Being a Starving Graphic Artist Sucks

Ever Hear a Potential Client Say, “I Can’t Afford You"? It’s a Bunch of Baloney

All freelancers have heard, “I’d love to work with you but I can’t afford you”. Some of the time this is actually true, your potential client can’t afford to work with you, but 9 times out of 10 they are not telling the truth – they can afford you, they just don’t want to.

People will virtually pay anything if they see the value in it. For example, let’s say you haven’t had anything to drink in a day – how much would you pay for a glass of water? Probably quite a bit.

How about if you were on a date and ate onions for dinner and had no way of brushing your teeth – how much would you pay for just a stick of gum? If you liked your date and things were moving along, I’d bet you’d be happy to pay a lot for that gum.

The point is, if people (your potential clients included) want something bad enough, they’ll find a way to pay for it. A while back, I had a potential client tell me he couldn’t afford to have a brand identity for his business – he said this to me as he was getting into his new Porsche. He said he had to pay taxes and that a family member might be able to help him.

Clearly he could afford it, the guy’s driving around a vehicle that costs more than some people’s houses – it had nothing to do with him being able to afford it.

Remember that people will virtually pay anything if they see the value in it. I know he had the money, he knows he has the money - but he didn’t buy. I was unable to help him see the value of what I could do for him and how he would benefit from it– that’s why I lost the client, not because he couldn’t afford me.

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly about Selling as a Freelance Designer

The Good:

You are a better sales person than you thought. Being comfortable and confident as a salesperson will come though practice. If you’re not a great sales person now, you can significantly improve your skills. You’ll be able to gain invaluable tips on how I went from being terrified of sales to loving it by purchasing the Being a Starving Graphic Artist Sucks book, and visiting this blog regularly. It doesn’t matter how bad you think you are, you can significantly become a better sales person if you want to.

The Bad:

Selling is an integral part of freelance design: if you can sell you’ll succeed, if you won’t sell or you can’t sell, you starve. Hiring sales people can be expensive, so when you’re starting out, you are the sales person, there’s no other way around it. The success of your business depends on you being able to convert prospects into paying clients – in other words, sales.  

The Ugly (well, not so ugly anymore):

Sales probably isn’t what you’ve been lead to believe it is. Good sales people are helpful consultants, not slick fast-talking manipulators who try to swindle people out of their money. When you feel in your heart that you provide a great value to businesses and that you really do help them with what you do – you’ll never feel like you’re selling something again. Most of us, including me, have grown up with a misinterpretation of what effective sales people really look like. The days of the used car salesman with the bad hairpiece, slick back hair and out-of-style suit are long gone. Effective selling is about providing value and helping people make the right decision.

10 Can't-Miss Ways to Be Seen as a Design Expert

Here are 10 terrific ideas that will get you on the right track in becoming a design expert that people turn to and respect.

1. Publish an E-zine:
Ezine publishing is the #1 method of online marketing for small businesses. It’s easy, cheap and it’s very, very effective - if done right.

2. Create a Product:
Create a product with the information that you have in your head and let the world have it.

3. Write a Book:
You can speak information from your heart and mind and turn it into a book easily by transcribing it.

4. Write a E-Book:
If you want the satisfaction, prestige and expert status that comes from being an author, you might want to write an ebook.

5. Make a Video:
Record a live presentation of you speaking, just be creative.

6. Start Your Own Radio Show:
This will help you create validity and establish expertise. Talk show hosts are always perceived as experts and credible.

7. Write an Article:
Offer to write an article on your field for a publication. It improves your image as an expert in the field and builds credibility.

8. Put on a live Seminar:
A great way to present to many mega-qualified prospects quickly and instantly. If paid, every one of them is your prospect...your words if useful will be gold.

9. Teleseminars:
You can fill seminar seats without outrageous advertising costs. A great way to become an expert. You can also promote experts and people will begin to consider you an expert because you associate with them.

10. Public Speaking:
Offering your expertise at a public occasion is an easy way to get the word out and become known as an expert.

Becoming an expert in your industry is all about building credibility, and credibility is priceless.

Bottom line: prospects want to do business with experts. Are you an expert in your field? Do you find it challenging to compete with a competitor who is regarded as an expert? How much more sales and revenue do you think an expert makes over their competition?

Incorporating Rest and Relaxation Into Your Design Process

Burn out is a very real challenge for all designers. Finding that perfect balance between working hard and working too hard can be a tricky line to walk, especially if you're new to freelancing. If you find yourself not as motivated about getting projects done, if you're not as sharp as you usually are and maybe creatively you're feeling blocked - step away from the computer.

