Yes my ego cost me $6,000 on a branding project…
I want to share my story so you can avoid the pain and anguish, and loss of time that resulted. I improved my Logo Design Process and client expectation management skills as a result. Lessons were learned and bridges were not burned…
“Vince, you woke me up last night!!
“DO NOT TEXT ME Logo ideas at 3:00 am!”
I could hear her voice while I read her text reply. What a thoughtless bastard was all I heard.. Yes I keep strange hours as a freelancer, but I had no idea the sound of receiving a text would wake her up, and cause so much turmoil. I do not sleep with my phone, apparently SHE DOES.
I need to remember other humans keep ‘normal’ hours, I told myself… So in essence, I WAS a thoughtless bastard texting my new client.
Who did I think I was texting her at 3:00 am?? I thought my ideas were so special they needed to be shared in the middle of the night? My ego got in the way.
Yeah ok, I was a thoughtless bastard.
My Apology:
“I am very sorry to have awakened you. I did not realize your phone would wake you, I assumed you’d get the message in the morning. It will not happen again, my sincere apologies. It won’t happen again.”
This was JUST week one of a branding project with a new client.
I should have known this as foreshadowing of the project spawned from the devil (her)self. This business would be GREAT without clients, I laughed to myself.
This intense feeling of wanting to make up for past indiscretions, started me down the wrong path, I would realize later I did not follow my standard process for concept delivery.
I am not used to having unhappy clients, in fact the opposite is true. I pride myself on being able to please almost any personality with exceptional work. Over 90% of my clients are strong entrepreneurial women. I can take the heat, I thought to myself. Bring it.
Week 2, Sketching like a mad man.
We had gotten off on the wrong foot. I received general negative energy from this client, and the mantra of ‘I have not seen a decent logo design in 20 years’. My take on it was she simply did NOT WANT to be pleased.
As a prolific art gallery owner, she had seen more fine art in her lifetime than many people, so she was discerning. I get it. But still her attitude was not one of looking for solutions, it was born of rejecting ideas and looking for reasons not be pleased.
Good times. So I started sketching with a mad man. I had to bring her around and make her happy. It’s what I do!!
Week 3, Deliver first round of conceptual sketches.
I deliver my first round of sketches to her and her partner. ‘Underwhelmed’ is the only adjective that fits, they had little to nothing to say about the initial sketches. I was not deterred.
Week 4, MORE Sketches delivered.
I dug deeper. More sketches delivered. And more apathy from my client… yay.
Week 5, Logo Ideas delivered.
I was getting nervous but kept working on ideas to present. More logos delivered. And more rejection.
Week 6, Logos in context of the Website.
Yes, even more logo concepts shown in context of the website were presented. More rejection without any feedback on any ideas that may be getting closer. Growing frustration on both sides. My business partner in crime (at the time) was also helping me think of new ways to approach the challenge. It was not looking pretty.
Week 7, Admit Defeat. Move on.
This was heading nowhere. So I had a serious heart to heart with my partner. We decided to cut this client loose. A first in my 13 years freelancing. We decided to take the high road and return her $6,000.00 deposit in full. This deposit covered Logo + Website.
A painful decision when you need the income… But it was good karma, avoided us being sued, and most importantly it was the right thing to do. If a client is not happy, make them happy or agree to disagree. I added a ‘Kill Fee’ in my terms and conditions for protection moving forward. More on that in a future post.
What I did Wrong:
1. I did not properly vet this client as a good fit for my personality. I resisted listening to my gut urge be wary of this client.
3. I let Money get in the way of my better judgement, and my contract terms did not contain a ‘Kill Fee’ clause.
4. My ego forced me to over-deliver on Logo Concepts. I failed to self-edit my sketches to bring the best most appropriate work to the table. She was confused and overwhelmed.
What I did Right:
1. I fully owned the problem.
2. I resisted the urge to blame the client and keep a portion of the deposit money.
3. I returned the entire amount ($6,000 USD) to the client and wished them well.
4. I avoided any future legal problems or litigation that may have resulted in keeping some money.
5. I ended the client relationship, but did not burn any bridges.
The reasons my Ego cost me $6,000.00 USD?
1. I thought my ideas we so clever that she needed to get a text at 3:00 in the morning. My freaking ego was calling the shots.
2. I thought I could bring her around with copious sketches after pissing her off by waking her up with my ‘amazing’ ideas. Wrong.
3. I was not counting on her NOT being pleased, and my Proposal did not contain a ‘Kill Fee’ clause because that could never happen to ‘ME’. I’m a creative rockstar, “How could I NOT make a client giddy with delight?”. Clearly I was full of myself and clearly mistaken.
It was arrogant and reckless.
At least I learned some valuable lessons, received some good karma points from the universe, and I did not burn a bridge with a former client. So my ego got in the way. Poo poo happens. Own it, make the necessary changes, and move onto the next client.
How about You?
Share any horror stories about clients and freelance projects you may have had.
If you have any questions about this article, please feel free to contact me directly, or post your reply below. If this content speaks to you, subscribe to email updates in the sidebar or in the footer below. Thank you!
– Your Creative Junkie
© Your Creative Junkie, 1994 - Today, all rights reserved.
You’re very welcome, Joni! It was almost therapy for me to write this article… :))
Yes you have to keep trying. It’s only when we try too hard it seems to add unnecessary complexity to the project, as well as the client relationship. In presenting Logo concepts, LESS is indeed MORE.
Lesson Learned!
> v <
This is a great reminder that clients do not just choose us, we need to take part in choosing them as well. Awesome read with sage advice.
