Resourceful Designer: Strategies for running a graphic design business

The reason to use checklists. I first talked about checklists way back in episode 89 of Resourceful Designer. In it, I shared various types of checklists you can use for your business. I even shared my now outdated checklist for starting a new WordPress website. Today, I'm not going to share checklist ideas with you. Instead, I want to talk about the importance of using checklists. To emphasize their importance, I want to start by telling you a story. I heard this story while listening to an audiobook called My Best Mistake, Epic Fails and Silver Linings written by Terry O'Reilly. It's a great book of stories about failures that led to amazing things. Check it out if you have the chance. One of the stories O'Reilly tells in the book inspired is what inspired what you're reading here. It's estimated that the average American undergoes seven surgeries in a lifetime, and surgeons perform over 50 million surgeries annually. That's a lot of operations. In 2009, roughly 150,000 patients died immediately after surgery—3 times the number of fatalities from road accidents. What's scary about that number is that half of those deaths were completely avoidable. That number caught the attention of Doctor Atul Gawande, a Boston surgeon and professor at Harvard Medical School. It's the 21st century. How can all these complications happen despite the accumulated knowledge of professionals? Gawande wondered if there was a way to reduce the number of operating room errors that resulted in these deaths. To find an answer, Gawande looked at other fields for ideas. Back in 1935, The U.S. Army was looking for the next generation of long-range bombers. They held a competition between top airplane manufacturers to come up with a new design. Although the issued tender was fair for all involved. It was a known fact that Boeing's technology was miles ahead of their rivals Martin and Douglas. Boeing's new Model 299 could fly faster than any previous bomber, travel twice as far, and carry five times as many bombs as the Army requested. The Army was prepared to order sixty-five of the aircraft before the competition was even over. The big brass of the Army Air Corps gathered for the first test flight of the Model 299. The impressive machine took to the sky with its 103-foot wingspan and four gleaming engines (instead of the usual two found on most planes.) It was quite a sight to see. As the plane took flight, it climbed to three hundred feet, stalled, and crashed in a fiery ball of flames. Two of the crew died that day, including the pilot who was the Army Air Corps' chief of flight testing. The Army decided to award the contract to Douglas instead. And Boeing almost went bankrupt. However, The follow-up investigation revealed that there was nothing mechanically wrong with the plane. And it was determined that the crash was due to pilot error. But how could that be? How could the chief of flight testing, one of their most experienced pilots, make a mistake that would lead to the crash of such a sophisticated plane? As the investigation showed, the Model 299 required the pilot to monitor the four engines. Each one requiring its own oil-fuel mixture. He also had to attend to the landing gear and wing flaps, adjust the electric trim to maintain stability at different airspeeds and regulate the constant-speed propellers with hydraulic controls. And that was only a few of the things on which the pilot needed to concentrate. It turns out that while attending to all of these things, the pilot forgot to release a new locking mechanism on the elevator and rudder controls. It was a simple oversight that led to the crash. Boeing was ready to scrap the plane, but a group of pilots believed the Model 299 was flyable. So they got together to find a solution. When they later approached Boeing, they didn't request any mechanical changes to the plane. Nor did they think pilots needed to undergo extended training on how to fly it. Instead, they came up with a simple and ingenious solution. They created a pilot's checklist. They made a list that was short enough to fit on an index card. It covered all the mundane step-by-step tasks required for takeoff, flight, landing and taxiing. In other words, the checklist covered all the dumb stuff. With the new checklist, pilots flew the Model 299 over 1.8 million miles without one single accident. To distance themselves from the previous failure during the test flight, Boeing changed the name of their new plane to the B-17. The Army ordered 13,000 of them, which gave the Air Corps a decisive advantage in WWII. All because of a checklist. Since the 1960s, nurses have relied on charts, a form of a checklist, to know when to dispense medicine, dress wounds, check pulse, blood pressure, respiration, pain level, etc. And although doctors would look at these charts when visiting a patient, they viewed these checklists as "nurse stuff." In the late 90s, a study determined the average hospital patient required 178 individual actions by medical staff per day. Any one of which could pose a risk. The researchers noted that doctors and nurses made errors in only 1% of these actions. But that still adds up to almost two errors per day, per patient. When you multiply that by every hospital worldwide, it means millions of people around the globe are potentially harmed by the very medical staff assigned to help them. In 2001, a doctor at Johns Hopkins designed a doctor's checklist for putting in a central line; a tube inserted in a large vein used to administer medication. It's a standard procedure that just about every doctor is familiar with. It was also a widespread cause of infection in patients. So this doctor devised a simple checklist listing the five steps involved in carrying out the procedure. He then asked the nurses to observe the doctors for one month and record how often they carried out each step. They found that in over 1/3 of all patients, doctors omitted at least one of the five steps. The following month, hospital administration instructed the nurses to insist doctors follow each of the steps. The doctors didn't like being told what to do by the nurses, but the nurses had the backing of hospital administration, so they grudgingly complied. When the new data was later tabulated, they thought maybe a mistake had been made. The infection rate for central lines dropped from 11 percent to zero. They continued the study for longer, to be sure, but the results were the same. It was estimated that a simple checklist had prevented 43 severe infections and possibly eight deaths in that one hospital, saving $2 million in costs. And yet, even with this evidence, many doctors refused to grasp the importance of this precaution. They were offended by the very suggestion that they needed a checklist. They already had so much to do that they didn't want one more sheet of paper to worry about. To prove his point, the doctor who wrote the checklist introduced it to other hospitals in Michigan. There was pushback, but in just three months, the rate of bloodstream infections dropped by 66 percent. Many of the test hospitals cut their quarterly infection rate to zero. A cost savings of nearly $200 million. All because of a simple little checklist. All checklists have an essential function. They act as a "mental net" to catch stupid mistakes. In 2005, the director of surgical administrator in a Columbus, Ohio hospital created a checklist for operating rooms. It contained simple things such as verifying they had the correct patient on the table and the right body area prepared for the surgery. This little addition improved surgical success rates by 89%. There's a lot more to this story. In his book, O'Reilly shares stories of how more and more hospitals started implementing checklists for various things, but I'm not going to bore you with them. Back to the original story. In 2008, after conducting his research, Atul Gawande devised a checklist to be tested by a group of pilot hospitals worldwide. Some operating rooms embraced it, while others protested it as a waste of time. During a knee replacement surgery to be performed by one of the checklist's most vocal critics, it was discovered while checking the boxes that the prosthesis on hand was the wrong size. If they had started the surgery, the patient might have lost his leg. That surgeon became an instant checklist evangelist. In all the hospitals using the checklists, surgical teams began working better together, and the surgical success rates soared. Complications fell by 36 percent, deaths by 47 percent and infections by 50 percent. And patients needing return visits to the operating room fell by 25 percent. What's amazing about using checklists is that they dramatically improved an outcome without increasing skill or expenditure. Instead of adding rigidity to their lives, checklists free people by getting the dumb stuff out of the way. Today, 90 percent of hospitals in North America and 70 percent worldwide use a checklist. And you want to hear something funny. When Gawande's original pilot project was completed, doctors were asked to fill out an anonymous survey. Seventy-eight percent said the checklist had prevented errors. But there was still 20 percent who didn't like the checklist saying it took too long to implement and didn't think it was worth it. However, when those 20 percents were asked if they had to undergo surgery, would they want the checklist to be used? Ninety-three percent of those who opposed the checklist said yes. I hope you found these facts as interesting as I did. Now you may be saying, sure, a checklist in a plane or an operating room makes sense. It can save lives, after all. But I run a graphic design business, so I'm good. I don't need checklists. I used to think that way as well. But remember, checklists are freeing because they help get the dumb stuff out of the way, which frees you up for the more important things you do. I remember a couple of years ago. I was doing routine maintenance on one of my websites I had launched a couple of years prior. While verifying and updating things, I noticed something that almost made my heart stop. The little checkbox next to "Discourage search engines from indexing this site." was still checked. Meaning, for close to two years, my website was telling search engines, "I'm good. Don't pay any attention to me. Go look somewhere else." That's a stupid mistake that I could have avoided with the use of a pre-launch checklist. Today, I have several checklists I use regularly. I now have a website pre-launch checklist. A WordPress install checklist. A first client contact checklist. A podcast client checklist. A Resourceful Designer podcast checklist. And many more. As I said earlier, these checklists help ensure the dumb stuff gets done so that you can concentrate on the more important things without worrying. If you are not already using checklists in your business, I suggest you start now. And if you think that your checklists are in your head, remember the story about doctors putting in a central line. There are only five steps involved, steps that every doctor knows. And yet, when observed, nurses noted that over 1/3 of all patients, doctors missed at least one of the five steps. Your memory is failable. A checklist is not.

