Payments appreciated, but not at all cost!

Administration of money is cumbersome and distracting and the trouble may supercede the value of the money to me. The trouble causes me to sometimes avoid getting paid for my work, og consider alternative trading posibilities.

I happily pay taxes (Denmark has approx. 50% income tax and 25% sales tax), so that is not the cause of my twists. Problem lies in the fact that I sell custom-only goods unlike a simple shop, and thus a "simple transaction" easier messes up the paperwork and ends up being and expense to my accountant in locating that bloody dime solving the equation of this months ledger.

There are other causes too - one of them a friend of mine wrote a thesis about here (sorry - this is in danish only): http://gift-economy.jones.dk/ .

Money talks (to deaf ears)

Money is elastic: Same amount can be a joke to a lawyer company and insanely expensive to a large non-governmental organisation. For this reason I have no pricelist but instead decide on a case-by-case basis, and welcome discussions about the chosen price.

Is the price very low I may choose to not charge at all - I may value a homecooked meal or two during the project higher than messing around with money.

Metering my hours hardly makes sense - there's the "elasticity", and besides I frequently do the job "too well": often a piece of work can be reused several places if done a tad smarter than needed in each single case.

I used to pass on valuing completely to my customers (using so-called "non-bills"). It has not been practiced for a while, mainly because it is quite far from classic logic of capitalism and thus requires thorough preparation to introduce to new customers. I hope to be able to reintroduce it again some day.

Discounts helps solve the equation

Your bill (if your get one) may contain a creative abuse of the term discount: I attempt to figure out the "market price" for my work - that is, what i theoretically would have earned using an advertising agency to polish the looks of my products and a salesman to persuade you to buy it. Your "discount" is the difference between "market price" and our agreed price as described above.

Relevant teasers

More money may make me try harder, but possibly more important is it to "help me out" than to "cheer me up":

• Follow my instructions on my preferred way of communication: it avoids stress and helps me focus
• Critisize my work: feedback - good and bad - makes me want to improve
• Surprise me: I love surprises!

You are welcome to support me financially independent from formal billing, either for concrete works or generally for the kinds of things I am engaged in: