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Potentially, but probably not. In my experience if you have a client like the one you described, you're probably not alone in thinking their a jerk. My studio had a very similar situation a few years ago where we terminated a relationship with a client and they proceeded to go around town telling everyone how lovely we were. We actually got some clients out of it, and each of them basically said, "Man [client] said all sorts of crap about you, but she's insane. I checked out your work and you seem good, lets do business." So it's not always terrible. If you're dealing with someone who's attacking you on a personal level because of business dealings they're probably not the most stable person, and the people they know and work with probably realize that. e: However you should be prepared to talk about it. Have some sort of pre-formulated reply if people ask you "Why did [client] say such mean things about you?" that doesn't disparage the client, but also makes it clear it was out of your control.
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Aug 22, 2013 22:41
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Bad clients are everywhere, sadly. However after awhile they become easier and easier to identify and you'll become pretty adept at avoiding them. But having more skills is never bad! You should hit up the web design and development megathread in COBOL if that's the sort of programming you're interested in. There are a ton of great resources there. Also if someone does ask about it, here's my favorite line: "We ran into contractual problems and unfortunately I had to terminate my business relationship with the client." It is one of the most satisfying sentences you can utter. Don't put the blame on yourself ("not every client clicks with me" says "I am hard to work with"), put the blame on the lovely client but do it very subtly. "ran into contractual problems" is universal code for "dick didn't pay his bills."
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Aug 23, 2013 15:31
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Oh My Science posted:Honestly man, they cut ties with you the minute they stiffed you on the bill. Do you really want to work with people like that? Do they really want to work with you? They are hoping you don't pursue it due to: Exactly this. Despite however much fun they were to work with, you've encountered one of the worst types of bad clients. They know exactly how to pay you. If they wanted to, they would have paid you already. They're not forgetting, they're just choosing not to pay you. Do not work with them again. You can try getting a lawyer to send a letter to scare them, but since they're in another country you're kind of screwed because it'll take way more than $900 to force them to pay. If they were a US client you could take them to small claims court, but that still might be more trouble than it's worth. If they're actually nice people (doubtful), send them a professional sounding sob story email telling them know you need the money and let them know that failing to pay means you won't be able to work with them in the future. If that doesn't work, try a semi-threatening letter sent by a lawyer. If that doesn't work, you just learned a valuable lesson for $900. e: Always get a deposit. If you've never worked with someone before, ask for 50% up front. Require payment before delivery. Put these things in your contract. If people balk, it's because they're jerks who either don't want to pay or want to delay payment. kedo fucked around with this message at 15:03 on Oct 25, 2013 |
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Oct 25, 2013 14:59
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Well not heart wrenching like "I'm going hungry because you're not paying me." Letting someone know that what they're doing is hurting your business financially is really what I meant. This actually works, depending on who you're talking to. I've used it on a couple of projects where I knew the client was just delaying payment for no good reason and I had a straight line of communication to the check writer. Still work with one of 'em too. Really depends on the client, though. If someone was a big jerk I wouldn't even try. But if they seemed like nice people it sometimes can. And if not, there's always the legal route. e: Much later, watched that video - haha, holy crap he talks about heart wrenching letters and makes excellent points. kedo fucked around with this message at 01:45 on Nov 5, 2013 |
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Oct 25, 2013 20:14
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If you plan on freelancing much in the future you should also definitely start using an invoicing tool like FreshBooks or Harvest. Both are great for accurate time tracking (helps you estimate future projects) but they will also send monthly reminders about outstanding invoices to clients and such if you want them to. Might be helpful for this type of forgetful client, assuming he's not just stalling again.
