Get the money up front, design job retainers?

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posted in Community by makerbeck

I just wasted 14 hours of design time on a project. Probably should have asked for a retainer to gauge commitment. Oh well, lesson learned.

In what situations have you asked for upfront partial payment on open ended design jobs that are hard to scope and a firm price is tough to come up with ahead of time?

9 years, 8 months ago

printedsolid - I typically will charge by the hour and provide a 'not to exceed' quote. Customer is charged half up front before I do any work at all. The point of the not to exceed is when extra time required is on my end such as a feature turns out to be more difficult to model than anticipated and I have to learn a new technique. If the scope of the project changes, we revisit the quote and adjust as necessary.

I haven't had any trouble at all with this approach.

9 years, 8 months ago

j1ceasar@yahoo.com - makerbeck - do you keep a large portfolio online- Did your client see it first. . I find as a client that many suppliers promise way to much for their skill set. I never have a problem paying 20 -30 % as a deposit and seeing how the work develops .

Some times we just don't mesh as client - suppliers... I suggest for larger jobs - you update clients at 25% way their to see if your on track then 50% etc.

9 years, 8 months ago

makerbeck - He was very happy with the quality of the work as he got screenshot updates, we also met in person and reviewed the work on the screen. The hourly rate was clearly defined from the beginning. There were several opportunities from the customer to specifically ask what this was costing so far. The first one was after the first designs were completed 3 hours into the project. This work was done in three sections spread over 3 weeks. In trying to be responsive to the customer's requests and timeline, I continued working based on input when I probably should have stopped for a $ check much earlier. My bad.

9 years, 8 months ago

j1ceasar@yahoo.com - Too bad - Also FYI that's why Elance.com etc is pretty good as they let suppliers give reference about clients- - something to think about.

ALSO - Credit card deposits are worthless. You can be charged back and can do NOTHING.

9 years, 8 months ago

defcon3d - Wow, $980 worth of time down the tubes, that hurts!!!
Guarantee you'll never run into that again.:)

9 years, 8 months ago

shortrun3d.com - I have provided hourly rates for both 2D and 3D design for over 10 years now and the best thing to do is give an hourly estimate up front and do the math for them so they see the grand total for the project at the start. This way they know what they are up against before anything ever starts. Never start a job with unknown hours without first discussing your estimates on time and what factors your think could cause it to go over the estimate. When you use up about 80% of the total time estimate it is time to let the client know that either we are on track, it is going to cost more, or we need to make some quick alterations to stay in the original budget.

Also keep track of your time spent communicating with your client, that is billable time as much as your design work and sometimes you spend more time emailing and talking to your clients on the phone than time spent designing it. So always think about this when estimating time.

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