Originally Posted by gimme-website

AaronM

My perfect client comes to me with a clear picture in his/her mind of the project.
They have a basic understanding of how things work and how a website is put together.
We may make designs day in day out, but we are not mind readers. 90% of my work is paid per project. So if the client hasn't done his homework beforehand it makes life difficult. I only get paid for the final project.. I dont get paid for chatting for 2 hours on icq or 50 emails. So your initial project brief is critical. I need to understand what the heck your saying to me..Clear and fast!

Things that annoy designers.
Your client wants to be your new best friend.
Your client de-values your time.
Your client really doesn't know what they are talking about/doing.
Your client asks for a 'quick favour' and ends up taking half your day..
BUt the WORST client "Im a designer too".. As soon as i hear those words. Im off....They will always think they could have done a better job than you.
SO why hire us?

The main thing to understand is that we (well i) arnt paid by some company. Anything that takes time away from 'Working' .. is bad. I lose money, and my next client has to wait even longer and obv he gets irritated. And the happy feeling leaves both clients......and me.

The worst thing that can happen is the project goes way over time quoted. If it's becuase ive mis-quoted, i have to take it on the chin and take the loss. And if its the client that has caused the delays.... its VERY hard to confront them about this and ask for more money. (this is why we use manictime and rescuetime to track our projects).

Some historical examples.

I was hired to do a sologirl paysite. The client didnt understand the CMS and constantly asked me to write out 'quick guides', and talk him through setting up a gallery via icq chat ect.
This went on for several days and when I said to him "look.. your running out of hours on your project with all this extra stuff".. he says "i only pay for results.. You get no more money until the project is completed".. Difficult situation.

I was hired to do a banner pack. (i offer them at 250 for a pack of 16)
HE also agreed an extra $$ becuase it meant i would be working xmas.. i think that is fair enough. Pay extra.. or wait..choice is yours.
When it came time to get the content off him, we discover they are .dng format. And they are 20 megs each.. with about hundreds to selct from.
But no way of viewing thumbs......And he persoanlly wants to sign off each banner. ..We both lost money on that job.

Weekly we have instances where a simple task as adding our IP to a FTP whitelist ends up taking 3 hours of our time. "is it working yet"... "no........" " Try now.. " "no.......Still not in". Again we dont get paid for this....

As for your specific situation, its very hard to judge a mainstream companies skill level by thier portfolio. Adult is easy, its plain to see who does nice work. Its very easy for a clueless nobody to make a profesional looking mainstream folio.

Maybe you just plain annoyed them? I have one or two clients ive let go recently simply becuase they ALWAYS cost me money.
And some people.. there will be personality clash. WHen you pay a designer, in our head we are in the driving seat.. when someone starts leaning over and taking control of the wheel the master/slave relationship changes. You no longer feel like you are being employed for your expertise. CLients like that dont get a second chance to hire me after project completion.

Not sure if ive been any help. And im sure the trolls will jump on my every word and pick it apart to make me look like scum. BUt there ya go. Theres my thoughts.