Being a Starving Graphic Artist Sucks

How Creative Freelancers Can Work with Stupid Clients

My friend Scott, in Florida wrote me, "Please write about polite ways to dump clients who are SO STUPID you just can't communicate with them."

Ahh, I feel for you my friend...dealing with the ignorant is never an easy thing to do - in fact, it's a judgment call you'll need to make early in the qualifying stage of the relationship. During your initial phone conversation with the potential client, you'll want to question them about what kind of shopping around they've done, how they found you, what they're looking for, what they're budget is, etc...What often comes to light during this crucial time in the qualifying process is how much they know or don't know about working with someone in your industry - whether you're a programmer or graphic designer.

For example, if you get someone saying, "I found you in the yellow pages, my boss just asked me to try to find a creative freelancer to work with because he'd heard from a colleague that we might need one", you've got someone that doesn't know a lot about you or your industry. This translates to you having to do a lot more work to educate the client, which you may find worth it or not worth it depending on their budget, their project, their personality and your current workload. In some cases you'll find it's worth it to work with "the ignorant" - it can be rewarding to work with and guide these people along. In other cases you'll end up pulling all of your hair out, and waste a lot of time. You'll want to make your decision early in the process: work with them or let someone else educate them.

One last but important point:
Scott used the term "stupid"; I used "ignorant", as freelancers you're going to find both sets of people. The difference between the two is that the ignorant ones will catch on once you provide them some education. For example, when it comes to auto repair, I am a bit ignorant, but I'd like to think I'd catch on if taught. Conversely, the ones that aren't the sharpest tools in the shed won't get it no matter how much time you invest in them.

Special Note - Finally made the big time, but I need your help:
Hey guys, you can now purchase the paperback version of Being a Starving Artist Sucks on Amazon.com. If you have already purchased or reviewed the eBook or spiral version, I'd like to ask you to help out bit. If you enjoyed reading the book and would recommend it to other creative freelancers, would you be open to writing a 5-15 sentence review on Amazon.com?

I know you probably have a lot on your plate already, so if you're open to helping me I'll send you my new audio mp3 collection called, The Creative Freelance Designer's MP3 Audio Success Series for free.

Once you've written and posted the review, drop me an email indicating your review is up on Amazon.com and I will send you a hyperlink where you can download the audio files, be prepared though, it's a monster file...I've got over 2 hours of content in there! Thanks for helping - I really appreciate it!

Freelance Graphic Designer Frustration: Waiting in Limbo While the Client Critiques Your Artwork

Have you ever wondered where and how your clients go when they make decisions about your projects? For most creative freelancers, this is a mystery...a black box to them. Would that include you? In essence, the designer submits the artwork and the client(s) go into some secret voting booth and talk about your project with family, friends, colleagues, etc. When they're done in the "secret booth" they report back to you what they like and what they liked changed. For 75% or more of creative freelancers, this is the approval process they know and love...well, actually there isn't a lot of love for this approach but they don't know any other way. This used to drive me nuts - I'd wait for days for a client to get back to me, when they did I couldn't believe what changes they wanted to make. I wanted to tear my hair out...but I did come up with a solution, more on that at the end.

Instead of having clients make decisions by themselves or with other people that are not really qualified to help them sort through a design project, wouldn't it be more effective to actually be a part of that approval process? What if you, as the creative freelancer, could help your client evaluate the project rather than sitting in limbo just waiting to hear back from the client?

PS - If you've been pulling your hair out with this, check out the From Zero to Graphic Design Hero I have on iTunes in there I've included a 10 minute audio clip on "Avoiding the Revision Merry Go Round".

4 Quick Things that Should Scare the Hell Out of You if You're A Freelance Graphic Designer

1. Online templates for logos, web sites and collateral materials
2. A tightening economy here in the States
3. Design software companies (like Adobe) catering to the average business user (making them more user friendly and less costly)
4. Online freelance posting sites like guru.com, sologig.com and eLance.com

Okay now that I've grabbed your attention (as well as perhaps made you a little worried), let me explain...I've found through personal experience and in talking with other creative professionals that these 4 factors are making it harder for freelance designers to continue to find well paying traditional projects that are limited to just doing graphic design without a sales, writing or marketing component. Most freelancers are finding that just being a designer doesn't seem to be enough anymore.