Be wary of your reputation. Let me tell you a story. It is a story that has nothing to do with graphic or web design, but it is relevant to running a business, and I'll tie that into running a design business if you stick around to the end. We built our house in 2005. Or, more accurately, we had someone build our home in 2005. If you've ever built your own home or know of someone who has, you know that it's a long and gruelling process. When you buy a pre-built house, you get what's there. Sure, you can renovate it. But until then, what you buy is what you get. But when you build a home, you're starting with a blank slate. Think of it as opening a new document in Photoshop, Illustrator or InDesign, or starting with a fresh installation of WordPress. What you do with it is entirely up to you. Building a home is like that. When you build a home, you get to choose how many rooms it has and the size of each room. You get to select floorings such as tile, wood, or carpet. You get to choose the light fixtures, the plumbing fixtures, the windows, the door, etc. You decide everything that goes into your house. My wife and I did that when we started the process for ours. One of the aspects we had to choose was the shingles for the roof. It sounds simple, but there are thousands of varieties and colours of shingles to select from. My wife and I took many drives around different neighbourhoods, looking at roofs then trying to match those we liked with samples our contractor supplied us. In the end, we chose a nice brown multi-hued asphalt shingle that gave our home character. We loved it. A couple of years ago, we started to notice these little grain-like substances appearing on our back deck. At first, we thought it was dirt. But we soon realized that it was debris falling from our shingles. There wasn't a lot of it, so we shrugged it off as peculiar. Then last summer, the debris pieces started getting bigger and fell more often. And when we looked at our roof, we noticed the shingles were starting to turn up at the corners. We weren't happy about this but didn't know what we could do about it. So we let it go as a nuisance. Well, this spring, when the snow melted, we were shocked to see a layer of dark brown debris on our deck, and our shingles curved and cracked much more than last summer. So I finally decided to take action. I started by calling the contractor who built our house. When I explained the situation, he immediately knew what I meant. He had dealt with several other people facing the same problem. It turns out the singles on our roof had a defect. A big enough one that there was a class-action lawsuit filed and won against the manufacturer. Our shingles have a 25-year warranty. According to the settlement, we're entitled to compensation for the unused portion of that warranty. The only specification is we have to replace them with a newer shingle by the same manufacturer. I'm upset that I hadn't looked into the issue when we first discovered it. I could have received a more considerable compensation. But I'm glad there's something we can do. Not knowing how to proceed, I asked my contractor for advice. He retired several years ago, but he gave me a name of a contractor he recommended who is familiar with the process. He suggested I contact him for a quote on redoing my roof, which I need for the claim process. He also recommended I talk to his old foreman, who oversaw most of the homes he built, including mine. I called the foreman for advice. It turns out he's also retired, although more recently. He told me he had handled many of these shingle claims on behalf of other clients. And although he no longer does that, he would help me however he could. He told me the first step was to get a quote from a qualified professional roofer. And the person he recommended was the same one my contractor had given me. The foreman had worked with him several times and was currently engaging him to build his new house. Having received the same name from two trusted sources, I called this new contractor and left a message for him to call me back. While waiting to hear back from him, I looked him up online. I read the Google and other reviews had nothing but good things to say about him, which boosted my confidence. I was eager to get the process started. But several days passed, and the new contractor didn't return my call. So I called and left another message, and then a few days later another. Finally, a week later, he called and apologized. He said the pandemic had taken a toll on his business. He lost several employees leaving him to juggle more than he usually did. This is understandable. The news is full of companies suffering due to staff shortages these days. I explained my situation and what I required, and he agreed to stop by the next day to look at my roof. But he never showed up. Two days later, I called him, and once again, he apologized, saying he would be here the next day. To his credit, he showed up. He spent almost an hour on my roof measuring and taking photos of all the problem areas for me to submit with the claim. Once done, he said he would send me the images and have a quote ready by the end of the week. My wife and I are also thinking about adding a screened-off area to our back deck next summer, so while he was there, I asked him for a quote on that as well. He said I would have both quotes by Friday. But the end of the week came, and I didn't hear from him. I waited until Wednesday the following week before calling. Once again, he apologized for the delay and said, once again, I would have the quotes by Friday. Do you see a pattern here? Friday came and went. On Monday, I called him, asking where my quotes were. He told me he couldn't send them because he didn't have my email address, which I had already provided him. I gave it to him again, and the following day I received the photos and the quote for my roof. The second quote for the screened-in porch was nowhere to be seen. With the roof quote and photos of the damaged areas in hand, I filled out all the information required to submit my claim, including the material list the contractor supplied me. Upon submission, I learned it could take up to 120 days before I get a response. In the meantime, no work was to be performed on my roof, in case they needed to send someone to inspect it. I called the contractor, and I told him we couldn't move forward for possibly up to 120 days. But I would still like to book him for the job when the time comes. He told me it was not a problem. He could pencil me onto his schedule for the fall. All I had to do was let him know when we could proceed. I also reminded him that he owed me another quote, to which he replied I would see it soon. Now you may be thinking. This guy doesn't seem too reliable. Why not get someone else? Well, during the process, I did get two other quotes from other roofers. One I found online, and the other I remembered seeing when a neighbour had his roof done. Both were more expensive, and their online reviews were not as good as the contractor I was already dealing with. My neighbour even told me he wouldn't hire the same guy again. Plus, given the time frame of a 120-day wait, neither of them would guarantee they could repair my roof before winter. Now true to form, it took exactly 120 days before I heard back that my claim was approved and I could move forward with the roof repair. I immediately called the contractor and left him a message saying we were good to go. And then I waited. Three days later, I called and left another message and waited some more. Now I'm starting to get worried. Winter is fast approaching Eastern Ontario, and no roofing will be done once the snow starts falling. And my roof has deteriorated significantly over the summer to the point where I don't think we could last the winter without possible water damage. Finally, a few days later, I heard from the contractor. He told me not to worry, he still has me on his schedule, and my roof will get done before winter. The next step is to choose what new shingles we want. He said he would drop off samples that afternoon. He never showed up. That was Tuesday. On Wednesday, I called him. He apologized and said he would drop them off on Thursday morning before heading to his current project. He never showed up. Today is Friday. I still don't have the shingle samples. And I no idea if or when he'll do my roof, even though he says not to worry, it'll be done before winter. At this point, there's nobody else I can call. I have no choice but to rely on this person that I've lost all faith in. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that my roof gets repaired before snowfall. So why did I share this with you? A story about my roof that has nothing to do with graphic or web design. It's because I wanted to share with you how NOT to run a business. I had two people I trust recommend this guy. And his online reviews were great. So I had no reason to suspect the frustrations I would experience dealing with him. But at this point, he could do the most fantastic job on my roof, and even if he offered me a discount because of the troubles, I would still never recommend him to anyone. His reputation is tarnished beyond repair. That's the message I want you to take away from this story. It doesn't matter what sort of work you do for your clients. What matters is how you treat them. You may be a great designer, an amazing designer, in fact. But never forget that you're not the only designer around. When a client calls or emails you, make sure you reply promptly. Even if it's only to say "thank you for the message." so they know you received it. That simple acknowledgement can go a long way in building trust. If a client asks you to do something or send them something, make sure you follow through. If you're afraid you might forget, set a reminder on your phone or add it to your calendar. You can even stick a Post-It note to your monitor. You want to build lasting relationships with your clients so they come back to you over and over again in the future. You'll never be able to do that if your reputation is tarnished. Because once you lose their trust. It's almost impossible to gain it back. --- You won't believe this. As I was wrapping this up, the contractor showed up at my door with the shingle samples. He didn't even apologize for being late this time. He did, however, assure me that he would do my roof in three weeks. It's on his schedule, and I shouldn't worry. But you know I'll worry anyway, at least until the work is complete. As for the quote for the screened porch for the deck? I still haven't seen it. But at this point, I don't care anymore. Once he's finished my roof, I never plan on hiring this guy again. I hope none of your clients ever feel that way about you.

Do you know how to give a good critique? One of my professors made us critique our classmates' projects at the end of every college assignment. Once we completed a design project, he would place everyone's design at the front of the class, and one by one, he would select students and ask them to critique one of the projects. The reason he did this was twofold. He wanted us to develop an eye towards examining other designs to both learn from them, which makes us better designers and seek aspects of the designs we would have done differently. The other reason he held these critiques was to thicken our skin. As designers, we have to learn to take criticism of the works we create. If you are easily offended or don't take well to people critically evaluating your creations this way, then maybe being a designer is not for you. Besides, what better way to learn than by hearing our fellow students dissect our works. I can tell you that I learned a lot from hearing my classmates tear apart my work. But this exercise we conducted at the end of each project had another effect. You see, the professor wasn't only evaluating our design work. He was also evaluating our critiques. He would point out when our comments were not helpful or ask us to expand on our observations to convey better what we were saying. Even though every student dreaded these critiquing sessions, looking back, I'm grateful for them. It made me look at design through a different lens. It taught me the difference between giving a critique and offering constructive criticism. And that's what I want to discuss with you today. As you may be aware, there's a Resourceful Designer Facebook group. In this group, or any other design group for that matter, including the Resourceful Designer Community. Designers often post their designs "for review." Sometimes they are looking for advice. Sometimes it's for validation. And sometimes, they're looking for nothing more than an ego grab. Regardless of their reasoning for posting their work, I can't help but shake my head at some of the comments they receive. Comments which supposedly come from experienced designers, and yet, they're of no value to the person posting their design. So I want to talk to you about my method of critiquing. Is my method the proper right way of offering critiques? Of course not. I'm not saying what you're doing is wrong, and you should do it my way. I'm hoping that after hearing what I have to say, you may take an extra moment to contemplate your response the next time someone asks you to critique their work. When to ask for critiques. Let's start with when you should be asking for critiques. In my opinion, there are four stages of a design project when you should ask for critiques. During the initial concept stage. If you hit a roadblock. Before presenting your design to the client. Before sending the design to print or launching it. Let's break those down. 1. Ask for critiques during the initial concept stage. The beginning of a design project is when the work is most fluid. It's the point when the design could take off in any direction. If you are working on a logo project, you may sketch out dozens or hundreds of concepts before narrowing it down to the ones you want to develop further. During this stage, it's not uncommon to show your favourite concepts to someone to get another opinion. You're not asking for critiques of the actual designs, but more of the overall direction you are taking. It's a great way to validate that you are starting on the right path before getting too far down the road. Another set of eyes can help spot the stronger designs and weed out the weaker ones. It is beneficial for someone who has been staring at them for a long time which diminishes your objectivity. So asking for critiques during the initial concept stage can quickly help you determine what direction the rest of the design project will take. 2. Ask for critiques when you hit a roadblock. We've all been there, you're designing away on something you initially thought was great, but all of a sudden, you doubt yourself. Something about the design isn't sitting right with you, but you can't figure out what. This is the perfect opportunity to get another set of eyes on it. Sometimes, another uninvested designer can look at a design and spot the flaws that you've become blind to. So any time you hit a roadblock or start to doubt something about your work, ask someone to critique it. 3. Ask for critiques before showing your work to the client. You've completed your design. You've polished it up and are ready to present it to your client. Now is the perfect time to show it to others first, just in case there's something you're not seeing. It's not a good feeling to tell a client after presenting something to them that you need to make a change. It tarnishes the mantle of "expert" they've placed over you. It's even worst if the client points out any flaws to you. To prevent this, it's a good idea to ask for critiques before presenting your work to the client. 4. Ask for critiques before sending a design to print or launching it. There is potentially a lot of money involved in a print run. You do not want to find out after the fact that there was an issue with your design. If you're a solo designer, I highly suggest you find someone or a group of people like in the Resourceful Designer Community that can review your work before you hand it off to the printer. Digital work isn't as critical since it can always be corrected after the fact. But it still reflects poorly on you if you published something with errors or flaws. To prevent this from happening, ask for critiques before sending a project to print or launch. Those are the four times when you should be asking for critiques of your work. That doesn't mean you should limit it to those times. At any point during a project, you can ask someone to look over what you've done. But even if you're confident in what you are doing, these four critique points should not be ignored. How to ask for critiques. Let's look at how to ask for critiques. Posting a design and asking "What do you think?" is not the right way. Without any context, you're just opening yourself up to a bevy of unhelpful answers. What do you think? I think you can do better. What do you think? I think it should be blue instead of green. What do you think? I'm not crazy about the font. What do you think? I don't like it. Not useful answers. What you want to do is make it easy for the person to critique your work. After all, you are asking them to devote a bit of their precious time to help you. The least you can do is make it easier for them to offer their assistance by giving you the advice you can use. A tiny bit of effort on your part will benefit both you and the person critiquing your work. The proper way to ask for critiques involves three key elements. A short brief of the project. The parameters you faced in the design. What you are looking for in the critique. Let's look at each of those. 1. Give a short brief of the project. If you are asking me to critique a logo, it would be nice to know, at minimum, in what industry the client works. Is "Bluebird" the name of a restaurant? Is it a bus line? A band? A children's clothing line? Without this context, how am I supposed to give you a proper critique of your design? You don't have to provide an in-depth project brief. But a short description of who the client is, their location, what services or products they are offering and who their target market is will help me greatly when offering my opinion on your design. 2. Mention the parameters you faced in the design. Was there anything that limited what you can or cannot do with the design you're creating? Did the client insist you use a sans serif font? Were you limited to specific corporate colours? Was there a particular element you needed to incorporate into the design? Knowing these things will help people form their critique. If I know you were limited to sans serif fonts, I won't recommend a serif font. I won't comment on the colours if I know you had no choice but to use the ones you did. And if I know the client wants a nautical theme; I won't recommend you use a train in your design. Knowing what parameters you face will help people give you a better critique. 3. Mention what you are looking for in a critique. Finally, if you want an overall opinion of the design, great, say so. But if you want to know about a particular aspect of it, let people know. If all you're interested in is whether or not the size of the icon is appropriate to the size of the logotype, then say that's what you are looking for. There's no sense in someone dissecting the rest of the design if that's all you want to know. Suppose you are designing a poster and want to know if the visual hierarchy is working. Ask people to list in order what they think are the most critical areas of the sign. There's nothing wrong with wanting a critique of an overall design. But if all you need is for someone to verify one aspect of your project, then save both of us some time by saying so up front. Giving Critiques And now the good part, giving critiques. Critiques are a learning experience for both you and the person you are critiquing. It helps hone your design skills by spotting ways you think a design can be improved. It may also show you things you may not have considered before. And it helps the person receiving the critique by offering them a different approach to their design. Design is subjective. No two designers think the same way. Just because it's not how you would design it doesn't necessarily mean it's wrong or doesn't work. It just means that you would have done it differently. As the title of this episode states. A good critique should offer constructive criticism: meaning, the suggestions you make. And keep in mind, a critique is just that, suggestions. The suggestions you offer should have a reason behind them. Here are four key ingredients to a good critique. Identify what you believe can use improvement. Explain why you believe the current way is lacking. Offer suggestions on how you would do it differently. State why you believe making your suggested changes will improve the design. That's it. If you can offer these four things when giving a critique, you provide helpful advice to the person asking. Let's look at each one. 1. Identify what you believe can use improvement. It's tough to offer a good critique of an overall design. Most likely, whatever you have to say pertains to a particular part of the design. Therefore, the first thing you should do is identify what part of the design you refer to. Say you think the website header, or logo icon, or newsletter masthead needs something. Pinpointing areas of a design allows you to break up your critique into actionable sections. This is what I think of the icon This is what I think of the logotype This is what I think of the sizing This is what I think of the colours. Critique individual elements, not the design as a whole. 2. Explain why you believe the current way is lacking. It's much easier to convince someone to change something if you can explain what you believe is wrong with the way it is now. For example: Explaining how the connecting letters in a script font are hard to make out and could be interpreted in the wrong way will go a long way in helping you convince them to change the font in their design. Or pointing out that the colours of the font and the background it's on are too similar in hue and may cause legibility issues for visually impaired people. It helps strengthen your argument towards changing the colours in the design. So whenever possible, please explain why you believe the current way is lacking before you offer suggestions on how to change it. 3. Offer suggestions on how you would do it differently. Remember how I said that no two designers are the same? That means that what you think is the right way may not be what the next designer thinks is right. Sure there are some things on which most of us agree. But innovative designers have successfully challenged tried and true design principles. It's how design evolves. Do you know the saying "Blue and green should never be seen except for inside a washing machine"? There was a time when no designer would use blue and green together. And yet, nowadays, it's a common combination. So just because you think something doesn't look right doesn't necessarily mean it's wrong. I'm personally not a fan of the street art grunge style of design. But that doesn't mean it's not a viable design choice. Just not something I would choose. Keeping that in mind, form your opinions as suggestions when critiquing someone's work. Let them know how you would do it differently. Then let them decide if it's something they want to pursue. And don't be offended if they choose not to listen to you. After all, no two designers... 4. State why you believe making your suggested changes will improve the design. Finally, state why you believe making your suggested changes will improve the design. The best way to win an argument is by offering your opinion and explaining why it's so. No designer should change their design without a good reason. And "I think it would look better in red" is not a good reason. Explaining that red is a more passionate colour that encourages people to make spur-of-the-moment decisions is a convincing argument for why they should change the colour. You don't have to get philosophical with your answers. Sometimes the "Why" behind your suggestion is simple. Increasing the space between the text and the underline will make it easier to read when reduced. Simple. So whenever possible, state why you believe making your suggested changes will improve the design. Conclusion Critiques are hard. Both receiving them and giving them. But critiques are also how we improve. If nobody ever critiqued your work, you would never get better at what you do. And if you never take the time to critique another design, you'll never learn new things. In fact, I bet you critique other designs all the time. I know I critique every billboard, website, bumper sticker, t-shirt, etc. that I see. I'm always thinking of how I would have done it differently or mentally filing away a good design idea so that I can steal it for a future project. I can't help it. I'm a designer. You probably do the same. Critiques. They're the bane of our existence and the fuel that propels us. We wouldn't be designers without critiques. But always remember, Critiques are just suggestions. As I mentioned several times already, no two designers think the same way. So, just because someone says a design element should be changed doesn't necessarily mean you should change it. You need to weigh what you know about the project, about yourself as a designer, about the client, and what you know about the person whose recommendations you are thinking of following. The best and most valuable critiques come from people you know and trust. If a stranger says something should be green, however, your trusted design colleague thinks it should be blue. Chances are you're going to lean towards making it blue. That's why being a part of a design group like a Facebook group, or even better, the Resourceful Designer Community, can be such a benefit. Listen to and learn from the people you know.

Are you getting enough activity? In episode 105 of the podcast Coping With Isolation When Working From Home, I discussed how isolation is a significant concern for anyone running a home-based design business. Spending day after day with minimal contact with other people can take its toll on someone. In that episode, I gave recommendations for overcoming that feeling of isolation. One of those recommendations was having a pet. Having a pet in the house can be very therapeutic. Petting a dog or is proven to reduce stress and anxiety. Dogs are great listeners. When you talk to them, they give you their undivided attention. And best of all, it's without judgement. For the past 17 years, we've had at least one dog in the house. For several years we had three, and then two, and for the past three years, just one, Whisper, our Shetland Sheepdog. This past Saturday, we had to put Whisper down. So for the first time in 17 years, we don't have a dog in the house. I'm not telling you this to gain your sympathy. However, your thoughts and well wishes are appreciated. I'm telling you this because it's essential to what I want to talk about today. I've been running my design business full-time from home for over 15 years. Meaning this is the first time I'm working without a canine companion by my side. I'm recording this on Friday. It's been six days without a dog; five of them have been workdays. And already, I notice how it's affecting me. I'm not talking about feeling sad that Whisper is gone. I mean, yes, I'm sad. But that's not the effect to which I'm referring. I'm talking about my work habits and how things have changed in just a few short days. For those of you who are not pet owners, let me paint a picture for you of a day in the life of a dog dad. Or at least the way it was for me. Every morning after my wife left for work; I would feed the Whisper. She would get all excited as I prepared her dish and then gobble up all the kibble once I put it down. Then I would go about my morning routine to get ready for my day. Once done, and enough time had passed, I put the dog out. Sometimes I would go outside with her, and sometimes not. I would use this time with our previous dogs to take them for a walk around the block. But Whisper had medical issues that prevented her from walking for long distances. She was content to mosey around the backyard at her own pace. When she was ready to come in, she would bark. At that point, it was time for me to get to work. Sometimes, later in the morning, she would bark to go outside again. I'd get up from my computer, walk to the back door and put her out before returning to work, keeping an ear out for when she barks to come back in. At lunchtime, after eating my meal, I would often go outside with her to walk around. Shetland Sheepdogs are herding dogs, so I would walk around the backyard or sometimes around the house in random patterns, and Whisper would slowly follow me. I would do this for half an hour or so before coming back inside to work. Then, sometime around 3 pm, which was doggie snack time, Whisper would let me know she wanted a treat. I'd get up from my computer, go to the kitchen and select one of the many varieties of goodies we had for her. I'd make her do some small trick to earn the reward, give her the treat, and then put her out again. Once she was back inside, I was pretty good for the rest of the day until my wife got home. That was pretty well my daily routine. But this past week, without Whisper to take care of, things changed a lot. After my wife left in the morning, I got ready and immediately got to work. I sat at my computer until 12 to 12:30, when I finally got up to eat. I spent maybe 15-20 minutes preparing and consuming my lunch before going straight back to work until my wife came home. This was my new routine every day this week. In fact, except for a quick appointment on Tuesday, where I was back home within the hour. I have not stepped foot outside my house this week. I know that many designers are introverts, myself included. And you may think the idea of not going out sounds great. But it's not sustainable. At least not if you want to remain healthy. On Wednesday, when my wife got home, she commented on what a beautiful day it was. I hadn't realized it. I don't even know if I looked out the window throughout the day. Now I don't know if this is because of the extra workload I currently have. I've taken on several new projects this month, and it's caused me to fall a bit behind on my design work. And this past week has been exceedingly hectic. I'm hoping that's all it is because I'm already seeing the effects after just one week. I've been trying to lose weight. My blood pressure is a bit elevated, and I'm hoping that losing some weight will help get it back under control. And yet, when I weighed myself this morning, I was 3.25 KG or just over 7 lbs heavier than I was at this time last week. So not only did I gain weight this week. But I gained more this past week than I have any other week over the past year. I know my eating habits haven't changed. If anything, I ate less this past week because I wasn't grabbing snacks throughout the day whenever I got up from my computer. But my activity level sure has gone down. It wasn't like I was doing heavy cardio before. But no longer getting up from my computer a few times a day or spending 30 minutes walking around the yard with Whisper shows its effect. And I need to change things and change them fast. Yes, we will eventually get a new dog. But until then, I'm going to have to consciously make an effort to get up and move throughout the day. Maybe it's paying closer attention to my Apple Watch will help. It reminds me every so often to stand up. But I long ago conditioned myself to ignore that prompt. I know I can turn it off in the settings if I don't want to see it, but that defeats the good intentions even if I don't follow through. But I have to do something. If I don't, I'm afraid the time and effort I've put into losing the weight I have so far will have been for naught. This adds one more reason for me to look forward to our next dog. But this isn't just about me. You may be in a similar situation. If you're lucky, you have a dog to remind you to get up and move from time to time. But if not. What are you doing to motivate yourself to do so? There are many ways isolation can take a toll on you both physically and mentally. I talked about them back in episode 105. But until this past week, I had never experienced this sedentary lifestyle. At least not to this extent. And there's a danger in that. As home-based designers, we need to take responsibility for our health and well-being. And that includes a certain amount of activity during your day. Seeing that jump on the scale this morning emphasized this problem for me. It's only been a week. What if I had waited a month before weighing myself? How bad would the damage have been then? Is it possible that the scale would have gone up even if I was still following my routine of taking care of Whisper? Sure, it's possible. But I'm not too fond of the coincidence. You need to sacrifice a lot of yourself if you want to run a successful design business. There's your time, of course. There are also your relationships with family and friends that may suffer to an extent. Your sanity may take a toll, depending on the clients you work with, and so on. But that investment in your business shouldn't come at the cost of your health. I didn't realize how the little bit of activity I did each day could add up. Or the effects of eliminating that activity would have on me. And I'm glad it only took me a week to realize it. Now that I know. I can remedy it. As soon as I finish this, I plan on going for a walk around the block. It looks like a nice day outside, so I might as well take advantage of it. But what are you doing to help yourself? How many hours do you spend at your computer or workstation without getting up? What can you do to increase your daily activity level? It doesn't take much, you know. So make an effort. Whatever you're doing now, try to do more tomorrow, the next day and so on. Because the healthier you are, the longer you'll be around to run your design business. So it will pay off in more ways than one. I don't have the one true answer to this question. I wish I did. Every person, including you, has to find their solution to this problem. But it should be searching for something. And if you do have a solution that works for you, please share it with me. Let me know how do you remind yourself to stay active, especially during the workday. Please send me a message.

