Brutally Honest by Emily Ruth Cohen

No-bullshit
business
strategies
to evolve
your creative
business
Brutally Honest
Emily Ruth Cohen
Brutally Honest
No-bullshit business strategies

to evolve your creative business
Emily Ruth Cohen

BOOKSELLER'S DAUGHTER
Brutally Honest by Emily Ruth Cohen

Published by Bookseller’s Daughter LLC
East Brunswick, New Jersey, USA
www.booksellersdaughter.com
© 2018 Emily Ruth Cohen
All rights reserved. This publication or parts thereof may

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For permission requests, email the publisher at:
hello@booksellersdaughter.com.
The author, Emily Ruth Cohen, is not a lawyer, nor is the

publisher, Bookseller’s Daughter. This book and the content
provided within this book are simply for educational
purposes and do not take the place of legal advice from
your attorney. Every effort has been made to ensure that
the content provided in this publication is accurate
and helpful for readers at publishing time. However, this
is not an exhaustive treatment of the subjects. No liability
is assumed for losses or damages due to the information
provided. You are responsible for your own choices,
actions, and results.
First Edition
Cover and interior design by Once-Future Office,

Brooklyn, NY
Printed in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
ISBN: 978−1−7321944−0−3
Library of Congress Number: 2018904782

To my eccentric father, Melvin Cohen,
who owned two bookstores on Wall Street
and taught me how to be an entrepreneur,
the value of working hard, and, most
of all, to be comfortable in my own skin
(no matter what anyone thinks).
Contents
Introduction 7
Positioning
Chapter 1 Envision Your Firm 10
Advisory Board by Matchstic 14
Infusing More Joy into a Business Model by Kiss Me I'm Polish 16
Chapter 2 What Type of Firm Are You? 18
Chapter 3 The Dirty Word: Specialization 24
Repositioning a One-Person Firm by Intend Creative 28
Chapter 4 Identifying Your Optimal Area of Specialization 30
Curation Service Model for Digital Platforms by Local Wisdom 36
Marketing and Promotion

Chapter 5 Your Marketing Arsenal 40
Our Back to School Classes by ink + mortar 45
Chapter 6 Website Strategies 46
Chapter 7 Case Studies and Metrics 50
New Business
Chapter 8 It Is Not Cold Calling 60
Trade Association Membership by Knox Design Strategy 80
Chapter 9 How Can I Get the Best Bang for My Buck? 82
Conferences Lead to New Business by 2communiqué 88
Chapter 10 Your Crystal Ball: Qualifying New Clients 90
A Studio as a Portfolio by Louise Fili Ltd 96
Chapter 11 Questions to Ask a New Prospect 98
Business-Building Retail Model by Visual Dialogue 106
Pricing
Chapter 12 There Are No Magic Bullets 110
Pricing Formula for Reports and Books by We Are How 120
Brandup Business Model by Worstofall Design 122
Chapter 13 The Elusive Retainer 124
Real Time P&L by MSLK 130
Proposals and Contracts
Chapter 14 Proposals, Estimates, and SOWs 134
Chapter 15 The Legal Stuff 144
Chapter 16 Usage Rights and Ownership 158
Staffing and Operational Models

Chapter 17 So Many Hats, So Little Time 164
Ownership Transition by Hunt Design 172
Chapter 18 The Search Process: Where Art Thou? 174
Chapter 19 The Staffing Rulebook 180
Making Our First Hire by Hagopian Ink 190
Chapter 20 Who the Hell Do I Need? 192
Chapter 21 Who Manages Clients and Projects? 200
Culture Shift to a ROWE by Matchstic 208
Chapter 22 Time Tracking—a Necessary Evil 210
Balancing Client Work and Studio Projects by MCKL 222
Client and Project Management

Chapter 23 Good Clients Who Turn Bad 226
Chapter 24 Preventative Client Management Strategies 232
Project Timeline Cover Sheet by MSLK 238
Weekly Project Health Discipline by Barrel 240
Chapter 25 Managing Clients, Oy! 242
Engaging Clients in Ideation by ink + mortar 250
Chapter 26 Your Most Valuable Tool: Creative Briefs 252
Industry Trends
Chapter 27 Opportunities and Threats 262
Design Entrepreneurship 268
by Suburbia Studios and FunctionFox
Glossary and Index 270

Acknowledgments 276
For those of you who believe in astrology,
I am an Aries, a fire sign. That really says it all.
I call myself a “brutally honest” business consultant. I speak it, or in this
case, I write it, as I see it and experience it. As an individual, a consultant,
and a speaker, I have a style and personality that people either love or hate.
This book is going to make you feel the same way. It is a reflection of my own
personality and approach, which is straightforward, concise, and honest.
So, be prepared.
This book is:

• Opinionated, direct, and, at times, downright painful. Aries, remember?
In fact, you may not agree with everything in this book and that’s fine.
I like to spark debate, as it stimulates deeper thinking. And, while I often
speak and write in absolutes, I also realize that there are always exceptions
to everything I may say.
• Not business-school smart, but real-world smart. I have never worked
at any big consulting firms and do not have a business or a master’s degree.
Just like you, Excel spreadsheets give me a headache.
• Written by someone who loves design (this is actually what I have
a degree in!). I care deeply about and truly recognize the value design
has to business and the world at large. I strongly believe that how we
manage our clients, projects, staff, and business, as well as how we price,
sell, and communicate the value of our services reflects on us all.
• Not a typical business book with endless text and overly explained
concepts. Instead, I wanted to write a book that would uniquely resonate
with visually-minded, time-challenged creative readers. Thus, this book
includes lots of easy-to-digest infographics, checklists, and action items.
• A compendium of sorts. A place that features and organizes all the best
business ideas and practices that I have curated, learned, and developed
over the years. What I am particularly proud of, and what makes this book
different than most others, is its collection of real-world case studies,
written by my clients and colleagues—your peers—that are scattered
throughout the book. Ultimately, this book is a curation of actionable best
practices that I have developed, as well as expertise and insights I have
“lifted” (with permission) from my clients.
My hope is that this book gives you a strong foundation of knowledge in which
to grow and improve your own business and, as a result, our industry as a whole.
Enjoy!
ioning Positioning Positioning Positioning Positioning Positioning Positioning Posi
Positioning
Chapter 1 Envision Your Firm 10
Chapter 2 What Type of Firm Are You? 18
Chapter 3 The Dirty Word: Specialization 24
Chapter 4 Identifying Your Optimal Area of Specialization 30

Chapter 1
Envision
Your Firm
In order to be sustainable, you need to

look at your business from a 30,000−foot
view and envision your plan for its future.
If there is a lack of dedication around asking
and answering the important, high-level
questions, your creative firm may face
difficulties staying relevant.
Without looking at your firm holistically, it may stagnate financially, organi-
Positioning
zationally, and competitively. This is critical, as without doing so, it will be
difficult to stand out in an already saturated, competitive environment.
In envisioning where your firm is currently, where you want it to be,
and how you are going to get there, you need to ask yourself important
questions across various areas of your business.
Expertise
• What is our firm’s positioning, expertise, and vision? How can we
communicate and prove this?
• What type of clients, projects, industries, and services are best suited
for our firm and how can we pursue and attract these opportunities?
What percentage of our business do we want to focus on each of these
types of clients, projects, industries, and services?
• Who are our competitors? How can we better differentiate our firm?
• What are industry trends? How do they impact us and how can
we be prepared for change?
Marketing and New Business

• How do we qualify new opportunities to ensure they are a perfect fit
for our firm? What are the criteria that we can use to measure if they
are qualified and what are the best questions to ask?
• What is our unique point of view or special story we can write and
talk about? Who would be interested and how can we reach them?
What is our content and speaking strategy and timeline?
• What are industry- and client-driven events that appropriately utilize
both our time and financial investments? Which events should we
attend? What are our goals and strategies to best leverage our time
while there and afterward?
• How much time should we and different members of our team
commit each week, month, and year to different areas of new
Envision Your Firm
business development?
• What is our pricing strategy? What is the minimum scope of work
and associated pricing model (the minimum price) for each new
relationship or project?
11
• What necessary documentation, templates, and strategies should
Brutally Honest
Your firm is like a family. Just as dysfunctional.

we use to win new engagements?
• How can we improve our promotional communications, case studies,
proposals, contracts, RFP responses, and capability presentations?
How can we improve these to make them more impactful while
streamlining the writing and negotiating process?
Organizational Structure
• Are all members of our team given clear expectations about their roles?
How can we help each member of our team realize his or her potential
to improve and grow?
• What roles and responsibilities do we need to fill now and in the future?
Who do we have now on our team and how do they fit our current and
future vision?
• What are our firm’s recruitment, hiring, performance review, professional
development, and promotion strategies? What tools or systems do we
need to make these more effective?
Operations
• What are our firm’s core financial metrics? How and when are both
financial and success metrics measured?
• What is the best way to manage and track all our contacts including,
but not limited to, current and past clients, prospects, connectors,
competitors, colleagues and peers, potential candidates, strategic
partners, vendors, media/press, etc.?
• What does our team need in terms of management tools, systems, and
processes to do their job well? How and when are these tools, systems,
and processes researched, developed, and on-boarded within the team?
• How can we improve these processes and tools to be more efficient
and profitable without sacrificing the quality of our work?
At the center of any great firm is someone who’s focused on the vision of the
Emily Ruth Cohen
firm. She knows the answers to the above questions and even seeks to answer
other questions as well. This level of visionary thinking and attention will
ensure a creative business continues to grow and remain relevant and profitable,
within an increasingly competitive and ever-changing business climate.
12
Why Running a
Positioning
Creative Firm is
Like Being a Parent
1. To start with the obvious, shit happens. You just
have to deal with it.
2. Children can be both frustrating and rewarding;
so is running a creative business.
3. As a parent, you can’t foresee what type of parent
you’ll be. You can only do your best.
4. It takes a village. You need to rely on a community
of colleagues for business referrals, creative
support, and overall advice.
5. Employees and clients, just like children, thrive
on structure, rules, praise, and encouragement.
6. As your business (or child) grows, you continually
have new challenges to resolve.
7. There is no definitive right and wrong way to
do things (although I’m hoping this book helps).
8. Clients who love you will probably be more likely
to forgive your mistakes (just like your kids).
9. You shouldn’t argue in front of the children,
a/k/a employees. Keep your disagreements private
and come back to your team with a united front.
Envision Your Firm
10. The best laid plans… well, you know that one.
13
Advisory
Case Study
Board
One firm’s strategy for seeking the advice
of others to help envision their firm’s potential.
By Craig Johnson, President
Matchstic
PROBLEM SOLUTION
Because of our lack of industry—and We sought out the expertise of leaders
business-related experiences, we from different backgrounds and
had limited knowledge of running created an advisory board—including
a business and being entrepreneurs. industry- and business experts/
We also had an ongoing desire to be leaders and subject-matter experts—
a great firm and wanted to continue so we can avoid making mistakes
to improve. Additionally, our profit that others have made before us
margins were razor thin and left no and learn best practices. Each of
room for error. the 5 advisory board members have
already achieved a lot of success
in their careers and are older, wiser,
and looking for an opportunity to give
back. Our current board members
include the author of a well-known
branding book, the heads of marketing
and finance at a state university,
and the CEO of a large national
corporation.
EMILY'S INSIGHT
”This is an ingenious strategy

Study
Board
for gaining objective insight

Title of Case
and feedback from others outside

Advisory
our industry.”
14
Craig Johnson, President
STRUCTURE OF ADVISORY BOARD SUCCESS
• In lieu of compensation, board The advisory board has helped us:
members benefit by receiving a • Build a stronger financial model.
delicious meal, an opportunity to
connect with other business leaders • Learn how to structure a partnership
and stay abreast of current trends agreement.
(to stay relevant), and a gift from • Expand our knowledge of industry
us (usually in the $100–200 range). trends in branding and marketing.
• In advance of the meeting, we • Mediate partner disputes.
prepare a short 1–2 page update • Manage big decisions and fix
that outlines our current state and problems that were beyond our
one or two top-level challenges expertise.
or areas we need their input on.
Not only did they help me grow as
• Advisory board meetings last a leader, but we also doubled our
approximately 4 hours and are held top line revenue and bottom line
twice a year. We hire a spectacular profit margins.
chef to cook an incredible meal.
• At the beginning of each meeting,
each board member provides
an update on their personal and
professional lives. Then, the real
work begins and we dig in on
the main issues that need their
attention and input (e.g., financial
metrics, turnover, client retention,
new ventures, culture building, etc.).
• Additionally, outside of board
meetings, the firm principals reach
out to each board member once
a quarter with additional questions.
Matchstic
15
Infusing More
Case Study
Joy into a
Business Model
One firm’s story of how the principal led
a holistic change in how (and where) she works,
giving herself and her team more time to
breathe and allow more magic to happen.
By Agnieszka Gasparska, Creative Captain and Founder
Kiss Me I’m Polish LLC
OVERVIEW
I did something this past year that I own firm either. I just wanted to be
didn’t think I was allowed to do. Not free. To work on great projects that
as a responsible employed adult, I chose to work on. Organically, step
and definitely not as an independent by step, this wish evolved into a
business owner. I let go a little bit. fully-fledged business, which in turn
For two months this summer, I lived brought all of the responsibilities and
and worked remotely—like in a differ- patterns that go along with running
ent time zone, where they speak a such a business. So, ironically, one of
different language. And my business the first realizations I had early on was
Joy into a Business Model
did not fall apart. In fact, it blossomed that this freedom I had set out to
in ways I could not have anticipated. achieve had an immense price tag
And so did I. attached to it—one that meant feeling
the sheer opposite of “free” the
CHALLENGE majority of the time. For many years.
Over the course of running my own The more intense everything got,
design company, I have had countless the more it seemed that the only way
MoreStudy
experiences I never expected to have out or through it was more, more,

when I first set out to be independent more—more effort, more things on the
Title of Case
14 years ago. But then again, when to-do list, more resources allocated
Infusing
I first started out on my own, I didn’t to those things, more work, more time,
think I would eventually be running my more worry, more stress, more of
16
everything. Look ahead, don’t look All of these seemingly minor
Agnieszka Gasparska, Creative Captain and Founder

down, grab on tight, and keep on adjustments created much-needed
white-knuckling through. It was all breathing room which has in turn
or nothing, and I had come to regard allowed not only for the return of sanity,
this mode of existence as the status but also the joy in the work itself, which
quo. This is just what running a has in turn led to amazing new work
business looks like. coming in, and much happier people
Right? and relationships. Were it not for the
Not necessarily. four badass women I work with every
Clearly, that doesn’t sound like day, I would never have said yes when
what any of us fantasize about an opportunity to live in Europe for
when we giddily imagine having the summer presented itself. And
our own practice. say yes I did.
I have come to realize that this is We started planning two months
what learning to run a business looks in advance. We told clients that any
like, and eventually and inevitably meetings in July and August would
there comes a point where it no longer be conducted over the phone (no
feels sustainable or desirable to one seemed even remotely fazed).
be working 50–60 hour weeks. We made a game-plan for weekly
There is a choice here. A choice team debriefs via Skype and a daily
to snap out of it. check-in.
That’s what the past couple of There was never more than a 1–2 day
years have felt like—like I have been stretch that we went without some kind
gradually snapping back into a of contact.
different reality.
(Thank god.) RESULT/SUCCESS
Work continued at its normal pace,
SOLUTION clients were happy, as we all were, and
• Scaling back when it was possible new business opportunities continued
• Being more disciplined (and to come in. So natural was the flow
forgiving) with time of our work (thank you, technology!)
• Being more vigilant with expecta- that my first day back in the office
tions (of others and of myself) in September was just like any other
Monday. No big whoop. And with two
• Saying no to things I would months left in this calendar year, we
previously have said yes to without are on track to see an increase in
thinking, and then never having the studio’s income by at least 15%
enough time to actually do from last year. Who knew! We may
• Relying on the support of the have to try this again next summer.
incredible team I have had by my
side for five years, without whom
none of this would be possible
Kiss Me I’m Polish LLC
EMILY'S INSIGHT
”Building joy into your work life may

require you to think differently.”
17
Chapter 2
What Type of
Firm Are You?
A common challenge creative firms often

encounter is trying to be all things to all
people; they often do this out of a need to
accommodate existing clients or for financial
reasons. Take a stand—you won't regret it.
Based on my observations, creative firms are evolving into two vastly different
Positioning
types: executional and strategic. These two types of firms are becoming so
different from each other that they require different organizational, pricing,
and management structures.
Executional
The most common firm type is executional—firms that are reactive in
nature. The focus of these firms is “churn and burn,” doing a lot of work
rather quickly. Some signs of being an executional firm include:
• Clients provide the strategy and/or creative briefs
• Clients have existing and tightly crafted brand guidelines that restrict
your ability to “color outside the lines”
• Clients art direct instead of trusting the firm’s expertise
• Firm provides site maintenance or develops basic WordPress or
Squarespace sites that require little to no information architecture
• Firm has several retainer-based relationships where they are executing
against existing concepts and templates provided to them and are
no longer involved in creating higher-level concepts
• Firm charges hourly rather than by fixed fees
Being executional can be a very profitable business model, but it’s more
about doing lots of projects at smaller budgets (so, quantity over quality).
Most firms functioning at the executional level also are reactive when
it comes to new business development efforts. They simply respond to
incoming new business inquiries and referrals, and don't have the time or
a strong enough position/portfolio to attract and pursue the type of business
they want. It is much harder to market at this level to your target prospects,
and even your competition is often more broad and difficult to define.
Strategic
What Type of Firm Are You?
The other type of creative firms are sought by clients for their very specific
and well-known expertise, industry insights, or creative thinking. These
firms focus on doing fewer projects but for higher budgets. They rarely are
generalists (unless their work is truly exceptional and/or all their staff
are experts in some area or skill set), but have a specialized positioning.
(For more on specializing and positioning, see Chapter 3.)
19
A strategic design firm may continually compete against the same
Pick a model. You won't regret it.

Brutally Honest
firms or, as the go-to expert, may not have to compete at all. Many potential
clients are starting to understand the value of design thinking and its
impact on their bottom line, so the opportunities in this area are growing,
but still limited.
It is important to note that strategic firms typically don’t provide
executional services to their clients unless they are also contracted for
larger, bigger-picture thinking and conceptual work. And, if they are
contracted for that larger work, they are more advisory in how they
approach the execution of it (as opposed to simply executing work
upon request). Some strategic firms will recommend other firms and/or
work with the client’s in-house team during the executional phases.
Strategic design firms are able to demonstrate the value of their
expertise by working with their clients to capture quantitative success
metrics and developing robust, meaningful case studies. (For more on case
studies and examples of metrics, see Chapter 7.) Strategic design firms can
also better focus on selling to a smaller, more tightly focused market,
based on a stronger position.
Where Do You Fit?

Most principals of creative firms think that they are at the strategic design
level when, in reality, they may be an executional firm that sometimes
provides strategic offerings if:
More than 30% of the firm’s work Most of the people on the team
fits into the executional-type are not experts or comfortable in
relationship described above an advisory role
Can You Be Both?

Most creative firms are still working in a middle area, providing both
executional as well as strategy-based services. They may even be doing
this well, but it’s a difficult and contrary position to be in, and can be
confusing to both prospects and staff alike. Additionally, these two types
Emily Ruth Cohen
of creative firms require different internal processes and staff.

If your work varies between the two models (and most firms do) it makes
it difficult to plan and build a team with all the necessary skill sets that are
20
How Do You Move
Title
Positioning
Chapter
from Executional
to Strategic?
The following is a checklist of areas,
most of which are more thoroughly covered
in other chapters throughout this book,
that you need to work on in order to make
the move more seamlessly.
• Focused principal-driven • Future-oriented and well-defined

attention and leadership staffing strategies, processes,
and tools
• Dedicated and ongoing attention
to leading and managing the • Operationally-focused roles
various big and small changes
required to transition the company • Principal willing to and skilled
(e.g., developing or refining at taking on higher level, often
processes, training strategic-driven unbillable, business-focused
staff, and updating positioning) responsibilities
• More focus on proactive new • Tightly-crafted positioning

business development strategies
• Patience, courage, and fortitude of Firm Are You?
EXECUTIONAL STRATEGIC
Section
What Title
Type
21
required at any given moment. An executional firm needs more production
Brutally Honest
or junior level resources, as well as project managers and management

processes and tools that can accommodate fast-moving, reactive, and
ever-changing workloads and schedules. Alternatively, a strategy-focused
firm requires specialized, trained, well-compensated staff members,
as well as more strategic-focused account services and longer schedules.
A firm in this middle ground may also have difficulty developing a robust
enough portfolio to demonstrate its expertise in any one area, thus making
it difficult to compete and win the more enticing, strategic, and higher-paying
projects. If you are providing both executional and strategic offerings,
you are also more than likely competing against a wider range of firms.
What’s Right for You?

Most firms think they can manage to be everything to everyone. But if you
look more deeply at your challenges (e.g., staffing, hiring, new business
development, differentiating yourself, pricing structure), you will see that
eventually—and possibly sooner than you think—you’ll have to select a
more focused path, either in execution or strategy, if you haven’t migrated
there already.
But, first, you have to be honest with yourself on where you are now.
For many, they land in the middle ground, again trying to be all things to all
people. That model is no longer relevant in this increasingly competitive
and saturated industry.
But, how do you transition from an executional firm to a strategic one?
Through specialization. Yet most of you will skip the next chapter on
why specialization is not a dirty word, out of stubbornness or misconceptions
about the limitations of being a specialist. Please don’t. It’s an important
read and forms the foundation of many of my other recommendations
in this book.
Emily Ruth Cohen
22
Moving from
Title
Positioning
Chapter
one direction
to another
requires
advanced
planning,
as well as
dedicated time
to focus and
implement
of Firm Are You?
changes.
Section
What Title
Type
23
Chapter 3
The Dirty Word:

Specialization
Most creative firms are generalists, working

with all types of clients on all types of projects.
This may have worked years ago, when there
were fewer creative firms than there are now.
However, to truly stand out within a saturated
market, most firms have to become specialists.
I know that as a creative you may think being a specialist is absolutely not
Positioning
a good business model, both personally and professionally. In fact, as I stated
in the last chapter, many of you consider “specialization” a dirty word and
will skip reading this chapter altogether. After all, you’ve heard “you need
to specialize” by every consultant, speaker, and business advisor out there
(including me). But you think you're different and don’t need to specialize,
don’t you? I can even tell you why you think you’re different, because I’ve
heard it all before:
• You are naturally curious and want to learn.
• You don’t want to be held back or limited by one particular focus or type
of work or industry.
• You want to design cool shit.
• You want to, and can, design anything. After all, you have a variety
of skills, and good design is good design no matter what the deliverable
is or who it is done for.
• You want long-term relationships with clients and think clients will
consider you for all kinds of great work because they love you and
intuitively understand you can do anything!
I personally understand this. In fact, I also know there are a few and very rare
prospects that understand and even appreciate diversity and a fresh insight.
But most clients don’t.
Put Yourself in Your Client’s Shoes

Before you continue to think that specialization isn’t for you, I’d like
you to get into your client’s head and think more about how they select
a creative partner.
Some clients choose firms solely based on price. And, as we all know,
it is very difficult to compete on price alone, as there are no industry
standards, and there will always be another creative firm that is less
The Dirty Word: Specialization
expensive than you. And, ask yourself: Do you really want to work with
a client that values price over everything else?
Other clients choose firms based on the quality of the creative work,
or a firm’s portfolio. In my experience, most creative firms think they do great
work that differentiates them from most other competitors. Unfortunately,
this isn’t true, and if you’re being honest with yourself, you know your
competitors do great work. No matter how creative you think your firm is,
25
“quality” is subjective. How then does a client further narrow down their
Brutally Honest
choices amidst the great work out there?

Above anything else, clients choose creative partners based on trust.
And, most often, trust is earned by the firm’s positioning as a well-
regarded thought-leader (conveyed through public speaking, their written
content, and client list). And, while winning awards may position your
company as a leader, awards are becoming a dime a dozen, and there
are very few that are valued by clients (unless you’ve been recognized
by the client’s peers in an industry-specific competition, such as the
James Beard Foundation Outstanding Restaurant Design Awards).
Trust is also earned through your daily interactions and relationships,
as well as referrals. Referrals, however, are more impactful if the firm
being referred has a tangible and proven knowledge (or specialization)
in an area the client values highly.
We All Sound the Same

But, just to prove I’m right, conduct an online search yourself and look
at the websites of the top 20 firms you know, admire, or compete against.
I’ll guarantee that they will all eventually sound the same—award winning,
multi-disciplinary, activate customer experience, blah, blah, blah.
WHAT PROSPECTS LOOK FOR IN A CREATIVE PARTNER

Specialization helps prospects find and select the best creative partner.
When faced with endless choices of creative firms, many of whom are
generalists, prospects need help in their selection process. Prospects often
ask themselves these types of questions when vetting a creative partner:
• Are they experts in what I need (deliverables)?
• Who do they work for (their specific industry)?
• What specifically do they do (unique services)?
• How do they do it (the process)?
• Do they have a proven success rate (success metrics that validate
return on investment)?
As a specialist, if your site content addresses these issues and applies
Emily Ruth Cohen
to them, prospects will find you and you will have a better chance
of being considered.
26
Benefits of Specialization
Positioning
Beyond helping clients find you, there are other inherent benefits
of specialization that help your business grow.
FOCUS YOUR NEW BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT EFFORTS

This becomes even more evident when you realize, as I have, that most firms
that generalize (and most of them do), do not actively pursue new business
in any focused manner. Generalists are simply overwhelmed by the vast
unknown and don’t know where to start, who to contact, or how to sell
themselves. They are also forced to reinvent their pitch with each new
prospect. That can be time-consuming, overwhelming, and exhausting.
By specializing, you can narrow down your new business efforts and target
a smaller, more focused market or niche. And, as a specialist, you have a
valuable story to tell, one that speaks directly to your prospect’s needs.
AS AN EXPERT, YOU CAN CHARGE MORE

Generalists are a dime a dozen. As a specialist, you can also command higher
fees because you have proven expertise and successes (ROI) that differentiate
you from most other firms.
SPECIALIZATION DOESN’T MEAN YOU CAN’T CHANGE

You can also have more than one specialization (but no more than three,
as more than that can be difficult to manage). Specialization only means you
have a clear and defined focus and supporting marketing tactics and messages
to move forward. But, that doesn’t mean you have to stay static. Instead,
you may want to refine, enhance, or even change your specialization every
5–10 years to stay sustainable and remain challenged.
Lastly, you can still generalize internally, but specialize externally.
Essentially, you can still take any cool project that comes your way, work on
diverse projects, and on any referred new business opportunity you choose.
But, when communicating and reaching out to new prospects, specialization
is a must-have tool in your marketing arsenal.
The Dirty Word: Specialization
So, how can you specialize? In the next chapter, we will hear from my
friend and colleague, Jennifer Rittner, on just that.
27
Repositioning
Case Study
a One-Person
Firm
One designer’s strategy for shifting
and tightening her positioning from
being perceived as a “freelancer”
to a value-added expert and firm.
By Laura Wertkin, Founder and Creative Director
Intend Creative
PROBLEM SOLUTION
• As a one-person shop—looking to • The repositioning process started
hire, but still relying on freelance with a name change from Laura Beth
help—I need to work extremely hard Studio, which sounded small and
to differentiate my company from feminine, to Intend Creative, which
the world of freelancers. In order speaks to the fact that we design
to compete for larger projects with with intention for organizations
adequate budgets, it’s imperative that work with intention. The name
that my company comes across change alone lets prospects know
as highly competent and skilled. that we are results-driven, strategic,
• After working exclusively with and focused.
nonprofits for seven years, I am • Along with the name change came
a One-Person Firm
expanding to include organizations the need to swap “I” for “we.” After all,
that work to revitalize neighborhoods I rarely work on a project alone. I am
and fight inequality, but aren’t constantly building teams to best
necessarily 501(c)(3)s. It can be meet my clients’ needs, whether this
Title of Case Study
difficult to shift from the nonprofit means other designers, copywriters,

sector after years of following SEO strategists, web programmers,
Repositioning
nonprofit trade groups, conferences, or photographers. Promoting this

and blogs. network of experts makes a big
28
Laura Wertkin, Founder and Creative Director
difference in the type of proposals • It looks like I will be hiring an
I am able to deliver and the esti- employee in the very near future,
mates I am able to quote. in order to sustain all the new
• In order to position myself and business coming in and to continue
the company as an industry with new business outreach.
leader, I have started speaking at • Personally, I have gained a lot of
various events, providing thought- confidence through this process.
leadership and insights to my target Now that the positioning and target
markets. I also have found speaking audience are correct, everything
at smaller, niche events is easier is falling into place much more
and allows me to connect one-to- easily, which lets me know I am
one with my prospects. on the right path.
• My new business efforts are more • We are winning projects from
focused now and I am able to national chapters of nonprofits,
reach my prospects through my whereas we previously only worked
e-newsletter, guest blogging, and with local chapters.
attending workshops or seminars • I have secured five new clients in
where my prospects are. I also send the past year due to this rebrand.
customized emails to prospects.
For example, if I am reaching out Although the target audience moved
to an affordable housing developer, away from being exclusively nonprofit,
I will share samples of our work that it actually became more targeted.
are relevant to them, as well as the I hadn't realized that “nonprofit”
metrics or the results of that work. was still a very broad, general term.
By defining our space within the non-
profit and do-good sector, we became
SUCCESS much more appealing to the right
• The rate of proposals that are now organizations. It is such a specific
coming back as signed contracts niche that clients in the community
is much higher. development world perk up when they
• After renaming and repositioning, hear me talk about the type of work
the company just had its most we do. They know we fully understand
profitable first quarter since its the complexities of their world, and
founding in 2009. all the policies and issues they are
• I find I do not need to negotiate faced with.
proposals often. People get that
the company has a lot of value due
to our industry insight and exper-
tise, and they don’t feel the need
to question the pricing.
• The quality of projects we are
winning has gone way up. We are
Intend Creative
doing more branding and strategy

work, and partnering with clients
at an earlier point in their initiatives.
29
Chapter 4
Identifying Your
Optimal Area of
Specialization
By Jennifer Rittner, Principal
Content Matters
A NOTE FROM EMILY

I asked my dear friend and colleague, Jennifer Rittner, a communi-
cations strategist, to contribute her additional insights on the topic
of specialization, which I hope you are considering.
How do you choose your optimal area of specialization to help focus
Positioning
your business and, just as importantly, your messaging? The key lies in
recognizing your inherent strengths, interests, and opportunities as well as
the opportunity spaces within the vast world of potential clients. Setting your
sights on “what success looks like for my firm in 10 years” is the first step
toward establishing who you are, where you excel, why clients should trust
you, and what differentiates you from the competition. This chapter focuses
on the six facets you should consider as you plan your area of specialization.
1. Industry
• You have a genuine, driving interest in, and have developed a clearly
defined point of view around a particular industry.
• You know the people, the jargon, the drivers, the challenges, the
opportunities because you have spent time and gained experience
learning about and working with them.
• Your work clearly demonstrates your capabilities in this arena.
• You have key referrers among the influencers in this arena.
For example, Douglas Riccardi’s studio, Memo (NYC), has amassed
credentials in the restaurant and hospitality industries, demonstrating a
depth of industry knowledge that allows him to advise clients on strategy
at a more nuanced and comprehensive level. Carefully developing insights
and strategies specific to its needs, the firm has built its reputation with
industry leaders, gaining respect within the network of professionals
and prospective clients.
Identifying Your Optimal Area of Specialization
2. Process
• You have a way of working that is unique to, and uniquely own-able
by, your business.
• You can clearly articulate your methodology, including the specific
elements that drive success for your clients.
• Your methodology aligns with either quantifiable metrics or credibly
qualitative measures demonstrating the success of your process.
• You have case studies that demonstrate the strength of your process.
31
• You have client testimonials that specifically reference your process
Brutally Honest
as a point of difference and a driver of their success.

Innovation design studios like Matter and IDEO are masters of process.
They staff their studios and express their vision according to the
process that fuels their creativity. Clients feel confident that these firms
can achieve their goals because their well-defined process leaves no room
for error. When the stakes are high, a solid process defines the difference
between chaos and success.
3. Philosophy/Mission
• You have a distinct philosophy that drives your business,
your relationships with clients, and the work you produce.
• You have published elements of your core philosophy.
• You are steadfast and resolute in your decision to work only
with companies that espouse your core philosophy.
• You are known for and asked to present your point of view.
• Your work clearly demonstrates and is held up as a model
of your core philosophy.
• Clients have indicated that they are inspired by and have
chosen to work with you because of your core philosophy.
• Clients have indicated that they have met with success because
your shared perspectives were aligned around your core philosophy.
Design Action Collective (Oakland), Creative Reaction Lab (St. Louis)
and Greater Good Studio (Chicago) define their core philosophy right
up front. All three firms emphasize progress over profits and are driven
by a belief in the power of collective action. For Design Action Collective,
that point is articulated in their Points of Unity manifesto which also
highlights their strict anti-capitalist mission. These firms know where
they stand, who they want to work with, what outcomes they strive for,
and why it matters. Staying true to their mission keeps them focused and
driven toward success for themselves and their clients, which clients
Emily Ruth Cohen
recognize and value.
32
Positioning
4. Strategy
• You can demonstrate both deep and broad expertise in a technique
or medium.
• You are known and praised by clients and colleagues for your
craftsmanship and/or production quality.
• You can demonstrate your ability to deliver on a broad range of industries
and strategies principally on the basis of your technical expertise.
• Your visual portfolio clearly demonstrates the excellence of your craft.
• You offer workshops and/or technical demonstrations related
to your craft.
Volume, the San Francisco studio of Adam Brodsley and Eric Heiman,
demonstrates their skill in crossing industries, and amassing a portfolio
of achievements that demonstrate their strategic expertise. Their strength
lies in their ability to offer nuanced and cohesive insights that lead to success
for their clients, often turning initial expectations on their head and deliv-
ering design that is equally ground-breaking and on-point. Clients know
that Volume will ask the difficult questions and uncover hidden possibilities.
Their strategic lens informs their process, deliverables, and outcomes.
5. Aesthetic Point of View

• You have an iconic style (which may change over time).
• You can demonstrate how your aesthetic choices defined success

for your clients.
• You are recognized in and beyond the design field for your aesthetic
point of view.
• People seek you out because of your aesthetic point of view.
• Your work is typically judged by its design (as opposed to more
quantifiable measures of success).
• You are principally interested in cultivating your style.
• Your design team is hired and trained to support your aesthetic
point of view.
33
The way the hand moves, that particular sense of color and line, a consis-
Brutally Honest
tent and recognizable way of seeing the world and translating it into visual
design: that is the designer’s aesthetic DNA. For designers like Little Fury
(NYC), Anderson Newton Design (NYC), and Works Progress Design
(Norfolk, VA) their aesthetic brand is part of their appeal. A clear aesthetic
vision demonstrates the designer’s competence in translating a visual style
across a variety of projects. Clients can visually locate the designer’s DNA
through an extensive portfolio, recognizing the way that firm utilizes typog-
raphy, imagery, white space, ornamentation and emotion. For many
clients, the benefit is a more intuitive leap from what they see to what
they hope to become.
6. Business Model
• You have a unique business structure.
• You have an active, broad-based network of collaborators
with whom you have developed meaningful partnerships.
• The unique make-up of your team drives success for your clients.
• You are able to shift your business model as cultural or socio-economic
shifts occur.
• You see your business as a continual work in progress.
• You seek out new ideas and models for running a design business,
including those beyond the design sector.
Larger firms like Pentagram and smaller ones like KUDOS Design
Collaboratory (NYC) have developed business models that empower
their creative agents to embody their unique design paths, while staying
focused on success for the collective entity. In the case of Pentagram,
partners maintain a stake in the business but are not hampered by a limited
or limiting aesthetic identity or industry focus. Partners may be brought
on to offer complementary skills or creative vision and are free to pursue
areas of interest that inspire them, but also benefit the larger Pentagram
ethos: a creative and financial win. Their business model is stable and
Emily Ruth Cohen
adaptable, creatively nurturing and fiscally sensible. For KUDOS,

the business model leverages long-standing personal and professional
ties in emerging markets in Indonesia and Japan. As a multinational
partnership, they leverage local talents and specific skill sets while
34
presenting a clear creative vision of the firm that establishes its credibility
Positioning
across borders. Importantly, with these businesses trust is ensured with
contracts and oversight, not a wink and a nod between friends.
Where does your passion lie and how does it align with your core capa-
bilities and the goals you have set for your business? With an understanding
of what drives you and what drives success for your clients, you can scaffold
your growth in a way that leverages your best assets and lays the foundation
for continued success.
In the end, these guidelines are intended to inform a choice: either
one that has emerged organically as your team and client projects grow,
or one that you choose to leverage an opportunity. Either way, your choice
becomes your imprimatur: a promise to clients that they can trust in you
because you have done the work to understand who you are and how
that benefits them. Ultimately, your specialization serves both you and
the constituents you serve. Specialize with wisdom, design with purpose.
35
Curation Service
Case Study
Model for Digital

Platforms
One digital agency’s strategy for expanding
their positioning to encompass a new
subscription-based service that allowed
them to retain longer-term relationships
and help their clients stay on trend.
By Pinaki Kathiari, Co-Founder and Managing Partner
Local Wisdom
CHALLENGE
Over a decade ago, we noticed • This didn’t bode well for us or
something funny. Our agency had our clients when justifying the
launched a digital platform for our considerable amount of effort
clients, and we began to notice that we all put in for the success
the website didn’t look as nice as of their digital platforms.
when we launched it. Months later, Additionally, we found that once we
it looked even worse. This resulted launched a new platform, our clients
Model for Digital Platforms
in several challenges for both our didn’t always engage us for future work,
clients and for us: despite having loved working with us.
• The beautiful design and user We spent time considering this.
experience we launched with Our clients were marketers, journalists,
degraded over time and began and writers; they weren’t designers,
to tarnish the brand reputation developers, or content publishers.
that we committed to uphold. All the skills and competencies needed
to maintain a web property weren’t
Study
• The degradation was happening

Service
even with the existing content skills that our clients had. In the cases
Title of Case
management systems, where where they did, those individuals were in

demand and didn’t have the bandwidth
Curation
the content could be managed

without coding. to help.
36
SOLUTION SUCCESS
Pinaki Kathiari, Co-Founder and Managing Partner

In 2007, in response to this challenge, • This model has worked extremely
we launched a new service model well for our clients. They get a sense
called “Curation.” The idea was that of ease knowing that their websites
we would curate web properties just are being taken care of. It’s like
like a museum curator would do for having a concierge, a trainer, and
a museum. This subscription-based a therapist available to help clients
service allowed us to offer ongoing and push their platforms to drive
strategic recommendations based more value for their business.
on trends, as well as tactical best • Some of the results that our
practices to our clients. Ultimately, customers have seen include,
we were able sustain the design and but are not limited to, a 200%
brand that we launched with. increase in content publishing,
For the curation service, we have a 40% increase in visits, and a
now implemented the following: 60% increase in social shares,
• We’ve developed a new team to as well as other intangibles
be responsible for curation services like tighter collaboration and
for clients. This cross-disciplinary teamwork.
team has a set of competencies • From our company perspective,
that spans development, design, it gives us a steady stream of
project management, and busi- reliable income. While our project-
ness analysis. based work can fluctuate, our
• Clients pay a monthly fee to have curation model keeps our cash
our curation team nurture and flow at a positive steady pace.
manage their digital platforms.
These platforms range from
websites, Intranets, and mobile
apps. Their reach varies from
internal communications to external
marketing and public relations.
Our services helped clients with:
• Writing, designing, and publishing
content.
• Supporting and moderating social
communities.
• Managing editorial processes
and governance.
• Recommending strategies based
on KPIs and monthly metrics.
• Troubleshooting and maintaining
platforms.
Local Wisdom
We are constantly re-tooling the

service model as the landscape
is constantly evolving.
37
ng and Promotion Marketing and Promotion Marketing and Promotion Marketing and Pr
Marketing
Section Title
and Promotion
Chapter 1 Chapter title 10
Chapter 5
2 Your
Chapter
Marketing
title Arsenal 20
40
Chapter 6
3 Website
Chapter Strategies
title 30
46
Chapter 4
7 Case
Chapter
Studies
title and Metrics 40
50
Chapter 5
Your Marketing
Arsenal
It is critical to have an arsenal of marketing tools

ready to support you, all of which are aligned
to your specialization. They should work together
to support and reinforce your firm's your new
business efforts and strategies.
Marketing Must Haves

STRONG POSITIONING AND AN ELEVATOR PITCH
Create well-defined language that describes succinctly and memorably
who you are, what you do, who you work with, and what makes you
different. Use this language in all your written and interpersonal
communications. It should be engaging and consistent, but, at the same
time, not overly rehearsed. You can have short and long versions of your
elevator pitch and you can change it over time, but you should be able
to describe who you are easily and quickly at any given time. Ideally, your
positioning should incorporate a very clear expertise or specializations
that distinguishes you from the competition and helps your target prospects
find you easily. (For more on specialization and positioning, see Chapter 3.)
CRM TOOL
A client/customer relationship management (CRM) tool helps you manage
and track all your contacts as well as analyze your customer interactions
throughout the lifecycle of the relationship. A CRM system compiles
information on all your contacts across different categories (e.g., current
and past clients, prospects, connectors, competitors, colleagues and peers,
potential candidates) and connects to your calendar to help remind you to
stay in touch at key moments. For example, if one of your clients is pregnant,
you can note when she is due to congratulate her. Most importantly, the
CRM tool can help you manage and track your new business pipeline.
CASE STUDIES
Case studies are simple documents that appear on your site and as digital
or printed handouts that feature a specific project/relationship, images of
the work itself, and a short summary of the challenges you were presented
with and the solutions you came up with, including, most importantly,
key success metrics. (For more on case studies, see Chapter 7.)
SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION (SEO)

Content that is optimized for search engines will allow qualified
prospects to easily find you and help prioritize your site over those of
Your Marketing Arsenal
your competitors. SEO is not only title and meta tags, it is also the inclusion
of very specific, hyper-relevant content about your firm, services, clients,
and team that is optimized for search engines. Again, being specialized
makes you easier to find.
41
Qualifications
Brutally Honest
Material
You should have the following content
easily available and always current:
List of services
List of clients
organized by
industry
Team bios
and photos
Case studies
List of references
Emily Ruth Cohen
42
EMAIL BLASTS
This is your arsenal. Have it ready before you need it.

No matter how memorable you think you are, prospects and even clients
have short-term memories and may move on to the latest eye-candy out
there. Out of sight, out of mind. Thus, staying in touch with your contacts
on a quarterly basis is crucial. It simply reminds them you exist. Don’t worry
about open rates or any metrics. You just want it in their inbox (providing
they have given their permission to be on your mailing list). The email may
arrive at the perfect time, when they were thinking of hiring a new firm.
In fact, if you send an email quarterly, the odds are that one of those emails
will arrive at just the right time. Keep it simple, highly visual, and feature the
latest case study or news (a new hire, a move, a new speaking engagement).
Most people don’t read their emails anymore (or at least long ones), so
educational or thought leadership content that positions you as an “expert”
has little resonance and simply isn’t worth all the effort. Which leads me
to my next controversial point…
THOUGHT-LEADERSHIP CONTENT
I know, there are many content evangelists out there who swear that all firms
should develop ongoing and frequent thought leadership content to attract
qualified leads. However, I am not one of those evangelists. Yes, I do believe
in thought leadership content, but with these caveats:
• Limit the amount of content. 4–6 times a year is enough.
• Post content on other sites (not only on your site). By posting your
content on other sites, you reach a larger, more focused audience.
Look to write relevant content on sites that reach your target audience.
• You should write it yourself. Hiring writers to write your firm’s thought
leadership is inauthentic and often doesn’t align with your
firm’s true voice and expertise.
• Don’t be hobbled by it. Don't spend your valuable and limited time
writing too much or working on too many thought leadership pieces,
particularly at the risk of avoiding reaching out and pursuing new
business. You should not rely on content marketing to generate all
your new business; it only supports your new business efforts.
Your Marketing Arsenal
• Leverage your content. Leverage the time you spend developing this
content and build a strategy for each posting that leverages other
opportunities, such as pursuing a speaking engagement on the topic,
or re-posting the content elsewhere (for more bang for your buck, etc.).
43
43
SOCIAL MEDIA
Brutally Honest
Your social media postings are better used as a recruitment tool than a tool
in your marketing arsenal. What you post (and even where) reflects your
firm’s culture, interests, and overall vibe and this appeals to potential staff.
But don’t expect your social media postings to have much impact in attracting
new business. I’ve seen few results in this area, with some rare exceptions.
However, what you say about your firm and how you say it on social media
does reinforce your firm’s positioning and relevancy to the rare prospects that
are checking social media. It keeps your existing clients engaged and allows
you to stay top-of-mind to those clients that follow you.
WEBSITE
While your website should not be relied on as your primary way to
generate new business, it is a critical tool in supporting your new business
development efforts. (For more on how you can improve your website,
see Chapter 6.)
What You Don’t Need

Designers love to design stuff. And, unless you really need to prove a specific
type of service you currently don’t have client work in, it’s not worth the
financial investment involved in producing promotional items. Cool stuff
will not get you new business or build new relationships. These are one-time
efforts don’t necessarily have long-lasting value. “Cool stuff” includes, but
is not limited to:
• Wine bottles
• Notebooks and calendars
• Posters (it’s unlikely they will be hung up, no matter how awesome
or cool they are, and even rarer still that the right person will see one
hung up and think to call you)
• A recipe booklet
Essentially, any sort of cliché promotional product that would likely find
its way to the trash isn't worth the investment of time or money.
If you have an urge to design cool work, independent of a client’s control,
Emily Ruth Cohen
then develop and sell your own products—at least you make some money out
of the effort (ideally). Explore design entrepreneurship. (For more on design
entrepreneurship, see Chapter 27.)
44
Our Back to
Case Study
Chapter
Sharon Taylor, Owner and Creative Title
Director
School Classes
One designer’s tool in her marketing
arsenal is a side-hustle that builds
more connections in her local market.
By Sharon Taylor, Owner and Creative Director
ink + mortar
CHALLENGE SUCCESS
As a creative firm in Philadelphia, Through our Back to School classes,
we identified a need in the market we have set ourselves up as experts
for classes that offered a deeper level in the design community, and we’ve
of business advice and applicable connected with many local vendors
design lessons for local businesses. that we now work with.
We felt that our expertise and strate- The biggest surprise came in late
gic partners could offer more. 2016, when the classes won a Best
of Philly award. This gave our studio
SOLUTION a coveted spot in the September
We put together a group of business issue of Philadelphia magazine
classes, nicknamed “Back to School” and we gained more traction in the
(we kicked them off in the fall), and community and filled more seats
they quickly became a great way to for the 2016 fall classes.
connect with the community, slowly While we don’t pull in hundreds
turning into much more. of thousands of dollars through the
We set up a website, created classes, the small effort leads to many
branded designs, produced postcards, great relationships, solid business
and mailed out invitations with class connections, and earned an award
dates. While we didn’t sell out initially, that gave us local recognition. We
Our Back to School Classes
we built buzz, and were able to share now run the classes twice a year
our expertise within an intimate busi- and continue to meet more people
ness class environment. Since the and gain traction for the studio.
first season, subsequent seasons We hope to continue them for many
sell out, and topics range from SEO years to come!
Title
+ mortar
to photography to brand development.

Section
ink
45
Chapter 6
Website
Strategies
Designers avoid creating or updating

their own sites like the plague. But to state
it plainly: you need a website. And it needs
to be current. No excuses. Don’t be a cobbler
whose children have no shoes.
Strategies to Get Started

DON’T CREATE YOUR SITE FOR DESIGNERS
Design and write the site for your clients and prospects. They are
your primary audience. Your secondary audience—if your company is
growing fast—is potential new hires, so some content should be focused
on recruitment.
HAVE A BRAND VOICE

Make sure your content is written with a consistent and compelling voice
and tone, one that reflects your firm’s brand, personality, culture, and overall
vibe. Use this voice throughout all your branded materials.
OPTIMIZE YOUR CONTENT

Develop your SEO strategy so clients can find you based on common words/
phrases they search for.
ENGAGE YOUR COLLEAGUES

If you “don’t have time” to design, write content, update or program your site,
then hire someone else to do it. They will do it faster and with less personal
baggage. Side note: Definitely hire a proofreader; typos are unacceptable!
CHECK YOUR SITE ANALYTICS

Update and refine your site based on site analytics. These analytics provide
a world of insight such as: identifying which search phrases your prospects
use and the frequency of these searches; the kinds of content that resonates
most with your target prospects; and how long they stay and which pages
they visit the most.
MAKE IT ACCESSIBLE TO PROSPECTS

Prospects should be able to find work that is most relevant to them. If you
have a lot of work, make sure your site visitors can sort your portfolio by type
of deliverable/service and by industry/specialization.
DON’T INCLUDE A HUGE LAUNDRY LIST OF SERVICES

You don’t have to list every single type of end deliverable you’ve ever done
(e.g., direct mail, annual reports, viewbooks, capabilities brochures). This
Website Strategies
makes you look like a jack of all trades, master of none. Rather, consider
overarching categories (e.g. strategy, branding, print, digital, multimedia,
signage) to organize your work.
47
UPDATE IT QUARTERLY
Brutally Honest
No excuses. Fresh content is critical (new projects, current team, updated

client list, etc.). However, don’t feature all your best work. Save a few select
projects to show during capability presentations so you can show something
they haven’t seen.
LAUNCH A NEW SITE, WHEN NEEDED

As we all know, sites can easily look outdated, and it’s important that your
site differentiates your firm and looks relevant and current. Yet, if you
are like most designers, you need two years to design, write, and program
the site, so by the time you launch, you may need an entirely new site!
Pay attention to your website and, when it feels outdated, update it before
you look like a cobbler whose children have no shoes (or have shoes that
are no longer functioning)!
Must-Have Content
POSITIONING STATEMENT ON HOME PAGE

This is your elevator pitch. A short statement that succinctly and creatively
summarizes your firm's position and/or specialization.
FEATURE YOUR EXPERTISE FRONT AND CENTER

Curated portfolio and related case studies of your top 10–12 projects that
show the full range of what you do. You can then show the rest of your
work in an archive section that is less detailed and not in case study format.
(For more on case studies, see Chapter 7.)
GORGEOUS PHOTOGRAPHY OF YOUR WORK

It’s worth the investment to hire a professional photographer for this.
Digital images don’t always cut it.
AN “ABOUT US” PAGE

Highlight your studio’s collective qualifications versus focusing on
individual team members. In terms of photos and bios, there are different
strategies depending on your size, competitive environment, and
positioning. Some large firms don’t want to look too large (which may
Emily Ruth Cohen
read: expensive), while other large firms use their size as a differentiator,
featuring bios of each team member to show its diverse capabilities.
Smaller firms should feature the firm principal(s) and other team members
48
(if any), but individual bios may not be needed, unless their background will

resonate with target prospects.
CONTACT INFORMATION AND SOCIAL MEDIA LINKS

Don’t use generic email addresses (e.g., “info@”, “newbusiness@”, or even
“hello@”). Use a personal email address. This is a subtle strategy that helps
prospects (and candidates) feel cared for and that their communications are
being received in real time by a real human (not just checked once a month).
Optional Content
DESCRIPTION OF PROCESS/METHODOLOGY/APPROACH
Your process is rarely different than other firms', no matter how “proprietary”
or unique you think it is. Process-focused content is appropriate only
if your prospects have no experience working with creatives or if your pros-
pects value process (like engineers and technically-oriented audiences).
NEWS OR BLOG SECTION

Unless you add new content frequently (and by that I mean more than
once a quarter), this type of content feels outdated and has little real
value to your visitors. (For more on content marketing, see Chapter 5.)
Beyond your website, the other all-important tool in your marketing arsenal
is case studies, which are discussed in the next chapter.
Website Strategies
49
Chapter 7
Case Studies
and Metrics
Case studies are a crucial, much-overlooked,

and often under-utilized tool within your
marketing arsenal. Most case studies are
framed around subjective project descriptions
whereas they should include more essential,
objective content that has resonance and
impact with prospects.
Now, don't get scared. I’m not talking about those intensive, comprehensive,

endless, and rather dull case studies that those trudging through business
school have to immerse themselves in. Rather, the case studies I’m talking
about are short,1 simple documents that focus on a particular project or
relationship, with emphasis on how the creative firm measurably impacted
its client’s business (“success metrics”).
Why Case Studies Are Effective

Many creatives develop case studies and include overly descriptive project
descriptions that don’t resonate with clients at a business level. Designers
tend to use case studies to talk about how great their work is, their process,
why a certain visual strategy was chosen, what the project’s theme was,
or how much the client subjectively responded to it. This strategy takes
significant time, yet has little value to prospects.
However, if you switch your mindset to write case studies that resonate
with clients, you’ll find that they are indispensable, multi-tasking tools that
can be used in your capabilities materials, website, new business pitches,
public relations outreach, and even inspire your social media posts. The value
of strong, well-crafted case studies is immense, as they:
• Champion and position your work and services as a value-added
investment, not just a cost or expense
• Provide evidence of your creative contribution to a client’s bottom
line—in other words, they rationalize the client’s cost benefit or
Return on Investment (ROI)
• Provide tangible evidence (ROI) that clients can use to justify their
budgets internally
• Make clients look good to their boss, colleagues, and peers
• Boost team morale and retention
What Should a Case Study Include?

Case Studies and Metrics
A client-driven case study strategy essentially includes the following:
IMAGES OF THE PROJECT

While this may be obvious, you still should edit and be selective about what
images you feature. The images you choose should speak for themselves and
51
speak volumes about the work. With use of great imagery, you won’t need
Brutally Honest
to use endless descriptive words to describe the project!
PROBLEM/CHALLENGE STATEMENT
This is a short statement describing what the client’s business-related
challenge was that you needed to solve. It may focus on such topics as market
influences, business objectives, desired end-result/action, target audience/
market, competitive challenges, etc. Answer these questions: What was the
client trying to achieve? What were their business objectives?
LIST OF SERVICES
This is a list of what the end deliverable was that you created for that particular
client/project (e.g., strategy, naming, messaging, identity system, promotional
material, website, app, etc.). You don’t have to list every component you
provided, and can generalize by media instead (e.g., print, digital). Ideally,
the list should align with how you categorize work on your website, as this
allows you to tag the type of deliverable with other related projects.
STRATEGY/APPROACH
Designers spend way too much time writing lengthy copy for this area, yet
it is also the section that has the least relevance to a prospect. Unless you have
a truly compelling story to tell, you can often eliminate this section entirely.
But, if you wish to describe your unique strategy, or know that your clients find
it valuable, then do so as concisely as possible and try to provide information
that prospects can appreciate. They don’t care why you art directed a photo
a certain way, or why you chose a font, but they may care about the overarching
visual strategy or themes that drove those decisions.
SOLUTIONS/RESULTS/OUTCOME (OR “SUCCESS METRICS”)

This is the most important section of any case study and should be its central
point of focus.
Alternate Approaches
The following optional approaches or content may also be employed:
BEFORE AND AFTER FORMAT

Emily Ruth Cohen
Instead of using the challenge/solution format described above, consider

using a before and after image format, if appropriate. Visually, this can
resonate with a prospect and they can really “see” (rather than just hear) how
you’ve solved a client’s problem. Challenge/solution formats are particularly
52
powerful with packaging, wayfinding, and digital projects, providing of course

your work really shows a significant improvement from the original. By the way,
this format doesn't get you off the hook from including success metrics. Sorry!
TESTIMONIALS
Including client testimonials somewhere in your promotional materials
is a wonderful way for your existing clients to share the love and talk about
how great it is to work with you and your team. However, testimonials
shouldn’t be used in lieu of success metrics in your case studies. Because
testimonials are subjective, use them sparingly and focus instead on
including tangible success metrics which demonstrate your success more
objectively, ultimately having more impact with prospects.
AWARDS
List only awards won from organizations and competitions that clients
recognize and value. Clients are more impressed when a project/
relationship is recognized by their industry or peers, rather than a design
organization or competition. 2
Success Metrics
Creatives avoid asking clients about success metrics ( just like they avoid
updating their sites) and I’ve heard all their excuses, including:
“The clients don’t have or capture this type of information.”
“This is confidential information that clients don’t want to share

or make public.”
“It’s too late to ask the client for that information.”

And, my all-time favorite:
“My work was only a contributing factor to the project’s success,

and therefore it would be dishonest to take credit for its success.”
Really? Have you asked? Usually these excuses are a crutch for designers’
insecurities. They prefer to make these assumptions (or excuses) and

thereby avoid asking what they think is a difficult question. Designers prefer
to focus on output, not outcomes. What if they failed? 3 They prefer not to ask
about success metrics to avoid the possibility of knowing the project wasn’t
successful. And, oftentimes, because they are so busy fighting fires or have
moved on to the next project, they forget and/or avoid following through.
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Metric Checklist
Brutally Honest
This checklist is your friend. Don't be afraid.

The following are ways that clients often
demonstrate or measure value. Use this
checklist to inspire your conversations
during the discovery phase.
Quantitative Metrics Qualitative Metrics

(PREFERABLE)
• Drove online traffic (site analytics) • Upgraded image
• Generated sales or sales leads • Repositioned brand
• Saved money • Changed existing perceptions
• Raised awareness (e.g., • Educated clients or employees

media attention)
• Motivated target audience
• Increased enrollment,
registration, attendance,
followers on social media
• Increased staff morale
• Increased recruitment
• Increased market share
• Changed spending patterns
• Affected environmental
impact/sustainability
• Metrics determined by the AIGA’s

Emily Ruth Cohen
Living Principles for Design

framework 4
54
How Do I Get Metrics?

The simple and obvious answer is to ask the client! But, first, you must set
the stage during the kickoff/discovery/planning phase. During this phase
make sure you ask the client these important questions:
How will you measure the project/ When will you measure it ?
relationship’s result or success?
These painless questions force the client to think about the expected outcomes
more deeply, demonstrate that you want to be a partner in their success, and
also help you to define the “when.” This is important. Once you define “when,”
put it in your calendar so you can be reminded to follow through to obtain that
metric. No excuses. It also helps to gather, if available, any baseline metrics
from the client at the start of your relationship which you can use upon project
completion to measure and compare your impact. These comparisons also make
great before and after stories as well!
If the client doesn’t know how to measure success, or if they haven’t
thought about it, you can be advisory and consult with them to explore and
define ways that success can be measured. One way to be more advisory is to
ask the key decision-makers at the start of every project: “What are three things
that will make this project a success?” Sometimes, their answers, while not
metrics-driven, can provide good fodder and ways to measure success later.
You may also recommend additional services in which you, or a strategic
partner, develop some measurement apparatus/techniques. Again, no excuses.
1 “Short” and “concise” are words I repeat often 3 Even if the metrics don’t demonstrate the
throughout this chapter and elsewhere in intended result, you can turn a negative into
this book. Clients no longer have time to read a positive. By recognizing failure, you can turn
long-winded copy. Instead, provide them with around a potentially embarrassing situation
short sound bites or simple 1–2 sentence into a proactive consultative moment. You can
statements that get right to the point. Most glean information from the past and recommend
clients will scan copy, not read it, so make future improvement opportunities.
sure you use words that will have impact
when scanned. 4 Originally conceived at the encouragement
of the AIGA, The Living Principles for Design
2 My apologies to the AIGA, How, Graphic Design framework distills the four streams of sustain-
USA, and the slew of other award-shows out ability—environment, people, economy and
there; these are great to build recognition culture—into a roadmap for sustainable design
among your peers and help with recruitment, but that is understandable, integrated, and most
rarely do they resonate with or attract clients. importantly, actionable.
55
Example Metrics
Brutally Honest
The following are excerpts of example

metrics I’ve seen in other case studies
to inspire you.
PRINT DESIGN
10% reduction in customer inquiries

about their bill
69,000
new members gained in just two years
15% rise in one-year subscriptions after

the magazine redesign
BRAND PACKAGING
3 private label partnerships secured within

the first three months of brand launch
$0 to $70,000
Emily Ruth Cohen
wholesale turnover growth a year after product

rebrand, with 100% increase forecasted over
the next 12 months
56
WEBSITE/DIGITAL DESIGN METRICS
66% of online users have registered

for a course
2.2 million
page views for monthly average traffic
59% increase in page views,

70% increase in unique visits,
and a 9% increase in visit
duration since the site relaunch
INTERNAL COMMUNICATION
720
site visits from the 6 emails sent to
employees over the campaign period
10%
increase in employee retention rate
Note: Although these examples show drastic improvements, don’t be

disappointed by potentially small numbers. According to the Design Business
Association, “Sometimes the tiny movement of a measuring needle for
a big brand in a mature market can be as impressive as a meteoric rise
for a niche brand in a small or immature category.”
57
ss New Business New Business New Business New Business New Business New B
New Business
Section Title
Chapter 18 Chapter
It Is Not title
Cold Calling 60
10
Chapter 9
2 Chapter
How Cantitle
I Get the Best Bang for My Buck? 82
20
Chapter 10
3 Chapter
Your Crystal
title Ball: Qualifying New Clients 90
30
Chapter 11
4 Chapter
Questions
titleto Ask a New Prospect 98
40
Chapter 8
It Is Not
Cold Calling
It is relationship building. Which, when you

think about it, is just about being friendly and
likeable. That's not too hard, is it? Yet, most
of us avoid one-on-one relationships like the
plague and settle into what's easy.
I know that you are proud that most, or all, of your business comes from
New Business
word-of-mouth referrals. That means your clients love you and they love
to spread the love. Congratulations. Great job.
Now for the bad news: Relying on referrals alone for new business
is a limiting and unsustainable strategy that does not support the long-term
health and growth of your firm. Essentially, you are allowing your current
clients and contacts to drive the direction of your firm. Referrals will take
your business only so far by limiting your ability to expand your expertise and
services. You will eventually lose control of your own business because these
incoming business opportunities may not align with your business goals.
Ideally, the time you devote to new business should be spread out and
allocated to four key focus areas:
Responding to incoming Nurturing and building

word-of-mouth referrals one-on-one relationships
Maintaining and expanding Managing and responding

repeat business to online search inquiries
This chapter will focus on the most important area of new business
development: relationship building.
What do I mean by this? Essentially, it is time spent actively pursuing
new business opportunities. It is not reactive, responsive, research, or referrals—
it is actual, hard work. But it also can be fun and extremely rewarding.
Change Your Mindset

Your website, positioning, case studies, etc., are only tools in your marketing
arsenal which support your new business efforts. Dissatisfaction with, or the
lack of any one of these marketing tools shouldn’t prevent firms from actively
pursuing new business opportunities. They are not how you get new business.
So, how do you move forward? First, you have to change your long-held
negative impressions of what “new business development” means.
The very words “new business development” often brings up connotations
It Is Not Cold Calling
of those aggressive, annoying, and assertive sales strategies one experiences

at a car dealership or by telemarketers. But, selling a product, like a car, is very
different than selling a service, like design. And, is “selling” really even what
new business development is anyway? Instead, I challenge you to reframe your
61
existing perceptions of what new business development means to you
Brutally Honest
and open up your mind to new possibilities.

Thinking about new business as “cold calling,” “sales,” “marketing,”
or even as a way to build a vast database of contacts, is very limiting.
Rather, new business development is about building authentic one-to-one
relationships. In reality, new business strategies are robust, multifaceted
and, dare I say, even a fun and challenging aspect of any successful business.
But they take time, focus, ongoing nurturing, and attention.
Be Personally Committed
New business will come, but only if you are committed to and embrace
some important traits:
BE LOVABLE
The primary reason most clients select a new design partner is based on
overall likeability and trust. Be authentic. Be warm. Be nice. Don’t try too
hard. Be your natural self and new clients will like you for who you are, not
who they want you to be. Clients will want to work with you, forgive mistakes,
defend you internally and, more importantly, recommend you to others.
LOVE WHAT YOU DO

If you aren’t proud of what you do, no one else will want to work with you. If
you love what you do, this will shine through in all your interactions.
DO GREAT WORK
Your work should speak for itself. Not all your work will be great, but make
sure the work in your portfolio is at the highest level and truly demonstrates
your expertise, talent, and insight (and general awesomeness).
SOLVE CLIENT PROBLEMS

If the solutions you develop for your clients have measurable, tangible
results, shout this from the rooftops. Develop strong case studies that
highlight your success metrics, and new clients will be attracted to you and
convinced that working with you is a worthwhile, results-driven investment.
HAVE PATIENCE
Emily Ruth Cohen
New business opportunities grow and develop over time; they don’t happen
overnight. It can take up to two years for an initial connection to result
in some sort of new business opportunity. It’s about the long haul, not
short-term wins.
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DEDICATE TIME
New Business
New business development is like breathing; it is something you have to
do in order for your business to live and grow. Don't just do it when business
is slow. My relationship curation strategy, described later in this chapter, is
one way to make it a habit. You need to dedicate some time to pursue new
business opportunities, not just use all your time reacting to incoming referral-
based business. I recommend spending at least 10 percent of your time
to new business development. That’s only 4 hours a week or half of one day!
DO MORE, PLAN LESS

Stop over-thinking everything and worry less. Smaller, focused efforts have
more impact and are easier to manage than larger and broader efforts.
Focus more on achieving S.M.A.R.T. goals (Specific, Measurable, Achievable,
Relevant/Realistic and Time-based). Just do it. Actions speak louder than
words. It is about the quality of your relationships, not the quantity of names
on your mailing list.
MANAGING YOUR DATABASE

Your partner in crime in new business development, so to speak, is an
effective but simple customer relationship management (CRM) tool that
helps you manage, organize, and track your growing database of contacts.
Ideally, you should have your list categorized in a variety of ways, including:
• existing clients
• past clients
• potential clients
• key connectors
• by industry (to align with your areas of specialization)
• media (bloggers, podcasters, editors, magazines, publishers)
• vendors (printers, video production houses)
• strategic partners/contractors/freelancers
Remember, new business may take up to two years to build and this requires
staying in touch. Your CRM tool helps you do this. It is also important
to use the CRM tool strategically: Again, it’s about the quality of your rela-
tionships (knowing everyone on your mailing list) and not the quantity
of names on your list.
The goal is not to grow your list to a size that is unmanageable, so yearly
or even quarterly editing is often required. Make sure all your contacts are still
63
relevant and categorized. You may even delete contacts that
Brutally Honest
you are no longer interested in, or have been on your list for too
long (typically after 3–5 years) and have had little to no progress
building a relationship with.
GO ON VACATION
Louise Fili, of Louise Fili Ltd, once told me her favorite strategy
for developing new business: she plans a vacation. As soon as the
universe knows she’s unavailable, the work comes flooding in!
Works every time.
Excuses, excuses. Just do it.
The Excuses
Designers use many rationalizations to
justify why they are not currently pursuing
new opportunities. Some of these may
sound familiar to you:
“I don’t know where "I don’t need to. I get all

to begin.” the business I can handle
through referrals.”
“I’m a quiet, modest, or
shy person.” or “I’m not “Eventually I want to find
an aggressive person.” a partner or hire someone
to do that.”
“I will … as soon as I finish
updating or re-doing “I do. I send out
my website, positioning, e-mail blasts.”
Emily Ruth Cohen
or [insert some other

marketing tool here].”
“I don’t have time."
64
New Business Opportunities
New Business
The following highlights some impactful strategies and tactics for
developing new relationships and building trust with current prospects
which, as I discussed earlier, is critical for winning new business. Some
of these may appear obvious, but, in fact, they are often overlooked
or neglected aspects of the new business process.
BE SOCIAL
Live outside your work and family. Engage with the world. Meet people
outside your immediate circle. I once heard the apparel entrepreneur
Yes. Really.
“Take a Vacation”
Strategy
NEW BUSINESS
VACATION TIME
65
My Relationship
Brutally Honest
Curation Strategy
The following is one simple strategy that I have
developed for my time-challenged clients.
WEEK 1 & DAY 1 Research and identify 5 contacts

(that’s only 1 per day!)
WEEK 1 & DAY 2 Write and mail customized letters to these

5 contacts and attach 2–3 case studies
WEEK 2 & DAY 1 Call the 5 contacts from week 1 (refer back
to cover letter and case studies)
WEEK 2 & DAY 2 Research and identify 5 new contacts (see who
to reach out to below)
WEEK 2 & DAY 3 Write and mail letter and case studies
to these 5 new contacts
WEEKLY Repeat the above every week, be diligent,

and never stop
Emily Ruth Cohen
66
The goals of this strategy are:
New Business
Keep it simple.
Stay consistent
and focused.
Build new
relationships.
Make relationship
curation a habit.
Dedicate time
each week.
67
New Business
Brutally Honest
Efforts
To grow a more sustainable and viable business,
consider how you allocate your limited time
to new business development efforts. Here
is one way to think about how you do that.
25% ONE-ON-ONE
RELATIONSHIP
BUILDING
50% WORD-OF-MOUTH
REFERRALS
20% REPEAT
BUSINESS
Emily Ruth Cohen
5% WEBSITE
68
Your time is valuable. Use it wisely.
Johnny Earle, of Johnny Cupcakes fame, speak at an AIGA National
New Business
conference in New Orleans. He humorously, but perfectly, captured this
approach by suggesting the audience “meet strangers unless they drive
a white van.” You can meet people in the elevator, at sports events, while
waiting on line, or on a subway, plane, or train. You will meet people
in the oddest places, so be open to those experiences.
TAKE THE INITIATIVE

You never know where new business will come from. But you have to take
the initiative. It’s not about exchanging business cards willy-nilly or being
overly aggressive. It’s about reaching out and talking to people that you
admire or want to work with or for. It’s looking for opportunities to connect
and not just build business.
ACTIVELY ATTEND CLIENT-FOCUSED EVENTS

Attend local, smaller events or large national conferences where your
prospects and potential connectors meet and gather. Speak at these events.
This is so important that I’ve devoted the next chapter to this tactic.
But, the key word here is “actively.”
NURTURE RELATIONSHIPS WITH INDUSTRY CONNECTORS

Connectors are your best ally and strongest referral source for new
business. Connectors are non-competitive firms or individuals that offer
a complementary service within your target market and with whom
you can collaborate. They can include, but are not limited to: social media
strategists, marketers, writers, new business consultants, developers,
and operational or industry experts. If these connectors, or strategic
partners, also share your specialization, then you can also pitch business
opportunities together.
STAY IN TOUCH
Send a handwritten thank you note to people who referred you, and
a nice-to-meet-you and stay-in-touch note after you meet someone new.
And send a thank you to your parents for teaching you this skill (while
you kicked and screamed the whole way).
GIVE YOUR LOYAL FOLLOWERS SOMETHING TO SAY

Without a strong position and a compelling and clear message, your
connectors, followers, and colleagues won’t know what to say when they
recommend or talk about you. In fact, they may say the wrong thing.
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Make sure you give them something to say about you by doing great
Brutally Honest
work and providing them with memorable anecdotes and stories

to tell others.
SUPPORT YOUR CLIENTS

Personally and publicly promote and praise the work and efforts
of your clients. If they wrote an article, read it, quote it, post on social
media about it, and tell others. If they win an award, congratulate
them. If they have a baby or get married, send them a gift. Spread
the love. They will reciprocate.
READ AND RESEARCH

Stay aware of trends and trendsetters. Stay updated on business and
industry publications, blogs, and social media postings. Listen to industry
podcasts and webinars. Actively attend industry events. Research and
identify companies and specific individuals that you admire or who are
doing intriguing things in their field.
SPECIALIZE
If you don’t specialize by industry, your potential prospect opportunities
are vast, unmanageable, and overwhelming. That is the primary reason why
most firms that are generalists are stymied by new business development
efforts; it is just too much to manage and they don't know where to start.
However, by specializing, you immediately narrow your focus. It makes new
business development much less overwhelming, more focused, and frankly,
very easy. (For more on specializing and positioning, see Chapter 3.)
Whom Do You Reach Out To? (“Contacts”)

The following are only a few ideas around how you can find and/or research
potential candidates.
EXISTING CONTACTS
This is a great time to slowly (5 contacts at a time) re-organize and maintain
the names on your current mailing list/CRM.
NEW CONTACTS
Emily Ruth Cohen
Periodically, perhaps every week, include 1–2 new contacts not already
in your current database. These names may be researched and culled from:
• inspirational media you’ve read (blogs, articles, books, podcasts)
70
• inspirational speakers you’ve seen or have met at industry
New Business
events contacts you’ve met while attending, or ideally speaking
at, industry events (those events where you can meet/schmooze
with potential clients)
• your top wish list of companies you’d love to work for (these
may be a reach, but why the hell not?)
Cover Letters
The cover letter to all new prospects should be simple and include
three short, basic paragraphs.
INTRODUCTION (2–3 SENTENCES)

