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6 Ways to get the most money out of your design projects
by Michael Huggins, RGD(Or – How to stop the money-sucking, time wasting vampires from sucking the profitability out of your work)
Have you ever been in the situation where a once profitable job turned into a money-sucking nightmare?
My guess is, if you’ve been in business for a while, you’ve had your fair share of these.
And if you haven’t – you’re either very good at keeping the monsters ‘at bay’ – or you haven’t been in the business long enough to experience it just yet.
But you will.
Staying profitable on each design project is the creative entrepreneur’s goal for each and every job. And it’s no easy task. You need to have a clearly defined process that protects you and your business from being unprofitable. Because when you deal with your clients without a plan for profitability, a job can turn from lucrative to a loss, in the blink of an eye.
You know your clients routinely take more of your time and effort than you’ve originally budgeted. But before you start nodding your head in agreement I want to tell you something… it’s not their fault – it’s yours.
It’s easy to blame our clients as the source of our unprofitability – but quite often it’s not their fault. If you want to be profitable on each project you have to understand that it is YOUR responsibility to ensure that you are.
Too many designers whine and whimper about how a client abuses them on project after project, when all along, they have a flawed or ineffective process to start with.
If this rings true for you, be encouraged. It doesn’t have to stay that way. There are ways to keep a project on track, manageable, and most importantly profitable.
Here are 6 Practical Tips that you can apply to your business right now. They’ll help you keep the ‘ghosts that haunt you’ from draining the money out of your business.
1. Lead the Process
Your clients need to be lead.
This means that you always have a clear direction of what you’re trying to accomplish on every project. As well as what is required of you, and your client, in order to accomplish it.
All clients silently desire to be lead.
This means that your client is looking to YOU to lead and direct them on each project (even if they never say it – or act like it). Your clients look to you for leadership and direction on every project you do for them.
You are the expert – and they expect you to act like one.
This doesn’t mean you have to lead with a heavy hand. Or even have all the answers. Often you can effectively lead your client with gentle direction and input. In fact, view yourself as their ‘servant leader’. You are there to both SERVE and LEAD.
You SERVE them by providing the best design solution for their problem. Always.
You LEAD them by providing them advice and input so that they can make the best decisions throughout the process. Leading your client simply means that you help them arrive at the best solution possible to achieve their goals.
When you don’t lead, you put yourself in a vulnerable position, and you usually cause your client to jump into the leadership role. That could end up in many wasted hours of exploration, revisions and design variations. But even worse – you will end up with a very dissatisfied and unhappy client.
And all because you didn’t take the lead.
2. Clearly Define the Objectives of Each Project
The fastest way for a job to spin out of control and waste profits is to not clearly define what you are trying to accomplish at the end of the project.
This can be achieved by asking your client one simple question – “Mr. Client, what is it exactly that you want to achieve at the end of this project.”
You’ll be surprised at the clarity you will receive.
A major challenge with any creative process is never being 100% sure if you’ve achieved your goal (and met your client’s expectations). And you’ll never do this effectively and consistently unless you defined their objectives in writing.
By clearly defining what it is exactly that you are trying to achieve, you create a very clear target for both you and the client. When you have a clear target you can effectively measure your progress.
Clearly defined objectives can avoid client frustration, misunderstandings, and project redo’s – all of which will affect your bottom line.
3. Write a Creative Brief
Having your objectives clearly defined will reveal the target you are trying to hit – but it doesn’t outline HOW you will get there.
Creating great creative briefs are critical to keeping projects profitable. A creative brief is your map to a successful design process. Plus it’s another tool for measuring the progress and judging the success of each project. It ensures that you and your client agree on what you are trying to achieve and the process you will use.
It will avoid useless and costly design exploration on concepts that don’t fit the creative criteria. If you don’t have a creative brief you leave yourself open to personal and subjective opinions towards your designs.
You don’t have to create a novel when you write a brief. It can be as simple as a one pager. A good brief keeps the project as objective as possible with a clear vision of the goal you are trying to achieve.
If you want to prevent endless changes and protect your projects from profit erosion, write a good creative brief. And get it signed by your client before the project begins. Their signature shows that they agree with the creative direction you are going to take to solve the problem. This will avoid many subjective discussions with your client during each project.
4. Clearly Define Your Process and Key Contacts
Many clients are unaware of what your creative process is.
And they shouldn’t have to guess.
It’s your job to let them know exactly what you do during your creative process. How you do what you do. And what they should expect from you at each stage. Including what THEIR responsibilities are when you provide them material.
Outlining your creative process helps you manage your client’s expectations. It can prevent you from wasting hours and hours of time. But more importantly, it can avoid any disappointment from your clients. They may think they should be getting a totally different experience – unless you inform them otherwise. Or they might get frustrated because they just don’t know what to expect at each and every stage of your process.
Create a simple reference sheet for your clients that briefly outlines your process. Let your clients know what to expect from you at each step in the process.
Also be sure to keep them informed of WHO they should be talking to during the process of the project. If you have more than one contact point within your company, provide a resource sheet explaining who they should contact and when.
In my own company, Mindwalk Marketing and Design, I provide a contact sheet for my clients that tell them who the key contact person is on each and every project. It clearly informs them who they should contact, what they do, and how they can contact them.
By taking the initiative to let your clients know what to expect during a project, and who they should be contacting at each stage – you can better control the outcome and profitability in a consistent pattern.
5. Outline a Time Schedule
Timelines make projects profitable and put much needed cash flow into your business.
There are two very important keys to creating a good timeline:
A. Be sure to create one for every project and… B. Use it to keep you and your client accountableCreate one for every project…
When you create a timeline, it forces you to put an END DATE to the project. Avoid projects with no set deadline even the client doesn’t have one in mind. Tell them you need to set a timeline because of your heavy workload. And explain your desire to make sure they get their project in a timely fashion and avoid last minute rush changes.
They’ll appreciate your concern.
Keep you and your client accountable
The second half of creating an effective timeline is to keep everyone accountable with it. Make a habit at updating your client on the next steps in the creative process. Create a timeline with a series of milestones that outline what each stage is, and what is required at each stage. And if a milestone is missed, inform your client of the new deadline and delivery date – right away.
Just by applying these two simple timeline practices you ensure that your projects will finish in a reasonable amount of time. This means you will be able to invoice faster to get the cash back into your business. Avoid projects that ‘go on forever’ ¬– set a date and invoice your client as soon as you get there.
6. Manage Your Revision Process
One of the biggest money-sucking threats of any project is the revision process.
If you don’t clearly outline a revision process and manage it effectively, you could see a potentially profitable project eaten up by an endless chain of revisions. So be sure to schedule in time for your design revisions and manage them well.
How do you manage them?
By outlining what to expect, and what is required at each revision milestone.
In your contract with your client, clearly state how many revisions are included in your process. Encourage your clients to submit revisions in SETS rather than streaming them to you one at a time. Inform them that you do this in the interest of saving them time and money (so they avoid any unnecessary revision charges).
Outlining the revision process and the way that they should be handled. You not only raise the level of professionalism in the eyes of your client, but you protect yourself from losing control and money.
Following these 6 simple steps will help you turn a potential money-sucker and time waster into a project “gold mine”.
Do I succeed in making every job in my design business profitable?
I have to confess – it doesn’t happen every time. But I can tell you this… when a project does go off the rails, you can bet it’s because I haven’t followed at least one of the steps listed above.
Dedicated to Graphic Designer SuccessMichael Huggins
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