We are pretty sure that offering custom is a good idea; a buyer who helped designed what they bought is much more likely to rave about it to their friends and family (and pass out those business cards you sent along, and buy again). In the beginning steps, there is the chance that you'll pursue a sale without success, but if you handled it with finesse, you can consider it marketing and outreach.
Because pricing for custom can be tricky, we've devoted an entire section of our policies page to it. Our process goes as follows, and we've never had troubles with buyers disputing costs.
1.) The buyer gets in contact with us and talks about what they're thinking.
2.) We reply, asking a couple clarifying questions we may have (size, earring findings, etc) and requesting reference pictures for the food. The buyer responds.
3.) We create preliminary design sketches, take a photo, and send them to the buyer. The buyer will have the chance to make any last adjustments on the sketches.
4.) We get the buyer a price quote, including material costs, hourly rate (which is the same as our regular rate), and estimated time to sculpt (and pack it up, and cover the time spent chasing the sale, if you like). They approve it (or don't, and it's back to the drawing board, or a no go). If the order is valued over $50, we ask for a 25% down payment. This allows us to order materials, and even if they back out, we still have basic costs covered.
5.) We create the pieces, photograph them, and list them on Etsy. They purchase the item and pay via PayPal. If they payed money down on their order, the listed price reflects that.
6.) We ship the order out in pretty packaging. Everyone grins.
Hope this helps. Good luck! :D