Which personality do you use most often? Let me ask you a question. Does being a designer, either graphic, web, UX, UI or whatever, qualify you to run your own design business? Some people may say yes. After all, are there any differences between designing something for an employer or an employer's clients and designing something for your own clients? Not really. I'll concede that the design skills you use are the same in both instances. However, just because the design skills are the same doesn't qualify a designer to run their own design business. Does education play into it? Is someone who attended design school somehow more qualified to run their own design business than someone who learned their skills on their own? The school-taught designer may have some business credits under their belt. But arguably, educational background or lack thereof doesn't qualify or disqualify a designer from running their own business. No, in my opinion, and I do understand that my opinion may be wrong, but it's still my opinion. Is that what differentiates a designer who is qualified to run their own design business and one who isn't is their personality. Or, more accurately, personalities. Last week, I told you there were two roles to running a design business: a designer and a business owner. That's a very simplified approach, and it worked for last week's episode. But the truth of the matter is, there are way more than just two roles to running a successful design business. To do it right, you need to have many personalities. And I'm not just talking about the obvious ones. Layout artist Typesetter Proofreader Illustrator Colour picker Photo retoucher Coder Art director and so on and so on. Being a designer means you should be somewhat proficient or have a working knowledge of some if not all of these skills. I'm not an illustrator. But that doesn't mean I can't draw. I can; I'm just not that good at it. My drawing skills are marginal at best. But they've gotten me out of several pinches over the years. Skills like these are something every designer needs to be acquainted with, regardless of whether they are working for someone else or self-employed. When I say that a design business owner has to have many personalities, I'm thinking much deeper. In most situations, a self-employed or freelance designer will develop a much deeper relationship with their clients than someone employed as a designer. That relationship is deeper because it's their client. When I used to work at the print shop, I worked with many regular clients. Most of them I got along with exceptionally well. But regardless of how well we worked together, they weren't my clients. They were the print shop's clients. When I left the print shop to start my own full-time design business, almost all of the clients I worked with remained there and were assigned a new designer to work with them. Only a handful of clients followed me to my new business. And you know what? The relationship we had formed at the print shop grew exponentially once they were MY CLIENTS. Why did our relationship grow? It's because I was invested in those clients in a way that I never was at the print shop. For one thing, when I was at the print shop, if something went wrong with a client's project, I might get some of the blame. But it's the print shop's reputation that took the major hit. And if something went right, for example, if a design won an award which happened on several occasions. The designer would get a mention, but the print shop got most of the recognition and glory. Once I was on my own, and they became my clients, I was much more invested in them because anything that went wrong reflected directly on me, which could affect my business. And anything that went right meant more recognition for me. But I'm starting to drift back towards the design part of the job. And once again, that part can be done by any designer. The business side, however, that side requires something special. It requires the designer to put their many personalities to use, building and strengthening the relationships with their clients. You're probably wondering what the heck I'm talking about. So let me describe some of the many personalities a design business owner must-have. Psychologist. Just like how a practicing psychologist is trained to assess and diagnose problems in thinking, feeling and behaviour to help people overcome or manage their problems. A freelance designer must do the same with their clients. It's your job to assess and diagnose and find a way to overcome the problems your clients are facing. In many cases, the problems your clients think they are facing may not be the actual problem. You must use your psychology skills to weed through and decipher everything the client tells you to figure out the root of the real problem. Only then can you offer them the proper solution. Many designers will give a client what they want. It would be best if you strived to do better by giving the client not what they want but what they need. Your psychologist personality can help you with that. Mediator. A mediator's job is to facilitate a conversation between two or more people to help them resolve a dispute. A mediator is trained to establish and maintain a safe, confidential, communicative process and help participants reach an agreement independently. If you've ever had to present a proposal to a committee, I can almost guarantee that your mediator personality was front and centre. As a mediator, your job is to ensure that all involved parties agree on how a project proceeds. This may involve getting clients to compromises on specific aspects of a project and convincing them to let go of particular ideas. Without this agreement between all parties, any design project will struggle. It's your job as the designer to ensure that everyone is satisfied. Your mediator personality can help you with that. Negotiator. As the mediator, a negotiator's job is to communicate with clients to negotiate and establish sales. All while building positive relationships in the process. Your negotiator skills will come in especially handy when pitching larger projects. A client may love your ideas, but not so much the price tag associated with those ideas. As a negotiator, it's your job to show the client why your proposal is worth the investment on their part. And should the price of a project remain a deciding factor, your negotiating skills will allow you to cut back on details of your proposal in a way that still satisfies the client's needs and, more importantly, meet the client's budget. Your negotiator personality can help you with that. Salesperson. A salesperson's job is to find prospective clients, identify their challenges and needs, and ultimately find them a solution. Any time you correspond with a potential new client, it's your salesperson personality that's talking. This personality's job is to build trust and ultimately convince a potential client of the benefits of working with you. This personality is the one that should be front and center any time you are out networking or any time someone asks what you do for a living or inquires about your business and services. The more adept you are with your salesperson personality, the more successful your design business will be. Babysitter. You usually think of a babysitter as someone in charge of taking care of someone else's child or children. Their responsibilities include making sure the children are safe, getting the care and attention they deserve, and adhering to their parent's standards. Think of the assets a client bestows you as their children. Because in a way, they are. Their logo, their images, their brand assets and styling, are all entrusted to you. You are responsible for ensuring they are taken care of, kept safe, get the attention they deserver, and adhere to the client's standards. In some cases, you are the one who developed those standards. But often enough, you will be entrusted with your client's "children" and expected to take care of them. Your babysitter personality better be up to the task. Researcher. A researcher's job is to collect, organize, analyze, and interpret data and opinions, explore issues, solve problems and predict trends. Sound familiar? If you've ever held a discovery meeting with a client or have investigated a client's target market and competition, you were using your researcher personality. Nurturing this personality is crucial to your growth as a designer and as a business owner. The more you can learn about your clients, their strengths and weaknesses, the markets they're in, the hurdles and challenges they face, the competition they're up against, the benefits they offer and how they can differentiate themselves, the better equipped you will be to do your job. Not to mention the higher prices you'll be able to charge. It was Abraham Lincoln who said, "If I only had an hour to chop down a tree, I would spend the first 45 minutes sharpening my axe." Think of research as that first 45 minutes. The better you do it, the easier the rest of your tasks will be. That's where your researcher's personality comes in. Educator. A teacher is someone who instructs. Their job is to ensure someone knows the outcome of whatever it is they are teaching. An educator, on the other hand, is someone who gives intellectual, moral and social instructions. In other words, an educator not only wants you to know the outcome, but they also want you to understand the reasons for the outcome. It's the difference between telling a client their idea won't work and explaining why a different approach might be a better option. The more you can educate a client in how design works, the better they will become as clients. Not only that, but the more you educate your clients, the higher they'll regard and trust your opinions. Don't teach them; educate them if you want to build a deep and lasting relationship with your clients. They'll thank you, or should I say your educator personality, for the knowledge. Many more personalities. I could go on and on. There are so many personalities involved with running a design business. Some days you may have to be a coach and some days a councillor. You regularly need to be a tactician to keep on track of your ever-evolving schedule. And at times, you become an advisor or consultant to your clients. And if you're lucky, a confidant. Now, of course, you don't actually switch between one personality and another. they should all be present in some capacity in every client dealing you have. They're what make you who you are. Your goal should be to nurture each one of these personalities to become the best, most rounded design business owner you can be. With all of these personalities behind you, you become a force to be reckoned with. And clients will be begging to work with you. I started by saying that what qualifies a designer to run their own business are these many personalities. And I hinted that designers who work for someone else might lack these personalities and therefore not make good design business owners. But that's not true. I believe everyone has these and many more personalities within them. It's only a matter of accessing and nurturing them. Just like a muscle, if you don't use it, it will atrophy. So will these personalities. If you work at an agency and someone else deals with the clients while you do the design work, you'll have little chance to practice your selling skills. You'll probably never get an opportunity to negotiate with a client or mediate a committee. I want you to be aware that these are skills you will need should you ever want to become a freelancer. And if you are not used to using these skills, you may have a difficult time at the start. But just like a muscle, the more you work it, the stronger it becomes. And it's the same for running a design business. The more you work at it, the better you'll become. After all, you have to start somewhere. And that's where your optimist personality comes in.