Make some sort of personal connection with the prospect right up front.
Refer to how you met them or how you heard about them in that first
sentence. It should be infused with your own personality and include an
authentic compliment to warm up the relationship and make them feel
comfortable that you are not trying for a hard sell. Don’t mention wanting
to work with them; rather, emphasize that you're a true fan, heard great
things about them, want to meet, or get to know them.
WHO YOU ARE (4–5 SENTENCES)

This is where you put your short and sweet elevator pitch, and don't
forget to customize it, where necessary, for the prospect. You may
have several versions of this paragraph based on your different areas
of expertise/specialization. You may not need this paragraph for
recipients who have worked with you in the last few years, unless your
firm has changed significantly or you want to mention what is new.
Also, mention here that you’ve enclosed three case studies that
may interest them.
CLOSE WITH AN ACTIONABLE STATEMENT (1–3 SENTENCES)

This should emphasize your enthusiasm and include very clear next
steps/actions. Don’t be passive. Rather than closing with the meaningless
“I look forward to meeting you,” write “I’ll call you next week to follow
up and see if we can schedule some time to talk or meet at your convenience.”
Or, use some variable of that statement. Then, follow through with that
promise, or you look irresponsible.
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Cover Letters—
Brutally Honest
Content Examples
The following are very generic examples
of the first and last paragraphs for a variety
of different types of cover letters. Obviously,
the final versions should be further customized
(or entirely re-written) to reflect your firm’s
unique voice and personality as well as your
relationship/knowledge of the recipient.
These examples are meant for inspiration only.
AN OLD CLIENT
Existing contact whom you haven’t

spoken to in a while (over 6 months)
INTRO
Since it has been a while since we last worked together/spoke, I wanted
to reconnect. We really enjoyed working with you on XXX project and
continue to be very proud of what we were able to achieve. We also
wanted to briefly update you on what we have been doing lately, as well
as hear an update on what you’ve been up to.
CLOSING
I will send you an email [or give you a call] next week to see if we
can schedule a time, at your convenience, to reconnect. Meanwhile,
[here you customize something such as “have a great weekend”
or “best of luck with the launch of your product (or book).”]
Emily Ruth Cohen
72
New Business
A COLLEAGUE OF A CLIENT
Potential new business opportunity

that was referred to you by someone else
INTRO
XXX mentioned I should introduce my firm, XXX, and myself to you
as [and here explain why, such as, they thought you may like our work,
or are looking to hire a design firm]. [Here, in one sentence, say how
you know XXX such as: “I have worked with XXX for two years developing
her company’s marketing materials.”]
CLOSING
I will give you call you next week to schedule a time, at your convenience,
to meet, as I would like to hear more about your company, introduce my
firm and, if appropriate, explore ways we can work together. Meanwhile,
[and here you customize something such as “have a great weekend”
or “best of luck with the launch of your product (or book)”].
A THOUGHTFUL INTRODUCTION
Cold inquiry to potential new business

opportunity—someone that you have
researched and want to work for
INTRO
I would like to introduce my firm, XXX, as I think you will find that our
work in your industry [or for other similar companies] may interest you.
[Here you give your one-sentence elevator pitch.] I would love [or like]
to schedule a brief call or meeting, at your convenience, to show you
our work and hear more about your company.
CLOSING
I will give you call you next week to schedule a time, at your convenience,
to meet or talk briefly. Meanwhile, [and here you customize something

such as “have a great weekend” or “best of luck with the launch of your
product (or book)”].
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Cover Letters—More
Brutally Honest
Content Examples
A NEW HELLO
Cold inquiry to a connector or colleague
INTRO
I have heard about your services/work in XXX and was inspired to
introduce my firm, XXX, as I think we may have some common [interests
and/or connections]. I would love [or like] to schedule a brief call
or meeting, at your convenience, to learn more about what you do
and explore ways we can potentially help each other out or collaborate.
CLOSING
I will give you a call you next week to schedule a time, at your
convenience, to meet, as I would love to hear more about what you
do and explore ways we can work together. Meanwhile, [and here
you customize something such as “have a great weekend” or “best
of luck with the launch of your product (or book)”].
Simplicity. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.
Mail It
Yes, you read that correctly. You remember snail mail? Send the cover letter
and case studies in the mail to potential prospects.
Why? Because most people are inundated with emails, many of which
are left unread or sent to spam. On the other hand, most people don’t receive
Emily Ruth Cohen
any enticing mail anymore, at least nothing that surprises them. They mostly
get junk mail. But, if they receive a colored envelope or a personal letter, they
become intrigued. You’ve increased the likelihood that they will indeed open
and read what you wrote. Email won’t do this for you.
74
Title
Business
YOUR CRUSH
Chapter
Someone you admire (a potential connector,
New
colleague, or even potential client)—this
is someone who wrote a blog/article, was
featured in an article, or you saw speak
INTRO
I recently read the article you wrote in XXX [or saw you speak at XXX,
or read the article that featured you in XXX] and was inspired to
introduce my firm, XXX. [Here you add a sentence that mentions
what inspired you in particular or what you related to [the compliment
sentence].] I also wanted to introduce my firm as [give a reason here,
such as: I think we have a lot in common, or share common interests,
or we may know many of the same people, or my firm’s work aligns nicely
with your company’s direction].
CLOSING
I will give you call you next week to see if we can schedule a time,
at your convenience, to talk [or meet briefly]. I would love [or am eager]
to hear more about what you do, introduce my firm and even explore
ways we can potentially collaborate. Meanwhile, [and here you
customize something such as “have a great weekend” or “best
of luck with the launch of your product (or book)”].
Follow Up
How many times should you nag a new prospect once you’ve mailed out your
introduction? Usually 3–4 attempts to reach out are sufficient.
FIRST ATTEMPT
Call one week after mailing them a letter. If they don’t answer, leave a short
message and at the same time, drop them an email re-stating that you sent
them a letter and you just want to introduce your firm, no pressure, and
schedule a short appointment to meet and show a few examples of your work.
75
SECOND ATTEMPT
Brutally Honest
Email them the second week after mailing them a letter (one week after the
first attempted follow up). You may even want to use content from the initial
letter and the case studies you sent, to remind them about you.
THIRD/FOURTH ATTEMPT
Wait two weeks after the last email, and reach out one or two more times
by phone and email.
If you follow through with them in this way, some prospects will be nice
enough to respond. If they don’t respond after three or four attempts,
They say this. You say that.
Follow-up Scenarios
You don't have to turn every prospect into a client.
Think about what else you need (your Plan B).
The following scripts will help you respond
to the more common excuses you may hear
so that you can win in other ways.
Agency of Record
PROSPECT
“We have someone else we use [or an agency of record].”
YOUR RESPONSE
“I understand. Actually, I’m not looking for immediate work, but more
Emily Ruth Cohen
just wanted to introduce myself and meet you. Can we have a short
meeting at your convenience?” If not, then ask: “May I add you to our
mailing list?”
76
then give up and wait until next year to try again. You also have to be
New Business
prepared to respond to the various excuses they may give you.
Now, Just Do It
In the meantime, embrace Yoda’s philosophy: “Do or Do Not, There is
No Try.” If you don’t know who Yoda is, well, that’s just sad. Look him up.
Start introducing yourself to strangers. Meet new people. Build
relationships. Be patient.
As I mentioned, one way to do this is to attend conferences/events
within your specialization. I will cover this particular strategy in more
depth in the next chapter.
Too Busy
PROSPECT
“I’m really busy right now; check back later,” or “I have an important trade
show/conference/some other excuse and I can’t deal with this now.”
YOUR RESPONSE
“I understand. When is a good date to reconnect?” Then, follow through
as promised on that date, and the prospect usually is impressed and
may be more accommodating.
The Brush Off
PROSPECT
“I’m not interested” or some other brush-off.
YOUR RESPONSE
“I understand. Would you mind if I add you to our mailing list?”
77
Is Your Business
Brutally Honest
Lovable?
Some tips to build and share the gift of love:
Say thank you

Demonstrate
your value
Be honest
Own up to
your mistakes
Recognize your client’s
achievements
Communicate
face-to-face and often
Love what you do,

and show that love
Be authentic
Stay in touch
Make your
clients look good
Laugh often
Emily Ruth Cohen
Be reliable
Do truly great work that
has measurable impact
78
Just like
New Business
relationships,
new business
development
should be built
on trust and
patience.
79
Case
TradeStudy
Case Study
Association
Tkay Title of Case Study
Membership
Tkay short summary of Case Studay
By: Firstname Lastname, Position Title

Company: Name of Company
One design firm’s experience as an active

member within an association that aligned with
its specialization has led to new opportunities
and mutually-beneficial relationships.
By Brandie Knox, Principal and Creative Director
Knox Design Strategy
OVERVIEW CHALLENGE
My firm specializes in working for • As the founder of the firm, I am
professional services, financial, not a salesperson. I believe most
and law firms. As an expert in these business is based on relationships
particular markets, our services add and referrals. That doesn’t mean
value to our client’s businesses and you don’t need to market, designers!
it narrows the field of competitors. That said, people want to work
with people they like and who
understand their business.
• It can be difficult to find one
environment where I can meet both
prospects and strategic partners,
Trade Association Membership
as well as have an opportunity

to learn about my niche market.
Most events are either networking
or educationally focused.
• Staying current on trends related
“When our expertise to our client’s industries can
be challenging, as we tend to get
is needed, people caught up in the day-to-day
remember my firm.” running of our business.
80
EMILY'S INSIGHT
Brandie Knox, Principal and Creative Director

“If there is a conference, association,
and/or publication that reaches your
target market, then you've chosen
the right specialization. If there
is an association for legal marketing,
I bet there is a group that reaches
your market.”
SOLUTION SUCCESS
• I routinely attend national and local • I continue to gain industry knowl-
chapter events within the Legal edge and insight. I am aware of
Marketing Association (LMA) where industry trends, not just in the realm
I can meet, learn from, and network of branding and design, but other
with my target market. marketing and business devel-
• As former co-chair of the commu- opment challenges my clients face.
nications committee and, currently, • I am constantly meeting new
as the co-chair of the small firm prospects and receiving referrals
special interest group, I’m seen from the ongoing relationships
as an expert in my field and am I’ve developed.
provided additional opportunities • I’ve amassed a large database
to interact with members. of national (and a few international)
• I have spoken at, and helped contacts through my engagement
organize, a number of local events, with the association.
so I’ve gained greater visibility • I’ve established long-lasting
in the industry. When our expertise business relationships and formed
is needed, people remember my strategic partnerships, which make
firm. Recently, I’ve also begun us an asset to the legal industry.
speaking at local, regional, and
national conferences. • I’ve also made a wealth of friends! Knox Design Strategy
81
Chapter 9
How Can I Get

the Best Bang
for My Buck?
One of the best ways to build new relationships,

both within our own profession as well
as with potential client prospects or industry
connectors, is attending, and, ideally, speaking
at conferences or events.
Why Attend?
New Business
Events that are specifically targeted to the creative field can be an effective
way to stay inspired, keep abreast of industry trends, and most importantly,
build relationships with a resource of peers whom you can share best practices
with, and learn from. They are also a great way to build buzz about your
studio and build “followers” who are potential future hires or collaborators.
However, for new business development, the ideal conferences to attend are
those that attract your target prospects within your area of specialization.
There is a conference for practically every profession or industry—from
law firm marketers to pork producers. During these conferences, you can
schmooze and build authentic, lasting connections with potential prospects
as well as the all-important industry-related connectors.
Ideally, speaking at conferences is more valuable than just attending,
because it positions you as an expert. It’s even better if you can present
with your client, because they can endorse you and your work, relieving
the pressure of you having to sell yourself. If you don't feel comfortable
speaking, try starting as a panelist instead. Do not rent a trade show booth,
as that positions you as a vendor rather than a trusted expert.
Conferences = Business Development

Having attended and spoken at many conferences and events over the past
twenty years, I have developed some best-practice strategies for making
the most of your time and increasing your value for what are increasingly
expensive conference fees.
Step 1. Pre-conference Planning How Can I Get the Best Bang for My Buck?
In order to ensure you best leverage your time and effort at the event, you first
need to do some groundwork.
THOUGHTFULLY CHOOSE WHICH EVENT YOU ATTEND

Review past events to better understand the type of topics, speakers, and
more importantly, the type of audience the event attracts. Are they your target
customer, and can you contribute a topic that has yet to be covered and fits
the event’s overall approach and themes? Is the event worth the cost? Did
a trusted colleague attend or speak at the event and do they recommend it?
83
If any of your clients have attended such an event, it's a good sign that other
Brutally Honest
prospects may also be there.
OBTAIN THE ATTENDEE LIST

Some conferences make the list of attendees available online or distribute
it at the conference. Review the list thoroughly and highlight contacts you
know or would like to meet, even prioritizing them in order of importance.
SECURE A “CONFERENCE BUDDY”

Contact anyone you know who is going (or may be going) so that you know
someone that you can hang out with socially at the conference. It is easier
to move around a conference if you have a friend with you to use as “home
base,” so to speak. Ideally this person should either be:
• A current or past client or industry connector who can tout your expertise
and can help promote you, albeit indirectly.
• A friend or colleague who is well-connected and can introduce you
to a range of potential contacts.
Your conference buddy is not glued to your side at all times, but is someone
you can meet up with periodically and provides a level of comfort in uncharted
territory. If you don’t know anyone attending, then introduce yourself, in
advance of the conference, to someone you admire who is attending and ask
if they want to meet for breakfast on day one. The hope is that they can become
your conference buddy.
CONDUCT DUE DILIGENCE

Research the conference schedule in depth to determine your own schedule.
Evaluate which topics or speakers are most appealing from three perspectives:
• New business prospect. Is this someone you’d like to do business with,
or is it a category you’d like to explore for new business?
• Learn industry trends. Gain inside information from industry experts.
• See what your competition is doing. Learn how they position themselves
and identify what makes you different. Make a note to introduce yourself. It
is better to be colleagues with your competitors than enemies.
SCHEDULE YOUR TIME IN ADVANCE

Emily Ruth Cohen
To utilize your “down time” between events effectively, consider scheduling

casual meetings with both people you know and want to reconnect with
as well as those you have been wanting to introduce yourself to. Often, people
who are difficult to meet otherwise will make the time to meet at a conference;
84
you’re both in the same place at the same time as a captive audience. For
New Business
existing contacts, reach out to schedule a lunch or dinner and, for potential
clients, connectors, or even your competitors, consider a more casual
opportunity, like coffee or breakfast.
Reach out to these people two weeks prior to the event to determine
their interest and coordinate schedules. If you don’t know them, introduce
yourself and explain why it would be great to meet them (e.g., you admire
their work, you have similar interests, you know the same people). Encourage
everyone you’ve scheduled time with to invite others, so you can meet new
contacts in a relaxed setting. Just a little bit of advance planning will leverage
your time more efficiently and keep you on-task.
BRING BUSINESS CARDS

This may be an obvious point but I am always surprised how many people
forget or run out of cards! I myself have made this mistake. Do not spend
money on other promotional materials, as those can appear like a hard sell.
Keep it simple, or think of another eye-catching idea (like personalizing
the standard and often ugly ID badge you have to wear.)
WEAR SOMETHING MEMORABLE

Wearing brightly colored or unique clothing or accessories is a great
conversation starter and makes it is easy for others to find and remember
you. I am known for my earrings. I have a friend who is known for her
wardrobe of retro dresses. Men, try a cool tie, socks, or shirt.
PRACTICE YOUR ELEVATOR PITCH

You need to make sure you can easily describe who you are, but in a way
that sounds authentic and not rehearsed. Adding different real-world stories
into the mix helps to keep your pitch fresh and less like a sales pitch.
How Can I Get the Best Bang for My Buck?
Step 2. What to Do at the Conference

The day of the event, make sure you think about how you will tackle the day.
BE AUTHENTIC
Do not go for the hard sell. Just make friends and have fun.
BE SOCIAL; TAKE YOURSELF OUT OF YOUR COMFORT ZONE

Do not be a wallflower. Talk to everyone you sit next to. Do not bring your spouse
or family with you; they will be too much of a social crutch and distraction
85
for you (although a conference in Hawaii would be an obvious exception).
Brutally Honest
If you are shy, start with a smile, a hello, or perhaps an authentic compliment.
DO NOT BE AFRAID TO EXCHANGE BUSINESS CARDS

Then, write notes on each card you obtain to remember who they are (even
a visual clue of what they look like or what they are wearing), for future
reference. You will thank me for this one piece of advice weeks after the
conference when you've forgotten everyone.
TWEET AND MEET

Use the conference hashtag. Identify a time and place (conference
registration, hotel lobby, bar) for you and other attendees to casually meet
and stay connected at the event (and hopefully beyond). You could even
organize a morning run or yoga session.
USE ALL THE HOURS AVAILABLE TO YOU

Personally, I am a bit past my prime in terms of “partying” or drinking
late into the evenings, but at events I push myself to do these types of
non-scheduled social activities. Often, those are the best places to network
in a more comfortable, social setting where you can truly make lasting
impressions (ideally good ones) and relationships. Of course, don’t drink
too much and potentially embarrass yourself or others.
Step 3. Post-conference Homework

Attending an event is not enough. You always have to follow through with the
necessary hard work/homework to leverage all the connections you made.
WITHIN ONE WEEK

While the event is fresh in everyone’s mind, send emails to:
• Those you collected business cards from.
• Those you saw speak and want to meet/work for. Since you attended
the conference, you now have a way to make a more personal
connection with the person. Additionally, your attendance at the
conference positions you as someone who is interested in the industry
Emily Ruth Cohen
or topic.
In these introductory emails, you should:
• Connect with them personally. Reference something you talked about,
86
you heard them say, something they wore, or information you
New Business
promised to send, etc.
• Remind them how great you are. Restate your 2–3-sentence elevator
pitch, just in case they do not remember you.
• Discuss next steps. Can you meet? Schedule a call?
• Gain permission to add their names to your mailing list.
If they do not respond, follow up two weeks later. After that, they most
likely are too busy to respond or are not interested. Record these attempts
nonetheless and write some notes to yourself in case you see them again.
• Add names to your CRM database. Include any crucial information, like
when and where you met, what you/they talked about, what they wore
or looked like, etc.
• Stay in touch quarterly, either by sending them an email blast or, if they
are an important connection, by a short, friendly email or call.
• Connect with them on LinkedIn, friend them on Facebook. Stay in touch
via social media. Don’t just follow them—engage with them periodically.
Step 4. Be Patient
Like any new business activity, the efforts you put toward attending and
“working” conferences will pay off, but please be patient! Relationships
are not built overnight, and neither are qualified new business leads. Stay
in touch with everyone and do not give up. Eventually you will find that
attending events and following the above strategies will be one of your
strongest avenues for new business leads and will lead to more wins and
successful relationships. I promise. How Can I Get the Best Bang for My Buck?
Once a relationship from these efforts turns into a new business

opportunity, the next phase is to ensure it’s aligned with your firm’s vision.
(For more on how to qualify or vet these new opportunities to ensure they
are the right fit, see Chapter 10.)
87
Case Study
Conferences
Case Study
Lead to
Tkay Title of Case Study
Tkay short summary of Case Studay
New Business
By: Firstname Lastname, Position Title
Company: Name of Company
A design firm’s strategies to attending

conferences and the positive impact
it has on building and generating new
business opportunities.
By Kelly McMurray, Founder and Creative Director
2communiqué
OVERVIEW
About 10 years after opening my a valuable opportunity to connect
design studio, 2communiqué, I took with vendors. Instead of seeing them
an online class on marketing. One as people peddling goods, we should
of the important takeaways was have looked to them as resources
to research member organizations of knowledge and potential partners.
and attend events where prospective
clients would be. But when it came SOLUTION
to networking, the goal fell flat. Fast forward to today. Our new
We attended an event that had strategy includes:
a networking luncheon with a • Researching associations at
business card swap—we received which my clients are members
7 cards without even asking! And
Conferences Lead to New Business
and attending conferences

we gathered more over the next they attend. We select 3 to 6
2 days and hit our quota. We proudly conferences to attend a year,
went back to our office feeling including 1 or 2 new conferences.
accomplished.
Although the course advised us • Focusing on building lasting, trust-
to gather business cards at events, based, one-to-one relationships
we didn’t make a personal connection that allow our design firm to grow
to any of the people for the most part, and thrive, instead of using a hard,
so the names just became filler in quick sales pitch or coming away
our address book. We also missed with a stack of business cards.
88
SUCCESS
Kelly McMurray, Founder and Creative Director

• Focusing on meeting people, The first time attending any confer-
sharing stories, learning about their ence can be tough, especially if you’re
situations and challenges, and not an extrovert. Plan, in advance,
letting them know something about to meet with specific people to force
our expertise and design firm. you out of your comfort zone.
• Changing our attitude toward the Even our connections with the
sponsors (a/k/a vendors). We now sponsors have impacted our busi-
see them as prospective partners ness. At one annual conference we
and as people who can help us frequently attend, we spent time with
do better for our clients. a representative of a printer speaking
about design philosophies and client
• Having more patience. Our typical relationships. She mentioned that one
lead time from making a connec- of her clients was not happy with their
tion at a conference to the person design firm and passed along some
becoming a client is 2 years. of our work. The next year we were
• Presenting at 1 or 2 conferences introduced to the client and were later
per year. It is a lot of work and when asked to submit a proposal. Three
I look at the hours I put into prepar- years later they are one of our clients
ing a presentation and traveling, and the connection would not have
I think it can’t possibly be worth it. been made without that first friendly
But it is. I get to talk about my firm’s chat. Just two people talking industry
work, processes, and philosophies business.
to a captive audience interested in
learning what I have to share. It has
allowed me to make deeper connec-
tions to conference organizers
and it keeps me on top of what is
important to my clients.
“Forty percent of our current client base

and sixty percent of our 2016 revenue
can be attributed to connections made
at conferences.”
2communiqué
89
Chapter 10
Your Crystal
Ball: Qualifying
New Clients
Improving how you qualify new projects/clients

is the best preventative method to helping you
avoid unhealthy or difficult future relationships.
Qualification criteria is a crucial tool for your
new business development, helping enforce and
maintain your positioning and business plan.
A qualified lead is a prospect or contact with whom you’ve completed some
New Business
level of due diligence that ensures they are a solid, potentially winnable lead.
In other words, answering: “Are they the right fit for your firm?” and “Are you
the right fit for them?”
Additionally, throughout my consulting career, I have discovered that
there are several client- and project-related challenges that often could
have been avoided or mitigated by a more effective up-front strategy, such
as improving how one qualifies or vets a new engagement.
How Does One Qualify New Leads?

The most commonly used methods evaluate leads by 3–4 big bucket areas
such as those indicated in the four different infographics featured on this
and the next pages.
METHOD #1
SAME WORK & SAME CLIENT

A firm that likes to build deep, long-lasting relationships with clients with
tight positioning where you are experts in a certain type of deliverable
DIFFERENT WORK & DIFFERENT CLIENT

A firm of generalists that like the idea, challenge, and learning curve
of doing different work for different clients
SAME WORK & DIFFERENT CLIENT

A firm with expertise in a certain type of deliverable, but gets bored
working with the same people/clients.
DIFFERENT WORK & SAME CLIENT

A firm that likes to build long-term relationships but do different
types of work.
Your Crystal Ball: Qualifying New Clients
Does your firm like to build deep long-lasting relationships with clients (same
client) or do you get bored easily and like to switch it up (different client)?
Do you prefer a mixture of both? Do you have tight positioning where you are
experts in a certain type of deliverable (same work) or type of industry (same
client)? Are you generalists and like the idea, challenge, and learning curve
of doing different work for different clients? There are benefits and advantages
to each of the four quadrants, and these should be considered when thinking
91
about your firm’s overall positioning. For example, the benefits of doing
Brutally Honest
different work are that it is often creatively stimulating and stretches you
and your team’s creative muscles. The disadvantages of different work are that
it is difficult to sell and win, as there are many creative firms that generalize,
and it is difficult to staff, as a variety of work requires unique skills and
experiences. This four-quadrant thinking, while interesting, isn’t very robust
and doesn’t consider other important qualifiers like price and aggravation factor.
That said, for emerging or smaller firms, it can be a method to start off with.
The overly simplistic qualification methods shown below are commonly
used. Essentially, you are supposed to evaluate the new work by ensuring
that it fits two of the three criteria (in the first example it’s quality, speed,
and cost, while in the next one it’s prestige, excitement, cost). But, do you really
want to do work that is fast or cheap? Both will sacrifice quality and result
METHOD #2
Simplistic Method
PICK TWO PICK TWO
Good
Fun Fame
Fast Cheap
Fortune
Emily Ruth Cohen
92
in stressful relationships (with your clients and staff alike). And, some of these
New Business
categories are very subjective. For example, what is “fun” for some may not
be “fun” for others. These two methods are simply not very effective to utilize
as a qualification tool.
Of the four existing, and more well-known methods featured, the Love/
Hate and Profit/Loss matrix is the most appealing and a bit more realistic.
If a new opportunity is in the bottom left corner (loss and hate), then why do
it? That said, if it’s something you love and it would be profitable, then obviously
you should go for it. If it falls into other areas, then deeper conversations
should ensue. For new creative firms, or even solopreneurs, these four
simplified qualification methodologies may be fine. However, for established
firms, a more robust and multi-tiered qualification methodology is needed.
I have developed the qualification tool on page 95—my crystal ball—that looks
METHOD #3
Realistic Method
LOVE/HATE AND PROFIT/LOSS MATRIX
Love
TitleBall: Qualifying New Clients

Profit
Loss
Crystal
Hate
Section
Your
93
more deeply at a variety of areas/categories and uses a scoring/rating system
METHOD #4
Brutally Honest
to help weigh your decision.

As per the following example, you may find that some of the areas/
categories you use to qualify a prospect may require more specific criteria
such as the quantification of price/budget.
Once you’ve scored each area or category, you can then determine the
final score by adding up the total points and dividing by the number of areas/
categories. So, in the example on the facing page, the total would be divided
by 9. Thus, a client that received a total of 25 would receive a score of 2.7.
Ultimately, the final score (e.g., 2.7) will help you objectively determine
if that new prospect is worth pursuing and writing a proposal for. In this
example, my client determined in the first year of using this strategy, that
all clients receiving a 2.5 or higher would be qualified. And, in subsequent
years, they would be more selective and qualify new clients based on
a score of 3.0 or higher.
Customizing and Testing

The categories or criteria your team uses may be different than the ones
used in this example. Ultimately, you need to customize this qualification
tool for your particular team by adding or modifying categories, changing
the criteria (particularly around price/budget), or even altering the
measurement system (some categories may be weighed more heavily
than others).
The overall goal of using a more robust and scored qualification system
is to turn often subjective decisions into more objective ones. This rating
system is particularly helpful when several people are involved in agreeing
on, or even understanding who or what makes a qualified client; for example,
with partners who may disagree on which client is worth pursuing or when
principals have to explain their decisions to their internal team. Once you
develop the system, you may need to test it on sample prospects and tweak
it over time, as your firm grows and changes.
All said, when talking with prospective clients about potential new
opportunities, you will need to ask a series of robust questions that will
help you uncover the answers with your qualifying criteria. (For more on
Emily Ruth Cohen
what question to ask a prospective client, see Chapter 11.)
94
Qualification Criteria
Chapter
New Title
Business
HIGH VALUE LOW
PRICE/BUDGET 4 3 2 1
4 = $60k, 3 = $40–59k,
2 = $21–39k, 1 = < $15–20k
COOL FACTOR 4 3 2 1
HIGH PROFILE/CONNECTIONS 4 3 2 1
big names, existing
connections/clients
4 3 2 1
FITS POSITIONING
4 is very specific, 1 is less specifically
related to expertise/positioning
4 3 2 1
SCOPE OF ENGAGEMENT
4 is a whole integrated system,
1 is a stand-alone project
FUTURE POTENTIAL 4 3 2 1
NUMBER OF STAKEHOLDERS 4 3 2 1
4 = 1 person, 3 = 2–3 people,
TitleBall: Qualifying New Clients
2 = 4 people, 1 = >5 people
AGGRAVATION FACTOR/PERSONAL FIT 4 3 2 1
4 3 2 1
SCHEDULE EXPECTATIONS
Crystal
Section
Your
95
A Studio
Case Study
as a Portfolio
One firm’s intentional design of their
studio increased their win rate.
By Louise Fili, Principal and Creative Director
Louise Fili Ltd
OVERVIEW
Whenever I get a call from a new client, the whole weekend putting the
I make sure to schedule our first studio together. The conference
meeting at my studio. My studio is my room was set up with all of my
portfolio: it is a walk-in archive of all packages, menus, and business
the posters, menus, business cards, cards on display. When the client
wine bottles, food packages, and signs arrived, instead of taking the seat
that I have either designed myself or I had indicated to him, where he
collected in Europe. This environment would be facing all of the samples,
immediately communicates to the he sat on the other side of the table,
client who I am and what I do—they facing an empty wall. Throughout
would never get the same impression the meeting, his face was as blank
if I were to go to their office. as the wall. The meeting went
downhill from there. The next day
RESULT I framed logos to fill the wall with.
The discussion is always much more But it continued to happen that men
productive when I have examples wouldn’t sit in the prescribed seat.
readily on hand. If we happen to meet It took me years to figure out why
in the afternoon, I’ll serve gelato, which until, finally, a colleague who came
I always have available from one of my to my office explained it to me:
clients. The result? I almost always get Men don’t want to sit with their back
hired. If the meeting is held outside to the door. I learned my lesson.
of the office, the win rate diminishes. But maybe if I had served gelato…
A Studio as a Portfolio
The seating plan is also something

to be considered: I moved into
my current space nine years ago,
on a Friday. That Monday, I had to
give a logo presentation to a client
who was flying in from Italy. I spent
96
Sometimes
Louise Fili, Principal and Creative Director

it's the
unexpected
details that
have the
most impact
and value.
Louise Fili Ltd
97
Chapter 11
Questions
to Ask a
New Prospect
Talking to a prospective client about a potential

project, or meeting to build a new relationship
can be a critical starting point. Yet the intent
or purpose of those meetings or discussions,
both by the prospect and the design team,
can be murky.
Clients, and even designers, utilize that initial contact as an opportunity
New Business
to download and discuss a ton of information that may not be necessary
at this early stage in the relationship, and navigating or even leading these
conversations can be tricky, unproductive, and meandering.
Tactics to Avoid
The default for some designers is to spend much of the time talking about
themselves, or trying to “sell” their services. Others devote most of the time
asking the prospect questions that relate to uncovering what creative or
business problems need to be solved. These types of questions communicate
a designer’s value and expertise and demonstrate an appreciation and curiosity
of the prospect’s business challenges (e.g., Who are target customers? What is
the problem to be solved? What are the brand's attributes?). The danger zone
is entered when designers unknowingly give away too much information at
this time and provide advice that they should be paid for. Additionally, many
of the questions about a client’s business are best left to when you are actually
working for the client and getting paid for discovery.
Yet if we are being honest with ourselves, these inquisitive conversations
are the “fun” or “easy” part of an initial contact. It is what we love. After all,
we love to talk about ourselves (or are proud of the work we do) and love
to sound like an expert to a potential client and get them to like us.
Another default easy-way-out tactic designers employ is to issue a
questionnaire to the client to gather information. This method positions you
as a vendor, rather than a strategic partner, and makes the client do all the
heavy lifting. Instead, you should ask the questions as part of a conversation
with the client so you can dig deeper and get more details, and position
yourself as an expert. By turning these questions into a conversation, you
also help build a stronger interpersonal relationship with the client.
Not All Leads Are Clients

Questions to Ask a New Prospect
Essentially, not all leads should become clients. To avoid wasting your valuable
time writing proposals that are unwinnable or not worthwhile, the better
strategy is to funnel all your leads to determine if they are winnable prospects.
As you can see from the following graphic, you should siphon off the best
leads by turning them into prospects (at which point they have a project
or relationship to discuss) and then turn them into clients (or “winning”
the engagement). The questions I pose in this chapter will help you get there.
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Siphoning Leads
Brutally Honest
Research, qualify, pursue. Be patient.

New business is a game of patience. You have to
selectively and deliberately turn the vast quantity
of leads you have into viable prospects who,
ideally, and after due diligence, turn into clients.
Leads
Prospects
Emily Ruth Cohen
Clients
100
Asking relationship- and project-driven questions as well as paying
New Business
attention to the “red flags” or warning signs of potential problem areas before
a relationship starts ( for more insight on common warning signs, see Chapter 23)
is just as important as selling yourself and understanding the client’s business
challenges. These more difficult questions allow creatives to:
• Craft better and more customized proposals and processes
• Price appropriately
• Identify potential problem areas that may affect the proposed
process or fee
• Avoid writing proposals that are unwinnable, not worth the
effort required, or don’t align with the firm’s overall positioning
or business approach
Questions to Ask New Prospects

While you don’t have to ask all of the following questions, you should select
the questions that are most important to you and will allow you to better
qualify potential leads, turn them into stronger prospects and, ultimately,
actual paying clients.
QUESTIONS THAT DETERMINE IF THE PROSPECT HAS QUALIFIED YOUR FIRM

(DID THEY DO THEIR DUE DILIGENCE?)
• Have you seen our website?
• What appeals to you about our firm?
• What qualities are you looking for in your selected firm?
• What was your last experience working with a design firm like?
QUESTIONS TO QUALIFY THE CLIENT

• Who are the primary decision maker(s) and contributing stakeholder(s)?
• How many other firms are you considering, and, specifically, which firms
or what type of firms?