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Oct 26, 2013 17:49
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SVU Fan posted:What is it about our legal system that makes it so difficult for contracts to be enforced? It's weird to me that there is no easy way for me to go "it clearly states in our signed contact that this amount is to be paid out upon completion. They broke that" and then somebody does something about it. Nothing, contracts are easy to enforce. It just costs money and time to do so because the only way to force someone to honor a contract is through the courts. Since you're freelancing your money and time are both extremely valuable and using them to take some jerk client to court may be a waste. Small claims court is pretty fantastic because you can (usually) take someone there relatively easily and without a huge time investment, but it still requires time and money. If you have a good contract you'll likely get your money and maybe even lawyer's fees back, but still. Even if your client were in the US I'm not sure $900 would be worth it. If you want to be a real jerk, send people to collections. You'll generally get half (or less) of what you were owed, but you'll at least get some and it sends a hell of a message.  (Note: don't send people to collections unless they're real big jerks who you want to burn all bridges with.)
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Oct 28, 2013 15:53
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The Joe Man posted:Can I sue someone/a company located in Spain? They're trying to change my agreed upon pay of 2% of all sales to a one-time fixed payment and it's a complete shaft. They had a successful Kickstarter and gotten Greenlit so they're getting greedy. Yes, but you'll have to go through the Spanish legal system most likely. I'd imagine that's going to be a bit of a clusterfuck. Hopefully you have stuff in writing (do you have a contract?) or else you might be screwed. The legal thread in A/T is probably a good place to ask this question as well.
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Dec 24, 2013 15:18
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Psych posted:I got this e-mail out of the blue today and I'm hoping you guys can tell me the sort of stuff I need to know before going forward. Your first move should be to have a call with the dude. Have a super rough price in mind beforehand. Assuming you have rudimentary social and communication skills, a call can help get the person more excited about your work, will give you more information on the project and most importantly will soften the blow a little bit when you quote a figure. Don't worry about drawing up a contract just yet. An "indie developer on a two man team that is looking into creating an electronic fantasy-themed collectable card game" = "a few guys with no money who are trying to price stuff." "The project is still very much in development" = "we haven't started on it yet, we're still figuring poo poo out." So don't get ahead of yourself and put in time making a contract when you don't yet need one. Give him a rough quote so you can help him make a decision, but make sure he understands that it is a rough quote and that if he's interested you will send him a proposal/contract with a detailed scope of work and a final price tag. You should specifically ask, "Would you like me to write up a proposal/contract for you?" if it sounds like he's interested. Don't waste your time if you don't need to. If you do end up working with the guy, definitely get a pretty good chunk as an advance. Do not accept a percent of profits unless you want to go out of pocket, because most indie games never go anywhere. Source: dealing with lots of people with "very much in development" projects in the past and knowing that a good half of them never go anywhere.
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Jan 10, 2014 16:25
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le capitan posted:I don't know him that well, but he seems very straight forward and honest so I'm not really worried about getting ripped off. Famous last words! If it's not a huge amount you're probably fine, just make sure you have cash in hand before you turn over the drawing. If he gives you a check it might bounce or he could cancel it. As long as you've got your money the contract doesn't matter quite as much for super small projects. But you're still putting yourself in a bit of a vulnerable position.
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Jan 16, 2014 20:26
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dupersaurus posted:What a professor once told me is that signing away your rights to something should cost 3-4 times (if not more) than licensing it for a single use, and a commission-but-don't-use should be around half. They're not asking to take all rights for the video, but asking for unlimited use for eternity seems pretty close. I don't know any numbers on market rates, but $100 definitely is bullshit (even for a single-use license), and that $1 is few orders of magnitude above ridiculous. This sounds right to me as well, though of course I'm also not in a video field. Unless your footage is of much, much poorer quality than one might find on a stock site, they're likely just lowballing you because they think you won't know any better. They're probably going to add your video to their vast collection of stock footage and even if they don't use it on whatever their current project is, they may use it in the future (thus the $1 is indeed ridiculous). If this were me, I would try to be unbiased and would compare it to high quality stock footage. Then I'd come back to them with a counter proposal at a more realistic price. Either that or get someone else who can be unbiased to do the comparison for you. Also if it's good enough that these people want to license it from you, it might be worth trying to get it up on a stock site yourself. That way you could potentially benefit from the "non-exclusive" portion of the contract.
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Mar 18, 2014 16:27
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I wonder, do companies like this just have interns scouring youtube looking for poor saps who'll jump at the chance to get $100 and their video on TV? I really wouldn't be surprised at all if this were the case...
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Mar 18, 2014 22:54
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RGBRIOT posted:After some very distasteful events, I decided to rework my current contract agreement for use when dealing with non-spec work. I've been reading quite a bit from AIGA and GAG templates and wondered if any other designers/creatives might be willing to help me tighten up my agreement via either review, sharing of their own contract, or offering additional resources to check out for consideration. Naturally I'd love to get a lawyer to look over it, but at this particular time that's not a feasible option. So if any of you Shoot me your contract and I'll take a look at it. PM me and I'll give you my email address. IANAL or anything but I've dealt with a ton of difficult clients and could probably point out spots here and there where you could tighten it up. Also include some examples of how you propose a scope of work in addition to the actual terms. e: Don't do spec work. Rogetz posted:I've got a dilemma related to working for free. I was contacted by a friend of a former client (who is also a friend of mine) about doing poster/postcard design for a yoga event and music festival happening in September. Unfortunately it sounds like they want me to work for "trade" (putting my logo on all their event materials, maybe some swag). I know this sucks and is a total chump move, but it actually would be a great portfolio piece, and exposure within a target demographic I'm marketing to. If I can't talk them in to even a small paycheck, is there a reasonable thing I can ask for in trade? Generally my studio's theory about trade is that we only do it if A) we have nothing better to do or B) there is both an immediate and obvious benefit to us as well as a potential long term benefit. Awareness building from having your logo on their materials is a potential long term benefit. For short term, we usually look for events that we could use for networking which allows us to scare up more business with a great pitch ("Oh yeah we did all the design for this thing...  ").If these events are something you're interested in, ask for free entry to both. If you don't care about them, just send them an email saying something along the lines of, "Sorry, but I can't accept any work for trade at the moment for [whatever legitimate reason you have], however I would be extremely interested in working with you in the future when you have a budget." Also tell your friend you don't work for free, if you can be more blunt with him/her. You don't need to do anything special or beat around the bush when turning down non-paying projects. It's not like the person putting on the event would offer a sincere heartfelt apology for refusing a random person a free ticket. 
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Apr 9, 2014 18:57
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If you don't have a contract this is an issue for the courts. Since neither of you have a written understanding of where you stand, who knows really? What happens will boil down to how much this is going to hurt them financially. By not giving them the work are you causing them more financial pain than the cost of suing you? If yes, get ready for some legal fun. If no, it's a crapshoot that will probably depend on how much you've annoyed them/how prickly they are. When I freelance I have two types of arrangements with people: work for hire (written from an employer's perspective, but you'll get the idea), or as an independent contractor. The jist of the former is stated in my contract: I'm basically just working for a paycheck and they get automatic ownership of the fun things I create. For the latter I retain all rights and source files until I've been paid at which time they're released, though I never release unpublished concepts, original sketches, etc. I get paid more for the first, but don't do it all that often. It sounds like they're arguing that you were doing work for hire. Also as a side note: just give up the source files. I always, always give away source files and it has never once bitten me. If someone no longer wishes to do business with you, refusing to give them source files is thumbing your nose at them and burning bridges. You will never get money for them, you're only going to piss someone off who will now be speaking badly about you. Trust me, this fight is never worth it. I watched my previous employer fail to achieve anything arguing with clients about poo poo like this, and now he has the reputation of being difficult to deal with and loses projects because of it. e: tl;dr to answer your first question, "Am I in the right to basically say "gently caress you pay me" (in nicer terms, of course)?" In legal terms, maybe, if you want to fight. In business terms if you care about your reputation, no. kedo fucked around with this message at 18:10 on Dec 2, 2014 |
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Dec 2, 2014 18:03
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triplexpac posted:I just want to be paid for the time it will take me to gather up & transfer 5 years of files. But they won't budge. That's totally reasonable. Hope you don't get sued, but I'd imagine it's pretty unlikely. 
