Mint

Howdy Do It came from “how do you do It,” the question Ellie & Margot found themselves asking about their freelance lifestyles, and so Howdy Do It was born, a weekly column about the things we do to keep ourselves organized, inspired and on track. Margot will be here on Mint each Monday, and Ellie will be over on Pitch Design Union at the same time.

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Hello my friends! How are you this week? I got a real kick out your comments, and a new idea from Kate Miss’s suggestion on Pitch that I’m going to try. She says to tidy your work area at the end of your day, to which I slapped my forehead with astonishment. I can’t believe I totally never considered how important that is! And I know it will help me get in the groove faster the next day. So, high fives for that!

So, this week I’d like to talk about saying no. (Don’t worry, this isn’t some creepy lecture on morals, hahaha!) It seems to me that everyone has a different response on what they do when faced with a somewhat undesirable project, budget, client or due date. I don’t particularly have any hard and fast rules for this either. I seem to just say yes to everything that comes along in the interest of making money or if it’s a cool project, regardless of the client OR my existing workload. I’m still trying to decide if that’s the right approach for me. This interesting book I just picked up in New York, Art/Work, Everything You Need to Know (and Do) As You Pursue Your Career in Art offers a set of criteria which seems interesting:

1. Is the Money Good? (Let’s be honest, it can suck.)
2. Does it bring anything new to my skills or body or work? (Probably at least a few lessons.)
3. Is it personally fulfilling? (Seems to be either extremely fulfilling, or…meh)

The book says ideally you should try to strive for at least 2 of these when considering a new project. By this logic I’m pretty much operating off only one of these at a time. And there have definitely been some moments with clients when I regret the work a little, or I know I’m being way underpaid (grrr). I’m thinking I’ll slowly get better at gauging situations when this could occur, but I’m curious what your take on this is too. Maybe it’s best to do projects for free or only charge full-price? Have you experienced circumstances with a client that you’d now consider a deal breaker? Have you ever way overbid on a project thinking they’ll balk only to score it for a decent budget? Do you follow the “fast/good/cheap” model? Any other approaches that I’m missing?

Until next week, keep on keepin’ it real dudes. Real, real…

{Photo Credits: Oh How I Love You and Untitled from flickr user 9000.}