• How are you weighing your selection decision?
• What is your approval process?
QUESTIONS TO QUALIFY THE PROJECT

• What are the project parameters and scope?
• What internal process have you gone through so far?
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• What services are you responsible for (e.g., printing, development,
Brutally Honest
editorial, imagery)?
• Are other third-party entities involved? Who? And what is their role
and level of interaction with us?
• What usage rights do you require? (For more details on usage rights
and ownership issues, see Chapter 16.)
• What is your budget?
• What is your timeline?
As you can see, these questions aren’t much fun. Designers tend to avoid
asking uncomfortable questions, but the insight gleaned from the answers
is critical for crafting a successful proposal and, ideally, winning the
project/relationship. By providing the right context for some of the tougher
questions, you can increase the likelihood that the client will indeed answer
the questions and provide more informative answers. The following explains
why some of the tougher questions are crucial and includes recommended
strategies for how you can frame and ask them.
Why and How to Ask About Your Competition

The answer to the question, “How many other firms are you considering,
and, specifically, which firms or what type of firms?” will provide you with
unparalleled insight that you can use to craft a more customized proposal/
response, which will result in an increase in your win rate. The client
will most likely answer the question with a variation of “It’s none of your
business” or “Why is this important?” Don’t be deterred!
Here’s why those answers are important.
If you are competing against more than 3 or 4 firms, you can quickly
determine if the client has truly done their due diligence or if it is more
of a cattle call. If it is a cattle call, it may not be worth your time proceeding.
But if it’s one that is truly worth winning, you now know you have to
go whole hog to develop the best proposal you can in order to win the
engagement and blow your competition out of the water.
If your competitors are clearly not qualified (like a freelancer, the
client’s relative, or even a developer), the client may not value design or your
Emily Ruth Cohen
services, and you may be overqualified or too expensive. If the competitor

is an in-house team or an existing creative partner, winning the engagement
may be an uphill battle and require some additional work. And if your
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competitors are broad and diverse (like public relations firms, architects,
New Business
or even larger agencies) you may have to focus on why your more specialized
firm is best. Even the size of your competitor is important and allows you
to respond to future size-related concerns before they are raised. If
you are a smaller firm, you can focus on principal-driven attention, and
if you are a larger firm you can focus on the deeper skill sets of your team.
Provide fuller context to why you need to know the answer to this
question and how it will help them. This will ensure that you get the best
answers you need to move forward. An example of how you can frame
the context:
“Knowing which firm or what type of firms we are competing against
allows us to create a proposal that highlights our competitive value
and makes us different than the firms you are also considering.”
Why and How to Ask About Their Budget

Budget is important. It helps identify those clients that have no bloody idea
how to value design ($500 for a logo? Really?), or it will give you the proper
context to understand how the client may value the project or what may be
involved. Don’t believe them when they say they don’t know—they always
know! Many clients work off a yearly budget, or have a project-level budget.
If not, they all have a gut instinct—your job is just to determine if they truly
value your service.
The best way to ask about a budget is to first keep it simple and just ask,
“What is your budget?" Then, be quiet!
If they say something that implies that it is none of your business, then
follow up with this response:
“Having a sense of your budgetary parameters helps us tailor our
proposal accordingly. Many clients don’t feel comfortable sharing
budgets; in fact, they fear that our prices may be lower. We can assure
you that, if in fact your budget is overly generous, we will let you
know. Having a sense of your budget also allows us to understand the
importance or value of this project to your company overall.”
If after that they still do not have that magic number, follow up by stating:
“We understand you do not have a budget or are uncomfortable

sharing numbers. In this case, we will call you back within the next
day to provide you with some rough numbers first, before we submit
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Brutally Honest
a proposal. That way, we can make sure we're on the same page.
Once we’ve agreed upon a reasonable budget that works within your
expectations, then the proposal will be a much easier discussion.”
Then, follow through as promised, and call them with a rough number and
get their feedback before moving forward with the proposal. In the next
chapter, we will get deeper into pricing.
Avoidance Is Not a Strategy

Designers (a/k/a YOU) tend to avoid these difficult, yet necessary, questions
largely because:
• You think the client will not answer the questions, so why ask them?
(My answer: Why not? How can it hurt?)
• You prefer to make assumptions about the answers. You know what
they say: “When you assume, you make an ass of ‘u’ and ‘me’.”
• You fear the client will be offended in some way. In reality,
the prospect may also just prefer to avoid the topic. But someone has
to take the bull by the horns. So why not you? Otherwise, if you both
avoid some difficult but necessary questions, you are left trying to guess
what the other is thinking.
Ultimately, the rewards of asking these tough, yet critical, questions
far outweigh the risks. Just do it. I promise you it will reduce the number
of proposals you write (quality over quantity!), and allow you to write
more effective proposals and increase your win rate.
Emily Ruth Cohen
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When
New Business
qualifying,
embrace
the tough
questions.
What have you
got to lose?
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Business-
Case Study
Building Retail
Model
One firm’s novel retail concept and business
development strategy that became a “live
demonstration” of their full range of capabilities
and entrepreneurial spirit.
By Fritz Klaetke, Principal and Design Director; Susan Battista,
New Business, Development & Strategist
Visual Dialogue
PROBLEM SOLUTION
We were seeing unprecedented We approached our client, Jamestown
real estate development in Boston Properties, with an idea. They had
where our branding and design empty storefronts to lease on Newbury
firm, Visual Dialogue, has been Street and we had a novel retail
established for over 20 years. concept called “1630.” We sent them a
We recognized that each new presentation that outlined our idea, they
building going up would require said OK, and 5 weeks later, we opened
branding and design, and every 1630—a Boston-themed gift shop.
new business that was moving 1630 (which references the year
to these buildings would need Boston was founded) was a “live
it as well. We wanted to find a way demonstration” of our full range of
Business-Building Retail Model
to reposition our firm and connect capabilities. We created everything in

with real estate developers. We the shop from soup to nuts—branding,
had only one client who was a store design, merchandising, product
developer. How could we leverage curation, e-commerce website, and
that relationship to attract others? even a line of t-shirts. We leveraged
our relationships with local makers and
artists to bring in unique products,
and curated local vintage items that
weren’t sold anywhere else.
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EMILY'S INSIGHT
Fritz Klaetke, Principal and Design Director; Susan Battista, New Business Development & Strategist
“A great example of how design
entrepreneurship can be creative
and still support your new business
development efforts.”
SUCCESS
Even with no prior retail experience, • The General Manager at Faneuil
we were able to create an immersive Hall took a position at MIT a few
retail environment at 1630 unlike months into our lease. She is
any other in Boston, and it began in charge of attracting retailers/
to get noticed. After 6 weeks in our hospitality for the redevelopment
original location on Newbury Street, of Kendall Square on the MIT
we were contacted by the developers campus and she hired us to help.
of Faneuil Hall who asked if we’d be We just completed their first sales
interested in relocating to an available brochure for the retail leasing and
space there. Since 20 million people are being recommended for a larger
visit Faneuil Hall each year—the 13th project in this redevelopment.
most visited location in the world— • We won a significant positioning/
we quickly said, “Yes!” branding assignment with
• Within one month, the director of Union Square Associates for
MassDevelopment, an organization a large placemaking project
that helps spur economic devel- in Somerville, MA.
opment in gateway cities around 1630 is a case study that prospec-
Massachusetts, contacted us. We tive clients are able to experience
won two design projects with them. first-hand. It demonstrated not
• Through the work with only our design capabilities, but
MassDevelopment, we estab- our entrepreneurial spirit and
lished a relationship with a local fearlessness. Running 1630 on
urban planning/architectural top of our “day job” running Visual
firm, and their recommendations Dialogue brings to mind the old
have led to additional opportunities saying, “If you want something done,
with real estate developers. ask a busy person to do it.”
Visual Dialogue
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icing Pricing Pricing Pricing Pricing Pricing Pricing Pricing Pricing Pricing Pri
Pricing
Section Title

Chapter 12 There Are
3 Chapter No Magic Bullets
title 110
30
Chapter 13 The Elusive
4 Chapter title Retainer 124
40
Chapter 12
There Are No
Magic Bullets
Creatives spend a lot of time worrying about

what the elusive price is that will guarantee
a win. They spend countless sleepless hours
trying to calculate the perfect price. Yet there
is no magic number.
Pricing Doesn’t Matter as Much as You Think
Pricing
When creatives lose a potential project/relationship, they make the often
incorrect assumption that they lost because of price. I'm here to help you stop
worrying so much and making incorrect assumptions. First, let's start with
three important ideas to consider.
IDEA #1: TRUST AND LIKEABILITY MATTER

First and foremost, potential clients choose design partners based primarily
on trust and likeability. Designers spend more time worrying about price
and what work they should show than they do trying to make sure the client
loves and trusts them. Building a relationship with a potential prospect
is crucial to increasing your odds of winning. If you are referred by a trusted
colleague or have an internal advocate within the client’s company, you
have a higher chance of winning that engagement. If the prospect has heard
you speak or read an article you wrote, you’ve positioned yourself as an
expert they can trust and they will want to work with you. If you made the
effort to meet them in person and have built a solid relationship, it increases
the odds of them choosing you.
If your price is too high and they love you and you have built an internal
connection (your advocate), they will figure out a way to work with you.
Alternatively, if you’ve not built a relationship, and your price is too high
(or too low), they won’t bother to tell you or give you the opportunity to
negotiate. Sound familiar?
I have heard many times that prospects will call designers they trust
and want to work with and tell them that their price is too high, even when
they’ve underbid. If they trust you, they will give you the opportunity to
change your prices to win the engagement or protect you. Some clients will
protect you by asking you to price higher to mitigate future challenges
or difficulties. True stories.
IDEA #2: THE LOWEST PRICE IS NOT YOUR GOAL

There will always be someone who prices lower than you. Always. It may
be a student willing to do the work for free, a freelancer, someone’s relative,
There Are No Magic Bullets
or even (gasp!) a well-regarded, famous design firm or agency. (I wish

I could name names, as there are several notorious offenders in this area
that continually, and I believe, unethically underbid their peers just to have
“cooler” work in their portfolio that offsets their larger, more profitable
but “less cool” corporate work.)
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IDEA #3: PRICE SHOULDN' T BE EVERYTHING
Brutally Honest
Prospects who value price over anything else are not worth working
with. These prospects do not and will not value your services, and are less
educated about the process of design. Why would you want these clients
anyway? Pricing too low will bite you in the ass later on, as these types
of clients often overly art direct and micromanage the design process.
Why? Because they don’t value your expertise.
If you price low as a way to start a relationship and to open up a point
of entry into a potentially larger, more lucrative, higher-level project, you
will soon find out this isn’t effective. If you start your relationship with
a small, one-off, less strategically important project, the client will rarely
make the leap and think of you for the higher-level, higher-budget projects.
Instead, hold out and explain to them that this particular project doesn’t
leverage your team’s expertise or is too small for your team. Then, take the
opportunity to explain to them what type of engagements are better suited
for your team and expertise. By doing this, you’ve upsold your team and
educated the client at the same time.
Tips to Win More Engagements

(Hint: It’s not based on your price, in case you haven’t realized that yet.)
TIP #1: MEET PROSPECTS IN PERSON

Meeting face-to-face increases your chances of winning the project because
the prospect gets to know you and, if you are likeable, you immediately
gain their trust. And, as I’ve already mentioned, if they trust you, they will
want to work with you, regardless of your price. They will also forgive your
mistakes. It is much harder for a client to reject someone they have met
in person. If they are truly a qualified lead, then try to meet with them
(and other key decision-makers) before you write the proposal. Build
the love. But if you do not get the opportunity to meet with them initially,
then insist, where possible, on meeting in person when you are ready
to present and discuss your proposal.
TIP #2: REFOCUS YOUR ENERGIES

Spend less time worrying about the price, and more time building
Emily Ruth Cohen
a relationship with your prospect. Most designers fret and worry about
the “perfect” price, but don’t spend enough time building trust with
the client. It bears repeating: if they trust you, they will want to work
with you, regardless of your price.
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TIP #3: DON' T PRICE HOURLY
Pricing
While pricing based on hours may be more “practical,” framing your services
based purely on time positions you as a vendor or freelancer. Clients will
perceive you, or begin to treat you, like a pair of hands. That is never good.
If you bill hourly, clients will nit-pick how you spent your time and expect
you to be at their beck and call.
Additionally, pricing hourly does not consider the end-value of your
services. Designing a logo for a large company versus a one-time small event
may take the same amount of time, but should they really be priced the
same? Should you be penalized if you work efficiently or come up with
an idea overnight? (After all, some of the best ideas evolve while we dream.)
Or, conversely, should the client be penalized if you are creatively blocked
and take longer to come up with a solution?
There are some exceptions to the “don’t price hourly” rule, which
I discuss later in this chapter.
Well, Then, How Do You Price?

Let’s face it—pricing is a pain in the ass. And, as I’ve stated, there
is no magic answer. There are too many variables to truly have effective
industry standards.
While pricing will never be easy and you may always second-guess
yourself, there are several techniques that you can employ to build more
confidence in how you approach it. Let's discuss and prioritize some
of these techniques.
THINK VALUE, NOT HOURS

Always consider the end-value of what you are delivering to your clients. How
will your work be used and what impact does it have on your client’s business?
Is it for a small company or a big brand? Will it be used for one location or will
it be used across several? Will it be for a one-time event or for several events?
Will it increase sales or attendance, attract donors, or build stronger brand
recognition? Is it internally-facing or customer-facing?
To state the obvious: Determining value is not scientific. But by asking

good questions, you can begin to understand and be able to defend your price
based on the end impact on your client’s business. If you have solid metrics
that prove your results with past clients, this also increases your ability to
defend your value-based fee. (For more on case studies, see Chapter 7.)
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ASK CLIENTS FOR THEIR BUDGETS
Brutally Honest
Look at all angles. It all matters.

Most clients lie (or unintentionally mislead you) when they say they
don’t know their budget. They usually plan out their budgets for the
year, the project, or at an initiative level. At the very least, the client will
have a gut instinct or cap on what they are willing to pay. The trick to
getting them to answer this question is in how you frame the question.
(For more on what questions to ask and how to ask them, see Chapter 11.)
ESTABLISH PROJECT AND RELATIONSHIP MINIMUMS

You should have memorized and institutionalized a minimum price
that your firm would be willing to work for. Think about the value of your
firm’s time—what is it worth? Just writing the proposals and contracts
takes time, and then there is the getting-to-know you meeting(s). All
of that is unbillable, and therefore costs you money. Then consider if
the time you spend on lower-budget projects is really worth the time.
Is the time better utilized in non-billable, but actually more valuable,
areas of growing and nourishing your own business? What is the end
value for you—how do you benefit? Is the price point worth the level
of effort? If you consider all of these questions you will, over time,
intuitively develop a sense of the lowest fee you would be willing to
work for, or what I call your “minimum.” For some firms that minimum
may be $1,000 and for others it may be $50,000 or more—it’s different
for each firm. What’s your minimum? Once you determine this number,
then you can better qualify future prospects by that fee and determine
if they are worth pursuing.
NOURISH YOUR INSTINCT

The more you price, the easier it gets. I promise. Over time, you build
up a natural confidence in your pricing. Pay attention to your gut instinct.
Nourish it.
REFER TO HISTORICAL RECORDS

I know I said do not price hourly. But you should still consider the hours
involved. If you track time, then you can refer to your past experience
with similar projects, or base pricing on your experience working with
the same or similar type of client. (For more information on time tracking,
Emily Ruth Cohen
see Chapter 22.) These historical records will help nourish your instinct
on pricing future projects. However, do not reveal those hours to your
client, and do not allow the hours to overshadow the end value, which
is far more important.
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The Pricing Geode
Pricing
When pricing new projects, you have to look at
different facets of the relationship to determine
the most appropriate price. What matters most
to you and your firm?
VALUE
SCOPE
HISTORY There Are No Magic Bullets
TIME
AGGRAVATION
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ASK COLLEAGUES AND BE TRANSPARENT
Brutally Honest
If you are engaged and active within your industry’s community (even
including your competitors), they will help you out. Peers will share their
pricing with peers, providing it’s a mutually beneficial relationship where
both parties benefit from an equitable, more ethical competitive environment.
This creates a fair business environment where clients choose a firm based
on the quality of their work and expertise, rather than on who has the lower
price. This is good for all of us. Just select the right colleagues. A client of
mine that had no employees (yet) but had tons of expertise and proven value,
frequently sought pricing recommendations from others in her “community.”
The problem was the community she talked to were designers who essentially
functioned as freelancers. This community often priced hourly, weren’t
positioned as value-added, and often based their (low) prices on their size
or lower overhead. She chose the wrong community to seek advice from,
and it negatively influenced her business decisions and pricing strategies.
CONSIDER THE “AGGRAVATION FACTOR”

Not all clients work the same way, and each client has unique personal attri-
butes or professional practices that could either drive you crazy or make it
easier to work together. Pay attention to these attributes and practices and price
accordingly. Personally, my aggravation factor is a client who talks too much,
repeats themselves, and doesn’t get to the point. This drive me crazy because
they waste my limited and valuable time. In those cases, I often charge more—
a sort of hidden aggravation tax (unless I love them in other ways). What drives
you crazy may be entirely different. Either way, price higher when you feel the
client is going to be a pain in the ass. Often clients who have a high “aggravation
factor” end up burdening creative teams with excessive and often unnecessary
rounds of revisions. Alternatively, if you know for certain that the client will be
a breeze to work with (and I’m not even sure this type of client exists—at best,
they are on the endangered species list) then you can even charge less!
CONSIDER VALUE-BASED PRICING

Essentially, this is a strategy where you determine a price that aligns with the
client’s own business or industry. For example, if you were working for a hotel
chain, you can possibly determine your price by equating your value (price)
to that of booking one room for a full year, depending on the room rate. Keith
Emily Ruth Cohen
Carbone, the co-founder and chief creative director of the Carbone Smolan
Agency, has written about value-based pricing in more depth. You might want
to check out his blog post on www.fastcompany.com, “The Case Against Paying
Designers By The Hour.”
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CALCULATE HOURS
Pricing
This strategy includes trying to predict the hours possibly incurred on the
future project. But “predict,” “possibly,” and “future” are not exactitudes. This
strategy is placed here as one of the last factors in pricing because it is almost
impossible to predict hours, while referring to historical records is a far more
accurate strategy. Many designers waste a lot of valuable time filling out
detailed hourly budgets broken out by types of services or deliverables in
the hope they can determine that magic project fee. This is a fruitless exercise
as you cannot predict the amount of time a project or client may consume.
Instead, to make sure you are not underestimating, I recommend you take
the price you think you’d like to charge, using the strategies I've described,
and divide it by your blended hourly rate, to make sure that the price you’ve
committed to does cover you, generally, for the potential hours incurred.
Once you win the project, you will then need to develop an hourly budget
for your team to help them track the project’s profitability and progress.
But that level of budget planning is not worth the effort during the proposal
development stage.
COMPARE AGAINST PUBLISHED PRICING GUIDELINES

There are a few online and printed pricing guidelines available to creatives
that attempt to establish some pricing standards. Pricing is an art form; it’s
not an exact science. Because pricing takes into consideration a tremendous
number of variables (e.g., specifications, schedule, value of project to client,
scope of work, etc.), these guidelines rarely align exactly (or even closely)
to what you are pricing. The other challenge is that many of the guidelines
rely on surveys sent to other creatives to determine industry averages.
But my concern is this: I believe the results are naturally skewed by what
type of designer/design firm has the time to respond to such a survey in
the first place! I recommend you refer to pricing guidelines only as a last
resort, and only when all other strategies have failed you, or if you are new
to the business and are just starting out.
When Pricing Hourly May Be the Only Option

Now that I’ve said not to price hourly, I’m assuming many of you are
now freaked out a bit or may have even considered not reading the
rest of this book. But, as always, there are a few exceptions in this area.
You can, and probably should, work hourly with existing clients if:
• They are the type you cannot control.
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• They ask for endless revisions.
Brutally Honest
• They have no respect for your time or schedules.

• You are asked to provide purely executional work. This includes
work that has little to no long-term value for the client, such as
inputting endless type changes, doing production work, or providing
basic front-end development services.
• You are responding to RFPs from governmental institutions
and some corporations. In these cases, first ask if they are amenable
to flat fee pricing, but, if they aren’t, then you may be restricted
to their requirements.
Overall, with this type of relationship, it may be far more profitable
to work on an hourly basis. Just a warning though: This may also involve
more paperwork.
The larger, more important question should be: Are the above types
of clients or situations worth pursuing?
Oy! What Next?

Stop worrying so much about price! Re-prioritize and focus on relationship
building over anything else and price will become a secondary, far less
worrisome, and easier part of the conversation. I promise!
Next, I’ll be talking about retainers—what they are, as well as how
to negotiate and price them.
Emily Ruth Cohen
118
The more
Pricing
you price,
the easier
it gets.
I promise.
119
Pricing Formula
Case Study
for Reports
and Books
One firm’s unique strategy for pricing their
most common deliverable—long printed
documents—that resulted in a more profitable
and seamless negotiation process.
By Tamara Connolly, Founder and Creative Director
We Are How
PROBLEM SOLUTION
A large portion of our work comes from Given the amount of project specs,
reports and long printed documents. time tracking, and billing data I had
We appreciate this business because to work with, I knew we should be
it’s become a steady stream of able to streamline estimating by
income that can be billed on shorter creating a formula based on typical
timelines. That said, estimating and quantifiable parameters related
these projects has historically been to cover design, interior pages,
a tedious process. Each time felt like illustrations, and revisions.
too much guesswork for something Arriving at the formula involved
we’ve done so often in the past. I was a lot of testing using historical data,
Pricing Formula for Reports and Books
also missing key insights into how to but in the end, we found something
adjust pricing to make these projects that holds up well. This spreadsheet
more predictably profitable. uses live formulas to calculate cost
based on plugging in quantity or
hours into column B, then we use
a round number based off of this
for proposals. If changes to scope
happen along the way, updating
costs is straightforward and fair.
120
Tamara Connolly, Founder and Creative Director
EXAMPLE: QUANTITY COSTS PER SUB-
ANNUAL REPORT, 64 PAGES OR HOURS QTY OR HR TOTAL
COVER DESIGN
Number of unique cover design 2 $300 $600
options, not template based
Number of cover design options 0 $150 $0
based on previous template
CUSTOM ILLUSTRATION
Custom illustration, hourly 2 $150 $300
Custom illustration, flat fee 0 $0 $0
INTERIOR PAGES
New page template designs 17 $150 $2,550
Unique, graphically rich pages 11 $450 $4950
Word count 14055 $0.18 $2,529.90
Tables, by qty of pages 2 $0 $0
(i.e. 1/4 page table, multi-page)
Standard charts based on Excel data 0 $200 $0
Other infographics, custom 0 $150 $0
estimate, hourly
REVISIONS
Two rounds of minor text revisions, 2.5 $150 $375
included in base price, hourly estimate
Major rounds of revisions, including 0 $150 $0
design changes, hourly estimate
Rounds of minor revisions beyond 5 $150 $750
scope, hourly estimate
TOTAL $12,054.90
Note: I’ve found cost per page to be problematic—I’d prefer to avoid clients
suggesting that a report could be cheaper by making it denser. I also found
that the design of tables in the report doesn’t make a difference to cost
once you’ve accounted for everything else, so I track them in my formula,
but haven’t found the need to price them separately. Preliminary design
development (e.g., multiple design options using sample pages) are also
accounted for.
We Are How
121
Brandup
Case Study
Business
Model
One firm’s move from a traditional design
firm model to a proprietary, stand-alone
business model that lowered their overhead
and increased profitability.
By Pia Silva, Partner
Worstofall Design
PROBLEM SOLUTION
Before we moved to our new Brandup Within our new Brandup business
business model, we had been doing model, we now work with small busi-
agency style projects at about nesses (with 1–3 people) and build
$30–50K, with two employees. entire brands in 1–2 day intensives. We
We were losing money and we ended call it “Badass Brands without the BS.”
up in debt. We vet clients during a 15−minute
call before the Brandup to make sure
it’s a good fit. As long as we think
the Brandup can help them, and they
are on board for our process (and
they understand they are trusting us
and our work, and there is not a lot of
editing), then it’s usually a fit. But also,
our brand and irreverent voice pretty
Brandup Business Model
much vets clients for us; it repels

a lot of people, so the people who
contact me are usually already sold.
122
SUCCESS
Pia Silva, Partner

The entire process is two steps: That’s all we do. We don’t do any
1. Brandshrink—We conduct a ongoing work. The year we began
90−minute interview with the the Brandup process we made about
client, when we learn about their $500K without employees, and
business and goals. For $950 working fewer hours. These days we
we deliver a 2−3 page Badass generally do 2−3 per month to give
Branding strategy brief outlining us time to pursue other business
their biggest opportunities, goals. For example, in the last year
and our plan to help them move we built our process into an online
forward. The last page lists the course called the Brandup Bootcamp,
deliverables we recommend and and we are currently marketing and
which of our Brandup packages selling it, and writing a book about
can accommodate those needs, our process.
and then we move to the second
step. (Some clients just hire us
for the Brandshrink strategy,
which is fine with us.)
2. The Brandup—We do all the prep
work, and then during a 1−2 day
intensive, we take clients through
the process by showing work,
getting feedback, making edits
in real time, and moving forward.
At the conclusion of the Brandup,
clients take all the materials we’ve
provided, which generally includes:
strategy and positioning, logo,
design and build of website on
Squarespace, messaging and copy,
identity materials, social media
design, and often marketing and
content strategy.
EMILY'S INSIGHT
“Sometimes thinking differently

has its benefits. Be creative in
your pricing strategies. If you have
common service offerings, consider
Worstofall Design
package pricing, which involves

tiered levels of fixed services for
fixed prices.”
123
Chapter 13
The Elusive
Retainer
Retainers are often requested when a client

wants one centralized resource (often in lieu
of an in-house team), a consistent relationship
experience, and a consistent brand experience.
Sounds wonderful, right?
Many clients and creatives alike have the lofty, rose-colored expectations that
Pricing
retainer-based relationships can be the magical answer to all their problems.
And sometimes this can be true. But, more likely than not, the perceived
benefits of a retainer do not align with reality. In most cases, clients interested
in retainers want the creative team to be available to them no matter when
or how often they need them.
Scenarios and Challenges

Before I offer some strategies for negotiating a mutually beneficial retainer
relationship, I think some context and a reality check is in order.
HOURLY RETAINERS
Retainers based on hourly rates and time incurred can be attractive because
they are relatively simple and easy to negotiate and track. However, an hourly
retainer also positions the firm as a vendor, available at the beck and call of
their clients. As a result, the firm becomes subservient to the client and isn’t
valued or treated as an expert or partner.
FLAT FEE RETAINERS

Alternatively, retainers based on flat fees can position creative teams as
experts, which is an advantage. However, to negotiate this relationship well,
it requires a clearly defined, predictable workload. But in reality, clients
have difficulty predicting the anticipated workload required throughout the
relationship. Nonetheless, they will want the creative team to be available
whenever they need them. This makes it difficult for the team to plan their
workload, resources, and schedules throughout the year.
Creatives think that once they negotiate a retainer based on flat fees,
the amount of paperwork and management will be less than a traditional
relationship. But because retainer workloads are rarely consistent or
predictable, creatives often need more (not fewer) dedicated management
resources. Additionally, this type of relationship requires a detailed tracking
and reporting system to document the work incurred month-to-month.
This also requires frequent reconciliation of the account to ensure that any
overages or shortfalls are accounted for and communicated, negotiated,
The Elusive Retainer
invoiced, and/or rolled over accordingly.
DISCOUNT VS. CONSISTENT CASH

When clients ask for a retainer relationship, they often do so with the
expectation of a discounted rate. And designers love the idea that retainer
125
relationships imply consistent and predictable income (“cha-ching”). How-
Brutally Honest
ever, the reality is that clients are rarely willing to guarantee the retainer
for a defined period of time (usually 6–12 months). Creatives learn to expect
retainer income and get overly comfortable with it. Thus, they aren’t prepared
when the retainer unexpectedly stops, which it can if the client doesn’t agree
to guarantee it. This leaves the creative with unexpected loss of income and
leads to unplanned and disruptive belt-tightening measures (e.g., lay off staff,
reduce overhead) to accommodate for the loss, and a desperation to win new
business at any cost.
RETAINER OR PAYMENT SCHEDULE

Creatives and clients often confuse the idea of a retainer with what is
essentially just a modified or extended payment schedule. So, to be clear,
a retainer isn’t a multi-component engagement in which the total fee
is divided into equal monthly payments. In reality, that scenario is just a
project with a rolled-out payment schedule. In these situations, no discount
is applied and there is a defined scope of work. This isn’t a true retainer.
RESOURCE ALLOCATION
Retainer clients often expect to communicate directly with principals or
high-level creatives and receive hands-on management and design attention.
For a creative firm, this senior-level attention is expensive and can consume
valuable and limited time, pulling attention away from areas that often get
neglected, such as new business development and relationship building. I’ve
witnessed scenarios at smaller (and even larger) firms where the principal
is consumed by a guerilla retainer client, and as a result, unintentionally
neglects the rest of his business and clients.
Retainer Considerations and Terms

What’s a creative firm to do? Why am I being such a negative Nelly? Are
retainers even possible? Yes, they are. But, they are often more complex to
negotiate than expected, and require some serious contractual terms that guide
and protect the relationship. Beyond the traditional contract clauses, there are
a few unique terms and conditions that should also be included when negotiat-
ing a retainer. (For more specifics on terms and conditions, see Chapter 15.)
Emily Ruth Cohen
DEFINED SCOPE OF WORK

Make sure the retainer agreement clarifies what components will be required,
as well as the quantity, frequency, and specifications of each. Or, for hourly
126
retainers, the quantity of hours and related hourly rates allocated each
Pricing
month to their account. A blended rate may be easier to track, but may lead
to abuse of power (“We want only the senior designer on our account.”),
or disagreements over how much time was allocated and who did the work
(“Why did they spend so much time on that?”).
REQUIRED PROJECT INITIATION AND TURNAROUND TIMES

To prevent the client from expecting the design team to drop everything they
are doing when the client needs them, it’s helpful to define how many hours/
days are required for advance notice for project requests. Also, define the
minimum turnaround times required for different types of projects/requests.
This will help the creative team with schedule and relationship management
without becoming subservient to the client.
GUARANTEE
If a discount is provided, then the client has to be willing to guarantee the
relationship for a minimum period of time. Without a guarantee, they don’t
get a discount.
ROLLOVERS
All retainers need to have clarity on what happens if fewer or more hours
(or services) are incurred each month. Are unused hours rolled over to future
months, or perhaps just to the next month, or not at all? How and when
do any services or hours above and beyond the retainer get billed? Make
sure to protect the relationship in case the hours or work outlined in the
agreement aren’t evenly managed throughout the length of the retainer.
TERMINATION CLAUSE
With a guarantee, also consider and negotiate a “what if” clause that provides
protection if the client stops the retainer earlier than the contracted period.
This clause should define the consequences such as how many additional
months must be compensated upon early termination to accommodate for
the loss of future anticipated work.
Finding the Right Situation

The Elusive Retainer
I actually love retainers. A predictable and long-term relationship can

be financially lucrative and provide much-needed stability in an otherwise
unpredictable environment.
That being said, often a retainer relationship is best suited for existing
clients you’ve worked with for at least 6–12 months. With these clients,
127
the design team will have a more accurate historical perspective of their future
Brutally Honest
needs so they can predict the work load, the financial implications, and most
importantly, have an accurate sense of what it’s like to work with the client.
With long term relationships, it’s good to be proactive and propose a retainer
to the client. They may love the idea of a discount and the design team will
benefit from future guaranteed work!
Retainer relationships are also best suited for execution projects. In this
case, work that involves production or maintenance is less value-driven and
can be priced hourly or at a discounted rate. Additionally, execution-based
relationships are much easier to define and predict, thus making them ideally
suited to retainers. But, as we learned in Chapter 2, doing purely executional
work can be damaging to your positioning.
So, if the right opportunity and/or relationship arises for a retainer, then go
for it! Just make sure you are protected and negotiate all future what-if’s.
Emily Ruth Cohen
128
Retainers
Title
Pricing
Chapter
should be
mutually
beneficial
to both the
creative team
and the client.
Section
The TitleRetainer
Elusive
129
Real Time P&L
Case Study
One firm’s unique planning and forecasting

tool that helps look at their real-time workflow
and profitability.
By Sheri L Koetting, Chief Strategist and Co-Founder
MSLK
PROBLEM SOLUTION
Reviewing a standard month-to- We created a “Real Time P&L”
month Profit and Loss (P&L) report spreadsheet, which allows us to:
does not provide an accurate financial • Spread out project-related payments
snapshot of the current workflow in month-to-month not based on when
a studio, nor does it help us predict the payments were received, but
the future. This happens because: in proportion to how much time/work
• There is often a disparity between was being expended against that job.
when payments are received for • Include internal projects, pro-bono,
projects and the reality of the actual or other unbillable work which still
time and expenses incurred. have (internal) budgets and schedules
• Partial payments received don’t assigned to them.
align with the workload actually
expended at the moment the SUCCESS
payment is received. For example, Our real time P&L document allows us to:
the initial up-front payment may
cover work forthcoming and • Evaluate how much we really want or
not started. need a project at a financial level (thus
allowing us to better vet new business).
• P&L reports do not show accounts
receivable or reflect work that • Play around with financial projections.
is already under contract but We can easily input potential
not yet invoiced. Future invoices upcoming assignments to see how
not yet entered may be for they affect the workload in the studio
completed, current, or future work. immediately, or our overall bottom
line at the end of the year.
MSLK needed a planning tool that
would help us look at the real-time • Stay on track with business
workflow and profitability in the development.
Real Time P&L
office, as well as help us forecast • Compare this year to last by show-

our future financial and new business casing them on top of each other.
development needs. • Identify seasonal and annual trends.
130
Sheri L Koetting, Chief Strategist and Co-Founder
CLIENT JANUARY FEBRUARY MARCH APRIL
Client 1 Retainer 5,500.00 7,166.66 7,166.66 5,500.00
Client 2 Retainer 5,500.00 8,666.66 8,666.66 10,666.66
Client 3 Retainer 7,166.66 7,166.66 7,166.66 6,333.33
Client 1 Special Project 2,750.00 2,500.00 2,500.00 2,500.00
Client 2 March AA 1,000.00 6,000.00 2,500.00
Client 4 Project AA 500.00 3,333.33
YEAR 1
Client 5 Small Job 500.00 500.00 3,000.00

Client 6 Packaging 4,000.00 25,000.00 20,000.00 10,000.00
4,000.00 5,000.00 4,625.00
5,000.00
6,500.00 4,000.00
3,000.00 6,500.00
Gross Income 26, 916.66 60,999.98 65,833.32 72, 195.82
Overhead 45,303.81 45,303.81 45,303.81 45,303.81
Net Profit -18,387.15 15,696.17 20,529.51 26, 892.01
CLIENT JANUARY FEBRUARY MARCH APRIL

Client 1 Retainer 7,590.00 5,283.33 5,283.33 7,590.00
Client 2 Retainer 7,923.33 4,950.00 4,950.00 4,950.00
Client 3 Retainer 5,283.33 7,923.33 8,756.66 8,756.66
Client 1 Special Project 3,666.66 3,666.66
Client 1 AAs 500.00
Client 4 Tradeshow 4,250.00
YEAR 2
Client 4 Consulting 1,893.05 12,000.00

Client 5 Small Project 300.00
Client 6 Web Update 900.00 1,418.75 9,418.75 600.00
650.25 214.58
MSLK Website 546.68
Gross Income 32,306.37 35,892.32 28,408.74 22,657.92
Overhead 35,391.94 35,391.94 35,391.94 35,391.94
Net Profit -3,085.57 500.38 -6,983.20 -12,734.02
MSLK
131
sals and Contracts Proposals and Contracts Proposals and Contracts Proposals and C
Proposals
Section Title
and Contracts
Chapter 14
2 Chapter
Proposals,
titleEstimates, and SOWs 134
20
Chapter 15
3 Chapter
The Legal
title
Stuff 144
30
Chapter 16
4 Chapter
Usage Rights
title and Ownership 158
40
Chapter 14
Proposals,
Estimates,
and SOWs
Before you use your valuable time writing

a proposal, you should take some important
steps to solidify the relationship and ensure
the seriousness of the inquiry. After all, you
are not in the business of writing proposals.
Many creatives, excited about the potential of new business, will immediately

leap to writing a proposal, a premature and wrong first step. Instead, you
should focus on writing fewer proposals by being more selective, so that
you have a higher chance of winning the project. But in order for you
to write fewer proposals and increase your win rate, you have to ask the
right questions. Lucky for you, Chapter 11 covered that very topic. Qualifying
questions will help you funnel all your leads so that you can siphon off the
best, more serious ones, turning them into prospects and write proposals
that turn into paid relationships (in other words, writing proposals that
are more winnable).
What Is a Proposal?
Before we move forward, and for the purposes of this book, I would like
to start by defining what a proposal is:
A document issued by a creative team/designer in response to

a prospect’s formal or informal request, inquiry, or interest in working
with them on a future relationship, initiative, or project.
The request can be in the form of some sort of written documentation,

like a request for proposal (RFP) or creative brief, or it can come through
an informal discussion, call, or meeting. Either way, a proposal is written
in response to these requests.
WHAT IT’S FOR

The proposal’s goals are to provide context that demonstrates and defends
the value of the prospect’s proposed financial investment in your services
and expertise. What will they get from you in return? What are the objectives,
services, scope of work, and deliverables that make your fee worth it?
What’s in it for the prospect?
Proposals, Estimates, and SOWs
Whether you call it a proposal or a statement of work (SOW) or an

estimate, the document should do all it can to ensure you are selected.
WHAT IT’S NOT

Before we go any further, it’s important to note what a proposal is not.
A proposal is not the primary way to sell or even qualify your firm or your
services. You should have done that prior to writing the proposal, when
you were in the process of turning your leads into prospects. In most cases,
135
as I’ve mentioned throughout this book, you have built a relationship with the
Brutally Honest
requester and have already discussed and presented your firm’s qualifications,
expressed your expertise, and built some degree of trust or, as I often say, “built the
love.” A proposal shouldn’t have the hard job of selling your firm; you should have
done that prior to writing the proposal. Thus, in most cases, a proposal doesn’t
have to include endless pages with your firm’s qualifications (e.g., team bios, client
list, case studies, etc.). The prospect should already have seen your site, met you in
person, and/or have seen your work and are certain you are the right firm for their
needs. You, in turn, are also making sure they are the right client for your firm.
That’s not to say you shouldn’t include some basic qualifications in your
proposal to reiterate your expertise, but you should keep those pages to a
minimum. I usually customize this information for each specific relationship
and recommend a “why us” bulleted list of your core qualifications that focus
on how you are ideally suited to the project or relationship. This section is
your opportunity to move beyond the core templated content and allows you
to customize your expertise based on the prospect’s specific requirements.
Just don’t rely on your proposal to be your primary vehicle for upselling your
firm or expertise.
However, there are situations when you will most likely need to include
all your qualifications.
RESPONDING TO RFPS/COLD INQUIRIES

Most RFPs are sent out by an anonymous entity or someone in “procurement,”
often from larger corporations, institutions, or governmental agencies. Many
RFPs also have a very strict requirement that all questions about the project/
relationship should be submitted on a specific date and then are responded
to in an anonymous process. In these “cold” situations, the prospects don’t allow
you to meet or talk to the requester until after the proposal has been submitted.
This policy is put in place to ensure an “objective” selection process. And by
objective, I mean they are primarily looking for the lowest but still qualified
bidder! Or they usually are required to issue RFPs to appear fair, but have
already selected the firm they will work with (usually with the creative team
that they already know or have worked with). That is one reason several business
consultants (myself included) recommend avoiding responding to cold RFPs
altogether unless you are in an industry, such as signage/wayfinding, in which
Emily Ruth Cohen
RFPs are the default standard process.

However, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try to make a personal connection
with a live person prior to responding to the RFP. A few years back, a design
firm I worked with received one of these cold RFPs. I advised them that prior
136
to writing the proposal (their first instinct), they first try and reach a

human being to see if they could meet in person. Despite the design firm’s
reservations, they were pleasantly surprised by the prospect’s willingness
to meet with them before they submitted a proposal. Out of ten firms
that submitted proposals in response to the RFP, they were the only firm
that requested a meeting. The result? They won the project and the client
specifically stated it was because they were the only firm to reach out
and meet with them.
RESPONDING TO A COMMITTEE REVIEW PROCESS

The second situation in which you might have to include your qualifications
is when other important decision makers that perhaps you haven't yet
met might evaluate the proposal. For example, if you've met the chief mar-
keting officer, but the proposal is also being reviewed by the chief executive
officer and/or other important people. In this case, you may have to include
your qualifications to ensure you are selling to all those involved in the
selection process.
A Proposal is Not a Legal Document

If a prospect sees legal clauses (terms and conditions) in a proposal, it will
immediately change and refocus the conversation as well as the intent of the
proposal. Proposals that include terms and conditions will lower your win
rate significantly.
Send the proposal before you send them your legal terms to ensure
the prospect fully understands the value of their investment. This may take
a few different iterations of the proposal. But by this point they've fallen
in love with you (the qualifying part), agreed to your scope of work and
fee (the proposal), and have notified your competitors of their decision.
Once your firm has been selected, submit your contract, and the conversation
about legal terms and conditions becomes much easier and smoother. At
this point, your terms and conditions are a discussion point, not a turn-off,
and are something to negotiate. Again, there are exceptions to this

rule as well.
When you have to start the project within a few days of writing a
proposal to meet a tight deadline, you won’t have time to negotiate both
a proposal and contract and may have to include both in one document.
The other important exception is with an existing client who has worked
with you, has seen your terms, and already committed to working with you.
137
In this situation, the proposal is really a formality and you can include
Brutally Honest
your terms in the same document.
A Checklist of Must-Haves
If you want examples of successful proposals, this isn’t the book
for you, because I believe each proposal should be customized for
each client or project. But I do believe that every proposal should
have the following:
1. A CLEAR AND SUCCINCT LIST OF GOALS OR OBJECTIVES

Answer these questions (when possible):
• What did your prospect tell you that is unique to this project
or relationship?
• What type of messages does your work need to communicate?
• What should the work do or whom should it speak to?
• What are the end metrics or results that will determine success?
• What does your work need to achieve?
2. A CLEAR AND SUCCINCT LIST OF END DELIVERABLES

Answer these questions:
• What are the specific tangible deliverables the client will receive
at the end of the relationship?
• What specifications and assumptions does your fee(s) include
and not include?
Don't state broad terms such as: “identity system,” “capabilities brochure,”
“stationery system,” “brand identity standards,” or even “website.” These
terms can mean different things to different people and lead to a difference
of expectations when you work together. Be clear. For example:
• What does the identity system include?
• How many pages will a multi-page deliverable include? Is it self- or plus
cover? For example, a brochure that is 12 pages plus cover adds 4 more
pages than a 12 page self-cover.
Emily Ruth Cohen
• What specific stationery components are you providing?

• What will the brand standards include, beyond logo usage, color palettes
and typography? Will it also show applications and templates for sample
components? And, if so, how many components and what types?
138
• What functionality will the website include or not include? How large
Contracts
Proposals and Proposals
a site is it?
If the client doesn’t know the end deliverables and looks to you for your
expertise in recommending what you need, you can:
• Propose and price a discovery phase in which you are paid to uncover
and define what they need.
• Recommend some common deliverables you anticipate they may require,
based on your expertise with similar clients.
• Suggest the client agrees to define the deliverables (even if they are
a first guess) and share them with all other firms that are also submitting
proposals. This allows the design firm and client a more equitable way
to write and evaluate proposals and price, based on an apples-to-apples
comparison. If not, prices will vary greatly.
Carefully edit what assumptions and specifications you include, and consider
only those that are pertinent to your fee. For example, trim size and/or
number of colors rarely impact your fee, unless you are pricing printing.
3. A DETAILED SCOPE OF WORK/PROCESS SECTION

• What will you specifically provide for each deliverable? How many
and what type? In what sequence? What are your assumptions?
Be specific on how many concepts and of “what.” Example:
“We will develop and present 2-3 concepts of the approved identity
system applied to up to 4 representative components (e.g., letterhead,
business card, cover and sample spread of capabilities brochure,
and web home page).”
Be specific about how many revisions and the complexity of the revisions
(minor vs. major). Example:
“Based on client feedback to the approved logo concept, we will
Estimates, and SOWs
incorporate up to 2 rounds of minor tweaks.”
“Based on client feedback to the first set of page layouts, we will

incorporate and provide up to 2 rounds of moderate layout revisions.”
For digital projects, you may want to have a testing period for a specific
Documents
period of time (e.g., 30 days), when you will provide code guarantee. This
Proposals,
protects you from being contacted several months, even years, after launch
to fix problems that may or may not have been your fault.
The
139
4. A HIGH-LEVEL TIMELINE
Brutally Honest

• Roughly how much time do you anticipate requiring for the entire project
or each phase? What is the client’s hard delivery date?
Avoid, if possible, including a detailed schedule with specific dates for the
entire project. That takes time and you know that the project won’t even start
on time. You also know that the project will of course veer off course or
the client won’t approve things in a timely fashion. So, why bother? If a client
requests a detailed schedule, try to talk them out of it. If you can't, then
include it only if it’s essential and required.
5. A LIST OF WHAT YOU EXPECT FROM THE CLIENT

• What resources, services, or deliverables will the client need to provide
that you aren’t expecting to provide yourself?
• What do you expect from the client to ensure a successful relationship?
6. YOUR FEES (For more information on how to price, see Chapter 12.)
7. A LIST OF EXCLUSIONS
• What additional resources, services, or deliverables may be needed
now and in the future but are not included in your services or fee
(for now)?
• What will be billed in addition to your fees?
8. TERMS AND CONDITIONS FORTHCOMING

At the very end of the proposal, include a simple statement like this:
“Upon approval of this proposal, we will submit a detailed project
schedule and letter of agreement for the client’s signature and approval
before beginning the project.”
ADDITIONAL PROPOSAL STRATEGIES

• Always attach a simple cover letter. The letter should restate that you
enjoyed meeting them and demonstrate your excitement about working
Emily Ruth Cohen
with them. The letter makes a personal connection to the client and
helps “build the love.” The cover letter is not an email—it should be
part of the proposal.
• Keep your proposal as simple as possible. Clients are busy and don’t read
140
Proposal
Keep it simple. Be specific.
Contracts
Documents
Must-Have's
and
The
Proposals
1. A CLEAR AND SUCCINCT LIST
OF GOALS OR OBJECTIVES
2. A CLEAR AND SUCCINCT

LIST OF END DELIVERABLES
3. A DETAILED SCOPE OF WORK/

PROCESS SECTION
4. A HIGH-LEVEL TIMELINE
5. A LIST OF WHAT YOU EXPECT

FROM THE CLIENT
6. YOUR FEES
7. A LIST OF EXCLUSIONS
8. TERMS AND CONDITIONS

FORTHCOMING
141
everything—they scan and look for the highlights. Give them the
Brutally Honest
important sound bites.

• That said, don’t make the proposal so simple that crucial information
is missing.
• Design the proposal, but don’t over design it. Information hierarchy
is especially important in proposals.
• Use bulleted copy. Avoid too much lengthy narrative content (unless
your prospect is a writer or avid reader and loves the written word!).
• Use voice and tone to reflect your brand personality. Make it sound
different, and authentic to you and your firm.
• Avoid including too much “about us” content. It should be about them
and their needs.
• Avoid repeating yourself unless there are certain points you think
are potential red flags or are of particular concern.
• Don’t include terms and conditions. (Yes, I know I repeat myself, but,
hey, it’s important.)
• Under promise and over deliver. Better to be cautious on what you promise
and decide later on if you want to be more generous. So if you like to
show lots and lots of concepts (by the way, don’t), tell them you’ll give
them three and then surprise them with more choices when you actually
do the project!
• Proofread! Don’t spell the client’s name wrong or use acronyms that
they don’t use. Spell “stationery” with an e, not “stationary.”
• Instead of saying the generic “the client” throughout, customize it and
use the client’s name. In this way, the proposal is warmer, speaks directly
to the client, and feels more customized. This little touch helps increase
your win rate.
• Track your win/lose rate. If you’ve done your due diligence, you should
be writing fewer proposals, but winning more.
While the end goal of every proposal is to win the engagement, it also
is a great opportunity to learn and grow. If you don't win, ask the prospect
why. Don't ask the question by giving them potential reasons or answers.
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Many designers leap to the assumption they didn’t win because of price
or something else that they are insecure about. Avoid making assumptions
and ask it as an open-ended question. If you give the prospect permission
to give you bad news, they will feel more comfortable being honest with you.
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Tell them you want to learn from their feedback and improve your proposals

in the future. Either way, you can’t lose.
Once you’ve written a proposal and the client approves it, you
are now ready to submit the legal terms and conditions that make the
relationship “official.”
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Chapter 15
The Legal Stuff
I believe very strongly that contracts are

better suited to guide client-agency and other
business relationships than they are to protect
oneself (or one’s firm) in court. Avoid a legally
obtuse contract that is used only in case of
a lawsuit.
A contract should be used and referred to throughout the relationship

to mitigate any potential disagreements or challenges that may arise.
If well-written and thorough, a contract or agreement will protect you
and your client/employee/partner so you never have go to court. Thus,
my advice is to avoid hiring a lawyer to write your contracts! Lawyers
only complicate matters.
In advising thousands of creatives, this simple but controversial
belief has really held true and stood the test of time. Most agency-client
disagreements, while admittedly not fun (and often difficult, painful,
and uncomfortable), do get resolved without ever having to go to court,
if they are initiated with a solid, user-friendly contract.
For other, more difficult disagreements, it is often better to move
on (or give in) than it is to pursue legal action. Let’s face it: going to
court is rarely a worthwhile experience, and arbitration isn’t much better.
Both are very time-consuming, expensive, and emotionally exhausting.
There may be times during the course of owning a business when you
have to take a client to court, or vice versa. But this is a very rare occur-
rence and, to me, the better solution is to prevent this from happening in
the first place.
The best way to do this is to write an agreement, in plain English
(a/k/a layman’s terms), without abstract and long-winded legalese (e.g.,
whatsoever, shall forth, therefore), so that the client (and you) actually
read and understand what is written. It also should be customized for each
relationship, so it doesn't include any language or clauses that don’t apply
to that specific situation. Lawyers often complicate matters by adding
obtuse and often unnecessary legalese and terms into contracts that just
give everyone agita and make the contract hard to understand. Lawyers
are also overly protective of their client and, as a result, don’t consider
the needs of the other party involved.
Of course, there are a few exceptions where you may need some sort
of legally-vetted documents. These instances include:
• If you are a litigious type or your client has a history of being litigious
• If you have a relative who is a lawyer and can do pro-bono work for you
• If the project/relationship is complex
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• If there are several red flags that you are concerned about and are
predictive of bad weather ahead
• If your business is dependent on one dominant guerilla client
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In these situations, get a lawyer to write a legally binding document.
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But the larger question is: Are these relationships ones you want to get
into in the first place? That’s a whole separate issue and one I covered
in Chapter 10.
DISCLAIMER
Before you read further, it’s important that I tell you I’m obviously
not a lawyer. Thus, I won’t be providing you with specific language
or a boilerplate contract. The advice I provide is specific to our
industry, but is not to be taken as legal advice. So, don’t sue me!
If you have specific legal questions, seek the services of appropriate
legal counsel.
Must-Have Terms
The following is a description of must-have, industry-specific protections
and terms that any agreement with your clients must have.
1. Schedule-Related Policies
OFFICE HOURS AND HOLIDAYS

Indicate your hours of operation and when your studio is closed. This level
of detail will help you better manage annoying and unrealistic off-hour
requests and communications that you know will happen.
SCHEDULE CREEP
How many of you have worked on projects whose final deadline expanded
significantly beyond what you or the client expected? Sound familiar? This
is particularly common with websites and digital projects, where the end date
of the project (or total number of months) expands way beyond what you
first planned and budgeted for. Yet the promised work and scope of services
included in your contract doesn't change—only the time involved expands.
As we all know, additional and unplanned work can lead to significant time
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and cost overages and loss of profit. Protect yourself by including language
that states what you charge if the schedule expands beyond the indicated
schedule and how you charge. In the last few years, many firms have begun
to charge a weekly project management fee for schedule creep. This fee
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doesn’t include any up-charges for additional scope creep that also may occur.

The project management fee is incurred only for additional and unexpected
time beyond what was initially agreed-upon.
SHORT-TERM CLIENT DELAYS

It’s important to protect yourself if the client delays any part of the schedule
during the project, and request that the next deadline and the overall
schedule be adjusted in proportion to the delays caused by the client.
LONG-TERM SCHEDULE DELAYS

Protect yourself in the case that the client delays the relationship and/or
project by more than 30 days for any reason. Perhaps you negotiate
what some call a “re-acclimation” fee, or you agree on a specific percentage
of the project total to restart the project. Indicate the consequences
on the budget or schedule of client-driven schedule changes.
RUSH POLICY
If you charge additionally for after-hours work, indicate how much
and when.
2. Client Responsibilities
RESPONSIBILITIES
What is the client providing and responsible for? Copywriting,
proofreading, imagery, development services? What are the roles and
responsibilities of any third parties contracted by the client (e.g., public
relations firm, content strategist, brand strategist, printer or development
partner)? Who is managing and paying these third-party entities?
PERMISSIONS
Clarify that the client (or their partners) agree that they are liable
for anything they provide to you (e.g. content, images, names) and
have all necessary intellectual property rights and permissions.
FEEDBACK AND APPROVALS

Specify who the client decision makers are, and what their specific
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involvement is at different stages of the project. Who has final approval,

and at what stage do they provide approval? Do you require approvals
in writing or in a particular format? Should they be provided as per the
schedule or within a specified time period? What are the implications
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if the client changes the agreed upon feedback and approval process? You’ll
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thank me later for this suggestion, when your client unexpectedly seeks
random people’s opinions midway through, when the design has already been
agreed upon (i.e., the CEO’s husband, niece, or someone they may know who
has a “creative eye,” etc.). Sound familiar? You’re welcome.
3. Electronic Files
LENGTH OF STORAGE
How long do you store electronic files and records? I know in this digital
age, it could be stored on your server and/or the cloud forever. However,
you shouldn’t be held liable for files after a certain period of time. You may
even want to indicate how much you charge to retrieve and transfer these
files. After all, your time is money.
FILE OR CODE REQUIREMENTS

If the client has specific requirements for how the files or coding needs
to be prepared, this should be specified.
4. Third-Party Relationships
TERMS OF RELATIONSHIP
Will you work with other individuals or companies that may act on your
behalf to provide additional services such as copywriting, programming,
photography, illustration, printing, or fabrication? If so, list any specific
terms of that relationship and required credits and usage rights with
respect to reproduction of the materials that may be imposed on you and
the client by these third parties. Who owns the work? Who manages
and pays the third parties? Who is responsible for the quality of the
relationship or the services provided by these third-party relationships?
FONTS
The issue around who pays to license fonts for a project can be unclear
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for many clients, especially for clients who have never worked with
a design firm before. To protect yourself (as well as the type designer),
indicate that the costs of fonts used in the approved work are not included
in your fee. Also mention that the client will be responsible for payment
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of any related fees and for contacting the type foundry to ensure that all

licensing is done correctly.
5. Promotion
SAMPLES
If you are working on tangible deliverables, like printed materials
or packaging, how many samples will you receive?
CREDIT
The client should agree that your firm should be credited appropriately.
This clause should define where the credit will appear and what it will say.
What the credit says is very important. Many clients want their in-house
creative team to also receive credit, and negotiating who receives what credit
is crucial to avoiding future misunderstandings. Will the client agree to give
your firm credit on the final deliverable itself and/or within project-related
publicity, promotion, and competitions? If in digital form, will the credit
also include a link to your site?
USE OF CLIENT NAME

When, where, and how can you use the client’s company name? In
publications, exhibitions, competitions, and other promotional purposes
(such as your website and in social media postings)? Ideally, you should
ensure that they give you permission to use their name in all these
opportunities upfront, in the contract. However, many clients are now
requiring clauses that require their written permission prior to you using
their name (as they want to control when and where their name appears
and in what context). If so, make sure the clause indicates that this written
permission will be provided within a certain time period from your initial
request and that the client won’t unreasonably withhold their permission.
USE OF THE WORK

Similarly, this clause indicates that the client allows you (and potentially your
staff or other third party entities) to use samples, links, or photographs of the
work created under the agreement for publications, exhibition, competition,
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and other promotional purposes (such as your website) once the project has
been made public. Be aware that some clients are now restricting creatives
from using either the client’s name or the work they’ve created for the
designer’s own self-promotion.
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This is a disturbing trend and one I discuss in more length at the end of this
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book. Obviously, you have to be sensitive to the client’s needs; for internal
or proprietary projects that are not released to the public, you may not
be able to publicly show the work. That’s understandable. But otherwise,
you really should be able to use your work for promotional purposes.
6. Payment Policy
PAYMENT SCHEDULE
Describe incremental payments (amount and specifically when due).
Payments should be made prior to the start of the project and then upon
completion of specific phases or deliverables, not upon moving targets
(e.g., upon approval, when printed, or when launched), as these may
delay payment by several weeks or months.
NON-REFUNDABLE
Indicate that all payments received are non-refundable in the event the
project or your relationship is terminated.
CONSEQUENCES OF NON-PAYMENT
Clients need to be held accountable, and often the only way to do this
is through consequences. In this clause, indicate that you will suspend
work and/or withhold issuing any project documents if invoice payments
are not received within a reasonable period of time from invoice date.
LATE FEES
If you charge late fees or early payment discounts, indicate as such.
However, in my experience, neither strategy incentivizes faster payment.
I’ve seen clients take the discount even though they didn’t pay early and
most clients don't pay late fees. Most people are happy to receive the
outstanding payment, and negotiating the late fee is just more of a nuisance.
7. Cancellation
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CLIENT CANCELLATION
This is an obvious clause, but nonetheless important. Ensure that should
the client cancel the project, you retain all payments made, and that the
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client will pay a cancellation fee that will include full payment for all work

completed, expenses incurred, and hours expended.
USAGE RIGHTS
Either under this cancellation clause or the usage rights clause, you should
specify that upon cancellation, unless the full contracted fee is paid, usage
rights are not transferred to any concepts or work-in-progress. Usage rights
are transferred only upon full payment of the entire contracted amount.
This protects you from the client not paying you for your services and then
proceeding to use the work or giving your work to others to execute.
8. Miscellaneous
CHANGES
Include a simple statement describing how you define and determine
revisions (any requests that are outside the agreed-upon scope of work
and criteria outlined in the contract and proposal) versus substantive
changes (new components). You should also specify how you will notify
clients of additional costs (change order, weekly updates) and how you
plan to charge for these revisions (time and materials vs. flat fee).
OUT OF POCKET EXPENSES

Indicate what expenses are not included in your fees and, if you charge
a handling fee/markup, what the percentage is. Many designers are
choosing to absorb expenses and not charge markups, because in this
digital world there is very little need for extensive out of pocket expenses,
and there are so many more important issues to negotiate.
CLIENT REPRESENTATIVE
You should agree at the contract stage to define the person(s) who are
the approver(s). This is important, as the client representative must have
full authority to represent the company and to provide and obtain all
necessary information and approvals throughout the project. You should
then specify what the client representative will approve (e.g., the agreement,
subsequent change orders, invoices and all project stages, including, but
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not limited to, design, editorial, mechanicals, test sites, and press proofs).
(For recommendations on strategies on how to better manage clients, see
Chapter 25.)
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9. Usage Rights/Ownership
Because this is such an important topic, the entire next chapter focuses
on this common industry challenge.
Clauses Lawyers Love

Sometimes a contract is drafted by the client’s legal team or by your own
attorney. If an attorney is involved, they may have little understanding or
experience working with our specific industry and our particular challenges/
concerns and thus may overlook many of the clauses I’ve described.
Additionally, there also many common legal clauses that lawyers will
recommend that I haven’t described above, such as:
• Liability and limits on liability
• Confidentiality
• Warranties and representations
• Infringement
• Indemnification
• Remedy
• Damages
• Force majeure
• Sales and use taxes
• Governing law and attorney’s fees 1
• Non-solicitation of employees 2
• Insurance requirements
• Compliance with industry-specific laws (e.g., Workforce Investment
Act for interactive/digital work and Americans with Disabilities Act
for environmental work)
Use these as you choose, but heed my warning about a contract with too
much legalese. There may also be other clauses you need that are specific
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to each type of project (print, interactive/digital, environmental, packaging,

motion graphics). Honestly, there are plenty of boilerplate contracts easily
accessible if you are a member of the AIGA, the Society of Environmental
Graphic Designs (SEGD), the Graphic Artist Guild (GAG), or any number
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of other professional organizations. The AIGA’s “Standard Form of

Agreement for Design Services” is the most thorough version I’ve seen,
though it’s a bit overwhelming and includes a lot of legal jargon. That said,
it’s a great reference tool.
Additionally, if these terms are important to your client, they will
have their own contracts that you will have to sign. I provide tips later
on in this chapter on how to manage contracts provided by your clients.
For example, many clients have non-disclosure agreements (NDAS),
which cover issues related to confidentiality and are often standard.
Other clients may require an exclusivity clause, which would put restric-
tions on who you can work with, requiring you to turn down work from
the client’s competitors. The latter clause is particularly restrictive
and, if required, higher fees should be charged to offset the lost busi-
ness opportunities.
TOUGH CONVERSATIONS
The clauses I recommended are meant to inspire important discussions
up front with clients before they become an issue later on. Some of these
conversations may be difficult (e.g., ownership/use of concepts and files,
scope/schedule creep, credit, etc.), but it’s better to address potential issues
early on and adjust the contract to avoid disagreements later. If crafted
well and approved by both parties, you can then use the contract to guide
conversations later on in the relationship, as situations may arise that need
to be mitigated.
Some Important Tips and Techniques

• All projects and relationships, from small, short-term to large, long-term
projects, should be initiated with a contract and an upfront deposit.
No exceptions.
• Don’t begin working until you have both a signed contract and the
upfront deposit in hand. Many clients have processes that delay contract
approvals and upfront deposits for several weeks, or sometimes even
months. Often, if you say you have a policy that you don’t begin working
until you receive a signed contract and a deposit, the client and their legal
and accounting team will move faster. Try to stand your ground. Give
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them some incentive to move faster. Obviously, some institutions do move

slowly and nothing you do will speed the process up. In these situations,
during the negotiations you should insist that, at the end of the project,
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you won't release the final files or usage rights, or whatever leverage you
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have, until a final contract has been signed by both parties.

• For consistent work from one client, you can use a master services
agreement (MSA) or relationship agreement that defines the terms
of your overall relationship. In this case, you’d have a signed MSA and
then issue separate proposals for each project outlining any additional
project-related terms (e.g., payment schedule and usage rights). And,
once signed, the proposal(s) will function as addendum(s) to the MSA.
• Don’t use small type sizes; tiny type looks like you are hiding something.
You actually want them to read the contract.
• Eliminate all legalese (e.g., therefore, whereof, shall, etc.).
• Don’t include what I call “red flag clauses” that clearly indicate you've
been burned in the past by a unique situation and are fearful of repeating
the past. You can’t protect yourself from the unknown.
• If you really want an attorney’s point of view, write the contract/
agreement yourself then ask your lawyer to review and edit it for legality.
• As I mentioned in the proposal section, avoid using generic wording
like “the client.” Instead, customize the contract and use the client/
company’s name. In this way, the proposal and contract speak directly
to the client and they are customized to their needs. This little touch
makes the document more friendly and easy to read. Have you ever seen
a lawyer do this?
• Voice and tone matters. If your firm has a particular voice and tone, then
use it. Make it sound as if you wrote it personally and is authentic to you.
• If the client prefers to use their contract (or has specific legal language
such as NDA or liability clauses), then give them your contract first and
mention which specific terms are most important to you that they need to
also incorporate into their agreement before they send you their version.
• Most large corporations have existing boilerplate contracts that are lengthy
and overwhelmingly legal. That’s intentional. Often these contracts aren’t
even written for creative projects/relationships and include irrelevant
terms and conditions that don’t apply to your relationship and services.
Don't be intimidated! First, read every clause, and if you don't understand
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a clause, ask them to explain it in layman’s terms. Don’t sign anything

you don’t understand. Second, you don’t have to agree to it just because
it’s their “standard boilerplate contract.” You can and should negotiate
any terms you disagree with, are irrelevant, unclear, or are missing.
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• Walk through your contract with the client in person or over the

phone (to ensure its read and clarify key terms).
• Remember it’s a negotiation. I am always happy when a client pushes
back on something in a contract. That means they are reading the
document! It also means that, once negotiated, you are guaranteed
that everyone agrees to the terms so the relationship will run more
smoothly in the future. Just remember to employ good negotiation
tactics; everyone should feel as if they won. Don’t be fearful of conflict.
Embrace the push-back as simply a discussion, and pick your battles.
You should take the opportunity to explain your position and educate
the client. Even if you lose the argument, later on in the relationship
when disagreements arise, you can remind them of the reasons those
terms were initially included in the agreement. client. Even if you lose
the argument, later on in the relationship when disagreements arise,
you can remind them of the reasons those terms were initially included
in the agreement.
1 I do recommend adding these terms to 2 It’s very rare for clients to poach employees,
your contract, as they are common areas but when it does happen, it is probably
of disagreements and are simple enough an indicator that the employee was ready
to write in layman’s terms in a short sentence. to leave anyway. Honestly, you really can’t
These terms define which state’s laws will stop people from growing and moving on,
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govern the contract (especially important and asking for a placement fee seems petty.
if you work with an out-of-state client) and who I usually avoid such superfluous protections.
pays the attorneys' fees that may be incurred Move on.
during a dispute. In the latter case, it’s usually
the losing side that is liable for paying the
winning side’s attorney costs.
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Example Tone
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of Voice
The following is an excerpt from a contract
used by Jon Santos, Principal of Common Space
Design, that nicely demonstrates a unique and
compelling tone of voice:
Overview
We’ll always do our best to fulfill your needs and meet your expectations,
but it’s important to have things written down so that we both know what’s
what, who should do what and when, and what will happen if something
goes wrong. In this contract you won’t find any complicated legal terms
or long passages of unreadable text. We’ve no desire to trick you into
signing something that you might later regret.
What we do want is what’s best for both parties, now and in the future.
Copyrights
First, you guarantee that all elements of text, images, or other artwork you
provide are either owned by yourselves, or that you have permission to use
them. Then, when your final payment has cleared, copyright will
be automatically assigned as follows:
• You (or your clients and/or assignees) own the website that we create
for these projects. If applicable, we’ll give you source files and finished files
and you should keep them somewhere safe, as we’re not required to keep
a copy. You own all elements of text, images, and data you provided, unless
someone else owns them.
• We love to show off our work and share what we’ve learned with other
people, so we reserve the right, with your permission, to display and link
to your project as part of our portfolio and to write about it on websites,
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in magazine articles, and in books.
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A simple, direct
Title
Contracts
Chapter
contract in
Proposals and
plain English
ensures
an easier
negotiation
and a smooth
relationship.
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Title
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Chapter 16
Usage Rights
And Ownership
Pick your battles. In negotiating contracts,

one battle worth pushing back on is usage
rights and, more specifically, the "work-for-hire"
clause often inserted by lawyers. The topic
of who owns your work and where it’s used
is so important that it deserves its own chapter.
DISCLAIMER
Before you read further, a reminder that I’m not a lawyer. I am therefore
talking about this issue from the perspective of protecting your value
and the values of our profession overall. For more legal-related
insight on intellectual property provisions, you should consult with
an intellectual property rights attorney. The AIGA’s “Standard Form
of Agreement for Design Services” provides some great language
you can use for different options for intellectual property ownership
of your work (what I call in layman’s terms “usage rights”).
Work-for-Hire: An Unnecessary Evil

It is important to note that any and all work you create for the client
is not automatically or legally owned by the client unless you’ve signed
a “work-for-hire” 1 contract. These contracts usually include language
that states something like this:
“The parties acknowledge and agree that any work product the contractor
creates as part of the services provided under this agreement shall
be considered a work made for hire within the meaning of 17 USC 101
of the U.S. Copyright Act, and therefore the copyright to such work
product shall be owned exclusively by the company . . .”
Under work-for-hire contracts, the client owns everything you’ve created,
including preliminary sketches, works-in-progress, rejected concepts,
your electronic files, and even has unlimited use of the final concepts.
This leads us to larger and more important questions, and my inherent
unease with work-for-hire contracts:
• Does the fee you’ve charged the client compensate you for the full
value of all that work?
• Is the client paying a fee high enough to compensate for using your
rejected concepts elsewhere?
Usage Rights And Ownership
• Is the client paying a fee high enough to compensate for using the
approved concepts beyond what they were initially intended for?
Think about this: If you design work for a local restaurant, and sign a work-
for-hire, then all the work you created for that one location can be used across
future locations. Did you get paid enough for that additional value? That
is the inherent problem I have with work-for-hire clauses: unexpected uses
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of your work by the client, which essentially allows them to get more bang
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for their buck. This is the reason I recommend you do all you can to not sign
work-for-hire contracts!
Alternative Approaches
In most cases, clients themselves (your direct contacts) don’t even know
what work-for-hire means! Often the clause was added at their lawyer’s
request. In these cases, try to have a conversation with your direct client
and explain what work-for-hire means. Ideally, if you’ve “built the love,”
your client has become your advocate internally and can talk to his legal team
on your behalf, defend you, and discuss the implications of work-for-hire
on their budgets and needs. Also, explain that you are willing to have them
own the rights to the final concepts for the agreed-upon use. But if they
really insist on work-for-hire, the fee would have to increase to reflect that
added value.
Instead of work-for-hire contracts, I recommend that you frame your
fee from the get-go (i.e., during proposal discussions) around usage rights.
If you design an event logo, will it be used for one year or across future
events? If you do the branding for a restaurant, is it for one location or do they
have expansion plans? If you design their website, will they want to use the
look and feel (icons, type, and overall format treatments) to brand all future
communications? Where will the ad campaign appear and for how long?
Is it trade or consumer? Answers to these important questions will help you
frame how you price and how you determine the value of that fee and the
work you provide. Once clarified, the usage clause within your contract can
restate what has already been discussed. For example:
Upon payment of all fees and expenses, [the design firm] will transfer
ownership and all rights for approved final concepts created by us
for use on the [type of project, e.g., website] only to [client name here].
[The design firm] will retain all rights and ownership to preliminary
concepts, works in progress, and electronic files, whether the project
is completed or cancelled.
In some cases, and particularly with larger corporations with teams of
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lawyers whose primary job is to protect the corporation (not their vendors),
your client may have an unwavering work-for-hire policy that seems impossible
to negotiate. But these larger clients can also afford to pay higher fees for the
related longer-term value that they are getting with work-for-hire contracts.
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The challenge? Designers often accept work-for-hire agreements because

they are either not aware of what the clause means, prefer to avoid conflict
at all costs, or more likely, they just assume they can’t negotiate it. That’s
simply not true and it’s a conversation well worth having. You’ll find that
many clients come to appreciate your point of view when you frame your
conversation with them around the increased value, in terms of usage rights,
and the potentially higher fees associated with work-for-hire agreements.
Even those larger clients with teams of lawyers may be willing to negotiate.
But, remember, you won’t know until you try!
In the last few years I’ve even heard of several design firms that now have
a company policy against agreeing to work-for-hire. Just having a policy gives
you the strength to say no and push back. And push back you should. Always.
Usage Rights And Ownership
1 It is important to note, however, that work-for- any work you create under their employment.
hire, when used for full-time employees, is an If you are an independent contractor, the employer
entirely different matter. Work-for-hire is a legal must have you sign a work-for-hire contract in
term or "doctrine" created by U.S. Copyright order to own the work you create while working
Law that states an employer is considered for them; otherwise, without a contract, the
the author of work even if an employee actually independent contractor owns their own work.
created the work. Essentially, if you are a full- For an independent designer or design firm,
time employee of a firm, organization, or even the client does not own any of your work unless
an individual (“the employer”), they own you’ve signed a work-for-hire contract.
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and Operational Models Staffing and Operational Models Staffing and Operational Mod
Staffing
Section Title
and
Operational
Models
Chapter 17 So Many Hats, So Little Time 164
Chapter 18 The Search Process: Where Art Thou? 174
Chapter 119 Chapter title Rulebook

The Staffing 10
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2 Chapter
Chapter 20 Who thetitle
Hell Do I Need? 20
192
3 Chapter
Chapter 21 title
Who Manages Clients and Projects? 30
200
Chapter 4
22 Chapter title
Time Tracking—a Necessary Evil 40
210
Chapter 17
So Many Hats,
So Little Time
Graphic design is a business. Seems obvious,

no? But, for many, it's not obvious. If you run your
own creative firm, I am betting that you mostly
want to create and avoid anything to do with the
pesky business-side of running a business.
A Fish Rots from the Head Down

Before we look more deeply at the organizational and staffing needs
of creative teams, we have to start with understanding and defining the
role of the principal and/or partners. Because if the head stinks, so to speak,
so will the rest of the organization. In my consulting practice, I’ve often
found that the principal is either the root cause or a contributing factor
to many of the firm’s challenges (and, obviously, can’t be fired). That said,
in looking at the role of the principal, we need to start by understanding
the important difference between leadership and management.
Leaders are visionary, inspiring, risk-takers, and help others realize
their potential and lead by example. They continually define, evolve,
and lead the firm’s evolution and business goals. Essentially, leaders
envision and plan the who, what, where, when, and why of their business.
Managers are responsible for implementing and achieving the goals
established by leadership. Managers act as change-agents to support,
guide, and implement changes. They also demonstrate success or failure
of these changes by measuring and assessing the results and performance.
The primary role of the principal in any size creative firm is leadership.
Yet in many creative teams, the principal takes on both leadership and
management responsibilities, which often becomes an issue, as they may
not have the inherent skills required of one or the other. Some principals
take these responsibilities on because they are micromanagers and won’t
let go of control, while others have to take these responsibilities on because
of a lack of resources (e.g., time, staff, money, etc.).
Benchmarking the Principal’s Role

To help you better look at the roles of your firm’s principals or partners,
I’ve defined the following four-step infographic. It illustrates four typical
levels or benchmarks of a principal’s involvement.
It is not uncommon—even in firms as large as 40 or more employees—
for the principal(s) to be at the tactical level, where they continue to
So Many Hats, So Little Time
micromanage every level of their business and their employees. This is more
common than you might think, and it is the first sign of stagnation in terms
of competitive positioning, work quality, profitability, and overall growth.
A principal should ideally be at least at the directive level. At this level,
the principal has essentially moved out of daily project-level management
and is involved at a larger scale in terms of creative and business strategy.
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Involvement
Who are you? What is your value?

Brutally Honest
of Principals
VISIONARY
Solely devoted to business

and creative vision
DIRECTIVE
Primarily driven by
creative direction
and business needs
RESPONSIVE
Focused on client-driven
design and account
management and
reactionary business
development
TACTICAL
Involved with all projects

at all levels, little to
no attention to needs
of business
Emily Ruth Cohen
166
Growing from one level to the next requires a multitude of changes, including,

but not limited to:
• A willingness to let go of the day-to-day project- and client-management
responsibilities (micromanagers need not apply), and improved time-
management and leadership skills. These improvements can be supported
with personal coaching as well as ongoing effort and accountability
regarding these changes.
• Process improvements to streamline and standardize the who, what,
where, when, and why of both project-level work (from project initiation
through close out) and business-level responsibilities.
• Organizational improvements that clarify hiring strategies, individual
accountabilities, and performance reviews.
• Operational improvements that provide all the necessary tools
and systems for the team and business overall, ensuring that they
work as one cohesive and efficient machine.
So, What Does a Principal Do?