As a freelance designer, you will face peaks and valleys while running your business. I've said it before, and I'll repeat it. There's nothing better than working for yourself. From deciding who you want to work with to how much you want to charge for your work. Being your own boss is, well, liberating. As your own boss, you get to set your own hours. Want to waste time during the day and work at night? That's your prerogative. Feel like getting away for a few days? Go ahead. You don't need permission to take time off. When you're working for yourself, you get to chose where and how you want to work. If you feel like spending the day at a coffee shop working away on your laptop, you can. If you feel like hunkering down at home to avoid all distractions, go for it. As a self-employed designer, a freelancer if you will, you have the freedom to make your destiny. I don't think there's any better career than that. However, I will give kudos to one aspect of working as a design employee for someone else—a steady paycheque. With all the restrictions, limitations and handholding that may come with being an employee, the one bright light is the knowledge that every week or two, on schedule, a predetermined amount of money gets deposited into your bank account. This money shows up regardless of how busy or not busy you were. This steady paycheque may be the only way that being a designer trumps being a freelancer. It's true. As a self-employed designer, a freelancer, you never know when or where you'll get your next payment. Nor how much it will be. And that can cause a lot of stress in your life, especially if you are the primary breadwinner in your household. Because even though your income may be unpredictable, your monthly expenses are not. They show up right on schedule regardless of the balance in your bank account. I wish I could tell you there's a simple solution to this dilemma, but there isn't. Ask any self-employed designer, and they'll let you know of their experiences navigating these peaks and valleys. Peaks when work, and of course income is in abundance. And valleys when they become scarce. There is no solution if you want to remain a freelancer. However, there are ways to mitigate the problem so peaks and valleys even out over time. Here's what's worked for me and some other methods I've heard work for other designers. Recurring revenue. Recurring revenue is as it sounds. It's revenue (or income) that recurs regularly. Retainer agreements. The best way to acquire recurring revenue is by offering a retainer to your clients. I talked about retainer agreements in episode 32 of the podcast and again in episode 255. The gist of a retainer agreement is offering an ongoing service to your clients that they pay for regularly. In some cases, you may have to sacrifice some income for the guarantee of this recurring revenue. For example, If your hourly rate is $100, you may want to offer a retainer where, if a client guarantees to pre-purchase 10 hours of your time per month, you'll only charge them $90/hr for them. Or if a client asks you to design social media posts regularly. You could offer a retainer agreement where they guarantee to pay a fixed fee for a certain number of graphics every month. Since retainer agreements are guaranteed recurring revenue, they act as a regular paycheck similar to what you'd get as a design employee. Some designers work exclusively on retainer agreements, allowing them to predict how much money they earn each month. There's a lot more to retainer agreements than just this. I suggest you listen to episodes 32 and 255 of the podcast if you want to learn more about them. But suffice it to say, retainer agreements are a great way to even out the peaks and valleys. Website maintenance agreements. Another form of recurring revenue if you're a web designer is to offer a website maintenance agreement. A website maintenance agreement states that you will secure, update and take care of a client's website for a fixed monthly fee. It's kind of an insurance polity for their website. Website maintenance agreements require very little time and effort on your part and offer peace of mind to your clients. Selling digital products. Another form of recurring revenue, although not as steady or predictable as retainer agreements or maintenance agreements, is selling digital goods and products. You are a designer, a creative visionary. Why not use the design skills you offer your clients and put them to use for yourself? There are many platforms such as Creative Market or Design Cuts where you sell your creative wares. These offerings are available for purchase by other creatives and people who need certain assets but may not have the skills to create them themselves. I've created dozens of designs that I sell on various print-on-demand platforms. I get paid any time someone buys a t-shirt, coffee mug, phone case or sticker with one of my designs on it. This is another form of a digital product. For me, it's not enough to make a living. At least not with my few dozen designs I sell. But every month, I receive anywhere between $70 - $120 for my designs. Some of them I created years ago, and I'm still collecting money from them. And I'm sure if I dedicated the time to make more of these designs regularly, I could generate a more considerable recurring income. To learn more about selling digital products, listen to episode 155 of the podcast, where I talked about this exact topic with Tom Ross, the founder of Design Cuts. So, all in all, recurring revenue is a great way to even out the peaks and valleys you'll encounter as a freelance designer. Promote when you're busy. There are other things you can do to help ease the peaks and valleys situation. One of the best pieces of advice I've ever heard is "Promote your business when you're busy." It's a case of don't wait until you're thirsty to dig a well. It sounds crazy. When you're pulling your hair out because you have too many projects on the go and deadlines quickly approaching, the last thing on your mind is drumming up more work. But believe it or not, that's precisely the time you should be promoting your business. Why? Because marketing takes time to germinate. The more you promote your business while you're busy and experiencing one of those peaks in workload, the less deep the valleys will be that you'll have to navigate once the work rush dies down. If you do this right, you may be able to raise those lulls to the point where instead of peaks and valleys, you'll be cruising across an even plain. I know what you're thinking. If I'm that busy, how will I find the time to promote my design business? To that, let me say: Promoting your design business doesn't require a massive advertising campaign. All it takes is sending off a few emails to idle clients to ask how they're doing and if there's anything you can do for them. It doesn't take much. And if you do it right, your peaks and valleys won't be that severe. Draw a salary from your business. There's another way for you to lessen the impact of peaks and valleys. Remember when I said the one benefit of being a design employee is the regular paycheque? Want to know a little secret? You can make yourself a design employee of your own freelance design business and have the best of both worlds. What? No way! Yes, way. I know many designers who do just this. They treat themselves as an employee and draw a regular paycheck from their own business. Here is how it works. All revenue earned from design work, recurring revenue, and selling digital products belongs to your design business. It all goes into a business bank account and gets treated the same way any other company treats its capital assets. From that pool of money, you, the designer, draw a salary. Running your company this way puts the burden of dealing with the peaks and valleys on your business and not on you, the designer. As far as you're concerned, those peaks and valleys even out because you draw the same salary every week regardless of the business' income. This method spreads out your income evenly over time. Let me give you an example. Let's use some round numbers here and say you make your salary $500/week. One week you take on a $1200 web project. That $1200 is deposited into your business's bank account, and from it, you withdraw your weekly $500 salary, leaving $700 in the bank. The following week things are slow, and the only work you get is a $300 poster design. That $300 is deposited into the bank, bringing the balance up to $1000. At the end of the week, you withdraw your $500 salary, which leaves $500 in the business bank account. Enough for your next week's salary should no work come in. Here's the fun part. At any point, as the funds in the business' bank increase, you can always pay yourself a bonus. The other benefit is since the business has this money, it's available for business purchases such as new equipment or subscriptions and doesn't have to come out of your pocket, which lessens the hurt of spending it. I know many designers who use this model. In most cases, those designers run their businesses as LLCs or some other form of corporation. I have my business set up as a sole proprietorship, so it's not easy to separate the business from myself. I even know some designers who use a third-party employee payment service to prevent them from dipping into the business' bank account. The best thing you can do is check with your accountant to see if this is a good model for you. It may offer tax benefits for you as well, especially if your business is incorporated. Raise your rates. The last idea I want to share with you has to do with the rates you charge. Many designers who switch from full-time employment to freelancing use their full-time salary to base their freelance rates. Don't. As a freelancer, you are expected to charge more. If you were making $25/hr working for someone else, you should be charging your clients double or triple or even more for your services. As a self-employed designer, you have to pay for your own benefits. Three are no sick days or vacation pay, or parental leave. You have to make sure you are compensated for the risk of lost income due to anything from medical emergencies to vacations in the tropics. Call the higher rates you charge a form of self-insurance. You should make sure the money you earn today when things are going well will get you through the times when work dries up. You do this by charging enough to make sure your future is covered. Not sure how to raise your rates? Luckily for you, I wrote a blog post on this exact topic. It's up to you to deal with the peaks and valleys of freelancing. These are some ideas for dealing with the peaks and valleys of a freelance income. It may sound daunting and stressful. And knowing about these peaks and valleys may have you thinking that working for someone else is looking more appealing. But if you can learn how to manage the fluctuating income of running your own design business. Chances are you'll not only outearn your employed counterpart. But you'll enjoy greater job security, autonomy and flexibility. A 2018 study by Upwork shows that nearly three-quarters of full-time freelancers report earning more than when they had a full-time job. And 87% are optimistic about their future careers. In fact, more than half of respondents say no amount of money would get them to switch back to being full-time employees working for someone else. I know that's how I feel. Remember, running your own design business is two jobs–a designer and a business owner. When you're pursuing your passion, it's easy to get caught up in the former and forget about the latter. If all of your focus is on your design work, you're only doing half your job. It's that business owner side that needs to do whatever you can to ensure those inevitable valleys you'll face are not as deep as they could be. You do that by following the advice I just shared with you. One last thing. I've been talking about these valleys as if they are a terrible thing. Something you should try to eliminate if at all possible. But when they do happen, and they will, try to enjoy those slower times. Use them to your advantage. Get out there and network. Contact old clients you haven't heard from in a while. Work on personal projects you've been neglecting. And make sure you use those slow times to work on your business. You know, all the things you told yourself you'd get to one day. Heck, You can even use some of that slow time to relax and enjoy life. After all, when you're in a valley, it just means there is another peak on the horizon.

