How Freelancers Should Handle Clients that Say, "I Can Just Do It Myself"

My friend Scott (who I met through this blog, and who's also been kind enough to point out the occasional misspelled or left out word) shared this story with me recently:

Client: do you have a solution to this problem?

Scott: Actually, others have asked the same question. I'm working on a solution now, it should be done by the end of the month and it's $60.

Client: I'm not going to pay $60 for something that's not even done! I'll just do it myself!
(By the way, Scott tells me that the project would take about 30 hours to do)

This situation where the client feels they can do it themselves is happening quite a bit more in the design field now. With desktop publishing and Adobe's products becoming more mainstream you'll find more and more business owners come to the conclusion that they can design just as good as the pros if they have the right tools. Laughable...

Even if the business owner could design something that was respectable (some of them can), does that mean they should? Just because the design it themselves, does that mean they got free design? No, they didn't. In the example above, this client was willing to waste 30 hours of her/his own time in order to save under $100, does that sound smart to you? Sadly, this type of lunacy happens all of the time.   

Business people often can't wrap their head around the idea that even if they do it themselves, it still costs them money - the money comes in the form of an opportunity cost. The question really is, "What could they have done to make money in the time it took them to come up with a solution for themselves?"

Here's the thing - when you run out of money you can always make more if you have time. If you run out of time, you can't make more by having more money. So as a business owner, what is more valuable to you: time or money? The way I handle business owners wrestling with this idea is to convey to them, "When you get right down to doing design, you can either pay me in cash, or you can pay Father Time in time and energy - it's your choice."

I've had business owners stroll up to me at a networking event and proudly tell me, "See this brochure? I did it myself. It took me 3 weeks to do but I didn't have to pay anyone." The funny thing is that the thing still looks amateurish and they blew 40 hours on it that they could have been selling their goods/services.

No matter how much you try to educate some business owners, they're still going to do this, it's just life. The best thing you can do as a freelance contractor is recognize that these people exist, and when you encounter one just let them go. Savvy business leaders and success gurus all swear by the concept of focusing on what they do best and hiring a team of professionals to support them - this includes a talented freelance designer. They know that even if they can do everything, it's not a smart idea that they do so. If your potential client can't see that, say "Buh bye!"

PS - Hey, thanks for the comments and support on this blog. If you are getting some good information out of it, be sure to share it with some colleagues that would benefit from reading it as well. If you have something specific you'd like me to blog about, drop me an email or a comment.

Comments

[Scott Wilson]

I'm still cracking up about this.