Now that you (and, possibly, your partner) agree to take on more leadership
responsibilities, what does that mean? It means you have to spend a good portion
of your time at the high end of your business, away from daily fire-fighting,
in, well, leadership roles. Ideally, you may split your time among different
areas of leadership, depending on the needs of your current business model
and allocate the daily often-project level responsibilities to others on your team.
Leadership roles are largely unbillable and often include big-picture visionary
thinking about the business overall, staff mentorship and management, new
business development, and financial/operational management.
In a small team, the allocation of a partner’s time is often very different
than a partner within a larger team. As a creative firm grows and evolves,
the principal’s time is re-allocated to higher-level leadership roles, so they
empower senior members of their team to take on more management and
design-driven responsibilities. The smaller the team, the more senior-level

employees are required to support the principal. Interns, recent graduates,
or those without organizational, interpersonal, or written communication
skills aren’t appropriate hires for a small firm, as they require much more
oversight from the principals. The larger firms will have a good mix of seniors,
mid-levels, and juniors.
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Time is precious. Use yours wisely.
Brutally Honest
TASK CURRENT YEAR FUTURE GOAL

Billable (65%*) (58%*)
Hands-on Design 2 hrs
Creative Direction/Strategy 6 hrs 13 hrs
Project/Client Management 16 hrs 8 hrs
Non-Billable (35%) (42%)

New Business Outreach 6 hrs 6 hrs
Responsive New Business 5 hrs 6 hrs
Big Picture Vision/Direction 1 hr 1 hr
Operations/Staff Management 2 hrs 4 hrs
* This is your billable efficiency or utilization rate
The pie charts on the next pages show representative examples of a

principal’s time allocation for small and large teams, including related
categories and percentages of their time across each.
Another way to evaluate and evolve your role as principal is by setting
goals for the best way to leverage your time each week. Using a 40-hour work
week as an example, this may look something like the above infographic.
WEAR FEWER HATS

As a business matures, so does the principal. At each critical juncture
of a business’s growth, the principal should determine the best way
to wear fewer hats. Eventually, the principal learns that, by continuing
to limit and decrease less-important responsibilities, their time (and salary)
will be better utilized and leveraged in the areas of the business that
have the most impact. Doing less, but doing it well, will, in the end, result
in a healthier business and a less-stressed principal.
What about Solopreneurs?

As I stated earlier, it is rare that one person alone is inherently talented
at both leadership and management skills, or that they have the time
to focus equally on both areas of their business.
Emily Ruth Cohen
So, does the expectation of principals in a leadership role work for

solopreneurs? In a word, no. That is why I strongly believe that solopreneur-
based models are unsustainable. For most of you, that may be hard news
to swallow, but let me explain.
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Role of Principal

Fewer than
10 People
20% RESPONSIVE
BUSINESS
DEVELOPMENT
20% OPERATION 25% PROJECT/

& STAFF CLIENT
MANAGEMENT MANAGEMENT
15% CREATIVE DIRECTION 10% HANDS-ON

& STRATEGY DESIGN
10% NEW BUSINESS

DEVELOPMENT
(OUTREACH)
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Role of Principal
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More than 10 People
20% RESPONSIVE
BUSINESS
DEVELOPMENT
35% PROJECT/
CLIENT
MANAGEMENT
20% CREATIVE
DIRECTION
& STRATEGY
10% OPERATION 5% HANDS-ON

& STAFF DESIGN
MANAGEMENT
Emily Ruth Cohen
5% BIG PICTURE 5% NEW BUSINESS

VISION/DIRECTION/ DEVELOPMENT
STRATEGY (OUTREACH)
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Time is precious. Use yours wisely.
I do understand that there are many solopreneurs out there running

their own businesses just fine, but unless you are Superwoman or Superman,
running a design business requires many different hats, skills, and roles—
and no one person can do it all, at least not well. The “not well” aspect
is the area that makes solopreneurship unsustainable.
Solopreneur-driven businesses are usually reactive, static business
models that have limited time and financial resources allocated to improving
and growing. Eventually, they become irrelevant in terms of the quality
of their work, staying ahead of trends, and expanding their capabilities,
profitability, and reach. They stagnate.
Yes, many solopreneurs have virtual teams to support them, but rarely
are they entirely out of the trenches of doing the actual work, whether it’s
designing, managing clients and projects, writing proposals and contracts,
or bookkeeping. Solopreneurs have their hands in many different pots.
As such, they are always fighting fires (reactive) instead of preventing
them (proactive).
Solopreneurs need to grow and make the leap to hire their first employee
in order to be sustainable. Working with freelancers, permalancers, or
strategic partnerships doesn’t cut it. I understand this is a chicken and
egg situation. In order to hire you need more money. But in order to make
money, you have to get out of the daily grind and put more time and focus
on your business, which means you have to hire. This is where risk-taking
leadership skills help. One may need to invest in their business first, by hiring
or making necessary improvements before they have the money. I know,
easier said than done. This may mean some belt-tightening both personally
and professionally to make this happen. Can you reduce your salary for a
few months or work harder, longer, and more efficiently? Can you start to
increase and change your pricing strategy? Are you willing to say “no” to less
qualified projects? These types of grand efforts will free up some funding
or time needed to take the next step, which is hiring.
Take the leap! Once you do, you’ll most certainly bring in the work rather
quickly to immediately compensate for the additional overhead. As you grow,
your confidence to upsell services and build new relationships grows, and
the work naturally comes in.
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Ownership
Case Study
Transition
A principal-owned firm’s transition
to a partnership model to accommodate
future retirement goals.
By John Temple, Principal

Hunt Design
OVERVIEW IT’S WORTH HOW MUCH?

For over twenty-five years, our small Get an objective third party to provide
graphic design firm operated as a a valuation of the company that can
sole proprietorship. Wayne Hunt, our be agreed upon by both seller and
founding principal, built our company buyer. Chances are that the valuation
from a one-person studio to a is going to be less than expected for
successful twelve-person firm with a the seller, and perhaps more than
diverse list of clients that included expected for the buyer. We engaged
a sizable amount of international a consultant to help with the company
work. Long before he even considered valuation and to provide a framework
retirement, Wayne thought about for the partnership agreement.
how he might share ownership and We found our consultant by asking
management of the company. His industry peers in the same situation.
foresight and willingness to offer After talking to a couple of the
a share of his business was good referrals, we settled on a firm that
fortune for two of the firm’s trusted specializes in management consulting
long-term employees—Jennifer to architecture and design profes-
Bressler and myself. sionals. The consultant’s broad
Nearly fifteen years after our knowledge of industry practices
initial decision to become partners, was a big help during the process.
Wayne, Jennifer, and I are now equal In addition to drafting the ownership
shareholders in the business and we transition agreement, the consul-
Ownership Transition
have formed a successful partnership tant also provided assistance with

that builds on each of our strengths. compensation planning and company
The following are some observa- valuation.
tions we’ve made during our process The valuation of Hunt Design was
toward equal partnership. determined by taking a weighted
factor of net revenue from the
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previous three years. The most recent Realize that each person is coming
John Temple, Principal

calendar year was weighted the most; to this with different priorities and
the year before that, a little less; and goals. Negotiating the partnership
two years before that, the least. In this agreement is going to bring up
way, the recent performance of the discussions of potential situations
company makes a big impact on the that nobody really wants to think
value, but it’s not the only criteria. We about, let alone talk about. How would
then returned to this valuation formula the company respond to a partner
and recalculated the company’s worth who leaves to start a new business?
at each stage of buy-in. What happens if a partner dies or is
seriously injured? What if a partner
CHANGE IN PRIORITIES is convicted of a felony? It’s best to
Those who are seeking to buy in as agree on how to handle all imaginable
part of ownership transition need to scenarios and put it in writing before
be aware that the skills that got them anything happens.
to this point in their career will be
different than the skills needed as ONE STEP AT A TIME
an owner. Jennifer and I were the “go- Our path to becoming equal partners
to” designers for the majority of our was one that began with an initial
careers, meaning we lead the charge offering of 10% share in the company.
on projects and worked hands-on The company was valued based on
with designers to fulfill their design the agreed-upon valuation formula.
vision. Taking on the role of prin- Our payment for those shares was
cipal meant realigning our time and spread over a three-year period.
priorities. While we still care about the An additional 10% ownership was
company’s design vision and ability offered shortly after the initial buy-
to turn out good work, our roles as in was completed. The company
owners have shifted focus. Avoiding was revalued and a new three-year
the temptation to jump in on every payment schedule was put in place.
project is a constant challenge for Bringing us to equal ownership was
us. As partners in the firm, the needs done over a five-year period. By
of the business have become our buying-in in incremental steps, it
main priority. Building a staff that can made it easier on us to plan for the
take on the responsibility of running financial commitment, and it gave
jobs is crucial in order to allow us to Wayne, the founding principal, an
focus on things like tracking accounts opportunity to evaluate the transition
receivable, monthly sales figures, at each stage of the process.
and cash flow. Payment for shares was done as
annual cash payments. The money
OPEN COMMUNICATION for the payment came from our year-
Whether it’s a founding principal end distributions as 10% owners.
who has decided to embark on an Additionally, Wayne generously gave
ownership transition, or an employee us each an equal voice in decision
whose has been offered ownership making from the very start. Rarely
in the company, it’s important for both do the three of us have serious disa-
Hunt Design
sides to approach the agreement greements, but if we do, a simple

with open communication and 2/3 majority decides the outcome.
from a place of mutual respect.
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Chapter 18
The Search
Process: Where
Art Thou?
Let’s be honest—hiring sucks. Especially

in the current hiring climate when larger
agencies and in-house teams are snapping
up those elusive candidates by offering
inflated salaries and titles.
Startups and emerging companies are doing the same, and they are adding

in what my 23-year-old daughter calls “beer in the fridge” cultures, complete
with ping pong tables and an informal, “collaborative” work environment with
flex hours. This makes it difficult for the smaller to mid-size firms to compete
and win the best candidates. It is no longer enough to do great work; the
younger and smarter generations of creatives now want it all. Good for them.
Bad for us.
Added to that challenge, many smaller firms seek the mythical “unicorn.”
You know, those who can do everything well and even love doing it, from
digital to branding to print to experience design to wayfinding and everything
in between. Unfortunately, those candidates are far and few between.
Lastly, while there are more design schools and creative firms than ever
before, which results in a larger pool of creative candidates, for some reason
there are fewer “superstars” who really have the necessary talent and skills
to succeed. If they do, they often get snapped up quickly or open their own
firms right out of college.
So, what’s a creative firm looking to hire do?
I wish I had the magic answer that will cure your hiring ills. I do
not. But what I can tell you is that you have to work harder to find the
right candidate, and more importantly, have lots of patience and fortitude.
On average, finding the best candidate (notice I do not use the word
“perfect”) can take as long as 3–6 months, or even longer if you are located
in a highly competitive market (as you compete on salary and for those
elusive unicorns) or non-traditional locations that aren’t go-to creative
hubs (thus, fewer candidates).
How to Find the Best Candidates

BE AN INDUSTRY ACTIVIST
Be active in your industry, local creative organizations, schools, and
The Search Process: Where Art Thou?
associations. Attend, but better yet, speak at, conferences and events.
This is your search network.
BUILD A NETWORK
The number one resource for finding candidates are your trusted colleagues
and peers. The larger your network, the larger your pool of talent will be.
The more this network loves you, the more they will recommend others
to work with you. This includes your entire network: your competitors
(yes, really, be friends with your “enemies”), your teachers, your friends
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who teach, your current and past students and employees, strategic
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partners, and, yes, even clients. Often, someone’s second tier candidate
may be your first choice.
SPREAD THE WORD

Once you are ready to hire, spread the word to your network. And help others
when they are hiring; they will remember you helped them, and will help
you in turn.
ALWAYS BE SEARCHING
You never know when you will meet the “right one.” Just like when you
are dating and are actively seeking the “one” and you seem to find a lot
of duds. It’s when you stop looking that your magical soul mate appears.
BUILD A TALENT PIPELINE

Of course, you can’t hire when you aren’t ready. But when you do meet that
extraordinary special someone whom one day you’d love to hire and work
with, add them to your mailing list and keep in touch. Reconnect with them
personally to further engage with them.
Need help? Consider experts.
Hiring
Consultants
Many creatives work in an isolated fashion
and barely have time to talk to industry
colleagues or expose themselves to best
Emily Ruth Cohen
business practices. That is when working

with consultants helps. We all need help.
We just need to ask.
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HIGHLIGHT THE “ WHY”

As a small team, you can’t and shouldn’t try to fight against the big salaries
and foosball culture. But you can highlight the tremendous opportunities
your firm offers to lure great candidates, particularly entrepreneurial
candidates looking to develop diverse skills. These “lures” should be unique
to you, but some more common ones include:
• More diverse work opportunities—in-house teams have often restrictive
brand guidelines. In digital agencies, they do only digital work and, in
larger creative teams, they are often limited to working on one account.
However, at a design firm they can build a diverse portfolio of project
and client types.
• More learning opportunities—if they start in-house or on a larger team,
they can get pigeon-holed early on. On a smaller team, they’ll be involved
in every aspect of the business, and they can develop a broad base of
skills that will strengthen their appeal to future employers and help them
decide what they love most and where to go next.
• Fewer internal politics and no unwieldy hierarchy
• More flexibility
When you need to hire specialized, Are they flexible? Are they an in-and-
independent consultants (e.g., out type consultant (or SWOT style
business consultants like myself, consultant) or do they prefer longer-
coaches, bookkeepers, accountants, term relationships? Hire and work with
lawyers and real estate agents), experienced consultants who have
The Search Process: Where Art Thou?
ask other local creative firms for a deep understanding of the particular
referrals. Do your due diligence, ask nuances of our industry. Because
good questions, and check their you share confidential information
references. Do they have a personal with your consultants, they must
communication and interpersonal be someone you trust and have
style that works for you? What is their a solid reputation for confidentiality
process and what are deliverables? and industry knowledge/insight.
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• More hands-on experience
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• Project autonomy
• Direct client contact. However, keep in mind that some designers won’t
think this is a benefit and prefer to have a shield that protects them from
dealing with clients.
ADVERTISE
After you’ve done the above, post your open position online. And be prepared
to cull through the muck. There are many sites focused specifically on
the creative fields, and even some sites focused on specializations within
our field. Local firms, those outside the larger creative hubs, may even
try Craigslist or similar sites, which sometimes works in tougher, smaller
markets. Craigslist and the broad-reaching sites like Indeed are also good
when you are seeking more operationally-focused candidates, such
as client, project, account, or studio managers. Recently, two of my clients
used Craigslist to find very talented local developers with tremendous
potential; in both situations, the hires were from the inner city, hadn’t
gone to college, and were self-taught; they were very talented and eager
for the opportunity to work in a cool creative environment. The challenge
with Craigslist and other broad recruitment sites is that you will have
to kiss a lot of frogs before you find your princess or prince.
AS A LAST OPTION, HIRE A RECRUITER

First, know the difference between staffing agencies and recruiters.
Staffing agencies are often largely focused on the placement of freelancers/
contractors. These agencies may happen to also help with placing full-time
employees, but that requires a different vetting process and they often do
not conduct the necessary due diligence required for full-time hires or have
access to a large pool of higher level candidates. On the other hand, recruiters
are devoted to placement of full-time hires and have a large database of
candidates that they have access to or have actively vetted. However, this
is the last choice for hiring and best utilized for higher salaried positions
that exceed $150,000 or more. Recruiters typically charge 25% of the salary,
thus are expensive and they do not always do the necessary due diligence
for lower paid positions—financially, it simply isn’t worth their time.
Emily Ruth Cohen
178
you will
You never
meet “the
right one.”
know when
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The Search Process: Where Art Thou? Staffing and Operational Models
Chapter 19
The Staffing
Rulebook
This chapter covers the hard and fast rules

for staffing and staff management that
I have developed during my many years
in the business. Many of the rules have been
culled from my clients’ mistakes and others
from my clients’ successes. They have all
proven to be true.
These rules assume, of course, you already reviewed the candidate’s portfolio

and that they have the experience you are looking for.
Some rules may seem obvious, but because of that, they are often
overlooked. However, others will most certainly be controversial and push
some of your buttons. While there will always be rare exceptions to some
of these rules, I stand by them and welcome debate.
Planning
• Staffing decisions drive process and your process drives staffing decisions.
• You can’t grow or compress without first thinking about redefining
and evaluating your process. Each new hire may impact your process.
Hiring
• Do not hire anyone who has typos or layout mistakes in their resume
or cover letter.
• Do not hire anyone who does not send a thank you note within five
days of the interview.
• Eradicate debt before hiring, including back taxes (except property
mortgages). Pay your taxes on time! Oops—that last point wasn’t related
to staffing, but still worth saying.
• Check references before hiring. Rather than asking for references from
their past employers, I prefer to get references from those who work
directly with the candidate, such as clients, fellow employees, or strategic
partners (e.g., developers, writers, printers). These types of references
are more willing to tell you the truth than an ex-boss, and often give you
more nuggets of insight into the candidate’s daily interactions.
• For solopreneurs, your first hire should be a senior level designer
with 2–3 years experience minimum—not a junior designer or intern
(especially an unpaid one!).
• You sometimes have to hire before you can afford to. Having a larger
The Staffing Rulebook
team gives you more confidence in selling, and the additional overhead
incentivizes you to pursue new opportunities and price higher! In
other words, hire when you can’t afford not to, and the work, as well
as income, will follow.
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Metrics. Love them or leave them.
• Do not hire under pressure to accommodate the latest fire; it is rarely
Brutally Honest
a sustainable position in the long term. Plan your hires to accommodate

your larger, long-term business goals.
• Do not hire employees who indicate that they have to take a significant
pay cut to work with you. In these situations, the employee usually
doesn’t stay long and will likely leave as soon as they find an opportunity
where they can make more money. Or the employee is willing to take a
pay cut as a stop-gap measure, as they just want to escape their current
circumstance (e.g., a terrible boss or unhealthy culture) or specific work
environment (e.g., moving from an in-house corporate environment
driven by one brand to work in a design firm). Some just take the lower
paid job temporarily to build up their portfolio and/or round out
their experience.
Hiring takes time, so be patient.
The Who
• For every 4–5 full-time creative team members, you need to hire 1 person
dedicated to project/client management; a 4–5:1 ratio. The more digital
projects you do, the lower the ratio (3–4:1).
• For firms under 20 employees, the principal or one of the partners
should be responsible for new business development, particularly
outreach. Do not hire a dedicated new business person; this tactic
rarely succeeds and is not financially sustainable.
• For creative firms with over 20 employees, have someone dedicated
to big-picture operational management. This person is responsible
for developing and managing the processes and resources involved
in creating and executing deliverables. They train and measure the
entire team’s performance in operational and client management areas.
This person is not involved in daily client and project management
and therefore is not billable.
• It is very difficult for the same person to be responsible for new business
development (“sales”) as well as closing and negotiating and client
management. Often, those in new business development roles are terrible
Emily Ruth Cohen
negotiators and client/project managers. The selling process is about

building relationships and those in the new business development role
get immersed in the win, so when they close or negotiate they just want
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A Different Hiring

Perspective
My peers who also consult in our industry often
recommend a specific method to help you
accurately determine when you can “afford” to hire.
These peers suggest that for each As I mentioned, hiring is often a

employee you hire, you need to financial risk—a chicken and egg
produce annual billings that equate situation (or a catch-22). But, if you
to multiplying their salary by 3.45. follow many of my guidelines and
Thus, for an employee getting a you hire smartly, the benefits far
$100,000 salary, your firm would outweigh the potential risks. By
have to have supporting billings hiring, you will be more incentivized
of $345,000. (because of the additional overhead)
to pursue new business development,
I think this “math” is very misleading have more time to focus on your firm
and can lead to the avoidance of overall (so you are less in the weeds),
important hiring decisions that could grow in a direction that aligns with
potentially be more harmful in the your firm's long-term vision and goals,
long term. Often, hiring will allow the and improve team morale. This all
principals (or other leaders within leads to reaping the financial rewards
the team) to get out of the trenches necessary to support the new team
of doing daily client/project/staff member—a risk worth taking.
management and design. If firm
principals don't have staff to take Simple mathematical formulas
on some of these responsibilities, don't consider the risk. Without
then it's difficult for them to spend taking on some risk, your business
the necessary time they need to can easily stagnate.
envision, shape, direct, and plan for
their firm's future. Hiring is also about
workload management and having
the necessary resources to support
your existing team and to support
long-term growth. If your team can't
manage the work they already have,

despite all your best efforts, how
can you expect them to take on
more without additional help? In this
situation, you risk losing valuable
members of your team because you
aren't hiring the support they need.
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to win, no matter the cost. Whereas those in the closing/negotiating role,
Brutally Honest
as well as those in the client/project management role, are not concerned

about just winning to win, but winning in a way that is mutually benefi-
cial to both the client and the creative firm. If at all possible, separate
the new business development role from the closing/negotiating and
client/project roles.
• Most designers, at any level, should have skills managing and
communicating with clients; sheltering them from learning these
skills benefits no one.
• Use industry-standard titles that reflect the employee’s true level of
contribution to the firm. For example, do not use senior designer for
someone who essentially functions as a senior production artist. I cannot
tell you how many firms do this. In fact, I have seen a production artist
called an art director simply because the employee was a long-term
valued member of the team and wanted that title. This is confusing both
for the clients and your entire organization and results in misaligned
and inconsistent staffing structure.
• Profit is not proportional to how many employees you have. Sometimes
larger firms make less profit than the nimbler, smaller firms. If you
have mouths to feed, you have the responsibility of earning enough
money to feed those people and, thus, a higher likelihood that you will
have to sacrifice your soul (and business values) along the way just to
pay the bills.
Salaries and Longevity

• No staff member should be paid more than the principal or partners.
• Pay your staff well; money does matter. But also offer value-added
benefits beyond health insurance. Offer what you can, such as flexible
work hours, gym memberships, paid lunches, longer or flexible
vacations, etc.
• Most staff stay 2–3 years, so be aware that as they approach that mark
they may leave, and prepare accordingly. Don’t be mad at them when
Emily Ruth Cohen
they do leave. Support them.

• While some studios are proud of their low turnover rate as well as the
longevity and loyalty of their staff, be warned—this can also be a red flag.
The work of long-term employees often becomes stale and no longer
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comes from a place of passion—but rather becomes just a “job.” Most

creatives need a fresh environment and new opportunities to grow.
Encourage your long-term employees to attend conferences or seek
other opportunities that allow them to learn, expand their horizons,
and keep current with industry trends. Be willing to encourage them
to move in new directions, even if that means leaving you. It will benefit
both of you. They may even come back.
• Interns should be paid. Period. End of conversation.
• Don’t hire an intern just for cheap labor. Hire an intern only when
you have the necessary time and resources to mentor them.
Benefits, Promotion and Reviews

• Pay attention to culture. What is your firm’s vibe? Culture is especially
important if the work is less creative. If you create an environment that
is fun, encourages learning and collaboration, and supports/respects
all team members equally, that goes further than just doing cool work.
• Do not give holiday or end-of-year bonuses; they do not incentivize
employees and become expected rather than earned.
• Reviews and raises should be in your calendar and initiated by the
principal. Don’t “forget” or “postpone” these conversations. Your team
shouldn’t be put in the position to “ask” for their review or raise; that’s
not their job, it’s yours.
• A raise doesn’t always equal a promotion. Sometimes your staff don’t
have the skills, particularly in leadership and management, that are
required to be promoted. But they are valued nonetheless. Express that
value with a raise, but add additional responsibilities that leverage skills
they do have—make them a team-wide subject matter expert (SME).
As an SME, they can be required to share their knowledge with others
on the team through mentorship, internal insights, and even on-site
training. And they may not be ready for a promotion. For example,
many designers are promoted to art director roles, but they don’t have
the skills required to manage people. Promote based on contribution

and skill level, not on longevity.
• No one is perfect, and we all can improve. Conduct performance reviews
and embrace conflict. Instead of focusing only on what your employees
do well, you should also identify areas requiring improvement and
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provide tangible recommendations on how you expect them to improve
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(e.g., by taking a class, hiring a coach, being mentored). Then, give them
a date when you expect them to change or improve and follow through
to make sure the improvements were made at the level you agreed upon.
• Schedule and conduct monthly 30–60 minute one-on-ones with all your
direct reports; avoid re-scheduling or canceling them. Your staff members
need access to you at least once a month, and millennials in particular
need more frequent feedback than yearly reviews. These one-on-ones are
less performance reviews and more check-ins to provide praise and deal
with challenges head-on, before they morph into something far worse.
Management Tools & Resources

• Use employee contracts. Talk to your lawyer about requirements specific
to exempt and non-exempt employees (e.g., overtime). Protect yourself.
Make sure you have clear policies in place just in case (e.g., social media
use, credit, freelance, non-compete, etc.). Make sure your benefits are
clearly defined. Write the contract in plain English. Do not scare them
with legal terms that no one understands.
• Provide detailed job descriptions (not one paragraph generic
descriptions). If you expect them to empty the garbage, talk to clients,
or write copy, then tell them that. Be specific and honest. Provide the
job descriptions to potential candidates during the interview stage,
to see how they react, and ask which responsibilities they are most and
least excited about, and why. Then, once hired, use the job descriptions
to evaluate them during their performance reviews. I've given you a
template, on the next page, of one that may inspire you.
• Make sure you have a good employment lawyer. Consult them as
needed (particularly about pregnancy and family leave, when you have
to fire an employee, or are considering hiring a permalancer or long-
term contractor).
Consider this your rule book. You're welcome.
Emily Cohen
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Hiring is often

a financial risk
—a chicken and
egg situation
(or a catch-22).
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Job Description
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Template
Be thoughtful and specific. Customize each role.
EMPLOYEE NAME AND JOB TITLE
MEETING COMMITMENT: X%
TRAVEL COMMITMENT: X%
BILLABLE EFFICIENCY: X%
DATE UPDATED
POSITION DESCRIPTION
Short (1−3 sentences), high-level overview of role (pulled or modified
from job posting)
EXAMPLE:
The Producer will manage (creative firm)’s clients, projects, staff,
and strategic partners to ensure the big-picture view of how all
our projects are managed and how the current workload, collectively
and individually, impacts (creative firm) and our budgets, resources,
schedules, responsiveness, client satisfaction, etc.
SKILLS/QUALIFICATIONS
Bullet list that may include information such as:
• Minimum number of years of experience
• Past titles or experience within a specific work environment
• Education
• Experience with a specific methodology (e.g., Agile)
• Experience with a specific type of work
• Supervisory experience (staff and level of supervision)
• Client/project management experience
• Software and level of proficiency
Emily Ruth Cohen
• Standard skills (across all roles) such as:

• Organized, detail-oriented, multi-tasker, and self-motivated
• Strong written and verbal communication and interpersonal skills
• Must bring passion, positivity, energy, and enthusiasm to our team
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RESPONSIBILITIES
Organized by high-level overarching area, average percentage of time
expected to spend in this area, and detailed responsibilities within each area.
RECOMMENDED HIGH-LEVEL AREAS

• Strategy (X%)
• Creative/Design (X%)
• Client/Project Management (X%)
• Production/Execution (X%)
• New Business/Marketing/Pubic Relations (X%)
• Operational (non-billable areas related to [creative firm] only) (X%)
For operationally focused roles we may have sub-areas within this like:
• Human Resource Management
• Financial & Benefits Management
• Big-Picture Business Planning/Leadership
EXAMPLE AREA W/ DETAILS

New Business Development (20%)
• Review historical records of similar projects to determine project
fees for new business proposals.
• Work with strategic partners (writers, developers, strategists, etc.)
to negotiate their fees and services on each new project/relationship.
• Write, manage, and negotiate project proposals and contracts.
• Help (name of manager/employee) with identifying/researching
promotional, speaking, and new business opportunities (potential
prospects) that align with studio’s positioning.
• Reach out to potential prospects and connectors to nurture
new relationships and schedule face-to-face meetings with (name
of manager/employee) to introduce firm (this role is less focused
on “sales” but helping [creative firm] build new relationships).

• Stay abreast of local industry and client-facing opportunities and
attend these events, when possible, to continually promote the studio.
• Help (name of manager/employee), team, and strategic partners write
and update social media and website with current projects and news.
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Making Our
Case Study
First Hire
A solopreneur’s experience making her first
hire and the resulting benefits including
time to focus on leading, not always doing.
By Christina Hagopian, President and Creative Director
Hagopian Ink
CHALLENGE SOLUTION
In October 2015, I met with Emily Together with Emily, I immediately
Cohen to discuss the trajectory of identified the need for a full-time
my then thirteen-year-old business. Senior Visual Designer and we
It was steadily growing with both wrote a detailed job description
long-term clients and short-term for the position.
projects. I’d had a virtual agency Within three weeks I had a former
model where I hired freelancers as intern contact me for career advice.
needed in creative and production She was at her second design
roles including design, copywriting, position and unhappy with both the
photography, and development. work she was doing and the company
It was a model that worked to keep she was working for. I knew her work
overhead low and profits high, but ethic and solid design abilities and
I was carrying the weight of the offered to match her current salary
company continually on my shoulders with a full time position at Hagopian
with little time off. Ink. It was initially intended to get
her out of her unsatisfactory situation,
add temporary support, and buy time
for us both. What resulted is a win-win
for us both.
Making Our First Hire
”Within months of hiring...

my business transformed
in a positive direction.“
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EMILY'S INSIGHT
Christina Hagopian, President and Creative Director

“Take a risk. It will pay off.”
SUCCESS
Within months of hiring this designer • Develop and book public speaking
(my first hire!), my business trans- engagements on my area of
formed in a positive direction. As expertise—email marketing, design,
a result, I was able to: and development—to targeted
• Delegate design tasks I was prospects, something I did not have
doing previously by myself, time to do previously.
opening my time up to focus • Brainstorm new business initiatives
on project management and outline goals and strategies for
and new business development— the business. This new role provided
two areas of my business that much appreciated emotional and
needed more attention. strategic support that could happen
• Provide more day-to-day support only through a team environment.
on both client work and marketing • Have on-site support for myself
initiatives, including social media, and clients, enabling me to take
blog posts, email promotions, much-needed vacations and no
and website updates. longer work holidays, evenings,
• Produce an updated, enriched and weekends.
portfolio on our website, a
capabilities deck for every industry AN UPDATE
we work in, and a presentation I recently lost a large portion of my
deck about email marketing for most lucrative five-year corporate
my speaking engagements. retainer contract. My bookkeeper’s
first question was whether I should
let my designer go until I replaced the
contract. I said she would be the LAST
thing I get rid of! Having a full-time
designer has allowed me to LEAD
instead of DO everything on my to-do
list. The final result: The freedom
to envision, strategize, and grow
my business by 20% in the first year
alone. I am confident we will replace
the contract three-fold and can’t wait
Hagopian Ink
to see where the next year will lead.
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Chapter 20
Who the Hell

Do I Need?
Now that you have a great rulebook to follow,

you need to think about how you plan your
organizational structure. Is your team well
rounded and do they complement each other
and work as a cohesive unit? How will you
grow and manage your team?
This chapter covers how you evaluate and plan your team’s functional

roles and attributes to ensure that you have a diverse and versatile team.
Must-Have Functional Areas for Any Size Team

In evaluating creative organizations, I’ve identified the following nine critical
functional areas that need to be fulfilled on any size team, in order to ensure
all areas of a creative business are well managed.
FIRM-FOCUSED FUNCTIONS (NON-BILLABLE):

1. Business vision: firm positioning and overarching business goals
2. Operational leadership: process planning, training, and technology
management
3. Creative leadership: team building, mentorship, and growth (this role
is partially billable)
4. Business development: response to incoming inquires, outreach
to new business, relationship curation, proposal/contract development/
negotiation, public relations, marketing, industry-activism, and
public speaking
5. Financial management: bookkeeping, accounting, and financial
oversight (at a company- and staff-level), facilities management,
and human resources
CLIENT-FOCUSED FUNCTIONS (BILLABLE):

6. Project and client management: schedule, budget, and workflow
management, day-to-day client management and communications
7. Strategic thinking: brand strategy, positioning, naming, and
content strategy
8. Creative development: creative direction, design, writing, information
architecture, and user experience
9. Execution: production, programming, development and management
Who the Hell Do I Need?
of execution vendors (printers, fabricators, and programmers)

While some of these areas may not need full-time staff, they do need some
varying degrees of attention, including dedicated time and skilled resources.
Lack of time and often skill-set/experience (and even passion) in any one
of these areas results in a firm that stagnates in terms of growth, change,
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profitability, and even sustainability. In a small team, one person may
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have to be responsible for many or most of these areas, while larger teams
may have dedicated staff assigned to different responsibilities within
each functional area.
Most firms spend much of their time and resources dedicated to the
four client-focused billable areas: project and client management, strategic
thinking, creative development, and execution. These areas are relatively
self-explanatory. However, later on in this chapter, I will outline some
strategies for staffing the project and client management area.
The Five Most Important Roles

in Your Creative Business
These firm-focused functional areas are often undervalued or overlooked,
but they are the most important areas when it comes to running and
managing a business.
1. Business Vision
At the foundation of any great organization is someone focused on the vision
of the organization itself. They are responsible for establishing and ensuring
implementation of S.M.A.R.T goals (Specific, Measurable, Achievable,
Realistic, and Time-based) that respond to these important questions:
• Who are we now and who do we want to be in the future? What are
the trends and areas we are not leveraging? What is our expertise
and what makes us different? How do we attract new clients that align
with who we want to be? (Positioning)
• Who do we work with and who is the ideal client? (Qualification Strategy)
• How much are we worth? (Pricing Strategy)
• What roles, skills, and people are best for us in the long term? How
do these people work together? How do we develop individual members
of our team? (Organizational Structure, Culture, Performance Reviews,
and Professional Development)
Emily Ruth Cohen
There are more and more creative entrepreneurs launching their own
studios every day (some just right out of school), which results in a tougher,
broader competitive environment. Without someone dedicated to asking
and answering these important high-level questions, a creative organization
194
may have difficulty staying relevant and can stagnate financially,

organizationally, and competitively.
2. Operational Leadership
This area evaluates, communicates, maintains, and refines the standard
operating procedures (SOPs) that define how projects are best managed.
Those responsible for big-picture operational oversight pull themselves
out of daily project management to create and manage the ideal-state
methodologies, roles, accountabilities, processes, and management tools
required to support the firm’s clients and team members. Operational
leadership ensures everyone is clear on what they do, and when, why,
and how they do it. SOPs also define when team members collaborate,
when they are empowered and trusted to work independently, and who
approves what and when. Operational leadership ensures that the team
consistently utilizes the most efficient and appropriate technologies
required to support the project and clients.
3. Creative Leadership
The challenge with creative leadership is most creative “leaders” are often
defined by title, not necessarily responsibility. True creative leadership
encompasses mentoring, growing, and inspiring the firm’s creative team.
Leaders ensure the art direction and design of the final work created by the
firm is of the highest quality and achieves the client’s objectives and business
goals. Unfortunately, most creative leaders are promoted into the role of
creative director (or a similar title) but are often less focused on, or skilled
at, being a leader, and are better suited to doing hands-on design. Or they
assume more design-related responsibilities, either because of lack of
resources or lack of trust in the skills of the staff they do have. And in some
cases, principals of design firms open their own firm primarily because they
miss doing hands on-design. Those at the creative leadership level may
be given the appropriate salary and title, but in reality, they are just overpaid
senior-level designers. In such cases, team morale can be very low because
those at the creative leadership level often micromanage their team instead
of mentoring them. The work itself can suffer as well, because those who
work primarily as hands-on designers are often fighting fires and pulled in
too many directions to focus on ensuring the quality of the work and being
responsive to the client’s business goals.
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4. Business Development
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Most firms rely on referrals for new business, so all of their time and efforts are
spent being reactive in terms of managing and responding to these incoming
relationships. Yet with this referral-based model, an organization is allowing
its clients and contacts to control the direction of the firm. However, a healthier
model is to supplement the referral-based model with more expanded
focus, allocating additional time and money to more proactive new business
development activities. (For more on new business development, see Chapter 8.)
5. Financial Management
While most firms have some sort of accounting system and bookkeeping
and/or accounting resources, they aren’t necessarily functioning at the level
required. Here are some typical practices that aren’t in the best interest
of creative firms—I’m sure many of these sound familiar to you:
• The person who is responsible for “bookkeeping” is either the principal,
a family member/friend, or an untrained administrative-level team-
member. This results in either an expensive use of valuable time (the
principal), blurry lines between business and personal (a family member),
or an incomplete system that requires extensive management and
supervision (untrained administrative staff ).
• An accountant who also does your bookkeeping. This model is
unnecessarily expensive, as accountants have higher hourly rates
or mark up their internal bookkeeper’s rates. Additionally, it’s much
better to have separation of church and state, with independent
resources in bookkeeping and accounting to ensure you have a better
system of checks and balances.
• An accountant who does only your taxes. Instead, consider a more robust
and sustainable model, which is working with an accountant who is
also advisory and invested in your firm’s growth. That is, someone
you meet with 2–4 times a year. In addition to consulting on tax-saving
strategies, they help you plan, budget, and evaluate your firm’s financial
goals, reporting procedures and strategies, and provide input on
Emily Ruth Cohen
expenditures, salaries, capital improvements, partnership models, etc.

