I’m Just Looking For A Ballpark Figure

The job specification might look something like this;

“I’m looking for a website for my new shop. It needs to look stylish, have good SEO.

Please provide a link to your portfolio, and a ballpark price.”

What are you supposed to do? Every piece of advice on pitching for a job says it’s important to answer the questions in the job spec. That’s impossible here, because the spec is so worthless. The only useful piece of information is that the website is for a shop. That means you can make a guess that it’ll need e-commerce option. Stylish and with good SEO? Is there anyone out there requesting dated design and bad SEO?

You have no idea about the scope of the project. A small boutique store, or a large retail outlet? What are they selling? Do they want to sell directly online or use the site as a catalogue? What’s the target audience? There’s a myriad of questions that you need to have answered. There’s no way to provide a reasonable quote without a conversation with the potential client.

…But People Will Be Quoting

The problem is that you know that a lot of responses to that job post will provide a quote. That quote might be way too cheap, or massively expensive. Hell, it might even be spot on. But it’s really a number simply plucked out of the air.

The client may not know that though. They receive an email that says “Hi. We’re a great design company. We can make your site for $1,000.” They also receive your email, “Hi. We’re a great design company. We can’t give you a ballpark figure, we want to talk about things further.”

The first email answers the client’s demand. It  directly refers to their job posting. Your email is already giving excuses and adding conditions. So the client chooses the first design company, and you’re left out in the cold.

If You Can’t Quote, Explain Why

Never tell a client who’s asked for a ballpark figure that you simply need to “discuss matters further”. Worse yet, don’t pitch without referring to their request price at all.

In your initial response, simply and quickly summarize why you aren’t giving a ballpark figure, and what you need to provide one. It can be a pretty fast summary; a ballpark figure would be unfair on the client, you want to refer specifically to their needs, you want them to get the most accurate quote possible. Pitch your explanation to their needs, not yours.

It’ll Still Screw You Sometimes

You’ll still miss out on work if you refuse to provide quotes without more information. I could give you some crap about not wanting to work with a client who asks for a quote so early. That’s not true though. Clients don’t want an inaccurate figure, they just don’t realize the factors necessary to give a realistic price.

Still, better to lose work than tie yourself into a quoted price and find out the project scope is far wider than you thought. The cowboys who throw out a figure to a client based on two sentences will always be there. They can afford to quote and find that the work is far more than they thought; if they’re cowboys then they’ll just leave the job unfinished or badly done.

Once again it’s a case of treating potential clients with respect. Help to educate them, give them the best service possible from first contact to last. Even if that means losing out on work. In the long run, the benefits to your reputation will outweigh those lost contracts.

Don’t Waste Time Trawling The Web

You can spend a lot of time trawling fruitlessly through multiple sites looking for work. It’s time consuming and maddening when 90% of your search results aren’t what you’re looking for, or are looking for ridiculous minimum wage prices.

RSS feeds are a decent option. Lots of websites for job hunters or freelancers have feeds for specific disciplines, e.g. Design, as well as their general feed. So you can subscribe to a bunch of those feeds and have jobs emailed to you or appearing in your feed reader every day. Good, but still not great. A bit time consuming, and I know I like to use Google Reader to find enjoyable reading content, not job feeds.

A while ago I realized that Google does provide the best option for a great at-a-glance job search. iGoogle seems to be one of Google’s lesser known services. I’d had it randomly set as my home page for ages without ever using anything apart from the standard search bar. But once I utilized it for professional purposes it became invaluable.

Everything In One Place

It’s pretty easy to set up. If you don’t already have a Google account (and if you work in IT, how can you not?) then just sign up for one and when you’re signed in go to google.com/ig. Add a tab to the left menu bar called “Work” or something similar, and open that tab. Now choose “Add stuff” in the top right. Ignore the gadgets and themes, instead look to the bottom left of the “Add stuff” page, and click “Add feed or gadget”.

All we’re really doing is pulling together an “at a glance” selection of RSS feeds that are relevant to finding new work, contracts and (in my case) freelance design jobs. The advantage is that you can have all the feeds displaying their first two or three items on your homepage, all in one place for easy reference and response.

