This last line is from the nest message in the list. And here are
my “two cents” on the cost of holding out or selling short. I am new
to this list and the field of making jewelry.
As an employee of someone else (a worker for some company), you have
every right (if that is a good choice of words) to completely forget
about whatever you had been working on at the end of the day of
shift. You don’t have to think about that task or event again until
the next day. You are paid for the time recorded on the company’s
(your employer’s) time clock.
As a self-employed worker, either in a sole-proprietorship or
partnership with one or two others, when does the “time on the
clock” end? A client wants a specific design for a piece of jewelry
and you make sketches during the rest of that day. After you lock
the door that night and are enjoying dinner an idea for the design
comes to you. A rough sketch on a napkin to be filled in later will
have to do for now. Do you charge the client for the dinner or for
overtime used to finish the drawing and make a sample? If the design
is original, who would (or should) own any copyright? If it is a
good design other clients would probably like the option of buying
one.
In a corporate environment (not related to the making of jewelry)
certain levels of company leadership do allow themselves the option
of passing ALL costs, including meals, to the end user of the product
even though the meals in question are neither on company property nor
"on the clock" for time billing records.
As I write this, more questions gone to mind that would be better
answered by a small business attorney that is just as trusted (by
you) in that field as you are in the field of making jewelry.
Thank each of you for the good and leads.
Jim