How are you handling?..
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- popovich
... when a client comes with a project, knods with "I know, it costs a lot". Then couple of weeks later comes with a budget for a package of peanut butter and says "let's talkt about it".
Is it me, that looks so cheap, or is it a misconception of what a design job might actually cost?
- Shaney0
it's just them trying to hit a deal on you.
Set prices and stick to them. Any price negotiations we do means dropping stuff from the brief to get price down but never reduce prices after quoting.
If it doesn't fit his/her budget it means they can't afford it and don't get whatever they are crying about.
- yep. drop stuff (deliverables), don't sacrifice your rate.doesnotexist
- popovich0
Or it is an utter misconception. I mean, how come my idea of what the project might have cost) and the client's idea differ sevenfold?!
I have lately did a mistake like this, and I will not repeat it again. Burn peanut butter,burn!
But what about the client? Do you point them into the right direction (a student or a logo-for-2-bucks.com) or should I just say "bye bye"?
Do such clients come back with more realistic budgets sometime later? Or is it a legal diagnosis?
- ukit0
Only one solution
- CyBrain0
I agree that you shouldn't lower your rate and I agree that it's always peanut butter jelly time with a baseball bat.
- VectorMasked0
Some are simply cheap and want to get away with anything.
In my experience the majority are simply mistaken about what we do, how we do it and what it costs. A lot of people have dealt with designers, the sad things is that those designers are awful awful freelancers that use system fonts and suck so much or aren't seriously trained. Coz of this people assume we work in the same way as this people.
These are the clients that were introduced to magical world of working with a designer, by paying peanuts to some untalented and careless designer and when it's time for them to grow with a better designer they expect for this better designer to say yes to everything and charge nothing for the work. These are the clients that will never understand what it takes to do good design. They could bring you a gorgeous Nike piece and say they want something similar for 1000 bucks and when you try to explain that the Nike piece didn't cost 1000 dollars but like 30 times more for only the design + the good quality offset and good paper stock, not to mentioned the text is professionally written, they won't understand. They will say it's the same... a piece of paper with pretty images......and that it can't be that hard for you to make it as memorable and recognizable for their tiny business.So avoid these clients. If you are able to not get to personal or attached to the work... and if you are well aware that it is a job and you are doing it to pay rent... then go ahead and do it. ugly jobs pay the bills too. Of course if the budget doesn't give you realistic hours for production then it makes no sense at all for you to take the job.
- elee0
The industry trend these days seems to be that clients expect work to be done more quickly and for less money (because "times are tough"). I typically counter this sort of thing by showing them a breakdown of what needs the be done and how much time it will take, so that they know where a price is coming from. From there, if they want to spend less, they can cut out functionality.
- vaxorcist0
Only if you can come up with a completely different way of thinking about this cleint's needs and situation.... otherwise it's just nickel and diming.... usually clients like this "just won't get it" no matter what you do