Choose Your Feeds Carefully

There’s a lot of crap out there when it comes to job boards and freelance advertising. I don’t know about you, but I’m not keen on pitching for a week long job that pays $50. So you’ll need to cut out a lot of the dirt cheap job boards and choose your feeds carefully. I have six job board feeds on my front page, all but one of them is a free service.

• WordPress Jobs (WordPress Designer Positions)
• CSSMania Jobs (Design)
• AuthenticJobs.com (Design)
• FreelanceSwitch.com (Design) – this is the paid job board. It costs a trivial $7 a month and is absolutely excellent.
• Krop
• 37signals Job Board (Design Jobs)

Don’t Neglect Twitter

Twitter Search is great, and particularly great because you can set up an RSS feed for any search term. Combine that with iGoogle and you can pull down relevant work related information from Twitter to your job search homepage. I have a main search term that I monitor live via TweetDeck, but I can widen that search effectively using Twitter Search and RSS. It’s amazing how much relevant work and potential contacts come up via these searches.

I use feeds for the following Twitter searches;

• Know web designer
• Need web designer
• Web designer Texas
• Web designer Houston
• Freelance web designer

The Twitter results can be more variable in terms of their relevance, of course. But they make up for that in the volume of information.

Regular Pitching Means Targetting Your Market, And Acting On It!

Of course I don’t rely solely on the iGoogle page, because personal contacts, news stories or even cold calling can bring in new work as well. But like every freelancer out there, whatever the industry, I know that I always need to be looking at new business and extending my client base. The iGoogle job search page is an invaluable tool in keeping your finger on the pulse, and making sure you don’t miss out on potentially great new contracts. The cost of this great resource to me? $7 a month. That’s a bargain.

The Basics

Adding your information to Haystack is easy. You sign up, add your web page info and your email, and add a screenshot. The idea is that this screenshot is an item from your portfolio, a demonstration of your best work. I’ve seen that option used a lot, others choose to upload a screenshot of their own website. For a monthly fee you can upload several screenshots to give a wider view of your work.

You browse Haystack by viewing pretty large thumbnails (fee-payers can make this even larger) and pen-pic info in a simple and easy interface. You can target by geographical location, or by price range.

Potential clients can then just click on an icon, view a larger screenshot, and contact the designer through their website or email. It’s a good system for clients, because it’s really easy to use.

The Price Range Problem

When you create an account on Haystack as a designer you’re asked to specify your price range.

• Up to $3,000
• $3,000 – $10,000
• $10,000 – $25,000
• $25,000 – $50,000
• More than $50,000

Every client who uses the site is going to see this listed as your price range. You can only pick one, and that’s a big problem.

In the last year I’ve worked on projects worth a few hundred dollars, and others worth tens of thousands. I don’t think I’m unusual among freelance web designers either, who often work on a wide variety of projects of different scopes.

I’m not interesting in pigeonholing myself, nor do I find it easy to do. I make great websites. I don’t just make great websites in a particular price range.  I don’t want to miss out on business because a client saw my price range listing on Haystack and decided that his project was outside that scope. I think Haystack penalizes the individual freelancer. It’s web design agencies who tend to focus more specifically on a typical scope of project size and cost. They’ll find it easier to convey an accurate price range.

Not All Bad, Though

Haystack is a good website, and despite my concerns I’ve signed up (choosing the $3,000 – $10,000 price range as a happy medium!). It has two things going for it in particular.

It provides people looking for web design services with a user friendly and visually attractive medium to browse potential service providers. That’s something that’s been lacking for a long time. immediate comparison unrestricted by Google searches and PR blurb from companies looking to make a sale.

It also demonstrates the maturity of web design as a service. It acts effectively as a counterpoint to the various freelance boards where web design jobs are astoundingly undervalued in terms of cost and service (as I’ve discussed before in ‘No, Websites Cost More Than Fifty Bucks!’). Here is an index that allows web designers to display their availability while demonstrating confidence that their skills warrant the prices they charge.

Haystack is good and I support it. I just wish it wouldn’t force me to artificially pigeonhole myself in terms of project scope and price range.

Good Work Costs Good Prices

An effective and powerful website, with a wide scope and functionality (particularly custom functionality) can cost tens of thousands of dollars or more. Bespoke design work, even using free open source platforms, incurs a reasonable cost. Many prospective clients will talk excitedly about their needs, concepts and options. Then they’ll talk about a budget that’s minimal at best – and genuinely believe that they’re being reasonable in what they offer.