• An accountant who isn’t familiar with our industry. Hire an accountant
who works with other creative professionals. These specialized
accountants understand what makes our profession unique and have
196
deeper knowledge about our distinctive challenges and related best

practices (e.g., sales tax, partnership models, salaries, benefit packages,
profitability, etc.). Based on their experience with other creative firms,
they also help you define and evaluate key financial metrics that are
particularly relevant to our industry.
Now that you understand the most important functional areas required
within a team, let’s discuss the six key attributes of a well-balanced team.
Essential Attributes of a Creative Team

After consulting with numerous and diverse creative teams, I’ve identified
that having the following six attributes within your team creates an integrated,
cohesive, and healthy internal culture and boosts team morale significantly.
THE CHEERLEADER
This person brings humor, energy, and an engaging presence to the office,
keeping everyone creative, informed, and excited about their jobs.
THE INDUSTRY ACTIVIST

This individual stays current with the latest design trends and attends
industry events. They also disseminate this knowledge and passion
to the entire team.
THE SUBJECT MATTER EXPERT (SME)

Teams with a tight specialization by deliverable (e.g., digital, wayfinding/
signage) also require team members who are experts in specific subject
matter areas. The SME is responsible for paying attention to trends,
mentoring the team, and growing the firm’s expertise and practice in their
subject matter area.
THE TECH GURU

This person hits the technology conferences (software and hardware),
devours websites and publications dedicated to the latest updates
and offerings, and works with external IT consultants or fills the IT role
themselves. They can solve immediate challenges and provide tips and
techniques that improve efficiency.
THE BAD GUY/ENFORCER

This individual makes the tough decisions internally and with clients,
and is comfortable and skilled at pushing back with the necessary
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confidence with grace and fortitude. Creatives are usually people-pleasers
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and lack this bad-guy attribute.
THE EMOTIONAL QUARTERBACK

This team player diffuses and manages the drama often associated with
managing creative personalities and minimizes internal politics or conflicts.
Now, a Word on Size

Essentially, the above describes functional areas and attributes and are size-
neutral. What do I mean by this? It means no matter what the size of your
team, you still need each and every functional area and attribute covered
by whoever is on your team.
If you have a small team of fewer than 5 people, you have to ensure
that all the people on your team are well rounded, which usually requires
experienced, higher-level staff. The smaller your team, the less you can afford
to rely on employees who have limited experience (although there are some
superstar juniors who are the exceptions to this rule). Small teams need
everyone to be all-hands-on deck and multi-skilled. That is why solopreneurs
often have an unsustainable business model; no one person can fulfill all
these roles!
The larger the team, the more you can divide and conquer, and have
singularly focused team members. By this I mean each person can fulfill
an individual functional area and/or only have one of the attributes.
You may even have several people on your team in certain areas.
Emily Ruth Cohen
198
True creative

leadership
encompasses
mentoring,
growing,
and inspiring
your team.
199
Chapter 21
Who Manages
Clients and
Projects?
The issue of who manages clients and

projects within a creative environment may
seem like a losing battle and, as with life,
there isn’t one universal solution to this
industry-wide dilemma.
To evaluate and define your organizational strategies in the areas of project

and client management, I've identified the following eight guiding principles
to help you.
Principle #1
Those responsible for winning new clients
and building client relationships are terrible
in the role of “bad guy.”
Often, those in new business development roles want to ensure that the
client is happy at all times. They are invested in ensuring that all of their
efforts building relationships and new business pays off with a win. On
the other hand, those in the project/client management roles are not just
concerned about winning to win, but winning in a way that is mutually
beneficial to both the client and the creative firm. While those in client and
project management roles still want clients to be happy, they are also tasked
with managing expectations, pushing back, and knowing when to say enough
is enough (saying “no”). That is why firm principals, owners, and even those
account managers who are involved in new business development aren’t well
suited to also assume client and project management responsibilities. They
are fearful of clients being unhappy, and will avoid conflict like the plague.
Principle #2
The smaller the team, the less you need
a “project manager.”
When I work with solopreneurs who are ready to make their first hire or
Who Manages Clients and Projects?
a small team with 1–2 designers, they think the answer to all their problems
is to hire a project manager. Yet they eventually become disillusioned
or disappointed with that decision because of a few factors:
• They find that, over time, they don’t have enough work and projects
to keep a full-time manager busy consistently.
• They expected this person to wear many conflicting and different
hats (studio/office admin, social media management, new business,
bookkeeping, project and client management, and sometimes even
201
writing, strategy, or production!). Usually no one person can take
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on all of that equally well, or, if they do, they burn out quickly.
• They hired poorly (usually someone who has never worked within
a creative environment before, is a family member, someone right out
of college, someone they think they can train, or a designer wanna-be).
Hiring too fast for this role often leads to disappointment, thus a layoff
(or someone quitting). This, in turn, leads to a fear of hiring someone
for this role again in the future, because it didn't work out the first time.
Hiring a project manager isn’t always the magical answer to all your
problems. Think before you leap. I often find that the better, more efficient
solution is that the designers on your staff should all have project/client
management skills, and be empowered to manage their own clients and
projects before you hire someone dedicated to this role (see Principle #3).
But if you do have enough work to keep a project manager busy and choose
to hire one, make sure you have reasonable expectations, a clearly defined
job description, and hire properly or not at all. As discussed previously,
the general rule of thumb is that for every 4–5 full-time creative employees,
you need to hire 1 person who is dedicated to project/client management
(a 4–5:1 ratio). The more digital projects you do, the lower the ratio (3–4:1).
Principle #3
Firms with over 20 employees need to have
someone on their team dedicated to big-picture
operational management.
The larger the team, the more your team needs defined structure, processes,
and tools in place. It’s rare for those in the trenches of managing the firm,
clients, or projects to have enough time and focus to research, develop,
maintain, and update the systems, processes, and tools required to ensure
a profitable, seamless management environment. Larger teams often need
to hire someone (or work with a consultant) who is solely dedicated to
assuming these responsibilities, as well as for developing your team’s
standard operating procedures, training your current and new staff,
Emily Ruth Cohen
and ensuring team-wide adherence and utilization. But be aware, those

responsible for big-picture operational management aren’t working with
clients or projects, and are not billable. Thus, the costs for operational
202
management (both in the role and in the tools used for operations) should

be budgeted for and included in overhead calculations.
Principle #4
Most designers are terrible project managers;
find the right one.
The quintessential stereotype of the “creative” personality is that they are
“right-brained,” meaning they are: nonlinear, holistic, big-picture, strategic,
intuitive, emotional, instinctive, passionate, subjective, and qualitative.
While this stereotype is true of most designers, there are some exceptions.
If you require your designers to assume client and project management
responsibilities, you need to hire only those exceptional designers who have
both right- and left-brain skill sets. Left-brain qualities include: detail-driven,
logical, analytical, rational, disciplined, objective, quantitative, word-
and number-driven. These are the qualities best suited to project/client
managers. While these types of designers may be harder to find, it’s worth
the wait to find exceptional candidates who are not only creatively talented
but also organized, efficient, with strong communication skills and great time
management skills. These dual-brained designers are often compensated
accordingly because of their highly-sought after skills.
Principle #5
Project managers are becoming specialists.
If your work is largely digital, you may need a digital project manager (DPM).
DPMs understand the technologies involved and the different ways to
approach the life cycle of digital projects including: Waterfall, Scrum, and
Agile. They may also have strong content strategy skills, and knowledge of
data and analytics and search engine optimization. If you do environmental
projects, you may need to hire someone familiar with architecture, fabrication,
location planning, and content strategy. Then there are certified project
managers who have more robust project management training, but may
not have an understanding of the creative world. Whatever your expertise,
consider specialized project managers, but know their salaries will reflect
that level of expertise/training.
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Define Client
Clients need clarity. Give it to them.

EmilyHonest
Brutally Cohen
Interaction Roles
To avoid “telephone tag” and ensure seamless
client relationships, be transparent with your
client about who they interact with on your team,
as well as why and when.
PRINCIPAL
PROJECT MANAGER ACCOUNT MANAGER CREATIVE DIRECTOR
Relationship definition Relationship-building Concept definition

(proposals) (mood boards)
New business
Daily workflow development Concept/strategy
management presentation
Strategy definition
Process, schedules, (creative briefs)
and budgets
Cohen
Honest
Ruth
Account/Client
Brutally
Emily
204
Principle #6
Project/client management is not a part-time
position.
I often find when smaller teams are ready to hire a dedicated project/client
manager, they are fearful of the additional salary/overhead, and often
try to make this role a part-time position. However, clients need attention
all day long and problems arise at unexpected times—they won’t wait
until someone is around to deal with the issue. A project/client manager
position needs to be a full-time job, so they can stay abreast of every
nuance of every project.
Principle #7
Titles matter.
Many creative teams use the title “account manager” for what is essentially
a project management position. Those in a true account management role,
often in larger agencies, are mostly externally facing and responsible for
managing client relationships. They often are tasked with other “related
roles” that include strategy and new business-related responsibilities. These
account managers are not necessarily doing daily project management but
may have a project manager reporting to them. If you hire someone with this
title and experience as a true account manager, you risk the fact that they
may not have deep project management skills and/or find they will quickly
get disillusioned with the daily management requirements and prefer more
strategic-level responsibilities (see Principle #1).
Alternatively, the title of “project manager” has lost credibility over time
in our industry and with clients in particular, because those hired in this
position are often right out of school or lower on the totem pole, and aren’t
skilled or empowered to really push back effectively.
An emerging and more appropriate title for this role is “producer.”
This title is gaining traction in our industry and becoming increasingly
more common. While titles are not the be all and end all, they are crucial
in recruiting the most appropriate and experienced candidate, managing
expectations internally, and commanding clients’ respect.
205
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Principle #8
Process matters.
Having a dedicated producer or project manager doesn’t preclude creatives
or others on your team from talking directly with clients. They shouldn’t
protect your team from the perceived big bad wolf. However, your process
and workflow strategies should clearly define the key client interaction
points, and each person’s specific role at that interaction point. I’ve provided
a diagram, on page 204, I developed with a small creative team that they use
both internally and with clients so everyone is clear on who is involved and
what they should do at key points in the relationship.
More complex, larger-scale relationships may require a deeper level
of clarity on who does what and when. Either way, some internal and
external-facing definition of client-interaction points is crucial to avoid
miscommunication or unnecessary redundancy (too many people in a
meeting speaking over each other, emails cc’d to everyone but no one clear
on who responds, etc.).
It’s important to take your time hiring a producer or project manager
and conduct any necessary due diligence in defining the role and vetting
the candidate. The producer is the main point of contact for your clients,
and the hub of all that happens on your team. They have to delicately
balance being a likeable human being with an ability to push back and be
the “bad guy” when necessary. They have to be great verbal and written
communicators and bring strong organizational skills and technical know-
how. Yet they also have to be flexible and accommodating to ever-changing
client needs and workloads.
In other words, the role they play is crucial, so proceed with caution.
Make sure you have aligned your expectations realistically, and properly vet
all potential candidates. Keep in mind, a producer can only do so much—
they aren’t miracle workers. Don’t expect overnight success, as it takes time
for them to acclimate and make lasting, impactful changes. But in order to
do their job effectively, they need to be empowered to make these changes.
So let go and give them the support they need to succeed.
One way to do to this is to help them with the implementation of a team-
Emily Ruth Cohen
wide time-tracking system. I know that time-tracking usually comes with

a lot of negative connotations and push-back, but it is necessary to managing
and tracking budgets and profitability. In the next chapter, we’ll discuss this
important tool and strategies for its effective implementation.
206
Consider

management
roles that are
right for you,
your clients,
and your
projects.
207
Culture Shift
Case Study
to a ROWE
One creative firm’s pivot to a Results
Only Work Environment (ROWE)
and its positive impact on culture,
teamwork, and profitability.
By Craig Johnson, President
Matchstic
PROBLEM OVERVIEW
Our firm’s overall financial perfor- In 2010, we were inspired to transition
mance wasn’t up to par, so our our workplace culture to a Results
advisors said we needed stricter Only Work Environment (ROWE) after
rules around the office. We of course I read the book Why Work Sucks by
wanted to be financially successful, Cali Ressler and Jody Thompson.
but didn’t want our culture to be The authors invented the concept
overly dependent on rules, so we while working at Best Buy company
began to look for a new way to work headquarters. Essentially, the ROWE
that allowed us to have the best management strategy attaches
of both worlds (profitability and employee retention to output and
a flexible work culture). performance. The underlying principle
of ROWE is to achieve maximum
work output from employees while
guaranteeing unlimited flexibility
at the same time. The work—rather
than the mode and location of
working—is what should matter to
the company's management.
Cultural Shift to a ROWE
EMILY'S INSIGHT
”Looking outside the creative

industry for inspirational
business strategies can be
your differentiator.“
208
“Life is life, and it consists of work,
Craig Johnson, President

so ROWE’s philosophy is to tell
your team members what they need
to accomplish, and trust them
to do it.”
SUCCESS
Who cares when and where you As we implemented this idea, a few
work? It’s the results that matter. things happened:
This is very scary for many managers, • With freedom came more responsi-
because it takes away an overview bility, and team members took more
aspect that often fools us into ownership over their job.
thinking we’ll have better results.
It’s becoming increasingly difficult • We saved a lot of time by not having
to separate our work/personal life; a lot of lame rules to enforce.
people check Facebook at work, and • Some team members focused
they check their work email at home. on the freedom and not the results
Life is life, and it consists of work, part, which exposed the fact that
so ROWE’s philosophy is to tell your they weren’t a great fit, so we helped
team members what they need to them move on to another job.
accomplish, and trust them to do it. • As we report company performance
to the firm’s team members, there’s
SOLUTION more ownership as a group over
Our rules of ROWE: results, and feeling like we’re
• We don’t track vacation days. winning together.
• We have office hours for clients,
but not for employees.
• If someone is taking time off, it’s
on them to communicate with team
members to make sure their work
is covered.
• Everyone knows what is expected
of them and if they are on track
to hit their personal goals.
• Key company financial numbers are
Matchstic
transparent to the whole firm, so

everyone knows if we’re achieving
overall success.
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Chapter 22
Time
Tracking—a
Necessary Evil
Time-tracking is an unpopular, but necessary,

tool every creative team needs, and the benefits
far outweigh the perceived incorrect challenges.
Fear not. It's easier than you think. Be open to
the idea and the rewards are great.
Excuses for Not Tracking Time

(The Bullshit Rationale)
But before we begin, let’s talk about the excuses all creatives—and I mean
all—use when explaining why they do not want to do time tracking or why
they do not do it consistently:
“My day is full of start and stops; it is impossible to capture the work
I do all day long.”
“The time-tracking system we use is not intuitive or is too complicated,

cumbersome, confusing, etc.”
“I’m too busy and it is too time consuming.”
“I don’t want our culture to be driven by time, but by quality and

customer service.”
“The firm's principal (or creative director) doesn’t track her time,
so why should I?”
“I do not see what the firm is doing with the data from time-tracking,
so why should I keep doing it?”
“How does it benefit me?”
“I do not want to be penalized for spending too much time on a project,

so I do not show all my hours.”
Excuses are often just a way to avoid something that is uncomfortable.
If you follow some of the guidelines outlined in this chapter, time-tracking
isn’t as hard or as inconvenient as you may think, and the benefits, discussed
next, far outweigh all the perceived challenges (and excuses). Just do it.
Why You Have to Do It

Time tracking is an essential tool for all creative firms and has enormous
Time Tracking—a Necessary Evil
benefits for both the firm and your team. It allows you to:
• Access historical data that includes standard or average hours of work
per project, client, and activity/task
• Estimate more accurate fees, which improves your bottom line, makes
you more profitable, and allows you to pay the salaries and benefits
your team deserve
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• Build realistic schedules (your team will definitely appreciate this!)
Brutally Honest
• Determine your billable efficiency rate (or utilization rate). This helps
you identify if each role/individual on your team is being utilized in
a way that best aligns with their title, position, and salary level (e.g.,
are principals really best used to do production or even hands-on design
at the salary they are getting?).
• Determine profitability at a per project and per client level (in this way
you can make smarter decisions on which clients or projects are better
suited to your firm’s goals)
• Manage and place appropriate time and/or dollar value on scope creep,
thus developing more accurate change orders
• Understand the implications of a client’s behaviors (e.g., by tracking
how much time your staff spends in project management areas such as
responding to emails or in meetings/on calls with clients, you can defend
the idea of improving how you or your clients manage these interactions)
• Develop metrics that can support a variety of important decisions
in your business. You can use time-tracking data to demonstrate a need to
increase head count or a change in roles (team members will thus get the
additional support they’ve been asking for). This data can also give you
more accurate pricing strategies, thus increasing profitability, or help
you identify ways to streamline productivity and efficiency (who doesn’t
love this?). Lastly, metrics can also help you to identify which staff are
consistently over budget, and potential skill deficiencies and training
opportunities within your team.
Recommendations
BEGINNERS
If you are just getting started with time tracking, you may want to keep
it very simple, and track all your time against each specific project. At this
early stage, you do not need to track your time in extreme detail, such as
specific tasks for each project. However, as you become more experienced
in time tracking, you should move on to the next level of “pro.”
Emily Ruth Cohen
PROS
As you become more comfortable with tracking time, you should categorize
your time in key task areas.
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Best Practices for Time Tracking

USE A SIMPLE, INTUITIVE, AND WELL-DESIGNED SYSTEM
Make sure the system is easy and user-friendly. This ensures it will be used
consistently by everyone on your team. There is an abundance of time-
keeping systems to choose from; just make sure you do your due diligence
in identifying what you need the tool to do (i.e., determine must-have
functionality) and then research and test a system to ensure it is best
for you and your team. Do not believe what the salesperson tells you; try
it out for yourself and ask colleagues for their experience/reviews.
DO NOT BE OVERLY RELIANT ON TIMERS

People often forget to turn timers on or off and then time-tracking isn’t
effective. If timers don’t work for you or your team, or are used inconsistently,
then enter hours manually into the time tracking system instead of using the
timer. Don’t worry about how time tracking is done, but make sure it’s done.
Which leads me to an alternate strategy…
• Enter time at the end of every day. Staff should not leave until time
sheets are completed.
• All hours worked need to be captured. If your staff works more or less
than 40 hours per week, or they work on the weekend, those hours need
to be captured, otherwise your system will be inaccurate. Include all
time, not just project- or client-level time (“billable time”) but team-level,
administrative, and new business time as well (“non-billable time).
• Track time in 15-minute increments. Essentially, input what you did
during the day to your best ability. The goal is to capture big buckets
of time, not every minute.
AVOID LESS-MEANINGFUL TASK CATEGORIES

Do not track time against amorphous categories like “meeting,” “email,”
or “admin.” Those categories do not provide a full picture of what each
person was doing with their time and often become the dumping ground
for miscellaneous hours. Such categories provide meaningless data. Instead,
time-tasks should reflect what people are actually doing and provide you
with more meaningful information. For example, if they were in a meeting
or writing/communicating by email, what task were they specifically doing?
Were they: presenting capabilities in a “new business” meeting, discussing
“concepts,” dealing with “project management” issues, etc.? Be specific.
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Time Tasks Glossary
Brutally Honest
A glossary that describes each task ensures

your employees allocate their time correctly.
Billable Tasks
RESEARCH & STRATEGY
• interviewing • creative brief development
• strategy development • content strategy
• kickoff meeting • travel and meeting time
• competitive research for a strategy session
• best practices
DESIGN & CONCEPT DEVELOPMENT

• hands-on design • animating, illustration
• receiving creative/art direction • storyboarding
• developing brand concepts • supervision of photo shoot,
& guidelines signage installation, etc.
• UI/UX • image research and
• site maps, page wireframes enhancement
• brand applications
EDITORIAL DEVELOPMENT
• copywriting, scriptwriting • naming, taglines
• content development • proofreading
PRODUCTION
• production of electronic files • implementation guides
for print and web • mechanicals
• on-press supervision • photo retouching
• writing print specs
CREATIVE & ART DIRECTION

• not hands-on design • virtual communications
• review of design • presenting/reviewing
• travel and meetings to review design work
design work
Emily Ruth Cohen
PROJECT MANAGEMENT
• invoicing • emails and meetings to review
• scheduling schedule & budget
• budgeting (post-contract) • status updates
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214
Non-Billable Tasks
VACATION DAYS SICK/ PERSONAL DAYS
HOLIDAYS UNPAID DAYS
MARKETING
• photographing work/ • submitting award/
project documentation competition entries
• updating website with content • press releases
• writing descriptions of work • writing articles
INDUSTRY ACTIVISM
• speaking engagements • relationship building
(schools, design conferences) • meetings with interesting
• communications with peers people in the community
GENERAL STUDIO TIME HUMAN RESOURCES

• studio meetings • performance reviews
• cleaning up the office • interviews, hiring
• lunch • portfolio reviews
OPERATIONS & FINANCE

• working with principal/ • managing hours
partner(s) • reviewing financial
• installing new software spreadsheets
• fixing tech glitches
• updating spreadsheets
of project tracking
NEW BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT

• communications (calls, • capabilities presentation
meetings, emails) with to prospective clients

prospective clients • speaking at client-focused
• writing and negotiating events
proposals/contracts
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT (DURING STUDIO TIME)

• attending class/workshops
• attending conferences
• reading books/magazines
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215
DEMONSTRATE THE SYSTEM’S VALUE TO YOUR TEAM
Brutally Honest
Your team needs to understand why time tracking is important. Start

by using the reasons listed in this chapter, many of which benefit them.
You should also share the resulting data and reports the system generates
with your team, or they won’t see the value in using it.
ENFORCE ADHERENCE TO TIME TRACKING

One person on your team should be responsible for ensuring everyone
completes their time tracking and that the records are accurate and complete,
reflecting all hours worked, using appropriate categories. Adherence to
time tracking and overall history of profitability/productivity should then
be one factor that is evaluated during performance reviews.
However, never use the time tracking records to penalize your team,
as they will stop tracking their time accurately and be fearful of time
tracking in general. Time tracking should be seen as a mutually beneficial
experience, not a negative or punitive one. It also can give you a better
understanding of where your staff members struggle and help identify
improvement opportunities.
Emily Ruth Cohen
216
Lead

by example:
Everyone,
including
principals,
should track
their time.
217
Actual Hourly
Brutally Honest
Rates
For better accuracy in determining project
profitability, you should assess the true hourly
rates for you and each member of your team.
In the rare case you bill clients hourly, then
you may choose to use different rates or a
blended rate for their invoices, but you should
still know your true hourly rate for internal
purposes. This will help you understand the
value of your (and your staff’s) time. Ask
your accountant or bookkeeper to help you
calculate each person’s true hourly rate.
The following is the standard formula:
1. Salaries
NOTE EXAMPLE
Determine salary (for principals/ $75,000 salary of employee
partners, consider the ideal
compensation you’d want, as well
as the comparable salaries within
our industry for your role).
Emily Ruth Cohen
218
2. Working Hours

NOTE EXAMPLE
Figure the total number of man- 8 hours per day
hours that your firm would charge
× 5 days per week
in a year.
× 52 weeks
× 1 employee
= 2,080 all hours
NOTE EXAMPLE
Obviously no person can 7 legal holidays
be expected to charge every
hour of his/her time. Allowances + 14 vacation days
have to be made for vacations, + 5 sick leave days
legal holidays, illness, etc. × 8 hours per day
× 1 employee
= 208 hours off
2,080 – 208 = 1,872

all hours – hours off = working hours
NOTE EXAMPLE
You must also make allowances 1,872 working hours
for non-billable hours; time
– 468 hours (25% of 1,872)
when the person might be
cleaning up, filing, going over = 1,404 billable hours
books, marketing etc.
3. Hourly Rate Considering Working Hours

NOTE EXAMPLE
Divide the number of billable 75,000 annual salary
hours into the annual cost of ÷ 1,404 billable hours
salary to arrive at the per-hour
cost of labor. $53 cost of labor per hour
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4. Hourly Rate + Overhead Hours
Brutally Honest
NOTE EXAMPLE
Determine overhead costs. $25,000 yearly overhead costs*
Overhead represents what it costs
÷ $75,000 employee salary
to be in business, as opposed
to labor, which is what it costs to = 33% overhead percentage
do the work. Essentially, overhead
is everything else except salaries. $53 actual hourly rate
These expenses are passed on
+ 33% overhead
to a client indirectly by building
an add-on percentage into $70 rate to break even
billable time. Divide your yearly
overhead costs by your total *This number should reflect your studio's
salary to determine overhead total overhead costs divided by your
percentage of salary costs. total number of billable employees.
This is the price per hour

to recover the cost of salaries
plus overhead expenses.
5. Final/Actual Hourly Rate

NOTE EXAMPLE
If you sold every possible billable $70 rate to break even
hour for this rate ($70) it would
+ 25% profit margin
be only breaking even. It also
needs to make a profit. Profit $88 actual hourly rate
gets the firm through rainy days,
replaces furniture, equipment,
provides cushion for slow days,
etc. Using a 25% profit margin
as an example, this percentage
should be added to the price The hourly rate ($88) represents
per hour. the minimum rate you can
charge to cover your costs of
labor and overhead with a profit
margin of 25%. This is the hourly
Emily Ruth Cohen
rate you use to determine your

in-house budgets.
220
Time tracking

is easy and
essential. The
rest of the work
is up to you.
Just do it.
No excuses.
221
Balancing
Case Study
Client Work and

Studio Projects
One type designer’s time management and
business strategy for balancing the necessary
time, energy, and resources for self-initiated
work against the much louder demands and
obligations of paid client work.
By Jeremy Mickel, Creative Director and Operating Officer
MCKL
PROBLEM SOLUTION
We launched our type foundry, MCKL, Three important tools allowed us to
in 2012 and started selling our fonts reach our goal:
through third-party distributors. One 1. The first was a product called Self
of our long-term goals was launching Journal, a productivity calendar
our own e-commerce site to sell our which helps identify and achieve
typefaces directly, and we began the goals over a 13−week timeline. This
site design and development in 2015. was useful for articulating specific
Balancing Client Work and Studio Projects
We knew we wanted the site to debut aspirations for the company, and
with a new social media presence inspired us to be more selective
and the release of a new typeface, but when taking on client projects.
every time a client project came along, We planned daily schedules for
these initiatives fell to the wayside. client and self-initiated projects,
We needed to increase our retail evaluated our progress at the
font sales, which required dedicating end of every day, and then made
more time and resources to the new corrections to our schedules at
website, social media strategy, and the end of each week. A colleague
production of new fonts, but how could started using the journal at the
we cross the finish line and launch in same time, and we began to share
the face of demanding client work? our experiences, comparing
notes and keeping each other
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CONCLUSION
Jeremy Mickel, Creative Director and Operating Officer

accountable. One tip: Be realistic The client work will always shout
about your schedules. It is easy loudest and it’s hard to balance your
to get discouraged if you over-plan company’s projects when a paying
your days and get off track. Set client is asking for updates. However,
yourself up to succeed, so you we learned that investing in self-
can come back the next day and initiated work can also attract new
do the same. clients, help make your company more
2. The second tool was external competitive for the kinds of projects
deadlines. While working toward the you want, and can even become
launch of the new MCKL website, a primary source of income.
our developer booked a speaking Using tools like productivity
engagement at an international schedules, outside deadlines, and
typography conference, ATypI. This engaging other collaborators can
imposed deadline made it possible help you treat personal projects
to work twice as hard, focus our as real as client work. After all, there
energy on the most important is a client: You.
aspects of the goals, and push the
site live in time for the conference.
The conference also brought
exposure to the website and new
font release, generating interest
and awareness to our new work.
3. The third tool was the most
important: asking for help. While
we say “we” when talking about
the business, the reality is that the
bulk of the day-to-day design and
business management falls on
me, the owner and chief creative.
We initially tried to design the site
in-house, which was outside of
our expertise and a distraction
from our primary goals. We needed
help, and luckily found it with an
external design studio that handled
everything—from the brand identity
to the website and the social
media presence. We also hired
a junior designer to assist with
the new typeface. Collaborating
with these designers and studios
was liberating. It made the work
better, and it opened the door
for growth that a one-man shop
could never attain.
MCKL
223
ject Management Client and Project Management Client and Project Management Cli
Client
Sectionand
Title
Project
Management
Chapter 123 Chapter

Good Clients
title Who Turn Bad 226
10
Chapter 24
2 Chapter
Preventative
title Client Management Strategies 232
20
Chapter 25
3 Chapter
Managing
titleClients, Oy! 242
30
Chapter 4
26 Chapter
Your Most
titleValuable Tool: Creative Briefs 252
40
Chapter 23
Good Clients
Who Turn Bad
Before we get too deep into project and client

management strategies, let’s look into the future
and envision some common client-driven traps
that can easily lead to difficult relationships,
and some preventative strategies.
Consider the following examples of “good” clients who have the potential

to turn into bad clients and use them as potential warning signs.
Long-Term Client Relationships

I know you are now thinking “WTF?” at this point. And I get that. Long-term
client relationships are often touted as an indicator of a successful business,
and are a great source of pride for many of us (me included). These steady
clients are often perceived as an indicator of a “healthy” studio, providing
consistent, predictable income and perceived “security.” However, the
negative impact of a long-term relationship can, over time, outweigh
the perceived benefits of such a relationship.
Long-term relationships often evolve into executional-level, lower
budget “churn and burn” work. Once you work on the higher level strategic
or conceptual framework (year one), then the remaining work has fewer
creative opportunities and eventually the client forgets you can be highly
creative. Clients’ memories and current perceptions of your expertise are
largely influenced by the current moment and not on past achievements.
In maintaining long-term relationships, pay attention to the ebbs
and flows of the work requested, and the relationship overall. In order
for your team to grow and evolve, make sure these relationships continue
to be beneficial to your firm’s portfolio, positioning, and studio morale.
If the direction of the relationship negatively impacts any of these areas,
you may have to reassess the value of this relationship, understanding that
the financial profitability of such relationships is also a strong contributing
factor in making this decision. But sometimes your firm’s health, in terms
of portfolio, positioning, and overall studio morale, is more important
than just dollars.
Guerilla Clients
Another source of pride for many firms are those financially lucrative,
enormous relationships that dominate the firm’s billings. However, despite
Good Clients Who Turn Bad
the obvious financial benefits, having one or more clients that consume more
than 20% of your yearly billings is a dangerous gamble on your firm’s future.
These guerilla clients can:
• Be demanding. Since they know very well that they are your biggest
account, they take advantage of your dependency by expecting you
227
to respond quickly to last minute requests, as well as to unreasonable,
Brutally Honest
short deadlines, and demanding unlimited attention.

• Hurt staff morale. Designers often thrive on doing diverse work and there
are very few designers who truly want to work on primarily one account,
especially one that is unusually demanding.
• Impact your positioning. The guerilla client’s work may not be at the
creative level that you want, nor will it always align with your business
goals. Eventually, this client’s work could become so dominant that
you have little else to show potential prospects.
• Give you a false sense of security. Even if you have the very rare
wonderful client, being overly dependent on one client gives you a false
sense of security. This security doesn’t incentivize you to actively focus
on your business, and instead allows your dominant client to control
the growth and future of your firm. And there simply are no guarantees.
The client may have financial difficulties or be sold, or your contact may
retire, get fired, or even promoted.
If you find yourself with a guerilla client, actively pursue new business
to balance out your billings so that you are less dependent on that one
client. You can also talk to these guerilla clients and explore ways to tailor
the relationship to better fit your expertise. Encourage the client to seek
alternative “less expensive” resources for the less strategic down-and-dirty
projects, or those that don’t fit your business goals, while still reinforcing
what your value is (and how it differs from these “less expensive” resources).
Evil Clients
Evil clients are rare, but they do exist. These clients can quickly destroy
all aspects of your business and result in anything from high staff turnover
to loss of profitability to terrible design solutions that embarrass you,
and everything in between.
If you have a truly evil client, you should fire them. I know, easier said
than done. However, there are some clients who are not worth the effort
it takes to work with them. There’s this magical word called “No.” Ever heard
of it? Learn to recognize when enough is enough and fire them. It feels good,
Emily Ruth Cohen
and for every client you fire, usually 2–3 new ones, seemingly out of nowhere,
come to replace the “he/she who must not be named.” I know this isn’t
scientifically proven, but it is my strongly held subjective, yet expert, opinion
honed from years of industry insight and observation.
228
All others...

Most other clients have unique challenges that can easily turn them into
“bad” clients. The good news is that many of these challenges can easily be
detected by vetting new business opportunities, but it requires that you pay
attention to any red flags. These red flags are sometimes subtle, sometimes
overt, and often unintentional signals that say “Stop! Client challenges ahead!
Take a detour!” Such red flags include:
• Clients who keep you on calls or in meetings longer than planned,
thus wasting your valuable time. This results in unexpected
additional hours incurred beyond what was expected which,
in turn, impact profitability.
• Clients who have never worked with a designer before, increasing
the time needed to “educate” the client throughout the process. More
time incurred.
• Clients who aren’t the main decision makers or are third-party entities,
like public relations firms, thus requiring many more, often unexpected,
interim presentations and revisions.
• Clients with unrealistic expectations such as low fees and crazy deadlines,
and those who cancel or are late to appointments. This is an indicator
that the client doesn’t value your services or skill and leads to them
micro-managing, or art directing you. Low budgets and ridiculously tight
deadlines rarely end well for anyone. Enough said.
Now that you know the potential road blocks ahead, you can be better prepared.
Good Clients Who Turn Bad
229
The Green Flags
Brutally Honest
Here are some indicators, or “green”

flags, if you will, that may indicate
a prospect could turn into a great
client (particularly if many of these
flags are apparent):
They don’t ask for spec

work (work for free) or
ask you to pitch against
You have access to the other agencies.
main decision maker at
the start of the project. They ask you smart,
thoughtful questions
You are the only firm they about your business
are considering (thus and approach.
you’ve built the love and
they adore and trust you They did their due
already). diligence and know who
you are, what you do,
They advocate for you and who you work with.
during the relationship
building process (from They ask you to provide
initial vetting to proposal the strategy.
through contract
negotiations). They have worked with other
creatives, many of whom
They are organized you admire and respect.
and timely in all
communications.
They give you an

appropriate budget and
reasonable schedule.
Emily Ruth Cohen
230
Chapter Title
They understand that your firm has
expertise and appreciate that there
are services best left to other experts
(e.g., production/executional work,
potentially complex programming/
development, etc.).
They give you a very clear description

of what they want you to propose,
but are also open to hearing your
thoughts and insights.
They ask
your opinion
and value it.
Title Who Turn Bad
Note: Obviously, there are many clients who are wonderful to work with,
and for this, you should give yourself some of the credit in attracting
and nurturing these great relationships. And you can thank some of
your colleagues, as well as predecessors, who have laid the groundwork
Clients
and continue to do their part in nurturing client expectations. Wonderful

clients are also, overall, nice people in general, strong collaborators
Section
and leaders, and understand the value of design.

