What are your criteria for determining whether to take on a paying job or not? Are you still in the, “Well, they have a pulse” stage of client acquisition? Maybe you’ve decided to be a little more selective, passing on clients that don’t meet your budget requirements. Maybe you have certain “red flags” that pop up in your discovery meetings that warn you off working with a particular group.
We spent a long time just doing any work we could. When you’re starting your studio you tend to subscribe to the beggars can’t be choosers method of finding work. It worked well for us for several years. The funny thing, though, is that at some point that method that worked so well at first began to turn on us.
Because of this, we ended up spending several years working on the wrong projects — wrong for our values, wrong for our mental health, and wrong for us technically, just to keep money coming in.
In 2023 we finally broke that cycle. We realized that money cannot be the determining factor in whether we take on a project. It took a long time to get there, but here we are. And honestly, we’re better for it. I hope this is a natural evolution afforded to all freelancers and design studios.
The realization that being more selective in the jobs you take on, and being discerning leads to more peace in your daily work life is real gold mined from the earth. Yes, it means that you might make less money, but if you’re like us then you’re playing a long game — one in which you don’t want to burn out. For me, I refuse to end up in a place where I hate what I’m doing every day.
This evolution in thinking also relates to how we see the people we choose to work with. Our goal should always be to build long-term relationships. We should be striving for a symbiotic, strategic relationship with our clients, not one based on the financial value of the project. It can be hard not focusing on those dollar signs, but if the job isn’t right, it’s not right.
In her 2022 TED talk, Why Having Fun is the Secret to a Healthier Life, author Catherine Price perfectly describes the relationship I’m talking about:
“Never see your client as a monetary transaction. That in no way builds a relationship. Don’t just think about the first job; think about all the other possible jobs that may come from it. Be helpful to your client and mindful of the future.”
We know that retaining an existing client costs less money than onboarding and developing a new one. When you add in the time we’ve invested in building these strategic relationships with our existing clientele compared to the amount of work required to navigate the unknowns of a new working relationship, those long-term established relationships become priceless.
The other hard-learned lesson that comes from working on projects you’re not really invested in is how hard it is to keep your focus and momentum. You just lose interest in it, and can you blame yourself? You didn’t want to be doing this work to begin with, but you’ve accepted the money, and professional practice tells you to continue churning to get this thing done and just move on. Hint: The “just move on” part is the real problem.
The truth we need to substantiate in ourselves is that if we can’t put our heart into this thing we’re doing then we owe it to ourselves to not be there at all. That means passing on the job (and the money) because we know that quality and integrity will suffer with us there.
The artist, Tom Sachs, gets to the heart of it in a quirky little poem:
“Any job, big or small, do it well or not at all. Once a job has begun, do not stop until it’s done.”
These are hard-won truths. Sadly, they are ones that only come with layers of experience. Your first few years are about learning the ropes and the whole focus is keeping the doors open. Eventually, though, there should be a shift in direction. The strategy needs to switch from immediacy to longevity.
Does this switch mean less money? Yes, more than likely, but what is the price we put on taking pride in our work? What is the cost of continuing to work on things that depress the hell out of us? Is profit the only motivator? I can be an investment banker if that’s the case.
No, I create. I want to work on things that interest me. I think I owe that to myself, to my partners, and to my clients.