most inspired

Perhaps the worst of feeling in the world of design is when your work is rejected. Sometimes you can begin to wonder why you were rejected and then doubt your ability. In actual fact, however, there are hundreds of factors playing part and several reasons why a client may not have chosen you. You cannot control those things which have caused them not to take you on but you can look at ways of ensuring that it will not happen because of something which you can change or control.

Upset

The client may have become upset at you, your work or your deadline keeping. You need to get feedback from your client in order to ensure that you are delivering what you perceive as good work. A tell-tale sign that this may be an issue is if long-standing clients leave you or reject your work.

Qualification

If a client has left you because you were not qualified enough, then this is a better than other reasons, because at least it is something you can learn. If you are not as qualified as someone else then you must check if that qualification is genuinely something which will cost you more work in the future.

If you believe that you can be successful without changing with the times then you are mistaken. Learn those new skill sets which will benefit your ability as a designer and aid you when looking for work.

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This is a guest post by Christian Montoya

For years, I have focused heavily on open web technologies: CSS and Javascript while avoiding Flash and Actionscript like the plague. Even though I always liked Flash games, I was very much entrenched in the languages that I knew, and I often felt that a closed language like Flash was not something I would be interested in anyway.

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It can be tough at times for freelancers, especially those new to it all, when the number of clients they have requesting work are small. One can begin to get worried and worked up about how they’ll pay the bills, and get through the year, but don’t fret, just get your marketing hat on and follow the 10 points below to see instant results.

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Seeing an alternative design to an already launched website can be very interesting, in only one or two additional images you can begin to imagine the journey the website took and how the team behind the website moulded it into the finished product.

I’m a fairly positive person, and most of the posts on this blog have been pretty positive, but today I’m feeling very negative and frustrated. I’m not going to bitch and moan, I’m going to try and give a constructive insight into the issues that I’m uncovering as I continue down the road of self employment.

Since we’ve established The Customer is not Always Right, you can read this post from Brian Yerkes to find out what they really mean.

Over the years, I have heard clients say a lot of things, and some of them are more clear in their message than others. For those starting out in the design industry, whether it is at a firm, or as a freelancer, this list of “5 things clients say and what they really mean” will surely help you to be educated when interacting with various types of clients.

The cornerstone of every brand is the brand name. For a freelancer that will be your business name. Here are some of the qualities you should look for in a name:

• Easy to spell

  Ideally your name should only need to be spelt once to a new client. Names that are difficult to spell should be avoided as clients may mistype when searching, emailing or worse, recommending you.

• Easy to pronounce

  A name that is easy to pronounce is inherently more memorable. It will also ean clients don’t feel silly saying it when they recommend you.

• Short and memorable

  The shorter a name, the more memorable it will be.

• Relevant domain name

  As the web is such an important element for marketing and branding, make sure you can find a relevant domain name before settling on a business name. While you don’t need anything glamourous, it should still be related and reasonably short. Your domain name can have your country suffix, which should market it easier to find a reasonable domain.

• Reasonably unique

  The less common a brand name the better. The whole point of a brand is to stand out, not fade into the mass of similar names. Before making your decision, search for similar business names in your industry and or profession. If another business has a similar or identical name, you may want to keep looking for a more unusual name.

Some freelancers choose to use their own name as their business name, while others do not. Here are some of the advantages and disadvantages of each:

• A personal name (e.g. John Smith Design)

  The advantages of a personalised name:

  • Easy to come up with,
  • Often unique (depending on your name),
  • Descriptive
  • Often easy to find a domain name for,
  • Memorable, and
  • Usually easily Googled.

  The disadvantages of a personalised name:

  • Not appropriate for expansion,
  • Will not reflect your creativity, and
  • Will probably not reflect your brand values.

• A none-personal name (e.g. Click Photographic Services)

  The advantages of a none-personalised name:

  • You are free to find something catchy and fun,
  • Can reinforce your core brand values,
  • Can reference your services, and
  • You can keep the name if you choose to expand.

  The disadvantages of a none-personalised name:

  • It will be harder to find a name that reflects you, and
  • It can be very hard to find an appropriate domain.

If you choose to use a non-personal name it can be worthwhile finding something that reflects your brand value, however this isn’t essential as you can build brand value into a name. For example Xerox inherently means nothing, however over time for customers and the public it has come to mean various things – quality, efficiency and so on.

I don’t know the origin of the saying “The customer is always right”, but the customer is most definitely not always right.

I have worked in many roles in the service industry, from supermarket cashier, and computer salesman, to freelancer developer, and I can tell you that the customer is usually wrong, but in most cases it’s okay for them to be wrong, or at the very least we tolerate it.

Working in the supermarket, the customer has told me I was wrong many times on the price that goods rang up at, even though they clearly misunderstood what was on sale, but still they got the sale price on items that weren’t on sale.

When selling computers, customer repeatedly ignored my advice on what type of computer they should buy, or how much RAM or hard drive space they should have. They returned to the store after a couple of weeks to complain about how poorly the computer performed. Yes we would tell them, you are absolutely correct, you never should have brought something with those specs and happily charged them more to upgrade the computer.

Working as a designer and developer I’ve also run into many cases of the client being wrong. Despite paying money to hire you because of your skills, they consistently ignore you recommendations.

Yes they know their own customers and their business, but they’ve hired you because you have skill and experience they don’t, or they’d be doing it themselves. Whatever your position you have to make sure you are heard. Since you’re hired to do a job and the customer is paying the bills, ultimately they can make whatever decision they wish above your objections.

Again, make sure you are heard, even if it goes against what the client wants — don’t be rude about it, be professional and make your point. If you’re advice turns out to be right the customer will remember your objections. If you’re advice turns out to be wrong, you will have learned something and the client will remember that even though you objected you followed their wishes.

How have you handled disagreements with your customer?

Unfortunately the price you give a client isn’t always the ideal price. Sometimes you come in too cheaply and unwittingly miss out on what you deserve. Other times you’ll be too expensive either for this particular client or for the market at large. let’s look at both cases.

You hired a designer, and worked with them to create a beautiful design for your website. They finished the design and delivered the source files and said thank you very much for the business, but wait … what now you can’t make a website with this!

Don’t panic, you’ve got past the first and often most difficult part of building a website, and you have a few different options for taking those files and building your website. Find out what they are after the jump…

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