It's an enormous privilege to create a client's first website. They have chosen you from millions of other web designers/developers and companies out there – and they could have tried to do it themselves. But now you have secured a new bit of business, it's not the time to congratulate … [Read more...]
Don’t Publish Your Fees
I get many questions about running a design business. The most common questions I get are: "how much should I charge for a website?" or "how much does a website cost?" I never give an exact answer. I see budding entrepreneurs getting bogged down with service lists where they want to specify … [Read more...]
How To Deal With Nightmare Clients
Wait ... did someone say nightmare clients? Well, they do exist. To some they're known as "late payers", others refer to them as "time wasters", I like to call them "ex-clients". But here's our definition of a nightmare client: a client who either wastes time or money (which is, essentially, … [Read more...]
Meeting Clients
In a world where 99% of business communication is done by phone, email or video/text messaging – there is no substitute for meeting clients face-to-face. A personal meeting will create a better bond and this can be useful with challenging projects. Do I really need to meet this client? Not all … [Read more...]
Survey Results: How Graphic Designers Get Paid
This is the second part of my survey of independent graphic designers working from all corners of the globe and it throws up some interesting results about how they charge. The first survey results concentrated on what designers do and how they make money. Questions about charging are the most … [Read more...]
Freelance graphic design advice
Whether you're a rock star creative in a top-ten agency or a freelancer running a business from home on a shoestring, graphic design is an absorbing, all-encompassing practice. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and therefore disagreements occur and criticism can be hard to take. But it's a great … [Read more...]
Designers, how to avoid client disasters!
There is a game in this industry: the trade off between graphic designer and client. I have heard this expression in large design agencies many times: "this would be a great job if it wasn't for clients!" I disagree, I think it's a great job period. If you don't like your clients, get out of the … [Read more...]
Teach yourself graphic design
This article comes with a warning: easily offended graphic designers please do not read on! Graphic design is not rocket science, nor does it depend on artistic talent – it just takes a lot of practice. Some designers love to say that graphic design is a God-given talent that only a select few … [Read more...]
How to market yourself #4: What to write in your blog or website
So you've got your WordPress blog set up and you are just starting to write – what you do? Words are, in my opinion, the most important thing on a website. This is because the search engine robots that crawl the web every day can pretty much "read" what you've written, but they can't look at your … [Read more...]