Earlier this week, a member of the Resourceful Designer Community was seeking advice. A potential client contacted her asking if she designs book covers, which she does. Before replying to this unknown person, she decided to investigate who they were. She discovered that this potential client is an author. And the subject they write about is something the design is strongly against. The Community member wanted our advice on how to proceed. Should she turn down the client, or should she wait to hear more about the project before deciding? As always, when someone asks a question in the Community, she received lots of great advice. The consensus was she should hear them out before deciding what to do. After all, their new book might not have anything to do with the subject of their previous books. But this posed a bigger question. What reasons are there to turn down a lucrative design project? In episode 133 of Resourceful Designer, I shared 12 Red Flags For Spotting Bad Design Clients. Most of those Red Flags only become visible after you've started working with a client. Stuff such as the client being rude to you or inconsistent communication. In the episode after that one, episode 134, I shared ways to turn away clients politely. It included sample scripts you can copy and paste for yourself. You may want to refer to that episode after you've finished listening to this one. Some of those scripts apply to today's topic. It's one thing to spot the red flags once you've started working with a client. But how can you avoid ever working with them in the first place? And why would you want to turn them down? After all, we're in this business to make money. And when you're first starting, it may seem like a foreign concept to turn down a paying gig. What I can tell you is that after 30+ years of working with design clients, knowing when a client isn't a good fit and how to turn them down becomes a top priority whenever you meet a potential new client. You're better off putting your time and energy into finding better clients to work with. If you're a long-time follower of Resourceful Designer, you've heard me many times before say that you don't work for your clients. You work with them. You need to consider every client relationship as a partnership. At least for the duration of the project. That may be only a couple of days or weeks. But it could also turn into something much longer. So you need to ask yourself every time you meet a potential new client. Is this someone I would like to partner with, yes or no? Reasons why you shouldn't work with a client. There are many reasons why you shouldn't work with a client. Some of them are nefarious reasons. They want you to do the work for "exposure." They have an unreasonable deadline they want you to meet. They undervalue you and want to pay below your regular rate. They're unclear of exactly what they want or need. They're asking you to do something unethical or illegal. They're not comfortable signing a contract. There could also be legitimate reasons for not working with a client. These reasons have nothing to do with the client persé and more with you. You have current obligations to existing clients and don't have time for this new project. The project they're asking you to design conflicts with your values. The services you offer are not a good fit for their project. Their budget is too small. All good reasons to turn down a client. But, ultimately, the biggest contributing factor to whether or not you should work with a client is your gut. Trust your gut. It's seldom wrong. Mike, a founding member of the Resourceful Designer Community, gave the best answer to the original question. Whenever Mike finds himself in a situation where he's uncertain about a potential client, he asks himself three questions. 1. Am I giving up anything that I am more passionate about or that would be more profitable if I choose to take on this new project? Think about that. Any time you say yes to something, it means you're inadvertently saying no to something else. There's always something that has to give, even if it's your personal or family life. If taking on this new project means neglecting another client's project, it may not be a good idea, especially if the existing client's project is more profitable. Likewise, if taking on this project means you're going to lose out on time with your spouse or kids, it may not be a good idea. The extra money may be nice, but is it worth it if all your child remembers is mommy or daddy missed their game, their performance, their school outing? Only you can weigh the options. 2. Will the new project be harmful to others? You may recall a story I've shared on the podcast before. I had a huge client I had worked with for years. They owned many different companies ranging from restaurants to car washes to a telecommunication company. During my time working with them, they ended up acquiring a tobacco company. According to a study by an anti-smoking organization, the biggest demographic increase in smokers was among girls between 12 to 18. My client wanted to use that information to their advantage and asked me to design a poster depicting their cigarettes that would appeal to girls in that age range. I refused. There was no way I was going to be complicit in enticing young girls to start smoking. The client threatened to pull all their work from me and find another designer if I didn't comply. So I fired them. If a design project will be harmful to others. Turn down the job. 3. Will taking on the project jeopardize an existing and valued relationship. Think about that. Are you willing to put an existing client relationship at risk to earn some money from a new client? I hope not. Of course, this one is a bit tricky. There's a fine line between what could jeopardize a relationship and what wouldn't. To some, having two clients who are competitors might not be a good idea. To others, it's not an issue. In my opinion, the best way to interpret this third point is on moral grounds. For example, a designer with ties to the health industry may not want to take on a design project that discourages people from getting vaccinated. It's not worth jeopardizing that relationship. It's up to you. I encourage you to copy down and remember Mike's three rules. Am I giving up anything that I am more passionate about or that would be more profitable if I choose to take on this project? Will the new project be harmful to others? Will taking on the project jeopardize an existing and valued relationship. If a project fails any of these three criteria, it's not worth taking on. Brian, another member of the Resourceful Designer Community, also had a good suggestion. If a project is something you would be ashamed to have on your monitor if a child walked by, then it's not worth taking. I'll add to Brian's statement by saying if it's not something you would want to tell your mother you're working on, then maybe you should take a pass. Should you ever find yourself having to turn down a client or a project. Remember to look at episode 134 of Resourceful Designer, where I shared different scripts you can use depending on your situation.

We're lucky that we chose a profession where confidence beats knowledge. Before I dive deeper into that, we first have to look at what confidence is. According to disctionary.com, Confidence is the belief in oneself and one's powers or abilities. Confidence is what's center stage when you say, "I can do this." Confidence is what's driving you when you say, "I can figure this out." Confidence is the ladder you climb when you say, "I can succeed." Without confidence, your goals, your intentions, your ambitions might as well be called dreams. Because that's all they'll ever be if you don't believe in yourself and your abilities. I fully believe that without confidence, you cannot succeed as a design business owner. I'm not talking about being a designer. Many designers lack confidence in themselves. I know and have worked with designers who fall into that category. I'm talking about running your own design business. Being a freelancer if that's what you want to call yourself. But I digress. Confidence. If you want to succeed in this business, you need confidence. But what about knowledge? Don't you need knowledge to succeed? That's a trick question. The definition of knowledge, according to dictionary.com, is an acquaintance with facts, truths, or principles, as from study or investigation. Acquaintance. What an interesting word to use. Most of the time, when you think of acquaintances, you think of people you know of but don't necessarily know. I consider Betty, the cashier at the grocery store I go to, as an acquaintance. She knows me by name, and we exchange pleasantries whenever I'm in her checkout line. If we run into each other in town, we'll smile at each other and say hi, but that's the extent of our interaction. We're acquaintances. Merriam-Webster defines knowledge as The fact or condition of being aware of something. Being aware of something? According to this dictionary meaning, that's all that's required to have knowledge. So, according to two reputable sources on the meaning of all things. Knowledge doesn't mean intimately knowing something. It just means being acquainted or aware of something. When you think of the definition in that way, you realize that you don't actually need to know something to succeed. What you need is confidence in your ability to seek knowledge. And that's why confidence beats knowledge. Now don't get me wrong. There are plenty of times when knowledge trumps confidence. If I'm about to have surgery, yes, I want a confident surgeon, but I hope their knowledge of the procedure they're about to perform supersedes that confidence. If I'm about to take a trip, I'm less interested in how confident the pilot is and more concerned that they know how to fly a plane. But when it comes to design or to run a design business, confidence beats knowledge. You probably don't remember, but there was a time in your life when you were very young when you didn't know how to walk. You crawled around on all fours. Or maybe you were one of those butt dragging babies. Regardless, one day, after spending your entire life so far on the ground, you got up and walked. At one time, you didn't know how to ride a bike. Then one day, you did. You didn't know how to swim. Then one day, you did. This applies to hundreds, or should I say thousands of accomplishments in your life. You didn't know how to do something until you did. I remember when my kids were young. Any time they would get frustrated and say, "I can't do it," I would calmly correct them by saying, "It's not that you can't do it. You just don't know how to do it yet." And once they learned, I would remind them how they felt before their accomplishment. But what does Confidence beets Knowledge mean? It means that you don't need to know how to do something before taking on the task of doing it. You just need to be confident that you'll figure it out. I admit I didn't always feel this way. Back in 2006, I was approached by our local library to design a new website. They had heard good things about me from several people and had decided I was the one they wanted to work with. This was going to be a huge project. In fact, I was a bit intimidated when I found out their budget for the website was $50,000. That was more than I made in a year back then. The library wanted their new website to be connected to their catalogue of books. They wanted visitors to the website to tell what books they carry, if they were available for loan or already checked out. And if the latter, when they would be back. They also wanted members to be able to reserve books for pickup and put holds on books. All the typical things you expect of a library's website today. But in 2006, not many libraries had integrated catalogues on their website. I knew enough about websites to know that it was way beyond my capabilities. At that time, I was hand-coding websites in HTML and CSS. However, this website would require a database and therefore PHP and MySQL. The problem was, I didn't know PHP or MySQL. And even though I tried to learn it in a hurry, I just couldn't wrap my brain around the concept. Where HTML and CSS were so easy for me. PHP left me stumped. No matter how many books I read or courses I took, I just couldn't grasp it. Maybe it was the pressure I was under to learn it quickly to start on the website. I don't know. But in the end, I gave up. Now you may be thinking, you gave it a good shot, Mark, but at least you could hire someone to do the coding for you. Well… I kick myself to this day for not thinking of that. No, that's not right. I did think of it. I just didn't have the confidence back then to follow through. I didn't know what to do. I realized I didn't have the skills required for the project, but I didn't know how to find someone to help me. I knew what I needed to do but not the confidence to follow through. Upwork's former halves Elance and oDesk were around back then, but I wasn't aware of them or any other online platform I could turn to. So, backed into a corner, I did the only thing I thought I could do. I contacted the library and told them I couldn't take on the project. I turned down a $50,000 job. Several months later, their new website was up and running, I talked to my contact at the library, and he told me who they had hired to do the job. I was taken aback. I knew the person they hired. And I also believed their knowledge of web design wasn't much more than mine. So how did they pull it off? I ran into them shortly after that and asked them. You guessed it, they created the design look for the site but had hired someone to do the actual coding. It cost them $12,000 to hire a developer to complete the site for them. Presuming they were being paid the same $50,000 I had been offered, that meant they made $38,000 just for designing the