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Half price cheeseburgers

Posted: 2010-06-08 13:11:12 by jonc

"Here's the deal. If you give me this mega-double-cheeseburger for free, I promise i'll tell all my friends how great your fast food joint is, and make sure they all buy their cheeseburgers from your restaurant!"

Laughable right? If your not laughing, then you've heard this line probably one too many times. This business model is a very unfortunate reality for many creative firms of all shapes, sizes, and specialties. Relationships are forged between client and vendor on the promise of connections, and a lifetime of quality referrals to big name folks in high up places. More often than not, this isn't the way things end up turning out.

Before you know it, you've already put in 4 times the number of hours you originally planned to spend on the project, and you realize you can only invoice 1/4 of your time at half price. Already you are frustrated because you feel ripped off, and the client is frustrated because they don't feel they are getting the 'full price' treatment. At the end of the day, no one is happy, and your dreams of big contracts and lifelong good recommendations have gone down the toilet, along with a heap of un-billable hours, and most of your sanity.

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I'd like to propose perhaps the single most important part of forging client and project relationships: choosing the right ones to begin with. If you've done diligence, and put effort into choosing the clients and projects you work on, it generally becomes MUCH easier to finish them both on time, and on budget so everyone ends up happy. The truth is that everyone has the luxury of choosing who and what projects you take... in fact it is a right and a privilege afforded by living in this free market.

Smaller, newer companies are often prime targets for bait and switch type deals, promising big dividends for only a 'little bit of free work' or speculative work. There are plenty of red flag phrases that serve as warning that this might be the wrong project. Probably the most common (and most dangerous one) is "We don't have money now, but this idea will pay for itself and we'll pay you later", which often means "We haven't even written a full paragraph in our business plan yet".

Once upon a time, I thought it was bad business practice to ask the question "what is your budget for this project?" because it seemed to me at the time that I was coming across too pushy, trying to scrape every cent available from the client. However, I have since learned that this should essentially the first question that is asked. A project or client without a budget, or at least a budget range, is a client without a plan or a strategy. The exception here, is when a client knows exactly what they want, and are looking for a price. However, the role here is primarily vendor, not consultant. This is a key separation to be aware of.

No one goes shopping for a home without first visiting the bank to determine what they can afford. No one who is looking to purchase a new vehicle does so without first knowing approximately what the are able to afford. This budget will determine whether your new vehicle is a Pinto or a Maserati Spider. The same is true with creative. Will this shiny new website be a full fledged interactive online social marketplace backed by a national advertisement campaign, or a WordPress template blog with $5 / month in facebook advertising? Will this photo shoot be an hour in the local park to be used as a facebook profile picture, or a team of 50 models, producers, assistants and 13 shipping containers full of equipment traveling to Patagonia to market a worldwide sports chain?

The key here is to know what you are getting into. Learn the clients history and the back-story of the project. Be sure that there is a financial plan and a strategy to back up the big ideas. A little wisdom and foresight here can go a long ways. Learn to recognize the 'red-flag' hooks that might be tossed your way. Always operate on a fair, transparent contract, and never undersell yourself for the promise of future success. Free cheese burgers won't get you anywhere, instead, focus on consistent, good work at the right price to pay the real long term dividends for your business.