branding. How much $ for a fondation

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  • vaxorcist0

    Due to committee decisions at a foundation, I'd suggest presenting work differently....

    Avoid what I call the "flying submarine syndrome"

    i.e.

    Imagine Concept 1 is an airplane
    Imagine Concept 2 is a submarine

    No, you can't have a flying submarine, or a submersible airplane...

    Imagine client asking to combine the incompatible ideas, "why can't we just have a flying submarine" is essentially what they are saying, and you try not to get too flustered, then somebody says "can't we just put jet engines on the sub?!?... or.... water pumps on the plane?!?"

    ....and you try not to get too flustered...they are just doing what they often do when confronted with decisions, split the difference....

    So... I'd either:

    1. present only variations on a theme
    or
    2. present 2 different ideas and loudly announce that they are completely different approaches, and parts of one can't be combined with the other without compromising the idea.

    good luck! add double time for presenting and revisions at least....

    vaxorcist 0Permalink
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    Dogear
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    • thing is, a flying sub is an airplane, and an underwater plane is a sub, and the client will still want to merge themmonospaced
    • maybe you can tell them how expensive, slow, ugly and unreliable the flying sub would be...vaxorcist
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  • benfal990

    thanks vaxorcist. good points there.

    benfal99 0Permalink
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    Dogear
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    • sothere0

      charge what you'd be happy with.
      dont make it cheaper for a charity. they are the worse jobs ever, committee decisions and a sense of entitlement usually take the fun out pretty quickly.

      sothere 0Permalink
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      Dogear
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    • SlashPeckham0

      here u go:

      SlashPeckham 0Permalink
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      Dogear
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    • gramme0

      Wow. You guys could be charging so much more. $3.5k seems way too low for this project. Even as a freelancer with little overhead, you should be charging at least three times that price for a basic graphic ID package.

      I've recently discovered a helpful tool to quickly discover if clients can afford us. It reduces time wastage on both sides of the table. I read about this in Blair Enns's excellent book, The Win Without Pitching Manifesto. Let's say you want to bring in at least $100,000 per year in revenue, but you don't want to work with a ton of clients. So you fence the table with a minimum annual engagement. Around 10% of your revenue target is a good start, but the number of clients you want to work with in a year is the most important thing to consider. So you tell prospects early and often that you have a minimum yearly engagement of $10,000. It might be $5,000 here or $2,000 there, but $10,000 per year is your entry-level requirement. That will scare off quite a few people, i.e. the clients you don't (or shouldn't) want. It will also open the door to better clients with better budgets.

      You might make the occasional exception to your minimum engagement policy at the very end of negotiations, but the client should be aware know this. And you must be settled in your own mind as to why you're lowering the bar. E.g. the client represents a niche in which you've recently decided to specialize, and you would greatly benefit from the experience.

      gramme 0Permalink
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      Dogear
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    • utopian0

      5-7k

      utopian 0Permalink
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      Dogear
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      • d_rek0

        @gramme

        I'm still working my way through that book you posted but I have a question - do you think it's realistic to have a minimum engagement policy as a freelancer? In the next year i'm going to aggressively target start-ups and small-businesses for freelance work and i'm just wondering if you think that business owners / entrepreneurs might find a minimum engagement policy tough to swallow? I really like the idea and will probably set a dollar amount–I'm thinking $5k is reasonable as a minimum annual engagement given the region i'm in.

        d_rek 0Permalink
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        Dogear
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        • given region, services I provide, and my availability as a moonlighting freelancerd_rek
        • which is my biggest concern is that i'll be viewed as a guy who does it on the side VS someone who is seriousd_rek
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      • gramme0

        @ d_rek

        I think a minimum engagement is totally reasonable for freelancers. That's assuming you want to move into more strategic, systematic work, and away from the tactical/production work. It doesn't mean you'll have to say goodbye to typesetting per sé, it just means you'll ask for the big bucks required to create a proper design strategy in the beginning.

        I recommend finding a niche and mining it deeply. Don't be afraid to specialize in one or two industries. For us, I realized that publishing and the arts is what I really enjoy the most. So those are the prospects I target directly, knowing that sometimes good work comes at you from out of left field.

        gramme 0Permalink
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        Dogear
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        • utopian0

          On second thought, I would do it for 4k just to under-cut gramme.

          utopian 0Permalink
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          Dogear
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