BAD CLIENTS

This client is not only bad for your business but bad for your emotional well being.
I will not name names or the business, but simply say it is a woman who runs a newspaper in East Tennessee, a very small paper in a town of misfits and criminals. I lived in Knoxville, so she could not find anyone in her town to do the work, she drove 40 miles to Knoxville and placed an ad in the Metropulse magazine to find her victims.

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aaaarrrrrgggghhh.

Where to begin? My absolute hands down worst of all time client was a woman who wanted a complete identity system for her new company, a consultancy. I had known her for a long time, so I didn’t think a formal contract was needed, and felt that since we had known each other, communication would be a snap. More >

I’ve been a designer for a few years now, and have dealt with a fair share of crazy people.  I got involved with a friend’s Yoga Studio.  I did get paid to do some work, and then those willing people left the “co-op” yoga studio ownership program. So I worked out a deal with the remaining members including my original friend, that I would build them a website in exchange for my personal studio time. So I built a website. It looked really nice, just needed some input from the co-op on final touches/verbage. etc. Well after several attempts at getting the information, I gave up. They were going to have to stay with what they had. I had to move on. The group was too disorganized.  At one point I tried to show my friend how to built and maintain the website, how to make changes, FTP etc. He himself was wanting to become a designer and taking on projects with clients. More >

I just graduated design school and I was looking for work. A guy posted an ad on craigslist saying he’s starting a new magazine and he needs a designer. I sent him a replay and he called me in for an interview. He told me he would pay me $10 per page I design. I was thinking that’s a little low but I needed money and the experience so I agreed to it. He promised he’s going to pay me the full amount once the magazine is finished. He would call me at least 10 times a day wanting designs. He would talk to someone about advertising their business  in his magazine and tell them he would have their ad right away. Then calling me and wanting me to design it right there on the spot as he was waiting. After two months of this passed by I finally finished designing the whole magazine. He wrote me a check for $1000. I deposited it. The next day the bank told me the check bounced. This guy ran out of business, never had the magazine published and now works as a car salesman. He paid me $200 cash and told me he’s going to pay me back everything he owes me. Never did heard back from him. The worst client ever!

LESSON LEARNED

You have the option to take on project or not. It’s better to pass on a bad project, even if you need the money. A bad project can hurt other work.  It will eat up your time, keep you up at night, and just bring you down altogether.

My advice is if you think something isn’t worth the time, it’s not.

On 8/8/07 we received a tip from a company we trade work with. They told me that they had an investment company contact them about a website that they weren’t going to be able to do quickly enough. I said I could handle the project. I contact the guy, who told me his name was Mark Bell, and his company was Apple Capital Inc. Mr. Bell told me that they would buy foreclosed houses and turn around and sell them. The money that was made there would go into electric gambling machines. He said that he needed the website up on Friday. I told him, not possible, and Monday would be the soonest. We had him sign a contract, and we began working on the site. On Monday, the site was active, and everything seemed normal.

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I hope this counts, but I am in school for Visual Communications. We have a class called Design Studio where you work for a company and help them with a branding project because they are not able to afford good work. The project was to create a logo, poster, website, my emma template, ticket, program shell and pop card. More >

Client wanted to do design, be a “yes man“, no input desired. Played my part for 2 years, did not explode.

Final project: Pleaded for a kodak proof to check color of a large run of boxes, offered to take care of it on my own time, no luck. Package art was approved by pdf, by the owners son. No input from me. Client rejected the final package — too dark — go figure. Darn I lost him on this project.

LESSON LEARNED:

It’s your professional obligation to do what you think is best. If your client won’t listen, keep telling them.  Don’t just sit there with your mouth shut. There is nothing wrong with firing a client, and from time to time it has to happen.

Try and put something in your contract that will set roles. Your job should always include doing press checks.

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.