design: July 2004 Archives

Rule #32689 - Do not itemize expenses for clients.

The exception, of course, is when a client demands it. But maybe twice in 10 years have I ever had clients ask for it.

You will have the urge to itemize. It seems like, if you itemize, you are able to justify the amount of money you are charging. But any time you are justifying anything, except that lipstick on your collar, it's probably a terrible idea.

Itemizing is time-consuming and will cause trouble. Clients will start second guessing you and trying to "optimize" their bill by cutting what they feel are unnecessary expenses. (Of course, you shouldn't be quoting unnecessary expenses anyway). One of my clients cut back on the proofing they did to save on the 50 cents per laser print or $5 a PDF. I made the mistake of rattling off a list of expenses to a client that they may not have considered. While I can understand logically why they were hurt at the thought that talking to them was a drain on my resources (read: time), I was surprised when they literally threw a fit.

And as a designer, I cannot survive by strictly billing hourly or per item. The value always has to come in somewhere. If your client doesn't have the opportunity to nitpick a bill, it instills a much greater sense of value, as opposed to product.

So simply said... don't do it!

The flip side, of course, is that clients actually seem to prefer the simpler, unitemized bill. They're coming to me because they either can't or don't want to do the work. By spelling out every step you take, most clients feel overburdened. It much more impressive sounding as well, to give them a single number, and say "it includes EVERYTHING!". And when it comes time to bill, its cut and dry -- there's just a single number that both sides already agreed upon.

Yeah... don't itemize.

Newsletters are an "easy" way to make money. You charge a set price per page, and hopefully get a cut of the printing. So if you do a 12 page newsletter for $60/page, you've already made $720. And a newsletter that size doesn't likely take more than 2 business days. Do five or six of those a month and you could live comfortably. And keep in mind many newsletters are longer, and cost more per page. They're easy to do, because after he first couple issues, pretty much all the design work is done, and you are just dropping the contents into templates.

So I wouldn't mind getting some newsletter jobs up front.

Today's thoughts on non-profits:

• Register with vendor bank, (yeah... i know i did it already, but I was listing everything that came to mind)
• Find associations and organizations with missions the same as or similar to existing clients, (read: religion and AIDS)
• Find listings of local non-profits
• Find upcoming events and marches on the Mall. Then figure out what organizations would likely attend and approach them with help for promotional items. (Pins, flyers, signs, banners, t-shirts)
• Find ethnic organizations. Embassies?
• Look into government newsletters/newspapers
• Look into Methodist organizations
• Don't bug these people when they're actually promoting themselves... ie. festival booths and such

Some existing contact thingys:

• contact RB at N about finally doing the damn website
• Check Old Company's client list. public info is public info.
• Ask R at TA where he gets ideas for new clients
• Find out what happened with that hotel that was re-doing their identity
• Ask landlord if they're interested in doing a seasonal newsletter. Maybe work in trade for partial rent.
• i really dont want to... but consider that direct mail campaign company
• check on the A newspaper and see if they ever found a permanent designer
• doubtful, but ask BP about doing their newsletter in trade.

And some miscellaneous new client stuff:

• get in touch with L's contact
• contact publication and communications offices at universities -- RIT, GWU, AU, Georgetown
• Work on script for phone solicitations
• Put up large blank sheet of paper on wall where I can write ideas for new clients
• Research local music labels
• Expand the list of printers who know I'm on my own. I may need their help, an occasional notepad or free lunch never hurts, and they may be able to offer jobs
• research communications offices at Unions -- AFL-CIO, Teamsters, etc).

D annoys me. Well, the whole company really, cause it takes on a life of it's own.

So I ask J, if she can give me the names of some contacts at the ad agencies she works with. Since, of course, you know, Old Company won't be marketing design services to them.

But J says no, because Old Company is still accepting design jobs.

First off, are they accepting them or will they be accepting them. Cause if they ARE accepting them, then where is the work going? D and JG are both constantly busy and neither are exactly stellar designers. So are they continuing to do it themselves, in a manner which will yield the same results... namely, the client never coming back for a second job. Are they hiring an outside designer who is not me? If so... why?

But I think it is more of a matter of they WILL accept design jobs. Which I find frankly MORE offensive. The idea of hoarding something that you are not using, just cause it is of some potential value to you, even if you don't plan to exploit it. (Trust me... after seven years of watching these salespeople--they don't plan to exploit it). Whereas it would be a highly valuable resource to me that I would actively exploit to the fullest degree.

When I left there, they literally gave me everything I asked for. Books, clients... anything. I turned down some stuff cause I knew they would need it.

The question is... do I go on my own to these ad agencies and try to get in. Or do I offer Old Company a commission, just for the name of a contact? I think I will wait till my strategy session tomorrow, when I think more in depth about this.

I cannot avoid it any longer. Today, despite adding another four line items, I finished up the marketing list for the "old things", meaning anything I already had experience with. All the old clients. Old printers. Former co-workers. Family. Friends. Contacts. Getting collateral and a website.

I also submitted my name to a vendor bank for a association of associations in this area. It wasn't incredibly full or vendors... so if it is at all popular, I stand a better chance. I think this is the list that my old boss referred to. He didn't know how we ended up on there, but we kept getting jobs from there.

Now I need to start marketing to new people and things. New ways. I really need to sit down and just spend some time thinking about how to market, who to market, and all that shit. If I just keep running and doing work, and interacting... I come up with the same ideas as everyone else. But when I put a little brain sweat into it... I come up with some good shit.

There’s design ignorance and then there’s outright contempt for design. Someone in the juror’s office no doubt felt that it would be improper to go so far as even make their badges legible, ’cause it would appear as they were concerned with something other than justice. Cause frankly, this top part of the badge is the least screwed-up portion of the Jury Summons in DC.

I'm seriously considering redoing the Jury Summons in my own time, just to see what I can do.