A big part of getting paid what you are worth is tied to charging a generous fee for your creative design and customer service.
The next step to being paid what you are worth is writing a clear Letter of Agreement that spells out for the client what services and results you will be providing, along with the time frame and how you will be paid.
Sometimes designers think of the Letter of Agreement with their client as just one more piece of paper work that they are supposed to do, and it doesn’t really matter.
The truth is…
The Letter of Agreement is the backbone of your job. Not only is it the conduit to being hired and getting a check, it sets up precisely what you aregoing to create for your clients and what spaces you are going to do it in.
Initially this is for your clients to have a clear picture of what they are buying but it also serves you as the structure or backbone of the job you will be working on.
The benefits are many…
You will know how many hours you will have to complete the tasks, you will know when you will be paid, you will
have agreed upon job rules to refer back to when you begin the purchasing process or the clients asks for more work than what was originally contracted for.
Letters of Agreement are not hard to create, here are some valuable tips to get you started.
Tip #1 First it is important to get your arms around the scope of work you are being asked to provide. Take that big list of things that you must do and chunk it down into manageable groups of tasks and then put the groups into the order that they will be completed. How many hours will it take you to complete the research/planning/drawing on each chunk.
Tip #2 Make a list of the meetings you will need to have with the client to get each design chunk approved. Will you need to take the client shopping? List those times as meetings too.
Tip#3 Create a payment schedule. I recommend making a progress payment due on each scheduled meeting. That way the client knows money is due and you know when you will be paid.
Tip #4 Letters of Agreement contain all the details, like how additional work that is beyond this scope of work that was agreed upon will be charged. Or information about how your purchasing services work so that there are no surprises for you or your client as your work progresses.
If you want to know more about how to use your Letter of Agreement to help you confidently sell your design job to the client and create the production structure for your job, sign up for my FREE INFORMATION CALL,
5 Things That You Can’t Afford to Miss When Writing a Letter of Agreement SIGN UP HERE
May 19, 2014 at 1:00pm PST, 2:00pm MST, 3:00pm CST, 4:00pm EST
