The Life Coach
I’ll keep this brief, as I could be prone to ranting…
I was approached by a lady who had recently moved to North Carolina in hopes of starting her own business. She needed a logo, business cards, letterhead, and brochures. As a student, I was excited to have some freelance work to make some extra dough. I explained to her that freelance designers usually make between 40-50 bucks an hour and she agreed that this was a fair rate. I designed her logo (which she said she loved) and proceeded to make a business card. After multiple revisions and the typical bull crap (my daughter doesn’t like the color, can we make the text more bold, etc) she finally decided that the card was done. All in all, i spent maybe 4 hours on the project but decided to only charge for 3, as she was new to the area and had no real clients yet. After getting the cards printed, she informs me that she has no money to pay me and had planned all along on paying me in gift cards….gift cards to HER business. ”What was her business?” you may ask… she’s a “life coach.” She helps people determine the right “cosmic path” for themselves. What a load of horse crap. Thanks, but I already know my path. I’m a graphic designer. When I called her out on the ridiculousness of her proposition, she claimed that she had never misrepresented herself and felt no guilt. Weeks later, she had a change of heart, claiming she’d mail me a check. It has now been several months since she sent that last email, and guess what? Still no check. I think we should start posting the names of these parasitic “business people” to protect other designers from being sucked into the same traps.
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about 7 months ago
Next time make sure you have a contract ready for any freelance work you do. Make sure you’re being paid $, not gift cards. She was a bitch but I also have to blame you on this one.
about 7 months ago
ALWAYS, always, get the the contract signed and half up front.
The only exceptions to this rule are for long-term clients who are known to be trustworthy.
When you fail to follow this rule for new clients, they will rip you off. Yeah, it’s happened to me too. Don’t let it happen to you twice.
about 7 months ago
contracts are all well and good, but really not worth the paper they’re written on, hence why i didn’t bother with one. no one was willing to go to court over this, as is the case with most freelance jobs because the amount of money at stake isn’t worth the cost of lawyers, court fees etc.
about 7 months ago
I always have a signed letter of agreement and refuse to start any work until I get a 50% deposit. I would also suggest putting together a proposal with an estimate of work hours and your exact cost per hour, so clients have an idea up front of what the cost might be. The proposal also outlines what tasks the client needs to complete. If you need to, you can take someone to small claims court. You can also write this off as a loss on your taxes.
about 7 months ago
@TLC, you sure you can right it off? It has been explained to me that you can’t write off services as a loss. Where as is you are selling bananas, and they all go bad, you can sell the bananas as a loss, but when it’s a service, there ins’t a tangible item to consider as a loss. I’ll check and see what the “law” says.
about 7 months ago
YUP! first freelance gig I had was with a ‘Life Coach’, whoagreed to pay for a lot of business cards, brochures and flyers. We talked about the idea at length, and she insisted on there being bubbles and castles in the branding, and a big rainbow. I didn’t think this was a good idea, and I told her so, but she insisted that was what she wanted. She also insisted on including a couple absolutely made-up accreditations to add to her name to make her look more professional.
BASically, she had me do all the stuff, saw it in development and approved it many times, and then once I was done – I mean, we’re talking, 20-30 hrs of digital and manual illustration and layout, she had a change of heart and was starting to think it looked too much like a fairy tale kind of thing, which I had been cautioning her about the entire process. She declined to pay me the $250 we’d agreed on for the project. I even called and told her I wanted to offer her an idea that I thought would work better and she just never called back. Then I would see her walking in the neighborhood (did I mention we lived a block away from each other?) and she would act like we had this perfect, peaceable and soulfully nutritious relationship.
This has led me to believe that anyone trying to make their career as a ‘life coach’ should have had to had a successful career in something else, previously. What a load of crap.
about 7 months ago
Take 50% up front at the start of the project in cash or check (then wait two weeks to start if the funds clear). Have this all specified in a contract and 90% of your troubles like this will dissappear.