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Dec 4, 2014 00:10
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Christ, you sure have hosed up scrolling on that site. You had a portfolio a few months ago that was way more usable than this. Honestly I'd redo your site before sending it out to any art directors. If I received this I'd write you off before looking at your work because it's impossible to use. Simplify, man. You could have one long page that just scrolls with no fancy keyboard navigation or JS wizardry and it would be 1000x better. If you're not trying to land a web design/dev gig, don't try to wow people with your web design/dev. It doesn't even work that well... as soon as I play a video the keyboard navigation ceases to function. Otherwise: network. Go to events where there are people who you think might hire you and hand out business cards. Get to know lots of people. Keep applying to jobs in the mean time, but cold calling (or emailing) art directors will likely get you nowhere. Sorry to be a negative nancy, but you're doing yourself no favors at the moment. Seriously, just do something like this: 
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Dec 10, 2014 21:21
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jinpachistar posted:Thanks for the advice. In hindsight, it should have been obvious from the phone call but I guess I was excited about getting paid for doing something I like. Get the money upfront if you really want to do it and feel like he's paying you enough. Then if it all turns out to be a ruse, at least you'll have a few hundred bucks.
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Feb 12, 2015 21:11
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Arthil posted:So I've recently been in contact with a local business owner who makes a product that's decoration for rear windshield wipers. He's seeking a designer to help expand what he has to offer, and going by the emails I should expect to be contacted by him today to discuss things further. Noooo.... you did this all wrong! 1) "Compensation on a residual basis" is spec work. You're working for free hoping to make some money if people buy the product. People buying the product is his problem, not yours. He stands to make a lot of money if one of his products sells a lot, and you stand to just get paid for the work you did if one of the products sell a lot, and not paid at all if the product doesn't sell. You're literally working for free with the hopes of getting paid. He's loving you over to keep his costs down and you're making lovely money if it's only $100 per design (unless these designs literally take you less than a half hour to fully produce). 2) Do you have a contract? If not, why would he pay you? If he sells 100 of whatever these things are, why would he give you $100? Because he's a nice guy? Get a contract if you don't have one. If he doesn't want to have a contract, don't work with him, period. 3) You can figure out your hourly rate using tools like these. Sorry if I'm coming across as alarmist, but your post reads exactly like the horror story every single designer in the world has from that first gig where they had no idea what they were doing and someone took advantage of them. "I don't know what to charge" + "hmmm he said he'd pay me when he gets paid!" + no contract = you're about to get hosed. If I were you I would stop everything, get a contract, and suggest that you'd rather work hourly than on a residual basis. If he says no to the latter but signs a contract it's up to you, but I will still bet money that this is a huge waste of your time. e: Here's a good barometer for you... if he's made these things before, ask him who his previous designer was and why they're no longer working together. kedo fucked around with this message at 17:14 on Apr 13, 2015 |
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Apr 13, 2015 17:09
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Arthil posted:Had a feeling that it wouldn't be as useful as it seemed. Now the guy threw around some wording suggesting that I might not know how to do what he wants me to do. He's seen my portfolio, which is here: http://www.cawilliams.portfoliobox.me/ , and overall thought I didn't have enough to judge things. I'm just going to go ahead and link to his web store as well so you guys can see what some of his current designs are: https://www.wipertags.com/shop-wipertags.html This all looks like poo poo he pulled off the internet and spent 5 minutes dicking with in Photoshop. Arthil posted:His explanation for why the other artists are no longer working with him is because they were just far too busy with other work to continue. But now I'm wondering whether they might have cut ties once the "payment" method he goes for bit them in the rear end, or if he is the one who ended the businesses relationship because they were too expensive for him. A lot of what he was talking about seemed to be animal focused, as his store is sparse to put it lightly. He also does custom work for local sports teams. From how it sounded the first things he'd want would be animal tails(cats especially as he was contacted about if he had any and had to tell people no.) One concern is that he did use the phrasing of "I have to take care of all the marketing/shipping/packaging stuff and you just do the art" Which felt a little dismissive. This is a Bad Client. Flee. There is nothing good that will come from working with him. What he's really saying is, "The people who do the production, marketing, shipping and packaging are real businesses that charge me money and I can't trick them into working for free." Arthil posted:Now I don't wanna just send him an email that simply sounds like "Pay me more money, now." Or... I guess I kind of need to but I'd like to not burn a bridge before it's even been built. I'm not savvy on contracts, and judging by what that calculator says my hourly rate would be somewhere around $19. How much should I ask him? Should I even inquire about his revenue, about which products are the best selling?(I kind of did already, suggested the lightsabers had sold the best and he said they were his best-sellers). This seems both like it could be an excellent opportunity if I can do this right, or a flat out disaster where I'm ripped off. $19/hr is what you should be making in an entry level position in a cheap market if you have a salaried position at a real company. I get the feeling you didn't plug the right numbers into that calculator. Think about this: $19/hr * 40 hours a week * 52 weeks a year (assuming you take no vacations) = $39520 before taxes and any sort of stuff your employer would normally be paying for, but that you're responsible for because you're freelancing (ie. software, insurance, their 15% of FICA, etc). Assuming your costs are roughly 30% including taxes, that means you're take home is $26083. That is not a good salary for a designer. Here's Kedo's Ghettorigged Freelance Formula: A) figure out what your costs of living are (housing, food, etc) B) figure out what your business costs are (software, insurance, etc) C) how much money you need to save per year to not die in poverty D) how much money you want for living your life (entertainment, vacation, etc) E) how much money you need for incidentals (eg. oh gently caress my car broke down) A + B + C + D + E = your salary before taxes. Your salary / 48 weeks (two weeks of vacation + 10 holidays) / 40 hours per week = your hourly rate. You are way undervaluing yourself. Realistically if you're freelancing full time you can only expect to bill 30 hours a week as an absolute maximum unless you're working overtime, so the number you come up with is still going to be artificially inflated. So say you do A + B + C + D + E and decide you're worth $70,000 per year. That means your hourly rate should be $36/hr, and like I said that number isn't even super realistic because you can't possibly bill 40 hours a week 52 weeks a year. My point is your rate is probably wrong. Please don't do work with this guy. If you don't want to burn a bridge tell him you have other better paying work and you're very sorry but you can't accept his offer right now. Honestly you shouldn't even worry about burning this bridge. I don't know what the market is like for design where you live, but honestly for what he's offering to maybe pay you, you'd be better off spending that time trying to find real work. e: Use this as a reference for writing a contract. If you have PMs shoot me one and I'll email you a copy of my contract if you like. kedo fucked around with this message at 04:08 on Apr 14, 2015 |
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Apr 14, 2015 03:37
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e: On second thought, it's probably not the best idea to post my contract on the interwebs. PM me if you'd like to see it.
kedo fucked around with this message at 04:03 on Apr 14, 2015 |
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Apr 14, 2015 03:54
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Arthil posted:Yeah, I'm gonna keep firm with him about this. After I've seen his "contract" I'll make a mention of how confident he is of his product and that if he is that confident then he shouldn't have any problem paying a fair market value. Though to be honest, I should probably square out what exactly a fair market value would be for the sort of work he's asking for. You really need to plain stop trying to work with him. Don't look at his contract. His email tells you everything you need to know. He's trying to sell your work but at the same time he places no value on your work. I agree with Anony Mouse and neonnoodle, his email reeks of desperation and bullshit. Lets pretend for a moment that you sign a perfect contract and he pays you upfront for everything. Even if that's the case you're still working with someone who does not understand or value what you do. Please trust me, I've had business relationships like that before and they are absolutely awful. Seriously, reply with this: "Thanks for all of the information, I really appreciate it. This project doesn't seem to be the best fit for me but I truly appreciate your interest in working with me. Best of luck to you too!" and then never think of this guy again. I'll send you a copy of my contract, but it won't protect you from a dude like this. If he doesn't pay you (he won't), you'd probably have to spend more money trying to force him to pay than you'd actually get paid. Toxic. Sever.
