So, let’s dig right in to PART 2 of the “7 Words That Changed My Career As a Designer” series.

When I first started offering my services as a web designer and graphic artist, I was literally working for free. It started with a local dog rescue group that did not have a website. I was going to do their site for free in exchange for the rescue group waiving our adoption fees.

This led to other rescue groups wanting me to do their websites. At first I was trying to offer my services free to all of them because they were nonprofits, and I needed (I thought) to build my portfolio.

There are different schools of thought on this, but what I have concluded is that if you can get paid to do something, don’t offer it free.

What happened in my case was that I started thinking that because I had not charged these nonprofits much (or in some cases, any) money, my portfolio wasn’t ready. I started bidding on freelancing jobs, and when I say bidding low, I MEAN LOW. I was scraping the bottom of the barrel, getting only the projects that no one else wanted, and not getting enough financial reward for all the time I invested.

Gradually, I started finding better clients through word of mouth, and I was staying busy enough to pay the bills. But I still NEEDED the money, BAD, and the clients could tell by the way I was so willing to do whatever they asked.

Don’t confuse excellent customer service with just being taken for a ride.

I had one client hire me to build them an eCommerce site. I spent about 5 weeks installing the CMS, the shopping cart, configuring the payment processor, doing keyword research, optimizing product photos, and perfecting the visual design for the front end. After their 30th email requesting a minuscule revision on the completely unnecessary SPLASH PAGE (which could start a whole other rant), I emailed them and asked for 50% of my fee. They had paid me nothing so far, and except for the artwork on the splash page being revised into the dirt, the site was completely done.

The client refused to pay, saying I hadn’t delivered anything yet. So instead of wasting ANOTHER 5 weeks because they could never make up their minds about what they wanted, I told them I was not going to work with them anymore.

This was the turning point in my career. I cut my losses, because I could tell they were NEVER going to make up their minds. They wanted me to use Comic Sans and Papyrus, and basically trace other website’s artwork in Illustrator, and use a color scheme that looked like a cross between a circus and a pile of puke. I explained to them ever so tactfully that part of the reason I had offered to do their site at a discounted rate in the first place was because I would have the added benefit of placing it in my portfolio. But because the client’s entire family was backseat designing, and they appeared unable to honor the terms of payment, and they were requesting a RIDICULOUS amount of trivial revisions, it was actually cheaper for me to abandon the project than to devote another month or two of work and still risk never receiving a dime from them.

The point is, not every client is going to be profitable; some will cause you to LOSE hundreds or thousands of dollars in time and productivity. By saying “I don’t need the money that bad,” you free yourself up to seek out other clients who will respect your time and pay you what you are worth.

To end this entry, I will point you to two links that I forwarded to these abusive clients in our final email conversation. One is called 11 Clients You Need To Fire Right Now and the other is this video on YouTube, the Graphic Design Avenger.

Happy Designing! Don’t take any crap. See you soon.