One of the most productive things you can do for yourself is to know when enough work is too much. You'll save yourself a wealth of headaches and aggravation if you learn when and how to recharge your battery when you start feeling worn down. Here are a couple of suggestions to get you started: 

• Throughout the day, allow yourself to step away from the computer for 5-15 minutes when you're starting to feel drained
• Keep regular office hours so you don't end up working too much over time (make sure your clients clearly know what your office hours are)
• Keep a rough track of hours you log in a week, try to keep your hours below 12-16 hours. If you’ve established how long you plan to work per day, try not to exceed it
• Remember to enjoy your life too. Paying your dues and working hard can help you become a more successful freelance designer - but don't forget to have fun with family and friends. Being a success without having a life isn’t worth it – is it?
• Schedule your projects with a little pad time so you don't have to work 7 days a week to get everything done on time

Being a freelance designer isn't always easy, but cut yourself a break now and again and make sure you take time to rest your mind and your spirit. You'll find that taking time to recharge will allow you to come back refreshed and ready to take on the world again.

Action Step: Try to step back and look at your energy levels throughout the day and the week, when are you the most productive, when do you feel sluggish? Based on what you find, how can you structure your day/activities to help you to be more productive and avoid burn out?

Here's My List, Do You Have One?

• You are passionate about what you do and your business
• You are organized
• You are a leader in your field, or you are determined to be one
• You understand the idea of spending one dollar to make five dollars is a good investment
• You recognize the value of having design that works and know that it’s a waste of money if it doesn’t bring in new customers, more revenue, separate your business for the competition

This is a small snippet from a list I've created that describes the characteristics of the clients I am looking to attract. Do you have a list like this? Do you know what type of clients you’re going after and what makes an ideal client for you?

If you know what you’re looking for it’s a lot easier to recognize the people you want to work with and easy to politely say, “No” to the ones that don’t fit your profile. I talk about this more in the Being a Starving Graphic Artist Sucks book, but this will get you going on the right track.

Action Item: If you haven't made a list of the traits and characteristics you are looking for in your ideal client, do it today. Wouldn't it make it so much easier to quickly be able to evaluate who was a good fit for you and who wasn’t? If you haven’t made this list, you’re making it too hard on yourself.

 

 

Everyone Can Use Friends, Including Designers

If you’re beginning your journey as a freelance graphic designer, you’ll want to begin cultivating relationships with service professionals (like you) that can either help you/you help them, or you both provide complementary services to mutual clients.

For example, you may find that many of your clients need photography – instead of telling them, “I can’t do that”, establish a working relationship with a photographer whereby you send her/him referrals and they send you graphic design referrals back.

Consider paying for and accepting a 10% referral bonus every time a lead works out. You’ll have to search around for people who are the right fit you, but I promise that if you carefully build these relationships over time you’ll see how they can easily turn into more referrals, more clients and more sales.

• Printer
• Web host
• Content writer
• Business Coach
• Photographer
• Other designers that specialize in other areas than you
• Videographer
• Print publications like local newspapers, magazines
• Promotional products specialist

Action Item: What other service professionals can you think of teaming up with?

How to Commit the Uncommitted Prospect

This can definitely be a frustrating situation. Prospects and clients that can’t make decision can often waste your time and resources. Your goal as a freelancer artist is to get to a “yes” or “no” decision from the prospect as efficiently as you can.

Designers can often spend days or even weeks waiting for a prospect to make a decision. Here is a quick look at how you can handle this perplexing problem:

First ask you prospect:

• What would like me to do next to analyze your options?
• Help me to understand how I can help.
• How can I help clarify things for you?
• What additional informational will you need to make an informed decision?
• And the Big One: Would 24 hours (put whatever number or actual date you would like) be a sufficient amount of time to make a decision you’ll feel comfortable with?

If she/he answers “yes”, reply back with, “Great, I can contact you at 12:00 or 3:00 tomorrow and find out what direction you would like to go. Which of these two times will be better for you?”

The prospect has agreed that you’ve given her/him enough time to make the decision and you’ve set a formal time when you’re finally going to get an answer.

The Impersonal, Personal Trainer

I finally gave in and called a personal trainer. One of my  good friends and colleague referred someone she had been working out with for a  long time. Since she spoke highly of this guy and I was being referred over, I  guessed there would be a good chance I would hire this guy as well.

When the trainer picked up the phone he blurted out, “Hullo...”  and then just sat there, for a moment I thought I dialed the wrong number (I  now wish that I had dialed a wrong number). Surprised, I stammered back, “I am  looking for Scott, have I reached the right person?” “Yep”, he replied back.  Again, he didn’t say anything else, just sat there. I think to myself, “This  isn’t starting well.”