look of the website. And I lost out on that money because of my lack of confidence. That lesson taught me a lot. 1) I was an idiot for not thinking of hiring someone myself. But most importantly 2) I lacked confidence from the moment I was presented with the website project. I figured I didn't have the knowledge and, therefore, couldn't handle the job. If I wanted to succeed in this business, I would need to rectify that. I would need to be more confident in what I could get done. Since that fateful day, I have never turned down a job for lack of knowledge. When a client asks me if I can do something that I'm unsure of or flat out don't know how to do. I answer them with confidence that I can get the job done. And then I figure out either how to do it or who to hire to do it for me. Confidence beats knowledge. Be your own guinea pig. It's great to be able to hire a contractor when you need one. We're lucky that there are so many options with good talented people available to us. But nothing beats learning how to do something yourself. You know that old saying, give a man a fish, and he'll eat for a day. Teach a man to fish, and he'll eat for a lifetime. Providing he likes fish, that is. But the same concept applies to us as designers. I love hiring contractors to help me. But given the opportunity, I would much prefer to learn the skill and do the job myself. There are ways you can do just that while working on client jobs. Not sure how to do something the client is asking for? Chances are there's a blog article or YouTube video that will walk you through it. But sometimes, it's a good idea to be your own guinea pig. If you've been following Resourceful Designer for a while, you know that I design websites in WordPress. Specifically using the Divi Builder from Elegant Themes. However, I just told you how I was hand-coding websites for clients. I remember in the early 2010s, fellow web designers telling me I should try WordPress. But I had a strong aversion to WordPress. To me, the fact that WordPress used predesigned themes was an afront to designers. There was no way I would build a website for a client using someone else's design. But in 2013, I was getting into podcasting and was told that I needed a WordPress website to generate the RSS feed for the show. Very reluctantly, I installed WordPress and bought a theme called Evolution from Elegant Themes. This was before they came out with Divi. In fact, the friend who was helping me get started in podcasting had an affiliate link to Elegant Themes. Hence, as a way to repay him for his kindness, I bought a lifetime deal through his link, even though I only needed one theme and had no plans on building any WordPress websites beyond my own. That decision to buy the lifetime deal may have changed the course of my life—more on that in a moment. So I built my WordPress website and had to admit that there was a lot more flexibility in it than I originally believed. The theme did restrain me somewhat, but at least I could control how each part of it looked, even if I had no control over the layout itself. That was in June of 2013. December of that same year, Elegant Themes released Divi. And it changed my view of WordPress. Since I had a lifetime deal with Elegant Themes, it cost me nothing to test Divi out. I installed it on a dummy site I didn't care about and really liked how it worked. Divi was a game-changer. Here was a theme that gave me full control over how each element of a website looked and how each element was placed out on the screen. I could make a website look like how I wanted it to look. Not like how some theme designer wanted it to look. The next time I had a client website project to work on, I used my newfound confidence in my ability to make WordPress work for me and switched to WordPress and Divi. And I haven't looked back. If I hadn't used myself as a guinea pig and tested out WordPress on my own website and then Divi on a dummy site, I probably never would have made the switch to what I do today. Since then, there have been many times when I used myself as a guinea pig to test things and build my confidence. Be it new software or new features in existing software. Offering services I had previously never offered. Taking on projects I had never done before. Working on stuff for myself gave me the confidence to then use those skills on client work. Even today. I recently started building a website for a personal project I'm doing. And even though I've been a devoted Divi fan since day one, I decided to build my new website using Elementor. Why? Because I know the day will come when a client will ask me to take over a website built using Elementor. So why not get my feet wet on a project of my own choosing. So When the time comes, I'll have a better understanding of what I'm working with. So all of this to say, without confidence, I don't believe you can get very far as a design business owner. It's nice to have the knowledge, but confidence in yourself and what you do with that knowledge will propel you. Look at any successful freelancer you know, and you'll see that they exude confidence. That's the secret to their success. Confidence always beats Knowledge. Or at least, almost always. Tip of the week Let me ask you a question, is an email a contract? Last month, a Mississippi court took up an interesting case looking at what it takes to make a contract by email. Spoiler Alert: Not Much. As you know, a contract is just another word to describe an agreement. So when you exchange emails with someone and come to terms on a deal you both agree on, you ARE making a contract. In the Mississippi court case, the two parties had done just that... agreed on terms for the sale of some equipment in a series of emails. Now here's the tricky part. One of the parties, Jordan, had proposed the initial offer from his computer's email, which included his name and contact details in the signature. The other party, Parish, then countered the offer. But when responding to the counteroffer, Jordan used his iPhone to seal the deal with a "Let's do it." reply. The trouble is that the message had no signature from his iPhone other than "Send from iPhone." Jordan later sold the goods to another buyer at a higher price. Parish sued for breach of contract, but Jordan claimed that there was no valid signature to his email and, therefore, the exchange was not enforceable as an agreement. The trial court agreed, and an appeals court affirmed. But the Mississippi Supreme Court found the state's Uniform Electronic Transactions Act (UETA) permitted contracts to be formed by electronic means such as emails. Then, the Court stated that the determination of whether an email was electronically signed according to the UETA was a question of fact that turned on a party's intent to adopt or accept the writing and is, therefore, a question for the finder of facts. So, because there exists a genuine factual question about Jordan's intent, the Court reversed and remanded for further proceedings. Anyway. That's a lot of legal talks. But the takeaway is. Emails can be the basis for an enforceable contract. So be careful in wording your messages. Even something as simple as "sounds good" could be deemed sufficient to bind you. If you consider your emails merely preliminary to a formal, written contract on paper, SAY SO. Add something to the signature of your emails, such as "this email message is preliminary and shall not constitute a binding agreement, which may only be made in a formal, written memorandum executed by all parties." Adding a simple line like this can save you a lot of trouble should a client ever try to hold you accountable for something mentioned in an email. It makes you think.

I'm happy to announce that this week is, in fact, the final part of my Psychology of Pricing series, where I share research-proven tactics to make the most out of the prices you display. If you haven't listened to the previous parts in this series, I suggest you go back and do so before continuing with this one. I'll still be here once you're done. These pricing tactics are great to use in your design business. But the real gem here is they can make you look like a pricing guru to your clients. Imagine improving their conversion rate simply by manipulating the way you display their prices. They'll be throwing money at you. As in the previous episodes. All of these tactics I'm sharing come from Nick Kolenda. Specifically, an article on his website nickkolenda.com titled appropriately enough The Psychology of Pricing. The Psychology Of Pricing - Part 6 In the previous five parts of this series, I shared various ways to manipulate how a price is displayed to improve sale conversions. In this last part of the series, I'm going to share how to use discounts properly. According to Nick, if not used properly, discounts can actually harm your business. In fact, some people suggest you should never use discounts. That may be a bit extreme. Discounts can prove useful if you know how to use them properly. But how can offering a discount backfire? For one, if you offer discounts too frequently, customers will become more price-conscious and wait for the next discount. Offering discounts can also lower the reference price of a product. I've talked about reference prices in previous parts of this series and how they create the bar by which consumers judge other prices. Offering a discount can lower the reference price, causing people to purchase less in the future when the price seems too high. So reducing the frequency and depth of discounts helps. But there are a few other tactics you can put to use that will help you as well. Tactic 46: Follow the "Rule of 100." In a previous episode, I shared how people can perceive different magnitudes for the same price, depending on the context. For example, changing the words that appear next to a price from "High Performance" to "Low Maintenance" can reduce the magnitude of the price, making it appear smaller. Discounts are no different. When offering a discount, you want to maximize the perceived size of the discount so that people feel like they are getting a better deal. Consider a pair of pants selling for $50. Which discount seems like a better deal: 20% off or $10 off? If you do the math, you'll see that the discounts are the same. But at first glance, 20% off has the advantage by seemingly being larger than $10 off. That's where the "Rule of 100" comes in. If the price you are discounting is under $100, you should always offer the discount as a percentage. Saving 10% off a $20 item sounds much better than saving $2 off a $20 item. Don't you agree? However, as soon as the price you are discounting goes above $100, you should switch to an absolute price discount instead of a percentage. So for a $250 item, offering $25 off creates a higher perceived magnitude than offering 10% off. Tactic 47: Mention the Increase From the Discounted Price. This tactic also relies on magnitude. When a price is reduced, the emphasis is placed on the decrease—Now, 20% Off. However, a way to once again increase the perceived magnitude of the discount is by reversing the way you announce it. Instead of saying "Now 20% Off," try something like "Was 25% higher." It will make it more persuasive because it shows a higher numeral. Tactic 48: Provide a Reason for the Discount. To maximize the effectiveness of a discount, explain why you are offering it. For example, stores may offer a discount because of inventory surplus. Or maybe it's to clear out outdated stock. Clothing retailers do this all the time. When the new season's fashions arrive, the previous season's inventory goes on sale. Or perhaps you can say you are passing on a discount you received from the supplier. Wal-Mart does this all the time with their Rollback pricing. It conveys the message that the cost savings they are receiving are being passed on to the customer. If you offer print brokering as one of your design services, you may be able to increase orders by passing on any discount your printer offers you. By providing a reason for the discount, you reinforce that this is a temporary or provisional thing. This will make it less likely for people to latch onto the discounted price as a reference price. And make it more likely to pounce on the discount before it's gone. Tactic 49: Offer Discounts in Round Numbers. I don't even know why this one is on the list. If you recall, specific prices, such as $21.87, seem smaller than rounded prices. Keeping that in mind, you should follow the opposite approach for discounts by using round numbers since they appear larger. Using round numbers as discounts also makes it easier for customers to calculate the discount. As I said, I don't know why this one is on the list. I don't think I've ever seen someone offer a non-rounded discount. Have you ever seen a store advertise something like "Save $8.67"? No, it's either save $8 or $9. I can say about this tactic that you should try to ensure that discounts are easy to compute. You don't want to confuse people by offering a 23% discount on a price of $37.89. If they need to take out their calculator to figure out how much they are saving, you are missing the point. Tactic 50: Give Two Discounts in Ascending Order This is useful for those occasions when more than one discount is applied. Say, for example, a store offering 20% off all purchases, including already discounted items. A 1979 study showed that offering two combined discounts is often preferred to a single lump sum discount. Saving 20% off an already discounted item by 10% seems like a better deal than if the item was marked at 30% off. Whenever possible, arrange these discounts in ascending order. So 10% off, then 30% off. a 2019 study showed that this creates an ascending momentum, making the total discount seem larger. Tactic 51: Offer Discounts Towards The End Of The Month. Remember that Pain of Paying thing? Well, as your budget gets