Comments on: Turns

By: Greg Paulhus

Greg Paulhus — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 16:57:26 +0000

>> everything I read said spend 50% of your time on sales. Does it change in the lean time?

When you’re just starting out you should spend some time and effort to build up a referral network. Then do good work and you’ll start getting referrals from existing clients, suppliers, partners, etc. I spend close to zero time on sales, almost 100 percent of my work for the past few years has been referral work. I do spend time on the proposal process though, so that after a client has been referred to me I have a solid process to quickly evaluate the project and the client and make sure I land that client (if I decide to take them on, sometimes it is a good idea to turn down a certain project if it doesn’t fit what you do).

By: Aaron Mentele

Aaron Mentele — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 16:53:41 +0000

@Norm – I’ve never seen the 50% suggestion, but that seems like a lot of time to be spending. I spend about 20-25% of my time on the business aspects of making things go (but we have two, good project managers, and I base that off about 60-70hrs/wk.) In 2002, I felt like I was spending 60-70% of my time on the business aspects — more than half of that would have been devoted to sales / account mgmt. It made it tough to stay sharp at production. This wasn’t necessarily because of the amount of time spent landing work or writing contracts but more because it was tough to put it out of my head and read about what other people were doing. When I was freelancing 11 yrs ago, I was spending 20% of my time at most on new business, but I didn’t have fulltime responsibilities (it didn’t have to pay all the bills.)

By: Norm Orstad

Norm Orstad — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 16:26:35 +0000

How much time do the partners/directors spend on sales/management versus producing? When I first started out as a freelancer designer, everything I read said spend 50% of your time on sales. Does it change in the lean time?

By: Paul

Paul — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 03:41:21 +0000

Great post, Aa. Those lean times make you appreciate the fat ones even more. Glad to hear things are well.

By: Aaron Mentele

Aaron Mentele — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 20:10:02 +0000

> I agree completely with your billing structure, it should be standard practice in the industry.

@Greg P – completely. and the longer the production cycle, the more important the billing split becomes.

> my higher-ups … would rather … remind us to be grateful of our employment.
@Mike – be sure to remind them of the opposite when things are good.

> Business usually contracts for me in a downturn, then rapidly expands…
@Kris – I haven’t been through “a couple” economic downturns, but I see this very much being the case. Uncertainty makes people wait. When it’s gone, they rush to catch back up.

> I think I’ll copy it.
@Corey – the copyright sign means you’re subject to further ridicule when you do.

By: Greg Paulhus

Greg Paulhus — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 19:32:48 +0000

I think the deposit issue is critical. I’ve always taken a 50 percent deposit to begin work. Most projects go quickly enough that a 50/50 split works well, but I also sometimes invoice for most of the back end of a project and leave a holdback amount until launch (which would probably work out close to your 40/10 split at the end). Anyway, I agree completely with your billing structure, it should be standard practice in the industry. I’ve had only two clients in more than ten years complain about the 50 percent deposit, and they both turned out to be ‘less than great’ clients.

By: Mike

Mike — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 16:25:16 +0000

I work in the same industry and, unfortunately, my higher-ups aren’t so optimistic. Or, perhaps they are, but would rather keep their money and remind us to be grateful of our employment. I like your outlook better.

By: Kris Bovay

Kris Bovay — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 16:06:28 +0000

Thanks for sharing the story. In today’s environment it can be easy to panic (especially if you haven’t experienced it before). I’ve been through a couple of economic downturns as an independent business and marketing consultant. Business usually contracts for me in a downturn, then rapidly expands in new industries due to my changing focus. It is necessary to do things differently in a ‘down’ economy, compared to an ‘up’ economy.

By: Corey V.

Corey V. — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 14:39:06 +0000

Very nice. Also, I like the redesign. I think I’ll copy it.