By Les Kollegian, Creative Director
I would say on average, we meet with two-three potential new clients a week. The range of businesses can be from start-ups to fortune 500 companies. Frankly, there are benefits to both types of businesses. For start-ups, it is the ability to create a brand and message from the ground up. We love that work! To an artist, it’s truly a blank canvas that we can attack with any medium. As well, it’s the ability to create a partnership. I always tell our new clients that we have a vested interest in building their business. If they make money, they will keep us working and in return, give money back to us. Let’s be honest… I LOVE what I do but I am not in this for my health. I want to build my business just like everyone else so one day I can relax and not work ALL THE TIME.
When we meet with larger companies or established businesses that are looking for a new look, web design or brand strategy, it’s a different job. We have to work with what current brand equity they have and in most cases, make suggestions for changes that will enhance the brand and create new perceptions without a radical change in overall design.
Okay…so let me get to my point. I know you’re waiting. Everyone who walks through our front door comes in for a reason. They were either referred to us by another business that had a project completed successfully by Jacob Tyler OR they found us on Google due to our stellar search engine optimization and like our portfolio. The bottom line is they believe we do great work and we can help them. However, it never ceases to amaze me how many of the executives and entrepreneurs I meet want an award winning campaign as quickly as possible (i.e., tomorrow) on an exceptionally tight budget. It doesn’t work like that. Both start-up businesses and large companies are culprits of this practice. Thus I always tell them… Fast, Good, Cheap: Pick Two. I am not trying to be arrogant when I say this and I ask them to turn it around as if I was their client. For example, if my client was a doctor and I needed surgery to save my life ASAP, would I ask him for a discount? Okay…that may be a little extraordinary of an example, but let’s make it easier to understand. If I ask someone for a service like installing new countertops and appliances in my kitchen that I need in time for an event that requires extra work and overtime, why would I get a discount? It’s my house so of course it has to be an excellent job and I am requesting that it be done fast, so it would be pushing the envelope to ask for it cheap… right?
I’ll sum this up as I think I am starting to babble and vent a little too much here. Here goes:
If your job needs to be done quickly and in a fashion that will impress whoever will be viewing the result, it will not be inexpensive (or cheap). We love to work quickly and create award winning projects, that’s for sure but we can’t give discounts in this situation.
If your job needs to be done inexpensively and very fast, there is a good chance it will not be as good as you may want as we won’t be able to put the research and resources into it to make it as successful as possible. Frankly, we only do this for “quick and dirty” projects to show proof of concept.
If your job needs to be an award winner on a tight budget, it’s not going to get done fast. Oh, we’ll get it done and it will be great, but we’ll have to do it on OUR time since our resources may be going to other projects with different priorities.
No project is too big or too small for our firm. We take on every task as if it was our most important project. When you work with us, think of how you would charge YOUR clients or customers and how you would want to be treated during any transaction.