Should you really charge a client when they ask for working files? There are a few classic debates in the design industry. I'm sure you know them: Mac vs Windows, hourly billing vs value-based pricing, cold calling vs inbound marketing, pants on vs pants off for zoom meetings. One that comes up from time to […]
Selling Careplans should be simple and standard. Website care plans are a really effective and simple way to get recurring revenue for your freelance or design business, but selling customers on them can seem hard. For some of us it can almost seem impossible to actually land one of these as a sale. It might […]
The struggle is real I've been thinking about this recently, how hard it can be to create our own work. Have you ever noticed this yourself? When you've been super excited about a personal project, but then almost paralysed when it comes to creating that vision? Well, I know I have. Let's be honest, designing […]
Don't starve, take charge. The feast and famine cycle is an all too familiar situation that designers and developers find themselves in. This situation is what happens when we go from having a lot of work to do, to having no work to do. This problem is reflected in our finances, where we can have […]
Projects going off track and taking longer than they should is always frustrating. It impacts motivation, it reduces profit margins, it messes with other projects and it causes loads of unwanted stress. Keeping projects running on time doesn't need to be hard. A really easy way to handle this is the idea of "hibernation mode". […]
Repeat After Me - Edition #1 Have you ever quoted a project only to have the prospect come back and say "I'm sorry, but someone else has quoted less"… More than likely, I know I have. There are many ways that you can handle this conversation, but many of these will find you defending yourself […]
Offer support they said. Sell care plans they said. Upsell hosting, domain, email services they said. It's money for nothing they said... ... No one mentioned all the additional work and stress. Let's face it, retainers are great for cash flow. But offering website support and maintenance can be time-consuming and stressful and after all, […]
It’s rare that a client will ask for a guarantee, but if they do, you’ll want to be prepared to answer the question properly. If you don’t, you’ll either say you offer no guarantee (which won’t sit that well with a prospect and is only part of the story) or worse you’ll agree to a […]
Who doesn't want to be booked solid for weeks and months in advance? This is a common goal and an ideal situation to get yourself into. But how do you get clients to agree to wait for long periods of time to work with you without the risk of losing the project? When a new […]
No one wants to work with poor-fitting clients, so learning how to spot and avoid prospects that display the classic red flag warning signs is hugely beneficial for your design business. Weeding out poor-fitting clients has very much become a part of my formal process. I have done this by creating deliberate - and I […]
How much does something like a logo cost when you look at it as time? How much does it cost when you look at it as value? And what about as a product? Do they all amount to the same end price? Do they all amount to the same end result? Let's do this with […]
Everyone loves recurring revenue, it gives us some security and expectations for the future. It takes the pressure off winning new work and it's becoming easier for clients to understand, considering that we now live in the subscription economy. Retainers for designers are not as common as they are for digital services such as SEO, […]
Value-based pricing is not for everyone and it's not the easiest pricing principle to master. Because it's not something that not everyone completely understands, it can be seen as an attempt to inflate prices when dealing with high-end clients. But value-based pricing is real and we all live with it day to day in various […]
Price Anchoring is one of the easiest and most effective pricing techniques to learn. The impact that price anchoring can make when having sales conversations can be almost instant. Here are some of the best tips for price anchoring that you can implement into your process today. 1) Say the price before you show it: Always […]
Knowing what to ask on an initial call with a prospect can seem hard. May people will avoid this and try send someone off to a questionnaire, but the impact of having a 20min phone call and asking the right questions could likely be the advantage you are looking for to help land better, more […]
Pushing past prospects objecting to your price can be hard. What do you say to someone who thinks your prices are too high? How do you get control back so that you don’t find yourself losing a prospect, or working for less than your worth? Don't justify your value Something you never want to do […]
How to not get financially burnt when a project breaks down. It's never fun when a project comes to a premature end. It can happen for many reasons from communication problems to financial problems. But whatever the reason is, you're going to need a set process on how you deal with it if it ever […]
Whether or not you’re using it, or you’ve heard of it, Price Anchoring is something you’ve likely already experienced. At its core, it is a simple yet effective negotiation tool that you can implement into your pricing conversations/strategies to help you make financial deals in your favour. Think of it as a strategic bargaining tool […]
Being able to sell design is a huge asset and skill (no I don't mean landing clients). In the setting of a studio, an average designer who can sell their ideas is more valuable than an amazing designer who cannot. Now that sounds really harsh, but beautiful designs that never get seen are an expense […]
Pricing creative services is an individual's game. If you could take any creative service/product and find out what people/agencies charge, you'd find the difference between the lowest and the highest is 10,000x (take a logo design, the lowest example might be $100 and the highest $1,000,000). So the real question shouldn't be "what would you […]
Client relationships, like all relationships, are complicated and personal. Even when an initial request from a new prospect is small, they can start a working relationship that lasts many years. While the pursuit of customer service is to keep a customer happy, there can sometimes be a gap between what the client wants, and what […]
We've listed some of our favourite websites for design information and resources. We'll admit it, this is partly an easy way for us to bookmark some of the sites we use, but if you get some use out of the list, then we're cool with that too. So let's get sharing. Paper sizesIf you're like […]
Go on, take a look at some of my favourite plugins, ads-on, code snippets and bits and pieces. I've listed the ones I love, recommend and use regularly. I'll add to this as we get time and while this is by no means a full extensive list, we hope you find something that's helpful. Typography […]