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Apr 14, 2015 18:02
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Arthil posted:
That'd be a super fun project. I can see some nifty modern version of that lady's face on a pizza box. The typography is already playful enough that you could push it in a really fun hand-lettered direction. Oh god now I want to design this thing, drat you. But seriously this is a good assignment to give yourself. If I were you, I'd craft up a new brand and apply it to a whole shitload of collateral (pizza box, napkins, delivery car, menu, website, sauce packets, etc). What's more, since it's a fantasy project you can go way over the top with crazy ideas that clients would never pay for in the real world. Arthil posted:I'm not sure I have the means to actually get my stuff on real world things, and access to cameras are certainly limited. Even my cell phone camera barely has the muscle to snap checks for my bank. But of course mock-ups are widely available online, and in a lot of my previous work I've used them to get a feel for how the design looks when not simply a flat logo. Most of the time though the clients only intended to use it on a website. If it's only for your portfolio just fake it in Photoshop. No one is going to expect you to bring a real pizza box into an interview. Unless you're making a really cool printed piece where the actual construction of the thing is integral to the way a user interacts with it, getting your designs on actual, physical objects is unnecessary. e: By the way, since you say "logo design" on your site I'm assuming that's your main interest? If so I'd recommend you start exploring branding as a concept rather than just "logos." Logos are only part of a brand and the term cheap people Google when they're trying to hire a designer. A brand is a big huge thing people pay lots of money for. Check out these style guides, for example: https://about.twitter.com/press/brand-assets http://brand.wvu.edu/ If you were to go into a job interview with a well designed style guide in your portfolio, you would have a huge leg up. kedo fucked around with this message at 02:58 on Apr 16, 2015 |
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Apr 16, 2015 02:48
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This place, locally. Now the little old lady has been their logo for as long as I can remember, I've been getting pizzas from this place since I was 4 years old. The only thing I can maybe think of is that they added color to the old girl, though it may have just been the same colors but only outlined previously.
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Gray Ghost posted:The only problem: I already created two sketches of the characters on spec and sent over JPEGs to show them "samples" of my work. I feel like this puts me in a weaker position. Also, is the estimate I shared too much or too little? I do UX design mostly, so I have no idea about character design estimates. I know nothing about character design, but spec is bad. Especially if you don't know the company and they're trying to lowball you. Legally they probably couldn't go and use your designs without opening themselves up to potential litigation, but then again, you'd actually have to sue them if they used the characters which takes time and money and isn't a sure thing. So it's probably okay. No clue about how much to charge, however.
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Jun 18, 2015 17:39
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SVU Fan posted:What're you guys using to get paid by clients for your freelance work? I still use checks. Most clients with accounting departments prefer them, and with checks you don't have to pay any fees. I get paid more slowly because of this (average is 30-40 days), but unless you're living paycheck to paycheck this isn't a huge deal.
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Nov 24, 2015 18:46
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Anony Mouse posted:The almost universal answer to this kind of question seems to be: This is on point. I posted this several pages ago, but it might also be helpful. I've basically took points 1 and 2 above and expanded them into a few additional chunks that were easier for me to wrap my brain around when I was coming up with my own rate. kedo posted:Here's Kedo's Ghettorigged Freelance Formula: There are also freelance calculators that will help you figure out what you need to charge.
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Dec 2, 2015 20:25
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I don't know the answer to your contract question, but since you say this is the first time you've hired folks yourself – make sure you know how to deal with taxes. It sounds like they're going to be 1099 workers, and that's something you'll have to deal with.
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Jan 26, 2016 16:19
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SVU Fan posted:I set up a talk with him today to renegotiate the contract, but realistically what are my options if I ask for more money and he just says no? Lay out a strict schedule and list of things you need from him to complete the project. If he doesn't do the things, stop working until he does them. It sounds like you're at the point where you really need to protect yourself on this project, so stop spending any time on it you don't need to. I'd also read the contract again and see if there are any clauses that would help you. Is he failing to meet his contractural obligations? If so, you probably have a good case for stopping work and refusing to return the deposit. And FYI, as you seem to have realized, in the future you should A) always write your own contract, don't just sign your clients', and B) define deposits as nonrefundable.
