Over the past 3–4 months, I’ve been making the transition from short-term projects to long-term relationships, and it has been incredibly rewarding. I’ve developed a deeper understanding of my clients’ needs, and they have been willing to pass along more and more responsibility as they see my work and work ethic. This has gone along with my transition from project-based billing to hourly-based billing, as well.
Kudos to you for being able (and willing) to cut down on your hours in order to provide better focus to those you do work with. Can’t wait to see what 2012 brings your way!
I’ve developed a deeper understanding of my clients’ needs
That’s exactly the kind of mileage I want to get out of this experiment.
Agreed. There is just too much need for larger, more UI-dependent web application design these days – project-based billing and short-term relationships just don’t make sense anymore. All the projects I work on at Hashrocket are 1-3 month (and longer) relationships that are way more than the wordpress-me-3-marketing-pages-and-a-contact-form deals.
And there’s a huge need in the startup world as a whole for more designers willing to commit to that kind of stuff. Some startup out there will definitely be the better for your decision to switch up strategy.
Yeah, we might be interested in this kind of arrangement. Summer?
Projects
About The Author
I'm a graphic designer and sometimes writer living in Greenville, South Carolina. I serve as a designer at NewSpring Church. I love Jesus, my wife, Levi's Jeans, good Tex-Mex, and 8oz glass bottle Coca-Cola Classic. On good days I love them roughly in that order. Email me.
I Want to Work With You. For Longer.
Fri 03/09/12
A few months ago I wrote about how doing less work for more money saved client work for me. One of the points I discussed was the 15 hours each week I allotted for clients in 2011. It’s amazing how having a wife, a fulltime job (with
fivesix direct reports) and getting a business going will eat up your day, and make 15 hours of anything seem untenable.In 2012 I’ve dropped that 15-hour allotment to 10.
At last year’s Brooklyn Beta I had a fascinating lunch conversation with everyone’s favorite polymath Dan Rubin about the potential (and inevitability) that more of us would be engaged in longer term contracts with clients. Dan was getting ready to begin a multi-month on-site contract with a client as their creative director. I was just coming off a string of good, short term client projects (between two and four weeks) and wondering what it would look like to dedicate my client work hours to one client for a longer span.
No one can hire me away from NewSpring right now—there’s too much foundational work to be done as we grow and I love it too much. But I also enjoy working with other clients, helping them solve their unique problems and see measurable success come from appropriate design solutions. And doing what I do—translating business needs into beautiful, functional user interfaces and experiences built around stellar brands—is difficult to do in sprints. This is marathon work. And I want to run with someone for longer than a few days.
My good friend Cameron wrote an excellent article about the state of design (and particularly design on the web) and said, “Nearly every CEO and VC I’ve met in the last six months is on a wild hunt for designers.” With that in mind…
Are you a startup or small business that can’t afford a full-time hire, or needs a high level of experience for specific projects? Are you an entrepenuer in need of consistent, considered visual help to bring your ideas to life? Do you need a Designer-On-Retainer or Designer-In-Remote-Residence? If so, I’d love to talk. I love design, I love my clients and I want to serve them better, for longer, in ways that can exponentially affect their mission.
∞ blnk.in/9777