Esmeralda recently committed the fatal error of letting her client go out of scope. Her original project scope was for the design of a brochure. Part way through the project, the client asked for a “super simple” Powerpoint presentation. “It is just a simple little template that we can use…
You’re super excited to kick off a new project with an awesome client! As you begin to dig into the work, you quickly realize that the client’s brand and business need more help than you originally thought. Maybe you didn’t do a sufficiently thorough job in your discovery meeting or…
How to Improve Your Confidence With Clients in 6 Simple Steps Clients are your bread and butter, the lifeblood of any business. If you feel nervous or unsure when you are with your clients, they will struggle to trust you. If they don’t trust you, they won’t buy from you….
We’ve all been there. You sit with a potential client, review the scope and arrive at the critical point where pricing is discussed. You use all the advice you’ve received about price anchoring, price bracketing, showing the return on investment you’ve delivered for other clients, and yet, your client comes…
I once saw a thought leader say something to the effect, “There are no bad clients, just bad project managers.” What a load of hogwash! I have had first hand experience with bad clients and if you haven’t had that “pleasure” yet, just watch a few business documentaries (check out…
Though we all hope we will never have to experience it, it’s inevitable that freelancers, designers, agency owners, and other creatives will eventually have a client that will be late on payment or won’t pay for their project at all. That is one of the downsides of the industry, bad…
You landed the pitch meeting! Excitement fills the air! Now, all you have to do is close the deal, easy peasy. Getting the potential client to say “yes” to working with you requires more than just showing them your fancy portfolio and talking about your Photoshop wizardy. It requires getting…
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…