The industry is changing guys...but let's face it, all industries change over time (including design). This doesn't mean there isn't work out there - there is always work out there, but you may find that you need to adjust your direction a bit. I've made some major decisions with my design firm, I am guessing if you haven't, you may have to soon.

I talk about this in my "What I've learned the hard way about freelance design in 2008" teleseminar. If you purchase the Being a Starving Artist Sucks book in May or June, I'll include this for free* - and if you're feeling the pinch right now, you'll definitely want to get a hold of these insights: the flawed mentality of most of your clients when it comes to marketing/design, how the economy is affecting the industry and finally, my specific recommendations on how you can survive and thrive when other freelancers are going back to work for others. 

A business person told me a while back that "You'll always find competition and change nipping at your heels, and if you stop running you'll get swallowed". Now that you've been told the industry is changing, what steps will you take today to prepare for it?

* I'll ask that you send me an email to jeremy@beingatarvingartistsucks.com with your order confirmation so that I know that only loyal blog readers are getting this deal. Offer can not be combined with other promotional offers. Other small print crap....

PS - Hey, thanks guys for passing along this blog to your colleagues and friends, I really do appreciate it. The traffic increased last month by about 35% and I am grateful to your help.

How Creative Freelance Graphic Designers Can Handle Clients that Want to Make "Deals"

A quick note before we get started:
Hey, I am excited to share with you that the Being a Starving Artist Sucks book will be available on Amazon in the next few weeks. In going through their approval price Amazon has sent me 3 soft back proofs (not the coil bound versions) that I'll mark down at a special price for loyal blog readers like you.

If you want to pick one of these books up at a great discount, email me at jeremy@beingastarvingartistsucks.com and I'll send you over an electronic invoice. The books have a retail price of $97, but I am letting these go at just $29 because they are marked as "proofs". The shipping is $5 for US, $10 for International. Okay...on to the blog post:

I was introduced to a potential client through a mutual friend a while back. After meeting with the guy and providing him with some initial ideas, we got into talking about compensation. The guy indicated that he'd worked with freelancing creative firms before and that he was skeptical at best about paying them up front. Much to my surprise, his idea on paying me was 100% on commission - if my marketing strategies and designs made him money, he would pay me. If they didn't, he wouldn't owe me any money. He justified this by telling me that several companies in the his past didn't live up to his expectations.

I address this pretty thoroughly in the "Let's Not Make a Deal" chapter in the Being a Starving Artist Sucks book, but I wanted to share with you a portion of the conversation (I may include this in my Verbal Kung Fu for Freelancers book that's coming out):

Client: You see, you'll get a portion of all of the sales I generate.
Me: What percentage?
Client: 20%
Me: Okay, how are your sales right now? What would 20% of them equal in terms of dollars and cents?
Client: [Stammers and fumbles] Uhhh, well in all honesty, sales are nonexistent.
Me: I appreciate your honesty, but if my math is correct, 20% of nothing is nothing, how can I expect to get paid?
Client: Well, that's the same percentage that I give my current creative firm for their help with some other products/services.
Me: Okay, how much do they make a month?
Client: Depends on the month - some are good, some are bad.
Me: Fair enough - on a good month, how much do they make.
Client: [Stammers and fumbles again with his answer] Uhhh, between $5000 - $6000
Me: How many hours did they invest to get to the $5000 - $6000?
Client: I don't know
Me: Okay, let's look at the other side of the coin. What do they make on a bad month?
Client: [Stammers and fumbles again with his answer] Uhhh, about $30. 
Me: How many hours did they invest to get to the $30?
Client: I don't know
Me: Well, I appreciate your time in answering these questions, but you really haven't given me any help in deciding whether this is a good fit for me or not. If you were in my position, would you think this is a great deal based on the information that's been provided?
Client: I don't know
Me: Well, I enjoyed visiting with you, and I wish you the best of luck, but this isn't going to be a good fit for me. I do apologize that you've not had a lot of success with creative firms in the past, but I am not sure you're going to be able to attract the expertise and quality you're looking for with your current reimbursement package - I wish you the best of luck.

If you've ever felt like you've been taken advantage of by a client, or if this specific situation has happened to you before, you probably loved it that I got this guy pretty good. My goal wasn't to disrespect him, but to show how ridiculous it was that he figured he could convince me that was a good deal to work with him. Unfortunately, too many freelancers don't know how to handle this situation and they end up getting burned, if that describes you, you'll want to look into picking up my Verbal Kung Fu for Freelancers book. I wrote it specifically for situations just like this one. It's a great feeling of confidence and freedom knowing that clients can't easily take advantage of you.