So very true, Tony. This client was an online Art Gallery owner. She gave me a hint of the nightmare to come by saying no one has been able to create a logo good enough for her company. Since I have a fine art degree, and confident in my Logo skills, I thought I would be able to rise to the challenge. I was mistaken. No matter how many concepts I threw at her, she had already convinced herself she could not be pleased a long time ago. It was doomed from the beginning. My ego got in the way, and I paid the price!! Live & Learn… :))
Thank you for sharing the story Vincent!
I had a similar experience from one of my first freelance jobs. The difference was my client agreed with all the options I presented and couldn’t choose one. It made me think highly of my ability. At the end, the idea took too long to be decided, so the client refused to pay because of running out of purchase.
You’re welcome Trang! Yes, it’s a painful lesson… then I started adding a kill fee to my contracts, that saved my ass. If you did not see this post yet, here are sample proposal documents to add this to your future proposals. https://www.yourcreativejunkie.com/design-proposals-10-tips-protect-ass/
Thank you for sharing!
– your creative junkie
HI Vincent,
Amazing story, but so many learning moments (for me) that I wish I had found you’re website earlier and take advantage of your great guidelines.
I just started as a freelance website developer next to my daytime job as a marketing manager for a wholesale company in the Netherlands. after building different websites for that company i liked it so much that I thought why not try to make it my extra career ;)
So I found a new client active in the cell phone repair business who needed a new website.
He showed me some examples of what he liked and I told him I could do the job for him.
After a bit of negotiating we agreed a price for the job and I started to design.
So I showed him after hard work my first design, and he got excited @ once.
Yeah I was on the right track… at least I thought I was.
But then out of the blue he told me he needed a system that would make it possible to let clients to fill in a form that could estimate the price for the repair. I never thought of that and further one I didn’t know how to do that?
During my research for that problem I thought I did find the right solution to resolve it.
There I went wrong! he send me his pricing tables in Excel if I could put them into the system, there were so many options that is set my timeline (hardly had one) to expand a lot.
But I didn’t want to lose this client because it could revolve in more work so I was pressing myself hard to get the job done.
Of course I knew it was going to be a hell of a job.
On top of that during the process he even asked me if it was possible to create a web shop.
I told him first things first and creating web shop would cost him more money.
He told me that he would help me whit that.
Finally it got over my head and time, when he start calling and WhatsApp me over and over again whit new questions and adjustments, until I had enough, because it was the only thing I was working on and almost becoming crazy of that particular job.
Before I totally got wasted of it. I told him I couldn’t finish the job for him, believe me that needed a lot of guts because quitting doesn’t exists in my system but finally has arrived.
We agreed to stop the job of course he wasn’t too happy about it.
Where did I go wrong!
1. Didn’t make good agreements about what to do.
2. No timeline to delivery.
3. To many revisions.
4. Give him too much space to add more work.
5. Never asked myself does this client fit with my personality.
6. Before the project started negotiating about the price. Which was probably far too low.
7. NO research (dumb ass me)
8. Probably a lot more.
Like I wrote “I wish I had found you’re website earlier”
In the meanwhile I did several other websites jobs that went great fortunately.
From now on I will use your tips, e-Book’s and other great stuff you provided.
Thanks for that and keep up the great work you do.
Greetings Eric.
Thank you for your post, Eric! I am so happy I’m able to help you in the future, but so sorry to hear of the pain and anguish you endured with THIS client… what a nightmare! Yes, make sure you have a solid proposal signed BEFORE you start work. Very important. Another way to sell your time is TimeBlocks. (https://www.yourcreativejunkie.com/the-designers-ultimate-guide-to-selling-timeblocks/) This way you will always get paid for your time. Have you seen my Freelancer Bundle? This has many templates for you to use all in one download – (https://www.yourcreativejunkie.com/freelancer-business-bundle/).
Good luck and keep me posted on your progress! Please reply back and share links to your websites, I’d love to take a look. Also, Do you work in WordPress? Just curious, I am always looking to add people to my resource list for contract work. Have a great day, Eric! > v <
Hi Vincent,
Thanks for you’re reply, my own website is https://www.ericstoop.nl it is in a start-up right now so it needs a lot of tweaking.
Here are some of my projects: http://www.palveco.nl (corporate website for my daily job). https://www.slagerijmeester.nl (project for a client).
http://administratiekantoorklaver.nl/ (Project for a friend who has a accountancy company).
http://saladebarloes.nl/ (project for a client).
http://www.triplesmart.nl/ (the cell phone client I was referring too).
I am starting too learn from the best on the web and try the best I can to become a better designer.
My website is thrive on WordPress the template is from Divi (really love those guy’s at Elegantthemes).
I of course downloaded you’re freelancer business bundle thanks for that (helps me so much forward).
Don’t have projects right now but when there will be new ones I will let you know how that went on.
Keep up the great work, love it.
Greetings and have a nice day.
Eric.
Thank you for sharing your work, Eric! Yes I am a big fan of Divi as well, what a great WP theme and platform. I also using The7 theme a lot as well. (http://the7.dream-demo.com/demo/). So happy to hear you grabbed up the Freelancer Bundle. I was thinking of charging for it, but decided to make it free instead. Keep up the good work! And thanks again for commenting and your kind words…. btw, I’ve been updating my Studio website all weekend, go take a look at my portfolio – https://vincentburkhead.com/portfolio/
Have a great week, can’t believe it’s almost Monday AGAIN. > v <
Hey CJ.
I just stumbled across your site while doing a Google search for my new ebook, “Branding Humans”. I like what I see. I think we should talk.