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Feb 3, 2016 22:06
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Wow I haven't looked in SA-Mart for awhile... sucks that it's become another location for logo competitions.
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Mar 17, 2016 19:50
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dog nougat posted:Got offered the illustration gig!! Need to respond with fee. Not sure of what to charge here. It's gonna be about 30 spot illustrations involving some type and several larger ones for the cover/back of the map, and 1 design for a cup. All due by the 20th of Sept. I really have no clue what to charge for any of this since I've never done this before. Advice? First off, make sure you GET A CONTRACT. You can use this as a reference for writing a contract. If the person won't sign a contract, don't take the job. Period. Someone else may have a better contract resource for illustrators, that one is mainly aimed at designers. However the bulk of it will be the same. Now that that's out of the way, people commonly price projects like this two ways, either hourly or as a defined scope of work for a set budget. Either way you need to figure out what a reasonable hourly rate is for yourself. I've posted about this before: kedo posted:Here's Kedo's Ghettorigged Freelance Formula: There are also calculators that can help you figure out your rate. If you decide to do it as a scoped project, estimate the number of hours it'll take you to perform the work (say 30), then add some time on top for project management, then add a few more on top as protection against project creep/difficult clients. So if you think the work will take you 30 hours, you should probably estimate it around 40-50. If you figure out your hourly rate is $50/hr, you'd want to start your quote around $2000 to $2500. Then decide if you want to add anything else on top. Good reasons to do so are A) your client is going to make money with your work, B) you're signing away copyrights, C) your client is highly visible, or D) your client has a lot of money. When I've worked with illustrators in the past I've usually defined the number of illustrations I'm looking for and then I ask for a quote. If the person comes back with something that fits my budget, I ask for them to send me a contract.
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Sep 2, 2016 21:15
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dog nougat posted:Dude said he'd send out an outline today of more detailed stuff about project, so I'm inclined to call him to see what's up, but don't wanna seem desperate. I'm legitimately excited to work on this thing though and really wanna get the ball rolling. Sounds like the ball is already rolling! I wouldn't stress it until Wednesday or Thursday.
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Sep 6, 2016 18:40
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That problem is not going to be solved by a tool. If you have a good relationship with someone relatively high up in the company, let them know that the current method of communication is slowing your process and costing them money (which it sounds like it is) because you don't have a single, reliable point of contact. If they're smart, they'll stop the sales people from emailing you. If they're not smart, I certainly hope you're billing for the time you spend trying to figure out what they want.
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Dec 10, 2016 17:25
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Also, that type of site doesn't cater to professionals in the first world. They're filled with folks who live South America/eastern Europe/Asia who can work for pennies compared to their American/western European counterparts due to a lower cost of living. I can count the number of times I've heard of someone getting a good project at a reasonable rate through Upwork or similar sites on zero fingers. You may have a hard time competing with them in terms of price. However I agree with Neon Noodle that this particular situation seems to be borne out of ignorance.
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Feb 18, 2017 18:10
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BJPaskoff posted:The marketing firm I do most of my projects for has a problem: Their sales people write most of the content on the sites for the clients. They don't want to go back and forth with the clients, and of course it takes forever for clients to send content if they do write it themselves. The trouble is, the content that the sales people write isn't always the greatest. Tons of spelling and grammatical errors, writing things like "for over 23 years..." in some places and "for over 24 years..." in others, sometimes even writing the name of the client's company incorrectly. I don't want to fix these things because I'm just being paid to design the site, but I want to propose to the owner that I charge a little extra to fix some blatant errors. At least your hourly rate. I personally wouldn't get into it, if I were you. If you are not a professional copywriter you're setting yourself up for potentially terrible interactions with your clients down the road ("Why does this copy say our product is $.99 when it should be $99?! You're costing us money!"). Whether or not copy is correct isn't your expertise and it certainly isn't your responsibility unless you choose to make it so. Those are some dangerous waters imo.