Freelance Graphic Designers: Find a Mentor or Go It Alone?

I talked to my good friend and mentor yesterday, Norma. She's a former designer who had a tremendous amount of success and has now moved on to developing and implementing high-level strategy.

After the conversation I sat back and thought how lucky I've been throughout my career in having several terrific mentors in my life that I could turn to for advice - professionals that have been there and done that. I wished I'd sought them out a little earlier in my career - perhaps I wouldn't have felt the need to use the title "Being a Starving Artist Sucks".

You know, if I had the ability to go back in time and give myself one piece of advice as an aspiring freelancer coming into the business, I would say, "Invest in yourself, invest in a mentor and invest in understanding how to run a business and handle clients."

Rarely if ever do I come across a designer that will come right out and say, "I don't need your help or your book, I can just learn it on my own", (designers aren't typically rude like that) but that's in fact what many of them are doing - they'll just try to pick up free tid bits of information here and there and hope that's enough. It's not...I know from experience. Over the years I've found 4 main reasons why designers don't seek additional training and advice:

• They say they don't have any money to invest in themselves or their future
• They don't have any time to invest in themselves, work with a mentor or read a book
• They feel they just feel they can just pick things up as they go, or believe that design school has taught them all they need to know
• They can't find someone they can trust or their not sure how to go about finding help or a mentor

Whatever the reason, most designers out there don't have a mentor and invest less than $100 a year and under 10 hours of additional training to become more successful business people. How do you stack up with that? Well, the bottom line fallout of that is that 95% of small businesses fail within 5 years (that includes freelance designers) - only a fraction ever succeed. It's a lot to think about, I know...but it's better to think about these things now rather than when things really get tough.

1. How is business going for you right now? How are sales? Are they up or down from last year?
2. Do you have a mentor? Wouldn't it be helpful to be able to bounce ideas, designs, projects and situations off of someone who's successful been in the situation you're in right now?
3. What steps have your taken recently or will you now take to ensure that you don't end up a statistic in the 95%? Do you have a plan to become more successful or are you hoping it will just happen?

Do You Assume that Everyone Wants to Regularly Hear about Your Creative Freelancing Business?

It astounds me the number of small business owners (including creative freelancers like designers, photographers, etc) that I've met either through business or personal relationships that assume that I would be clamoring to get on their business newsletter.

Whether I've known these people for a while (perhaps we're friends) or I said, "Hi" to them while washing my hands next to them in the Chili's bathroom over the weekend, small business owners nowadays mistakenly push to get as many people on their newsletter list as they can - even if they haven't gained permission. I am sure it's happened to you as well.

The sad thing is that some of these people I am friends with - I like them, but that doesn't hide the fact that they are assuming that I want to receive a mass communication about their company. In most cases, I don't - there just isn't enough time in the day. Do you assume the people you know want to regularly hear about your freelancing business?

Whether it's friends or people you bump into at a networking event, now the norm seems that small business owners just assume everyone wants to hear from them via newsletter...and even if they don't they'll just unsubscribe and it won't be a big deal. 

Look, having a periodic communication with people that you've worked for, met, etc... is cool - just don't assume that everyone you meet wants to receive your news. Have a double opt-in policy for your newsletter or auto responder (that's what I have), it sends an initial email to the recipient informing them they've been added to a list and asks them if they truly do want to receive that information.

Get clear permission to talk to communicate with someone first, then send them your newsletter or auto responder.

Quick Encoruagement for Creative Freelance Designers that Hate Sales

Yesterday my good friend Andy, (entrepreneur and business building guru) was talking to me about something all creative freelancers dread: sales. Andy points out that the word "sales" comes from the Norwegian word, "sala", which means "to serve".

While this might not sound interesting, it should offer a great deal of comfort to designers that either loathe or are terrified of selling (as I was at one time): being a good salesperson isn't about tricking someone into buying what they don't want, it's about serving people's needs and wants.

Does this reframe the way you feel about having to do sales for your freelancing company?
Does this make you feel you can be a good salesperson because you care about people?

PS - You'll be able to find the Being a Starving Artist Sucks book on Amazon within the next month. They are sending me the final proof in a couple of weeks. If you don't want to wait, check out the monthly specials by clicking on the graphic in the upper right margin.