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Forums > Business
Written by Terri Stone on August 3, 2009
For many creative pros, 2009 has been a financially painful year.
What have you been doing to get through these lean times? Everything from your attempts to drum up new business to ways you're keeping a sense of humor about it all are fair game for this forum thread!
If you'd rather post anonymously, just don't sign in. Then your contribution will come from "Guest."
Regular get-togethers with people in the biz
I've been meeting with other designers monthly for coffee and talk. Also, I've attended design-related events in my town. Some are about industrial design or otherwise not really related to my daily life, but still, it's good to be seen. You never know where you'll make connections.
Client trying to pay less for same job.
Stand Fast and Strong: I've had a running freelance design job for six years now. The owner of that particular project decided to lower the rate of payment to about 35% of what I had been making... he said it was due to the economy. I simply replied in a professional letter that I would not be able to do the same work for that price; I explained why and also mentioned the additional cost it will now take him to have someone else learn the ropes.
As professionals we cannot keep providing our skills for "whatever they are willing to pay" ... and people that do this really do make thing worse. Designers won't ever be paid what they are worth if we keep acting like starving artists... ie: go try to tell the car dealer that you need a new starter for 25% of the labor cost and see how far you get.
This is temporary, just keep working hard -- deliver pizza if you must but don't hurt your career by selling yourself short.
***An email arrived the next day from client that says he would like to "discuss" options for his once "bottom line" proposal.
Lean Times in small town can be overcome
About 5 years ago, I moved to a small, tight-knit community saturated with creatives who have known each other for years. I joined the local Chamber of Commerce only to find out that many of the creatives were already getting the local jobs. I took at class to write a business plan, expanded my marketing and started getting work from other states. Then the economy hit. There were not many jobs out there. Recently, I lost a contract because I was the sole designer and didn't have any other creative to take over is I went on vacation or got sick. I reconnected with close friend, fellow designer and former co-worker. We have been communicating electronically and on the phone to work on proposals, updating our wordpress, blog, twitter and CMS skills and offering each other support. We are confident that if we team up, between our 40+ years of combined experience, we will get contracts and projects!
Staying in front of people
I started a blog and post noteworthy stuff I do; also stuff past and potential future clients are doing. When it's relevant, I email those potentials with the URL. That way they don't forget about me.
Just trying to stay busy and in touch with clients
I also live in a small town, with a serious old-boy network. I have a diverse, international client base but depend on projects from a large university for bread-and-butter. I joined a local branch of the American Marketing Association to make more contacts and deepen my understanding of their needs. Their programs were coma-inducing, but I figured that was the price I had to pay.
Unfortunately, I discovered that this AMA chapter is also run by the old boy group, though it's actually old-boy's wives! I apparently ruffled some feathers when I complained to the board of directors when they ran a "logo contest" and offered NOTHING to the winning designer.
When I suggested it was a missed opportunity to get marketing folks together with designers to develop a real brand identity, they called me 'offensive' (for calling them "skinflints") and actually refunded my money, after refusing to meet with me and discuss it. What a HUGE surprise that the founding board-member's ad agency won the contest! Not.
Even without the tinpot local mafia, small-town America is not a very design-oriented marketplace. It's like people go deaf, dumb and blind when you start talking about brand equity and consistent design standards. I hate branding as much as anybody, but it's a fact of commercial life.
I better go take a pill...
Working from a small town in France
Reading your posts makes me want to say that I am confronted with many similar problems working as an independant designer in a smallish town in France. The only thing that seems to work here is being recommended by someone ("bouche a oreille" we call it), so it takes a while to build up connections. After 5 years (luckily I had my clients in Paris), things are going OK but I would like to say that even in recent tight times, I have never lowered my prices. I know what my work is worth, what the client is getting for his money and have found that on many a basis, this is a fundamental attitude to maintain, for me and my fellow designers.
I also found that following a marketing campaign, funnily enough, it's often not the potential clients I prospected who respond but that I get work from elsewhere as if it's the effort and energy put into prospecting that pays!
Worth noting too that I bill my clients in Paris roughly 40% more than the local ones but that my life by the sea here is by far worth it. Not once did I regret the decision to move here 10 years ago.
Work on your own image and treat your old clients well.
I've been in the industry for the past 10 years and have my own business. I've gone from having a great office downtown with several creatives and programmers to work for me, to working once again out of my home, basically as a frelance designer. I'm not too worried about it, since this is how I got started after all, however what I have found important is to not come across as a sole freelance designer. I know things will change and letting clients know that you are struggling, just allows them to negotiate on prices that should not be lowered.
I have over the past 6 months lowered my rates for long standing clients who have also been struggling. These are my bread and butter guys. One of them I kept my rate high, but allowed him to make payments. Its important to let your old clients that you appreciate their continuing business and are making these exceptions just for them. As far as new clients... do not lower your rates!
Fall is a busy time for all businesses. Are you thinking about your direct mailers for the hollidays? I am. I slacked off the past couple of years (to cut costs) and I know some people have forgotten me for it. Now is the time to work on learning that little trick you've wanted to master in Photoshop, redesign your website and be ready for the busy season approaching.
One last comment about some of you in small towns.... what a drag that can be, but there is a silver lining. My business was best when I lived in a small town (that I did not grow up in), Good Ole Boy network and all. What worked was that I was the only game in town. Sure there were other designers there, ones who were charging way too little for their work, but the designs my company produced were professional beyond the scope of what they had yet seen. I made more money there than when I moved to a larger city where the competition increased and the cost for good design decreased...... I'm thinking about hitting the tiny towns once again.
Great advice and encouragement...!
Just wanted to say that it's great to hear from other designers with small-town experience. I've lived in large cities and made much, much more money. But there are real benefits to the small-town scene. It's not ALL bad!
The tip about taking care of regular clients who are themselves struggling is a good point. One of my favorites is a design-build home construction company. I volunteered to help the guy do some ads when one of his houses was featured in a local 'green' magazine. And he's now hired me to set up a web site on a large project he's building. But I do this work because I love it (mostly!) and always figure the money will come. So far, with a few cliff-hangers, that's been the case. I need to be more diligent about self-promotion!
One other thing I've done is volunteer to help non-profits that are struggling. Our local public radio station is getting a new logo and print ads, and I love working with them. I'll be getting some on-air publicity from them as well. I also mentor an immigrant high-school student, teaching Photoshop. Hope I don't lead him astray... there's always the risk he'll become a graphic designer!
How do you deal with it?
Yes I'm also in a small town but don't think that has a factor on this.
So I meet with a new client, discuss their project needs, work out a plan and quote an amount. The proposal is accepted and as I do with all new clients, 50% deposit with the balance due immediately at the end of the project. Seems simple enough right! Not so fast.
More and more I'm finding companies agreeing to the quoted rate for a project then it's like pulling teeth to get the final payment. My clients are advised up front - invoices are due upon receipt. No I don't expect them to break a leg racing for their cheque book but when they are at their desk in the next day or three, if they either accepted my credit of the cost of doing an online bank transfer or wrote the cheque that would be great.
Friday two clients tell me I'll pay you Monday. Yeah sure, it's a long weekend but OK Tuesday will be fine (even though the one guy is already at 45 days). Tuesday comes and no word. Finally about noon I ask, "when will it be convenient to pick up your cheque?" Reply from one is tomorrow. The other I get I can't pay you, I have to pay my Visa! After I pitched my internal fit I replied, "Yes, so do I!" He eventually coughed up half.
Am I expecting too much when a client agrees to a price and hires me to build their website or do their advertising that they actually have the funds to pay me?
How do you deal with this sticky wicket?