6A2 / 6B2.
Task reflection:
- Charge for concept pitching - if you put the time and work into pitching an idea then you should get paid for this also, even if your concept does not get chosen to be developed on, otherwise this is lost time and money for work you have done.
- Have a script for phone calls and interviews - use HAWRAF's discovery questionnaire as an example. Also think about those on the other side of the conversation, use language that everyone can understand, avoid confusion otherwise this may lose you a clients, etc.
- Press tips - get to the point straight away before they lose interest, use quotes from other people involved. This allows you to create a press release which is slightly different for different things, but you do not have to create an entirely new press release each time.
http://studio-index.co/
https://lovers.co/ (2 producers, 90 freelancers).
https://thecreativeindependent.com/guides/a-guide-to-working-with-clients/
AIGA: Eye On Design:
Starting A Successful Design Studio is A Lot Like Making A Really Shitty Quilt:
Shortly after founding HAWRAF, Carly took a business class. She said "On the first day of the class, the instructor had us form groups and make these shitty quilts. She gave us new materials to work with as we went, but what we didn't realise was that over time she was giving shittier and shittier materials, and then she started adding more people to the group who are all trying to weave different kinds of quilts. People started to get really defensive about their quilts. After a little while, she stopped us and asked what we all just learned. And she said, 'At the end of the day, your business will continue to get larger, you won't have the resources you want, and things will continue to get shittier and shittier and you'll have to make compromises... And there's only six ways your business can go: you sell for competitive reasons; you sell for financial reasons; you give it to your kids, who probably don't want it; you give it to your employees, and they probably also don't want it; you shut it down; or you die at your desk'. We chose to shut it down".
What they learnt from this:
1. Have a goal. Agree on it. Write it down. You and your partners might know this intuitively, but it you write it down then it becomes a reference point for when things get crazy.
2. Run your studio on the side while you get it going. "How do you get work? How do you get clients? The answer is relationships. And these take time to develop". All members of HAWRAF continued freelancing whilst the studio was being set up. A lot of studios that seem like full-time operations are really made up of a handful of people all working full-time jobs elsewhere.
3. Throw yourself into the early work - but look out for sharks.
4. Establish a process.
5. Creativity is never enough. Don't forget about the other jobs which are crucial to making a business work, like management, business development, and administrative tasks.
6. Repeat yourself. Part of establishing a process means you do it over and over again, refining and perfecting as you go. Creating a new process takes time.
7. Schedule creative time. Sometimes ideas come readily, and sometimes they don't. When you're setting a project timeline, you have to actively build in extra time for that. "We discovered that we needed to give ourselves more time to have that first conversation and then go off, take a shower, go for a run, read a book, and come back and share more ideas".
8. Schedule paid time off. As a founder, it can be tempting to work all the time, which isn't healthy or sustainable.
https://eyeondesign.aiga.org/starting-a-successful-design-studio-is-a-lot-like-making-a-really-shitty-quilt/
No comments:
Post a Comment