I proceeded to tell him what I was looking for and he on  more than one occasion cut me off right in the middle of a sentence, corrects  me and tells me how he works. Beyond interrupting me and pointing out that he’s,  “So busy I don’t leave my studio, all of my clients come to me”, this guy  offers no other value to the conversation. In fact, I am not even sure if he’s  listening or if he cares. Scott probably has more business than he knows what  to do with, I am not sure how – maybe he’s a good trainer but he’s an awful  person to talk to on the telephone.

I’ve had better conversations with dogs than this guy.

Sensing that I might not be a good fit for him, I suggested,  “You know, maybe I am not the right fit for you”, he came back with, “Well you probably  want to come in and pay for my evaluation, for $65 and then I’ll be able to  tell you if you’re a good fit. We can book it later when I have time.” I  snicker to myself and think, “Guy, I don’t care you’re Arnold Swarchenegger,  there’s no way I’d give you a dime.” I thanked him for his time, tell him I’d  think about it and never called him back. I am sure 5 minutes after the  conversation he moved on. If this guy was as much of a jerk as he was to me (a  referral from a very good friend and client of his), could you image what he’s  like if you called him out of the yellow pages?!?

The point here is that you and I, even this jerk I talked to  on the phone can be extremely talented at what we do, but we still need to  develop good customer service skills. Even  if you are the best designer in your city, if you can’t get people to want to  meet with you because of your attitude and lacking skills in customer service,  maybe you consider hiring someone answer the phone or better yet, work on your customer service skills.

Action item: How good  are your customer skills? What areas might you be able to improve in? Ask 3-5  of your prospects and clients and see what they say.

Train Them Right from the Beginning and They Won't Piddle on the Rug

I had a couple of Yorkshire terriers growing up, “yorkies” they are called. Overall a well-mannered, friendly but stubborn breed of dog. Yorkies make good pets for people who care for them and invest time in them. During the first couple of months – even going back to the very first meeting you have with one of these dogs, it’s important that you set up rules and guidelines. You have to start training yorkies from the moment you meet them or they can develop bad habits that are way too difficult to correct later in life.

Your clients, who are most likely not 4-legged and hairy, are still a lot like yorkies: if you don’t educate them and train them from the moment you make contact with them, they’ll develop bad habits too. No, they won’t piddle on the rug or eat your slippers but they might continually call you after hours, expect you to offer discounts, get their project done in 24 hours or less – the list can go on and on. If you allow clients to get trained that they get this treatment every time, they’ll begin to expect it – and they’ll develop bad habits.

From the beginning, set up parameters when you work with a client, and if you stretch them one time for their benefit, tell them this isn’t something you normally do. Make sure you do this from the very beginning and you’ll find yourself with well behaved clients – although they probably won’t win any best in breed awards!

How Professional Do You Look through Your Client’s Eyes?

What the heck is credibility, and as designers, why should  we care about it? Isn’t credibility and “being credible” just something your  grandfather tells you about when you’re little? Well, at least mine did. I know  it sounds like some random concept that doesn’t mean anything, but it wasn't  until I began to understand what credibility means that I began to understand  its effect on how successful I would be as a designer.

Having credibility is huge, and if you don’t have it now I  am going to share with you how you can build it. If you have credibility, you're going to make getting clients and making money SO MUCH easier than if you didn't.

So what is Credibility?
Dictionary.com defines it as:
The quality, capability, or power to elicit belief, or, a capacity for belief.

So as a designer, credibility is your ability to show the client that you are a trustworthy, professional resource that can effectively help them with their creative projects. If can convince clients to believe that you are professional and that you truly can help them - you win, and you gain a client. If you can't, you lose and you don't gain a client. Think of it this way, would you buy a car if you didn't feel the sales person was credible? Probably not, so keep in mind that if you're not credible, your prospects probably won't buy from you either.

Remember to keep this in mind when you look at your design  business, learn to see things from your prospect's and client's perspective -  do you have credibility in their eyes? Here are 10 quick questions in helping you determine if you have some credibility. After you've answered the 10, keep reading and see how you scored.

 
1. Does your company have a web site?
 
2. Is your web site current and up-to-date?
 
3. Do you have a professionally designed, thick company business card?
 
4. Are your using a company email address (i.e. yourName@company.com), rather than a Yahoo, Hotmail or AOL account?
 
5. Do you have a dedicated business line?
 
6. Do you offer a guarantee to your clients?
 
7. Do you use an actual mailing address rather than a PO Box?
 
8. Do you belong to any professional business organizations or clubs?
 
9. Do you have written, audio or video testimonials from satisfied clients?
 
10. Do you have a consistent business image across all your marketing materials?

If you got 7 or more of these, you're probably coming across as a credible professional to most of your clients and prospects - congratulations. If you scored between a 0-6 don't worry about it, now you've been able to identify some areas you can improve on. You'll be able to access the full, 30+ list of credibility factors in the full printed version of Being a Starving Graphic Artist Sucks.