Planning is everything!

Today I arrived at the studio to, that always welcome piece of mail, the Entrepreneur's Circular courtesy of Mr. N. Botterill and his Entrepreneur's Circle. Flicking through I read through an article akin to a 'pet peeves' segment written by Martin Norbury, a fellow member. The article describes how our planning and choices are key to success and how the mistakes of others can have a drastic impact on our plans if we allow them to. Culminating around a fantastic, albeit ironically sourced quote by Ricky Gervais' David Brent which states:

"A lack of preparation on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part"

This message speaks volumes to me as to tread the fine line between 'go to guy' and 'dogsbody' this is of paramount importance! Coupled with a fantastic technique I saw on another blog earlier this month I created the piece to the right to immortalise the words in image. The technique is to take a 'before and after' set of images and overlay them. You cut text from one and leave it in front of the other. In this example, in which the text is a post-fire photograph of the background, you can see it nicely communicates the emergency in the text and the fragile calm of the source in the background. Credit to my image style source here; The Made Shop

Why do I care so much though? Well, these words go out to all creative (and non-creative) freelancers. If a client comes to you with a job needed at the drop of a hat it can have devastating effects;

1. It can knock on to other projects and displease other, far more prepared clients
2. It can lead to poor quality work which can, in turn, compromise your reputation with this client and beyond!
3. If you can't fit it in, it can lead to you letting a loyal (and potentially valuable) client down.

It's a real minefield but my rule of thumb is simple.
If the client has dug themselves into this hole ask yourself whether you'll step up and dig them out as you would with any non-working relationship. A friend who's somewhat forgetful but generally a stand-up fellow needn't ask me twice if their car breaks down and they need picking up as a matter of urgency, whether it's unavoidable or they simply failed to plan and ran out of fuel!

Conversely, a 'friend' who's owed you £150 for several months, borrows your stuff and treats you like dirt will have to do some serious sweet talking even if the issue is unavoidable. If it's down to their lack of planning they're going to owe me a proverbial kidney!

If the client does this often and with no 'sugar coating' or acknowledgement of your sacrifice let them know! It's bad to lose a client but surely it's worse to keep one who doesn't respect you, your (all to valuable) time or your expertise.

The moral of the story then, for whom it may concern is that you're not a whipping boy. You do yourself, and more importantly the reputation and standards of the design community, no favors by being everything to everyone. Just because you're sat at a mac not down at the pub shouldn't alter what you'll do for somebody... client respect is paramount! If you don't have that then you shouldn't have the client!