What Should You Do if the Potential Client Really Won’t Get On a Call? I’m always pushing creatives to skip the emails and get on phone calls or in meetings with potential clients. The more face to face interaction you have with a potential client, the better. Gotta build that…
You had a few meetings to scope the project with your new client. The meetings were productive. The client was excited. Everything seemed to be in order and you won the project. Peeling Back the Onion of Creative Crap Following another productive meeting with the client, this time to kickoff…
I’ve seen some advice that a creative entrepreneur should ALWAYS require first payment to be made PRIOR to starting a project. While I understand the positive intention behind this advice, I don’t agree that it should be a required policy for your business. Here are few things to consider when…
There is a debate in the creative community that you may not be aware of regarding source files. Should you send your source files to clients as part of your original project fee? Or should you charge the client extra when they request that you send them the source files?…
Sometimes I feel like my content exists to refute questionable advice you might find elsewhere. This article may be one of those cases. Some design advice floating around recommends that you submit just ONE logo option for your client. (This could also apply to any design deliverable: one brochure design,…
If you haven’t been there yet, you will be. You’ve gone through the full design process and just when you think you are heading for final approval of the final, final, final version of the design, the client says, “Actually, we don’t really like how this turned out. We want…
You are rockstar agency for Acme Bank, your local financial institution. Word gets around and now a competing local bank reaches out to you. They want you to do for their bank what you did for Acme Bank. You are left wondering, “Can I work for both banks? Isn’t that…
Proposals take freelancers and creative agency owners time to create, no doubt about it. Sure, you can speed up the process by repurposing past proposals and using templates, but most often a proposal requires time to explore and craft custom ideas. Since time is required to craft a custom proposal,…
You worked hard to get your proposal “just right” for this amazing opportunity. The presentation to the client could not have gone better and they gave you the formal, “We’ll get back to you soon.” Now what? What is my follow-up strategy? How much follow-up makes me look professional? And…
I frequently find myself buying things because of the awesome packaging. I often buy Truvia brand Stevia because the Truvia packaging is so great (in comparison to the “generic” options). I love Apple’s product packaging so much that I can’t bring myself to throw away the boxes (I have a…