http://www.36point.com/archives/2008/04/learned-from-contracting.html A Community for Graphic Designers Sun, 06 Nov 2011 21:59:41 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 http://www.36point.com/archives/2008/04/learned-from-contracting.html/comment-page-1#comment-66 shughes Sun, 20 Apr 2008 23:34:01 +0000 http://36point.com/wordpress/?p=27#comment-66 I held my first contract for 4 years. It lasted so long because they were a small company that had no designers/programmers and didn't want to staff those positions. So I filled those rolls for the them at a very good (low) rate. Which was still good for me because of the guaranteed pay; regardless of work level. However, the company was not primarily a advertising/marketing company; so when they grew strong enough in their other departments it was decided that they would sell the design portion of the business. Fortunately for me, the ad agency they sold it to was a print agency only and had no one to do the web design and programming. At this point, even though my contract was carried over to the new company, I knew my days were numbered. It only made since that the new company would eventually staff up or train existing staff to cover the new web design load. And soon enough the day came that I got my letter announcing that the 30 day cancelation of my contract had begun. You're never fully prepared for this to happen, but in a sink or swim industry you do just that. My best advice when this happens is to keep your cool and take inventory of what you have and what you really "NEED". If you find you can't handle these upsets it's time to hit the wanted ads and find a 9 to 5. And as a good friend of mine said (that would be you Donovan); you can't have all your eggs in one basket...you need to be diverse in your clients and contracts so that the lose of one won't cause a complete shut down of your income. Because it will happen sooner or later. And as long as the work you do is top quality and you're easy to work with you will find other opportunities. In my case the company that canceled my contract still had a learning curve to overcome with their web programming and design. So they still send work my way as consultation and programming backup. The work is or course not regular...but I can charge my normal (higher) rates. One door closes, another one opens. As always, great article Don. I held my first contract for 4 years. It lasted so long because they were a small company that had no designers/programmers and didn’t want to staff those positions. So I filled those rolls for the them at a very good (low) rate. Which was still good for me because of the guaranteed pay; regardless of work level. However, the company was not primarily a advertising/marketing company; so when they grew strong enough in their other departments it was decided that they would sell the design portion of the business.
Fortunately for me, the ad agency they sold it to was a print agency only and had no one to do the web design and programming.
At this point, even though my contract was carried over to the new company, I knew my days were numbered. It only made since that the new company would eventually staff up or train existing staff to cover the new web design load. And soon enough the day came that I got my letter announcing that the 30 day cancelation of my contract had begun.
You’re never fully prepared for this to happen, but in a sink or swim industry you do just that. My best advice when this happens is to keep your cool and take inventory of what you have and what you really “NEED”. If you find you can’t handle these upsets it’s time to hit the wanted ads and find a 9 to 5. And as a good friend of mine said (that would be you Donovan); you can’t have all your eggs in one basket…you need to be diverse in your clients and contracts so that the lose of one won’t cause a complete shut down of your income. Because it will happen sooner or later.
And as long as the work you do is top quality and you’re easy to work with you will find other opportunities. In my case the company that canceled my contract still had a learning curve to overcome with their web programming and design. So they still send work my way as consultation and programming backup. The work is or course not regular…but I can charge my normal (higher) rates. One door closes, another one opens.
As always, great article Don.

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