or in this case to create an original animal persona, such an artist can create it with a detailed brief of what you need. But naturally, such work takes a lot more time as it has to include:

• discussing the client’s idea and design needs, the references to their character.
• explaining the commission process.
• Counting and providing a quote.
• producing the illustrations by the deadline.

So when does such an illustration artist has the time to actually draw? You either need a team for customer service or find ways to automate your daily workflow, so you would get back at least some of that precious time.

Creating a commission calculator

To indicate the parts which require or have the potential for automation it’s good to document your sales process in detail.

Now get to the good part, will you? Yes, further on we look for tools because right now almost all apps can be connected, share data, and let you relax as they follow your scheduled commands. It might take some time to set up the whole route, but what’s best, is that you don’t need code to do that. Look at your described sales process and decide which parts could be standardized or bundled up. Like the most frequently asked questions that you usually answer in one of 3 ways and similar. Then look for tools that could cover such part of the process and look if they can be combined. You will most likely need an easy to use and integrate quoting software, some kind of CMS, for handling your orders, and then integrations software such as Zapier, the rest really depends on how you organize your processes. Now many no-code tools are made so they could be connected and share data among each other.

Now let’s look at how Flooderino solved this process riddle and what his automation looks like:

Once a person comes to the Flooderino website, he can instantly check his portfolio and go to the [commission’s calculator], to get an estimate of how much the fulfillment of his wishes would cost. Then the prospect only needs to fill out a form and the automation takes over. When a customer fills a form, a spreadsheet with all his answers is generated, and then it is sent to Zapier where all the information received from the client is put up to a new card on Trello.

Then Flooderino can use it to verify with them if the information is accurate. Direct communication between the artist and the client happens only if some very custom details need to be discussed. Otherwise, it’s all documented through these different tools and there’s no need for calls or a bunch of emails.

Another part that stands out about the Flooderino commission quote calculator is its design and the use of conditional formula. As well as the conditional visibility feature letting users see the payment details personalized to their case. If a visitor would like to break the payment into a few times, the calculator will show the payment terms elements which indicate the sum and the periods in which you have to pay.

It not only provides the basic estimate for his work but also lets you choose payment terms if you would like to divide your payments. Also, it builds trust by disclosing his service fee which raises transparency.

Regarding the design of the calculator, you will notice that the price quote is provided in an invoice reminding way, so it leaves no doubt about what’s what and makes it easy to understand no matter where you’re from.

Results

Since providing instant price quotes Flooderino not only has more time but also deals only with qualified customers who are prepared to pay for their needs.

Conclusion

Your portfolio website is more than just an exhibition of your art. It can simplify some of your customer service work and automate the order process. Let visitors interested in your work get instant estimates of how much your product or service would cost. After all, even if you are photographer, copywriter or a web designer, all freelancers tackle the challenge of working as the CEO, specialist, customer support ant accountant all in one. Take some work off your shoulders. You can use our commission calculator template or build your custom calculator from scratch using Calconic.

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Gintė @calconic: Hope you enjoyed Flooderino's story. If you’d like to share your website calculator and become our next User story leave a comment below!

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