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Feb 21, 2017 22:34
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Jimlit posted:Not sure if this is the right thread for this but I'll ask anyway. 1. Yes, Wayback links will look lovely. Use screenshots or exports of PSD layouts or whatever instead. 2. When you do work in the future, make sure your contract stipulates that you can use things in your portfolio.
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May 18, 2017 18:04
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SVU Fan posted:Hey everybody! I need some advice on how to go about adding a price to a vague job description. Phone posting so I can't go into great detail, but if I were you I'd estimate hours for as much of the work as possible and give a set price based on that scope of work with a addendum that states any additional work outside the scope will be done at your (increases) hourly rate. E: point being, don't go down the dangerous road of trying to quoting the unquotable. I usually tell clients that I'm happy to work hourly and that if an unspecified future project is going to require more than 10 hours or so, I'll quote it for them when we can actually define it. kedo fucked around with this message at 20:39 on Jun 4, 2017 |
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Jun 4, 2017 16:50
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You've just defined a contract! A good contract should, A) protect your intellectual rights while also granting license/copyright to your client (can be written a lot of different ways depending on your/your client's needs), B) establishes a payment schedule and defines what happens if the client doesn't pay, and C) set expectations for a lot of other stuff. NEVER WORK WITHOUT A CONTRACT!! If you don't have one with your current client, write one and send it to them and ask them to sign it. They might not if you're already working with them, but it's worth a shot. If you google "boilerplate graphic design contract" and you'll get a lot of hits. AIGA also provides a really excellent document with an incredible amount of useful information w/r/t contracts. You should definitely download, save and read the whole thing. You can lift a lot of text from it to drop right into your own contract, but it will end up being a lot of text if you use all of it. I personally have a very short contract, it all fits on one page. However I only work by referral and I therefore have pretty reliable clients so I don't need to have an incredibly complicated and protective contract. However if you're working for people you don't know/trust, yours should be rock solid. SVU Fan posted:For example, let's say I discussed concepts for artwork/ways to release the album/tour info/etc., and they decide my rate is too high or they want to go a different direction or something. Is there a way I can protect myself from them going and using my ideas without me? This is something you can never really avoid entirely unless you want to try suing people. Clients come and go and I've found the best thing to do is to be free with your ideas. A client is more likely to continue working with your now and in the future if your relationship is built on mutual trust. If you're exited about an idea, tell them about it. They'll appreciate your sincerity. What's more, in a culture so absolutely saturated with design, truly unique ideas are rare. If you try to lock them in and contractually oblige them to work with you just so they can get your precious ideas, they're not going to like it. I've seen this first hand and it's not pretty. At the end of the day remember that a client is really paying you for a service – design – and the ideas come free.
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Jun 19, 2017 18:03
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divabot posted:double-post UPDATE: the editor wrote back. He swears I'm the only freelancer who's uttered a peep of objection! (I literally predicted he'd say something like this.) He's responded, now this evening I work on responding. And of course on the actual piece, which I can use myself if we can't come to an agreement. Yeesh. I'm not sure how many more red flags they could raise.
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Sep 4, 2018 20:36
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Oh my sweet summer child... If you want to keep getting paid, make sure you have a contract for all your gigs, no matter how small (unless you do already, in which case please ignore me!)
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May 20, 2020 21:50
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Oof, you got paid $3/hr, that is ROUGH. If you’re going to charge an hourly rate, look at my previous posts in this thread, I’ve provided links/info about how to calculate your own hourly rate probably a half dozen times. Mom & pops are good for getting your feet wet, and I hope you took a lot of pictures for your portfolio, but for the number of hours you’re talking about I get the feeling they won’t be able to afford you if you start charging what you should.
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Jun 13, 2020 15:16
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GET A CONTRACT. It doesn’t matter that this person is related to your SO. She’s doing work for her business. Get a contract. See my previous posts in this thread re: calculating an hourly rate and writing a basic contract. Grats on landing your first paid design gig!
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Aug 28, 2020 15:04
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Doesn't Zoom have a built in record function...? 
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Sep 15, 2020 16:41
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