Crazy Quoting

I don’t blame those prospective clients for their initial misunderstanding. I’ll explain working practices, benefits and provide detailed quotes that outline where their money is going. Many businesses understand that explanation and realise that they’d be happy to pay similar costs for the likes of print media.

Others will point to competing quotes that simply make no business sense. I’ve looked at various freelancing job boards, and I’ve heard comments from potential clients that “I know a guy who can do it for $xxx”. Quotes that are sometimes less than $100 for what is at a minimum twenty hours work. There was a great article recently that worked out a quote for a particular job was equivalent to $3.17 an hour.

You Get What You Pay For

A gifted amateur might do a decent job for a friend’s site. It’s rarely a good business option. You can also get great design for cheap prices by choosing templated options. Some of them are excellent. The Twicet template on ThemeForest costs $35. That price is economical for the designers because they’ve sold nearly 1,000 copies. That’s cool, but it means there are 1,000 websites out there that all look pretty much the same. That’s your choice for dirt cheap web design – amateur, or a template.

Good professionally designed websites add value and are unique to your needs. There are varying prices and varying standards of quality, like any other service. No reasonable business would choose one of the “do it yourself” business card machines at a bus station. Nor would you ask a friend of a friend to build an office extension if they didn’t work in the construction trade. Why would you take a cheap option for what’s likely to be one of the most visible aspects of your business? Why would you think that it’s unreasonable for a good designer to charge a good price?

A professional web designer will treat a client well. They’ll discuss a brief and offer a quote. 99% of the time that quote will be a reasonable price. I hope that soon those quotes start getting treated with a little more respect.

Don’t Fear Hard Work

In The Devil Wears Prada the main character Andy Sachs finds a demanding job with long and unsociable hours. She accepts this, works hard and tries to move forward. She’s constantly undermined by a slacker boyfriend and friends who make her feel guilty about making sacrifices to succeed in her job.

If you want to succeed you have to work hard, and sometimes you’ll have to make sacrifices. Develop a good work / life balance, but don’t feel guilty when you have to put in some extra hours.

Business Hours Aren’t The Only Time You Do Business

The social events of the fashion business in The Devil Wears Prada are correctly portrayed as important to Andy’s professional success. It’s only as she starts to succeed that she’s trusted to attend these networking opportunities. The movie portrays the events as shallow but networking opportunities are vital for freelancers.

Social events are one opportunity. How about getting a client from an unexpected elevator pitch? Or picking up business cards that other businesses leave at restaurants – potential clients for a web designer. Don’t force business into a social situation, but don’t be afraid of spotting an opportunity either.

Change Isn’t A Bad Thing

In the middle of The Devil Wears Prada, Andy has an epiphany. If she’s going to succeed in the fashion industry then she has to commit to change. She does so and the benefits are obvious. She clearly appreciates the change as well, and is happier and more motivated.

Andy’s friends see the change as a betrayal of her principles, and in the end the script concludes likewise. Change isn’t a betrayal though. Flexibility is vital to succeed professionally, changing to suit circumstance, learn new skills and address problems.

Never Be Ashamed Of Success

Andy Sachs is making a success of her career. Her friends are not. Her boyfriend is a slacker, with no ambition himself and constant complaints at Andy’s sacrifices. The movie concludes that he’s in the right and Andy’s in the wrong. That’s a Hollywood angle. Really it’s the slacker boyfriend who’s entirely wrong.

Never be ashamed of success, be proud. If you do good work, get a good contract, make good money then it means you’re doing something right. It doesn’t mean you’ve sold out, it means you’re good at what you do. Enjoy the benefits of your success.

Look For A Real Hollywood Ending

The real Hollywood ending is professional and personal success. The real Hollywood ending is three quarters of the way through The Devil Wears Prada, where Andy has overcome difficulties, learned new skills and achieved success. She’s a poised and confident woman despite friends who don’t care for her or her career, and try to hold her back. She’s has new contacts and new friends, and is on the ladder to greater professional success.

Aim for that Hollywood ending, and ignore the viewpoint that to succeed means to sell out. You’ll be happier, your family and friends will be happier, and you won’t have fallen into the trap of a false Hollywood morality tale!