smaller, paying for things becomes more painful. You're more likely to buy a product and be more satisfied with your purchase when you have more money in your budget. Offering discounts towards the end of the month, as monthly budgets are nearing exhaustion, is more effective because people seek ways to save money. Bonus Tip: If you have clients who offer free trials, you may suggest they do so at the beginning of the month. Because people have a full budget at the beginning of the month, the offer of a free trial will seem more appealing to them. Of course, this assumes the consumer uses a monthly budget. You should always consider the target customer and plan your promotions accordingly. Tactic 52: Arrange Discounts in Tiered Amounts. Suppose you or your client launch a promotion where customers save $50 when they spend $200. In this scenario, people need to spend $200 – which might be difficult for some people to imagine. To make this discount more enticing, you need to strengthen the mental imagery of spending $200. How? By offering tiered discounts. Such as... $50 off when you spend $200 $25 off when you spend $150 $10 off when you spend $50 $5 off when you spend $30 A customer might struggle to imagine spending the full $200 to get the biggest discount. However, spending $30 to get $5 off is easy to imagine. And this is the brilliance of this tactic. Once a client can imagine spending $30, it becomes much easier to imagine spending $50. Then it becomes easier to imagine spending $150 and finally $200. You provide a sequence of images that transform that highest threshold into a feasible reality by offering tiers. This is the same reason the three-tiered pricing system works so well. When clients compare the first price in your three tiers to the second, they realize how much more value the second tier is, even if it's higher than they originally wanted to spend. And once they are entertaining that second tier, the third one doesn't seem like a big stretch, and they may go for it. This tactic might also be used to sell bigger retainer agreements. For example, if you normally charge $100/hour for your design services, you could sell retainer agreements such as this. $70/hour if they buy 20 hours per month. Total $1400 $80/hour if they buy 10 hours per month. Total $800 $95/hour if they buy 5 hours per month. Total $475 Tactic 53: End Discounts Gradually. Traditionally, marketers use two types of pricing strategies: Hi-Lo Pricing, such as putting a $99 product on sale for $79 for a week and then putting the price back to $99 once the sale is over. Alternatively, some use EDLP or the Everyday Low Pricing method. They take a $99 product and list it permanently at $89. A 2010 study found benefits in a new strategy: Steadily decreasing discounts (SDD for short). Instead of dropping a price and then putting it back. This SDD strategy suggests you drop a price and gradually increase it until you're back at the original price. So a $99 product might be discounted to $79 for one week, then $89 for an additional week before returning the price to its original price of $99 on the third week. The researchers found positive outcomes on multiple metrics. This new SDD strategy led to. Higher revenue Higher willingness to pay Greater likelihood of visiting a store. During a 30-week trial, the researchers alternated between the three strategies and found that the SDD method produced the highest overall profit margin. With the SDD method, consumers learned that they had to get to the store early if they wanted the best deal. However, if they could not make it on time, there was still a chance for them to save money before the price returned to full. Tactic 54: Don't Discount Premium Products. Remember at the beginning of this episode when I said that discounts could be harmful. This is especially true when you discount premium (AKA expensive) products. It's harmful because people may choose to hold off on purchasing until there's a new discount when the discount ends. Or worse, they may choose to shop at a competitor. When a discount is retracted on a premium product, demand shifts towards lower-priced products, however, when a discount is retracted on lower-priced products, the demand remains the same. This boils down to that if you are competing on price, it's ok to give discounts. But if you're competing on quality, you should avoid discounts that emphasize price and focus on the attributes and quality of the product. Have you used any of the tactics I've shared in this series? Let me know by leaving a comment for this episode.

This is week five of my Psychology of Pricing series. Where I share research-proven strategies to help the prices you display convert into sales. Some of these pricing tactics work great with your design business, and many of them are perfect for helping your clients get more sales. So if you haven't read or listened to the previous parts in this series, I suggest you do so before continuing with this one. The tactics I'm sharing here are taken from a very in-depth article called The Psychology of Pricing by Nick Kolenda. You can find it on his website. Let's get on with the list. Tactic 35: Place Low Numerals After Right-Facing Digits. As a designer, you know how to create flow in a design. For example, If a person is looking to the right, you want to put their photo on the left of a layout. If they're facing the left, you want them on the right of the layout. This creates flow in the direction you want people to focus on. There are many ways to create flow in a layout besides which direction a person is facing. One of the ways you can do it is with numbers. A 2007 study determined that certain digits face particular directions. 2,3,4,7,9 face the left. 1,8,0 face centre. 5,6 face right. Rightward digits 5 & 6 push attention towards the right. When used in a price, they push attention towards the digits that follow them. Since customers tend to round numbers up or down, you'll want to place a lower number next to a right-facing digit causing customers to round down the price. Conversely, leftward digits, 2,3,4,7 & 9 push the attention towards the left. This means that customers may ignore a large number placed to the right of them. Tactic 36: Insert Alliteration into Prices. Alliteration is the repetition of similar initial sounds within a group of words. Such as Karl craves coconut cookies with a repetitive hard "C" sound. There's something about alliteration that feels good. It feels right. And that feeling can be misattributed towards another context. A 2016 study found that customers were more likely to buy products when alliteration was used. For example, "Two T-Shirts for $20." The repetitive "T" sounds make the purchase feel right. Tactic 37: Use Round Prices in the Right Context. Rounded prices, those that don't display cents, should be used for emotional purchases. Non-rounded prices, those that display cents, should be used for rational purchases. There are three contexts when you should consider using round prices. 1) Emotional Purchase. Because round prices "feel right," they are good for emotional purchases over rational purchases. A 2015 study found that customers prefer buying something such as a bottle of champagne for a rounded price such as $40. Whereas when buying something such as a calculator, they would prefer a non-rounded price of $39.72. 2) Convenience Purchases. Round prices that "feel right" also trigger an "easy" sensation. Making a transaction seem easy and a good choice. A 2016 study found that using round prices on point-of-sale items at a checkout counter increased sales. 3) Social Benefits. Customers prefer round prices for social products. Since round numbers are easily divisible, people confuse numerical connectivity for social connectivity. For example, charging $457.99 for a four-day conference may seem expensive to someone because they see it as a high price for one social benefit. However, charging $400 for a four-day conference makes it easy for people to think of it as $100 per day, which may sound more reasonable to them. Tactic 38: Distinguish the Most Expensive Option. This tactic works great with the three-tiered pricing method when quoting design projects. In a previous part of this series, I said you should sort prices from high to low. But there are ways around that. As designers, you know that design can have a hierarchy. A good designer knows how to lead a viewer's eye from one design section to another in a predefined path. So instead of putting the highest price first, you can achieve the same effect by adding visual distinction to the most expensive option. You see this all the time on websites with pricing pages where one price is highlighted as the "best option." By making something stand out, you set it up to be viewed first, creating a reference price in the viewer's mind. And if that first price they see is the highest priced option. The lower prices will seem much more appealing to them. Tactic 39: Attribute Discounts to Emotional Products. Face it. We like buying emotional products. I mean, nobody needs a cupcake, but that doesn't stop you from wanting one. The problem with emotional purchases is you often feel guilty after you've spent the money. A 2010 study showed that attributing a discounted price to the emotional product reduces the guilt associated with the purchase. For example, a restaurant may sell salads and cupcakes individually for $3 each. But they have a special offer where you can get a salad and cupcake together for only $4. Saving $1 off each item is a great deal. However, they can make the deal seem even more appealing if they word it as buy the two together and save $2 off the cupcake price. Associating the discount with the emotional product, in this case, the cupcake reduces the guilty feeling of buying it. Tactic 40: Encourage Customers to Budget Early. Budgeting is a good thing, right? Well, not always. In fact, budgeting sometimes increases spending. Why is this? Budgeting separates you from your money. It's put away for a specific purchase, and the farther removed it gets, the less pain you feel spending it. A 2021 study showed that students spent more money on a class ring when they budgeted early for it. When a client tells you they don't have the money right now for a website redesign, you could suggest they start budgeting for it now so they can afford it when the time comes. Who knows, you may end up with a bigger project this way. Tactic 41: Make Sales Prices Look Different From Original Prices. A 2005 study showed that adding a visual distinction to a sales price, such as colour, point size and even the font used, increases sales. It's called contrast fluency. It's a trick they often use in infomercials. When an infomercial shows a person struggling with their problem, the colours are usually dull and muted. Then things clear and brighten up when they show the person using the product they're selling. With contrast fluency, your brain misattributes visual distinctions to abstract distinctions: Hmmm, this sales price feels different. Which must mean it's a good deal. Tactic 42: Add Space Between Discounted Prices. A 2009 study showed that placing more space between an original price and the discounted price creates cognitive confusion, causing people to interpret the visual distance for numerical distance. The further apart numbers are visually, the further apart they appear to be numerically. Add space between the original and sale price so that the numerical gap seems larger. Tactic 43: Place Sales Prices Below Original Prices. A 2013 study found that customers perceive a larger discount when the sale price is positioned below the original price. This is because it's easier to subtract two numbers when the larger number is first and the smaller number second. If you don't have enough room to put the sales price below the original price, you can place the sales price to the right of the original price for the same effect. Tactic 44: Reduce Every Digit in the Discounted Price. Unlike words, people read numbers in a digit-by-digit manner. A 2008 study showed that reducing every digit in a sales price increases sales. Suppose the original price is $85; you'll want each digit to be reduced by at least one. So the sales price might be $74. This tactic works great with larger numbers. A product that sold for $9799 might be reduced to $8650. Tactic 45: Offer Discounts With Low Right Digits. When the left digit in both your original and sale price is the same, using a low right digit will make the discount seem larger. For example, if you take two different sales. Item 1: Original price $19–Sale price $18. Item 2: Original price $23–Sale price $22. Even though both items are on sale for $1 off, item 2 seems to offer a larger discount. This is based on numerical cognition. We compare numbers in relative terms. $10 off a $50 product is more appealing than $10 off a $500 product, even though the money you save is the same. This same mental process occurs when you compare small numbers with large numbers. A 2007 study found that because the number 3 is 50% greater than the number 2. It's perceived as a greater gap than the difference between 7 and 8, which is only a %14 difference. Therefore, dropping a number from 3 to 2 seems like a much better deal than dropping from 8 to 7. The same 2007 study showed that even when an actual larger discount was applied to prices with large right digits, people perceived the discount to be less than when a smaller discount was applied to prices with small right digits. It's amazing how the mind works. If you find that hard to comprehend, try looking at it this way. And this is me saying this, not Nick. The way I see it. Numbers between 6-9get rounded up, and numbers between 1-4 get rounded down. Therefore using a low number as your right digit will lower the perceived price. $17 will be rounded up to $20 $13 will be rounded down to $10.