Good
231
Chapter 24
Preventative
Client
Management
Strategies
Common advice given to newlyweds is that

you cannot expect to change your spouse.
They are who they are. Well, like in marriage,
you can’t change your clients—you can
change only how you and your team behave
with, react to, and manage them.
Steps to Prevent Disastrous Relationships

With client management, it’s about employing preventative tools
and strategies that are customized for each relationship. These
tools and strategies are specifically designed to prevent a prospect
(and client) from misbehaving, and without them, you are up shit’s
creek without a paddle. If you follow these three simple steps, you
can better prepare for, avoid, and/or improve how you manage these
misbehaving clients.
Step 1
Read the Red Flags
Designers often have rose-tinted glasses on during the new business
development process as they are only focused on winning, rather than
qualifying or vetting the client appropriately. I covered these red flags
in the previous chapter (along with some green flags indicating great
client ahead!). While this may be obvious, the more red flags, the riskier
the relationship. (For more information on how to qualify prospects
and what questions to ask these prospects, see Chapters 10 and 11.)
Step 2
Be Proactive
Once you know each prospect’s red flags, you can and should customize
how you approach that relationship. Do you anticipate working with
Preventative Client Management Strategies
several layers of decision makers? If so, build more presentations and
revisions into your process and fees. If they've asked you to attend many
unproductive, long-winded discussions or meetings, know that you may
need to take a stronger leadership role by providing agendas as well as
building more time into the schedule. Typically, for each red flag raised,
your fee should increase accordingly. If they balk at your fee, use these
red flags as a bargaining chip to reduce your fee. So, for example, when you
anticipate that there may be several decision makers involved in the project,
you can lower your fee if the client would be willing to guarantee you access
to only one empowered decision maker from the start of the project.
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Brutally Honest
Step 3
Customize Your Documentation
To help you better manage clients and improve how you facilitate potential
challenges down the road, you must provide and then customize 2 layers
of management documentation.
Layer 1
This first layer of documentation is required before the start of the
relationship to ensure that both parties have mutually agreed to and
are aligned on their overall expectations for the terms, parameters,
and scope of their relationship. After laying a solid foundation of clearly
defined conditions, the following three documents can then be used
as a guide throughout the relationship.
DETAILED SCOPE OF WORK DOCUMENTATION

This is usually in the form of statements of work (SOWs), estimates,
or proposals. These documents are customized to mitigate each of the
road blocks you foresee. For example, if one of the roadblocks is that
the client may have an approval-by-committee culture, then define
and agree upon one primary decision maker before the project starts.
Long-winded or disorganized clients? Define the quantity and length
of meetings or calls included in your fee. I discuss the approval process
in more depth in the next chapter.
TERMS AND CONDITIONS

This is in the form of a contract, letter of agreement, or master services
agreement. Chapter 15 goes into more detail about this.
SCHEDULES
I don’t recommend providing a detailed schedule for all phases of a project,
since all projects eventually veer off schedule. But you should provide a
detailed schedule of at least the first phase and then indicate dates for future
key milestones for the remaining phases to use as guideposts. At the start
Emily Ruth Cohen
of each phase, repeat the process: a detailed schedule for the new phase
and any updated/new milestones for upcoming phases.
234
Layer 2

To maintain a successful relationship, you may need to provide the following
five different types of communications to keep the client updated and the
project on track.
RESEARCH AND STRATEGY DOCUMENTATION

These communications outline and present your research, findings, and
strategic recommendations (e.g., creative briefs, mood boards, competitive
audits, audience personas, etc.).
MEETING AGENDAS AND STRATEGIES

Meeting agendas are used to guide the meeting and keep everyone focused
and on track. For meetings with several attendees, your team may need
training in meeting facilitation and you might consider hiring a meeting
facilitator to keep the conversation on track.
MEETING RECAPS/UPDATES
These summary documents ensure everyone agrees to the information,
conclusions, and next steps discussed.
SCHEDULE UPDATES
Send frequent updates each time a deadline is missed, highlighting
any impact or changes to the overall schedule, key milestones, and the
end deadline.
CHANGE ORDERS
These are documents that indicate changes, revisions, and potential
budgetary or schedule impact. Ideally, change orders should be issued
before additional costs are incurred. Issuing change orders after the fact
is never a good idea, as you have nothing to bargain with. If you’ve completed
the additional work, and then issue a change order, you risk the client
not approving the additional costs (or schedule changes). But if you require
their advance approval before moving ahead, the client immediately
experiences the consequences of their actions and then they will often
re-think their request and/or behave better in the future.
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A Word on Project
Brutally Honest
Management
Software and Apps
Many creatives look to technology to solve
all their project, time, schedule, approval,
budget and client management challenges.
Many firms buy very expensive than you require. The smaller the firm
tools with lots of bells and whistles, size, the simpler the system should
only to find them overwhelming, be. The more complex the system,
hard to onboard, and not very intuitive. the more difficult it is to use, onboard,
Avoid the common mistake of and enforce usage.
purchasing technology based solely
on recommendations from a colleague As I’ve mentioned elsewhere, you need
and, more importantly, because of a good processes in place and then,
compelling sales pitch (or, more likely and only then, can you look for project
“a bill of goods”) you were given at an management systems that support your
industry event. processes. You also need dedicated
internal skills and resources to manage
There are hundreds of different systems and enforce the system. Make sure
out there to facilitate the creative that all your tools and systems work
process, so it’s worthwhile to conduct together and your team is clear on
the necessary due diligence to vet the which tool they use and when. Develop
best technology to fit your firm’s needs. a technology map or infographic
that illustrates this clearly to ensure
Before leaping to a new system, make compliance.
sure you identify what functionalities
you need, based on your process, The most common mistake I see are
staffing, and workload and then teams buying very expensive, multi-
prioritize your needs in order of most functional technology that, in the end,
to least important. Then, look for never gets used or is not used to its
a system that provides the best fullest extent because it’s either too
functionalities to meet your top complex or the firm doesn’t have
Emily Ruth Cohen
priorities, without any more complexity the resources in place to support it.
Avoid this mistake!
236
It is important

to note:
technology
doesn’t define
your process—
it facilitates it.
237
Project
Case Study
Timeline Cover
Sheet
One team’s unique and simple approach to
providing transparency on project timelines
and ensuring clients and projects stay on track.
By Marc S. Levitt, Creative Director and Co-Founder
MSLK
PROBLEM
As with many design firms, both our the reality of where we were at any
clients and our team had difficulty given moment in the actual project.
differentiating and tracking the For example, our team would know
anticipated scope of work (as outlined we were delivering “Round 3, copy
in our proposal and agreement) from changes only,” yet our clients were
MSLK
PHASE 1: PHASE 2:
DESIGN CLIENT TO DESIGN CLIENT TO
EXPLORATION • Select direction DEVELOPMENT • Provide copy
• Begin writing copy • Text changes
Project Timeline Cover Sheet
• Layout changes
MSLK TO
• Roll out design across
7 printed looks
Client
238
never clear how that compared to • Indicates what we’ve already
Marc S. Levitt, Creative Director and Co-Founder

what we agreed upon, no matter how delivered and what we still need to
many times we explained it. This accomplish to get to the finish line.
disconnect occurred because: • Indicates delivery dates, when
• The people involved in negotiating applicable.
and signing contracts are rarely the In addition, every project also has
same people involved in the work. a “PDF for Final Approval” stage.
• Most clients file the proposal away This indicates that any additional
and never think about looking at changes or requests beyond this
it again after signing it. stage will be considered scope
• Every time designs or revisions are creep and will be negotiated or
routed, new people see them for the billed separately.
first time.
SUCCESS
This resulted in misunderstandings, Immediately after implementing
unnecessary or additional design this strategy:
rounds and revisions, scope creep
and extra costs, and schedule delays. • All our clients were much clearer
on where we were within the overall
SOLUTION process.
We attach a simple one page • 95% of our jobs are now on track
deliverable (see graphic) to each within the agreed upon scope and
presentation that clearly and visually: budget.
• Mirrors the language in our proposal • Clients are deterred from
and agreement (e.g., “Phase 1 requesting additional services.
Design Exploration”). • When we do have to charge, no one
• Compares what we agreed upon is surprised.
and where we are currently in the
process (highlighting the current
phase and deliverable).
PHASE 3: PHASE 4: PHASE 5:

DESIGN CLIENT TO PDF FOR CLIENT TO PRODUCTION
DEVELOPMENT • Provide minor FINAL • Provide
text changes APPROVAL approval
only copy (changes
are additional)
MSLK TO
• Roll-out design
across 13 looks
• Use all approved copy
MSLK
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Weekly
Case Study
Project Health
Discipline
One digital team’s required weekly meetings
with Digital Project Managers to discuss and stay
on top of resource and budget management.
By Sei-Wook Kim, Co-Founder and Managing Director

Barrel
OVERVIEW WEEKLY PROJECT BUDGET MEETING

During the day-to-day challenges of We meet every Wednesday and review
managing projects at Barrel, we found core project metrics together. All of
it was important to make time as a our project managers update a shared
project management team to track Google spreadsheet with key project
key metrics on project health and metrics from the previous week pulled
plan for the future. from Harvest and Forecast. While it may
seem redundant to copy over data from
SOLUTION those systems, the habit and discipline
We identified two key measures of updating the spreadsheet provides
for maintaining project health and our team a weekly reminder to review
profitability: all their project metrics and ensure that
1. Making sure active projects are their project teams have been tracking
tracking against expected hours their hours properly. The numbers that
Weekly Project Health Discipline
project managers update include:

2. Making sure that we’re accurately
planning our team’s utilization and • Total hours spent—This number
project completion dates is the total amount of time used on
the project.
To ensure that we’re staying
accountable and organized, we’ve • Hours remaining in Forecast—This
implemented two weekly project is a number we pull from Forecast
management team meetings focused which shows the total number of
on budgets and planning. hours we’ve forecasted we’ll need
to complete a project.
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WEEKLY DIGEST MEETINGS
Sei-Wook Kim, Co-Founder and Managing Director

• Hours spent last week—This number We have weekly meetings on Friday
is pulled from Harvest on actual afternoons in which our project
hours spent on a project in the managers and discipline leads meet
last week. together to plan out the team’s
• Hours estimated this week—This schedule for the following two weeks.
number is pulled from Harvest and We have two separate meetings—one
Forecast on hours we’ve forecasted for designers and one for developers.
for the next week. The preparation for this meeting
starts earlier in the week as our
The spreadsheet provides the project managers update a shared
following insights: Google Doc, which includes each
• Hours remaining—If this number is team member’s name along with their
negative, we’re already over budget project milestones for the following
and we have a problem. two weeks.
• Hours remaining vs Forecast—If this The digest meeting is very fast-
number is negative, it means that paced and takes less than 15
we’re projected to go over budget. minutes for each discipline. During
This is a signal for our team that we the meeting, project managers run
need to change our process or have through each person in Forecast and
a conversation with our client. cross reference what is written in
the Google Doc. Often this surfaces
• Actual hours used last week vs projects or milestones that have been
estimated last week—If this number missed and minor updates are given
is more than 5 hours above or below during the meeting. We also review
zero, it means we’ve done a poor job if projects are running longer than
estimating how much time someone expected and make sure there aren’t
should be allocated on a project. If any conflicts with future projects
it’s too high, it means we’ve spent where a team member is staffed.
more time than expected and it The weekly digest meeting allows
has affected another project or the project managers to stay on top of
team member had to work late. If the each other's projects and ensure that
number is too low, it means a team team members don’t have multiple
member has been sitting around deadlines on the same day. It also
underutilized. provides a venue to discuss when last
The weekly project budget meeting minute needs inevitably arise across
has been instrumental in allowing us our accounts. While this process
to stay on budget with our projects may feel like we are micromanaging
and surface potential issues that we each team member’s schedule, it
can discuss with our clients. actually helps provide more clarity
and direction on priorities for each
team member.
EMILY'S INSIGHT
“An ounce of prevention

Barrel
is worth a pound of cure.”
241
Chapter 25
Managing
Clients, Oy!
Even if you have the best management systems

in place, gaining consensus and obtaining
approvals or feedback from a client throughout
a relationship is an entirely different challenge.
This can easily become a difficult and often
impossible feat.
Common Challenges in the Approval Process

• Design or approval by committee (common in non-profits or, well,
any mismanaged company—which means most—or one that is driven
by a “collaborative culture” 1 )
• Working with those who are not empowered or capable of making
final decisions
• Working with those who believe they have the power to make decisions,
but really don’t
• Unexpected stakeholders joining the process mid-stream (a situation
I like to call “Surprise Sally”)
• “I’ll know it when I see it”—e.g., subjective feedback
• Clients who art direct instead of trusting your expertise (“make the type
bigger,” “add a starburst”)
• Client feedback is incomplete, unclear, or contradictory
• Approvals by loved ones. 2 This is often initiated with a variation
of the following conversation: “Well, my husband/nephew/girlfriend
is an architect/design student/wannabe designer/writer and really
understands creative decisions better than I do, and he/she says…”
Be Proactive
So, how do you handle all of these situations? Well, first, you should prevent
them from happening by being proactive, rather than reactive after the
fact. As I advise throughout this book, many common client challenges
can be avoided or mitigated by a more effective and preventative up-front
management strategy.
In most cases, this begins by asking the right questions and working with
the potential new client at the start of the relationship, before they become
a client. These questions will help you determine and define who is involved
in the process, their responsibilities, how empowered they are, and the
potential challenges or red flags ahead. This is part of the vetting process
Managing Clients, Oy!
when you first determine if the prospect is a qualified lead.

I’ve discussed it before, but it’s worth mentioning again here: when
you initiate a new relationship, during the qualification process, ask who you
will be working with, and find out if that person is a key decision maker.
243
With this information, you can make some immediate decisions. The first is
Brutally Honest
whether the complexity of their organization’s decision-making process makes

them a fully qualified lead. Second, adjust your proposal, services, and fees
to accommodate the prospect’s internal approval process.
In a situation in which you may be working with several decision makers,
first educate the client about the financial consequences that may have on
your final fee. The more people involved in the decision-making process,
the more rounds of presentations, meetings, and revisions are required. This
increases complexity and the time required for project management. Instead,
recommend that the client can easily avoid higher fees if they streamline and
consolidate their own internal approval and decision-making process. By
demonstrating the consequences of their complex internal processes (in this
case, higher fees), you may incentivize the client to make better decisions
and/or change how they work.
In the worst-case scenario, in which the client’s multi-layered decision-
making seems to be a given, then protect yourself by building in extra rounds
of revisions and charge more!
RASCI/RACI Approval Matrix

Once you’ve initiated a relationship and turned a prospect into a client, your role
as an advisor continues. During the discovery and planning phase, you can also
continue to guide the client by recommending various approval methodologies
to help them streamline their internal decision-making processes.
The most common approval methodology is the RASCI or RACI matrix.
These are acronyms for: Responsible, Accountable, Supported, Consulted,
and Informed. This matrix helps you define and agree upon the roles and
responsibilities of different types of stakeholders.
RESPONSIBLE
Who is responsible for obtaining the decisions? This is usually your daily
contact on the client’s side who has access to all stakeholders and has
experience managing various internal stakeholders. This person should not
be a junior-level paper pusher, but someone who is skilled in wrangling various
stakeholders effectively and has strong project management capabilities.
Emily Ruth Cohen
ACCOUNTABLE
Who approves decisions? This ideally should be one person who is empowered
to make all decisions (and can be the decisive vote when conflicting feedback
is received from other stakeholders).
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SUPPORTED

Who are the supporters who help complete specific tasks internally?
Supporters provide resources or play a supporting role in implementation
(such as internal writers, IT teams, etc.).
CONSULTED
Who should be consulted before decisions are made? This includes
stakeholders who may have specific subject matter expertise (SME). They
don’t necessarily approve final concepts, but approve a particular aspect that
aligns with their SME (e.g., a lawyer who has to vet any legal copy, a member
of the company’s “brand police” who has to ensure the work aligns with
the company’s brand standards).
INFORMED
Who needs to be informed after decisions are made? These are people who
need to be kept up-to-date on progress, often after completion of a specific
stage/deliverable. This is usually a one-way communication.
This approval matrix allows you to work with your clients to define
and agree upon those stakeholders involved in the project/relationship
(the who) and their various participation level or responsibility at the start
of a relationship/project (the what). Additionally, RASCI is a common tool
used within many corporations, so many of your clients may already be
familiar with its benefits.
An effective variation is adding a third tier to the matrix beyond the
who and what, that defines at what point (the when) each stakeholder is
involved in the project. Determining when they get involved (at what stage
or deliverable) helps clients plan their time and avoids confusion later
on (e.g., avoiding the aforementioned “Surprise Sally” situation).
The matrix may look like this:
WHO'S INVOLVED
CLIENT Role A Role B Role C Role D

WHAT NEEDS TO
Function/Task 1 R A C I
GET DONE
Function/Task 2 A R C I
Function/Task 3 C R I A
Function/Task 4 R C I A
Function/Task 5 I A R C
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You should then include this matrix or the agreed-upon approval process
Brutally Honest
in your project initiation documents (e.g., creative brief ). At any point during
the relationship, if the decision-making process becomes more complex than
initially agreed upon, you can refer back to this document and use it to defend
changes to your process, schedule, and fees.
Be Advisory
During the development of your RASCI/RACI matrix, you should also be
advisory and more proactive rather than reactive in terms of helping your
prospects define their internal approval process. Example situations include:
• With non-profit organizations, it’s very common for the advisory board
to get involved in creative decisions. If you are working with a non-profit,
ask them about the board’s role and help them determine when and why
they are involved, if at all.
• If your main point of contact is a brand or product manager, ask about
the CMO’s role in the process. Help them identify that there may be
other potential decision makers involved who they haven’t mentioned
or possibly even considered. Better safe than sorry.
• If the key decision maker is too busy and you learn they won’t be
involved until after a concept has been fully developed, you should
advise against that. The decision maker’s time is better utilized up front,
during the strategy and concept phases, before your team gets too far
down the path. This ensures the project starts on solid footing. If the
decision maker gets involved too late in the process, it’s almost certain
that the project will go off track either in scope, budget, or schedule—
or, even worse, all three!
Use your expertise to advise prospects on how to manage the approval
process early in your relationship. Ultimately, this additional level of
attention ensures a more seamless, efficient, and cost-effective process
(and increases everyone’s happiness level).
Guided Approvals
Emily Ruth Cohen
Another challenging situation is obtaining feedback and approvals from

untrained clients. These clients often don’t have any experience or skill sets
in objectively evaluating creative work. These clients provide unclear and
subjective feedback (often unintentionally). This often comes in the form
246
of art direction (e.g., “Make the type bigger.” “I don’t like orange.” “I’ll know

what I like when I see it.”).
This is yet another opportunity to include tools into your process that
provide clients with objective strategies in which to frame their feedback.
One such methodology is developing creative briefs or similar strategic-level
documents. These documents often summarize the agreed-upon criteria you’ve
uncovered and defined together that can be used to evaluate concepts more
objectively. (For more detailed information on creative briefs, see Chapter 26.)
With guided approvals, you give your clients specific ways to evaluate
design more objectively. The following is one such example of a high-level
guided approval matrix:
CLIENT Yes No
Solution Met Targeted 5 4 3 2 1
Business Objective
Solution Met Targeted 5 4 3 2 1
Marketing Objective
Solution Appeals 5 4 3 2 1
to Targeted Market/Audience
Information Hierarchy 5 4 3 2 1
Aligns with Targeted
Messaging
Visual Strategy Reflects 5 4 3 2 1
Brand Standards
It goes without saying that the copy on the left side of the above graphic
would be customized for each project and would include specific and
measurable criteria the client can use to evaluate concepts more objectively.
You may have different versions of this matrix at different stages of a project.
So, for example, at the production stage, approvals will be based on more
tangible criteria such as “Is the content complete?”
These criteria are directly related to the initial agreed-upon objectives
for the project you’ve uncovered, together, during the discovery and strategy
phase(s). The guided matrix eliminates (or discourages) the client from
art directing you in a subjective way that they think solves the problem
(“Make this copy bigger so it seems more important.”). Indeed, it gives the
client specific criteria that allows them to focus and rank their feedback
in an objective manner, and it allows you to position yourself as the expert
who can solve their problems.
247
As you well know, coaxing clients to provide complete, objective,
Brutally Honest
and clear feedback and approvals can be a difficult and challenging process.
Essentially, it’s an art form and, as outlined above, it takes some level
of commitment and dedication to developing and employing a variety of
strategies that should be utilized before a relationship begins (during
your courtship) and while you work together (during the course of your
relationship, when the real work begins). Good luck!
Another way to manage client approvals and ensure a more objective
feedback process is to effectively use the creative brief. And because the
creative brief is such an important tool in your client management arsenal,
beyond just approvals, it deserves its own chapter.
1 My pet peeve: I’ve worked with many in-house 2 Confession: I myself am one of these clients.
creative and marketing teams—often directly I value my 23 year-old-daughter’s opinions
with the CMO and most have said that they have and I’m sure this drives one of my wonderful
a “collaborative culture,” one in which everyone design partners absolutely bonkers. So,
has a voice. Start-ups love this term as well. I apologize now to all those who have provided
Sounds noble, right? Yet, in reality, “collaboration” me with their design expertise. But as someone
often means that one person doesn’t want to be who has made this mistake, I understand it—
accountable for making a decision, so they allow after all, I do admire my daughter’s tastes and
a group to make the decision for them. These she does know me well. However, that is also
same “leaders” will happily and very quickly the designer’s role—to dig deep and uncover
accept the rewards, and the credit, when the both objective criteria and subjective insights
Emily Ruth Cohen
collective decision is successful. “Collaborative that will drive both the creative concepts they
cultures” are often driven by endless, unplanned, develop and the decisions their clients make.
meandering, and often-inconclusive meetings
and just add further complexity, no matter how
simple the challenge or approval may be. I tend
to avoid these situations as much as I can;
that said, they are often unavoidable.
248
the more
problems
you have.
The more
stakeholders,
249
Managing Clients, Oy! Client and Project Management
Engaging
Case Study
Clients
in Ideation
One designer's inspirational approach to
getting their clients involved in the ideation
process and avoiding future disagreements.
By Sharon Taylor, Owner and Creative Director

ink + mortar
PROBLEM
When we first started the business, Our Reinvented Process:
we found it was hard to get on the • We first begin by asking the client to
same page with clients. Oftentimes, use Pinterest to collect images that
they don’t know what they want inspire their “lifestyle” brand. This
until they see it, which left us going means gathering interior shots, food,
in circles, wasting their time and ours. fashion—everything that embodies
their brand.
SOLUTION
We started including our clients in • We then analyze and group the
the development of our inspiration photos, add design images into
boards. By including them from the mix, and present 4–5 directions
the beginning, we funneled our along with color palettes. This
ideas through them to get the most allows our clients to clearly see the
information in a fun and engaging way. differences in the direction of each
Engaging Clients in Ideation
“After implementing this process,

we've nailed every first round
of design since—three years straight.”
250
EMILY'S INSIGHT
Sharon Taylor, Owner and Creative Director

“A smart strategy for infusing fun
into the process, while also providing
much-needed parameters to guide
the client's future approvals.”
SUCCESS
board. They are able to visualize After implementing this process,
colors, images, and overall thinking we’ve nailed every first round of
about style in one page, which design since—three years straight.
helps them determine what they Using this method with all clients,
do and don’t like, creating a big and small, has helped us clarify
common language we can talk direction before we even touch pen
through together. to paper, saving us time and effort
• We then combine their favorite and keeping our clients excited.
boards into 2–3 new boards,
funneling the ideas until we land
on one final board and direction.
• After reviewing each image on the
final board, we make sure they are
on-brand and now have a definitive
direction for style, design, and brand
impression. This leaves the client
excited, and it saves us a TON of
time in the design phase.
EXAMPLE
When one of our clients, Real Food
Eatery, approached us, they were
convinced that they wanted a
neutral, soft, blue-hued palette for
their restaurant. The moment they
saw the inspiration board with their
suggested palette and matching
images, they realized it felt sterile and
cafeteria-like. Because we already
saw this direction wouldn’t work, we
added a board with the same palette
with a pop of red in the presentation,
and they fell in love. It’s now their
ink + mortar
signature brand color and it’s used in

their interiors, menus, signage, and
everywhere the brand touches.
251
Chapter 26
Your Most
Valuable Tool:
Creative Briefs
You have no doubt heard about creative briefs

and may even use them. The reality is, however,
that many designers and their clients have yet
to utilize the creative brief for what it’s really
intended: to be a vital part of the design process.
An Invaluable Tool in Your Communication Arsenal

When crafted and used properly (and that is key), a creative brief:
• Links business objectives to creative strategies.
• Guides the approval and decision process. By putting thoughts
on paper and sharing them with your client, everyone can agree from
the beginning and nothing is left to interpretation or assumption.
It’s a way to create consensus among stakeholders.
• Turns subjective opinions into objective strategies. Here you can discuss
subjective "likes" and "dislikes" and frame them within the client's
business objectives. This will prevent the personal feedback (e.g., "I don't
like blue.") that you may receive later on when you present concepts.
• Mediates disagreements throughout the relationship by providing
an objective framework for the designer to present their concepts
and evaluate client feedback.
• Provides a clear set of expectations and defines measurable objectives
which can be used to measure the progress and success of a project,
and ultimately the client’s ROI. (For examples of metrics, see Chapter 7.)
For both clients and creatives, a clear and well-prepared creative brief can
mean stronger results and a more cohesive and efficient creative process,
while a long-winded and unfocused brief can become a hindrance in the
overall design process.
Moving from Service Provider to Trusted Partner

When the designer is not directly involved in developing the creative brief,
miscommunication and misunderstandings can arise. On the other hand,
when designers participate and lead in the process of creating a brief, they Your Most Valuable Tool: Creative Briefs
express and reinforce the value of their insight and contribution to the client.
They also reiterate their role as the client’s partner, rather than a vendor,
an artist, or someone who simply executes ideas. Clients who include
designers in the research and development process gain from the designers’
insight and industry expertise. Both benefit from a mutually agreed upon
set of expectations, objectives, and success criteria.
Many designers fail to be seen as value-added partners because they
work on “one-off” projects without selling more integrated, bigger-picture
strategic thinking. The creative brief is one way to incorporate strategy
into the relationship and be seen as a valuable long-term asset.
253
Steps for a Successful
Brutally Honest
Creative Brief
The process of developing a creative brief
generally includes the following steps:
STEP 1
Identify key stakeholders, decision makers, and those individuals on your
team who will be part of the process.
STEP 2
Review any relevant background material provided by the client (including
existing market research, business plans, audience profiles, branding
guidelines, etc.).
STEP 3
Conduct a planning meeting, internal workshops, and interviews with
the client, including their key internal and external stakeholders.
STEP 4
Conduct your own research to dive deeper (such as site visits, competitive
analysis, user-centered research, customer surveys/interviews/research, etc.).
STEP 5
Discuss conclusions and key information gathered from the research.
STEP 6
Obtain stakeholder approval on research-driven findings.
STEP 7
Draft and issue the brief for feedback. It’s always best to present the brief
to your client in person so you can walk them through it point by point.
By reviewing the document with key stakeholders, you can make sure they
read it carefully and that everyone agrees on the content and direction.
Emily Ruth Cohen
STEP 8
Gain final collective approval.
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Content Guidelines for a Compelling Brief

Your secret weapon. Use it.
Although there is no “right” way to develop a creative brief, the following

lists the information usually included. The content of the brief should
be customized for each specific project or relationship.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION ON COMPANY, PRODUCT, OR SERVICE

Ideally, both the designer and client should already have a good
understanding of this type of information before the creative brief
process has begun, so unless it contains new information/thinking,
this section may not be necessary, or should be kept as brief as possible.
USER AND TARGET AUDIENCE GROUPS: PROFILES AND PERSONAS

Be specific. Identify the gender, age, geographic location, characteristics,
priorities, occupations, and cultural considerations for each group.
Find out what motivates and inspires each group and identify differences
and similarities between the sub-groups.
BRAND ATTRIBUTES, PROMISE, AND MISSION

Unless these messages drive design (or content) decisions, this level of
content should also be kept to a minimum.
COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS
Identification of your client’s competitive environment and an evaluation
of the various strategies employed. A summary of the competitor’s strengths
and weaknesses relative to your client’s own product or service as well as
your own strategic conclusions and insights on which of these may or should
impact creative decisions moving forward.
BUSINESS OBJECTIVES AND SUCCESS CRITERIA

Pinpoint the client’s specific goals, prioritize them, and outline how and
when success in achieving these goals will be measured (e.g., an increase by Your Most Valuable Tool: Creative Briefs
X% in: sales leads, followers, site visits, attendance, etc.). In analyzing many
strategic decks and creative briefs, I have found that creatives often overlook
the success metrics in crafting their final recommendations. (For why metrics
are important, see Chapter 7.)
CREATIVE STRATEGIES
These are often presented as descriptive summaries of potential themes/
directions/options (e.g., evolutionary vs. a less radical option), or in the
form of mood boards using existing visual elements that demonstrate
the various options for inspiration and directional thinking. Use words
255
that have meaning. If you or the client use subjective adjectives, such as
Brutally Honest
Don't fuck it up. Use it wisely.

“innovative,” show them visual examples of how you interpret that term.
What is innovative to one person (the creative) may be too risky to another
(the client). Showing examples helps make future subjective decisions
later on.
FUNCTIONALITY AND TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS/REQUIREMENTS

This is detailed documentation that typically describes what is needed
by the system user, including instructions for the product's intended
capabilities, appearance, and interactions with users.
CONTRIBUTION AND APPROVAL PROCESS

I covered this topic in more depth in the previous chapter.
MANDATORIES
These are core brand assets (copy, logos, color palettes) that must be utilized
and can’t be changed.
TESTING REQUIREMENTS
Define who will do, or be involved in, the testing and why, when, and how
it will be conducted.
TIMELINES
Indicate key milestones for delivery and approvals.
SUBJECTIVE LIKES AND DISLIKES

Uncover and define your client’s personal preferences and discuss if they
are pertinent to the context of solutions. If the client doesn’t like blue, it’s
best to know that at the start. If, in the end, you still think blue is the best
choice, you now know that you’ll have to clearly explain your rationale for
using blue. By doing this, they will understand that their subjective likes
and dislikes don’t always factor into the end results, as long as the design
solves the business problems.
Tips for Effective Briefs

• Briefs are best written at the start of any relationship, prior to the devel-
opment of a specific design solution, and are usually one of the deliverables
Emily Ruth Cohen
provided at the conclusion of the research and discovery phase.

• Not all projects require a creative brief. Use one only if you are paid for
developing it and for large-scale or highly strategic or high-level projects
256
Common Mistakes

Chapter Title
with Creative Briefs
A creative brief will fail if:
Clients or designers work All the content is just a

independently of each re-hash of what the client
other on the brief and don’t told you. Instead of simply
collaborate. summarizing your notes
from a meeting, include lots
It is a ton of unintelligible, of actionable insights.
meaningless text (often
provided by the client, It is not referred to continually
or written by a strategist throughout the process.
Valuable Tool: Creative Briefs
who has no insight into how

creatives digest information). It doesn’t include the collective
input of all key stakeholders.
It is cut and pasted from
pre-existing, irrelevant It is written on the fly without
documents. any significant research.
Section
Your Title
Most
257
(e.g., branding/identity systems, campaigns and programs, websites,
Brutally Honest
intranets, naming, and packaging). Or, use one if you think the client’s
decision making process could easily become a nightmare.
• Promote the brief as part of your overall creative approach, process,
and services.
• The brief should be introduced into any process early on so its full
value can be explained and appreciated.
• Be sure to build enough time into the project timeline for the entire
creative brief process. The more time you spend on the creative brief,
the fewer revisions you may have later on in the process. The extra
time is your and your client’s investment in a more seamless decision-
making process.
• If the client has given you a creative brief that isn’t helpful or is incomplete,
issue your own, but consider renaming it, so it seems different (e.g., design
briefs, marketing briefs, communications briefs, or even objectives and
strategies statements). Use elements from their existing brief but expanded
to incorporate your own new insight and knowledge.
• Customize the brief—don’t use templated forms or leave blanks.
• Don’t over promise and under deliver.
• Focus on translating insights into actionable solutions.
• Demonstrate the brief’s end value by identifying, capturing, and then
using success metrics in your case studies.
• Use the creative brief as a guide throughout the process, in all phases.
Most creative briefs are developed and then entirely forgotten about
when they are most needed.
• The name says it all: be creative and be brief. Keep the brief simple,
sharply edited, and concise; often 1–3 pages is more than enough to
outline the most important and relevant information. Any irrelevant
information (anything that doesn’t drive creative decisions) should be
removed. And whenever possible, use bulleted text versus narrative copy,
as well as information graphics and visuals to make it engaging and easy
to understand. The design of the brief may be as important as the overall
Emily Ruth Cohen
content, because if it’s not easy for the clients—or designers—to read it,
then they most likely won’t.
As the first tangible result of any collaboration between client and designer,
the creative brief can be a meaningful barometer of the interest—and ability—
258
of both groups to forge a working relationship that encourages teamwork,

honest discussion, and clear, open lines of communication. In the end, I think
what matters most is that creative and marketing professionals understand
the potential value of this important business tool to any design initiative
and to building a solid, mutually rewarding partnership.
Your Most Valuable Tool: Creative Briefs
259
nds Industry Trends Industry Trends Industry Trends Industry Trends Industry Tr
Industry
Trends
Chapter 27 Opportunities and Threats 262
261
Chapter 27
Opportunities
and Threats
There are many trends and influences within

our industry; some good, some bad, and some
ugly. I’ve put together the following list of
trends—including opportunities and threats
that affect not only your creative business,
but the industry at large.
Opportunities
Industry Trends
DESIGN ENTREPRENEURSHIP
Supplementing client-driven income by developing and selling self-driven
products (e.g., apps, digital, or retail products). This can be an effective way
to supplement your income, but may require different skill sets outside your
comfort zone or capabilities. If you like to learn, and are willing to devote
significant effort and time to both the fun and not-so-fun areas of design
entrepreneurship, then go for it! However, most creatives spend endless
hours envisioning the creative opportunities and don’t devote enough
time to the duller, but necessary, aspects of design entrepreneurship (e.g.,
manufacturing and retail strategies, pricing, distribution, and fulfillment).
Also, creatives tend to be distracted by their next idea rather than trying
to improve the business they already started!
STRATEGY AS A VALUE-ADDED SERVICE

Strategy (e.g., brand positioning, user experience and testing, name and
tagline development, content strategy, etc.) is no longer the sole domain
of strategists, specialized consultants, or even large agencies. Many clients
are seeking out design firms that provide this service and are willing to pay
for it as a value-added service. Thus, many creative teams are now selling
strategy as part of their expertise and, as result, are able to increase their
profits and demonstrate their value (particularly with clients who may
under-value design but value strategic thinking). However, as strategy is
becoming a common service, it’s not enough to say you do it. Provide proof
by developing case studies that highlight the quantitative impact your
firm delivers through strategic thinking.
THE SHARING ECONOMY

The current economic climate encourages sharing of information and
resources among businesses and individuals. In our industry, this has
led to a promising trend where competitors turn into colleagues, and
transparency around core business practices among colleagues and staff
is more common than ever. When information on business practices is
Opportunities and Threats
shared among peers and staff, our industry benefits overall. It allows us
to all compete with the same level of professionalism, allowing the quality
of our work and our expertise to speak for itself. Common knowledge
allows us to communicate the same professional values and ethics to our
potential clients. And by sharing more about your business with your
staff, you provide them with more robust insight, as well as tools that
263
give them context to better understand your decisions as well as our
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industry overall.
STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIPS
Many creative teams of all sizes are developing long-term relationships
with external strategic partners to enrich their own offerings and offer
more robust integrated services to future prospects. These strategic partners
can be other designers, but, more often than not, they are specialists in
user experience, development, brand positioning, content strategy, social
media, editorial, architecture and interior design, and even operations
(think restaurants).
Threats
UNDERCUTTING RATES
Many well-known creative firms are taking on "smaller" projects in direct
competition with other design firms. These creative firms take this work
on for free or very little money because they want to win the “cooler,” more
creative opportunities for their portfolio to stay relevant, be hip, and win
awards, which, in turn, helps them attract and retain talent. I wish I could
name names here but you know who you are! By taking on these types of
projects (local restaurants, cultural institutions, non-profits, etc.), these
creative firms significantly under-bid their competitors. This cat and mouse
game is usually between the larger creative firms or agencies and the smaller
firms. By not charging, or charging a ridiculously low fee, the larger firms
are taking these projects on at a financial loss.
This also occurs when agencies bid for work with socially-driven
institutions, or they do the work for free because they want to support
world-changing organizations. I understand this need to do good, to raise
awareness, increase membership, or raise funds, but these same projects
are the bread and butter for other firms, particularly smaller firms. This
hurts all of us in the long term and devalues design. Why buy the cow when
they can get the milk for free? Remember what happened to the illustration
field when illustrators began to sell their work to stock agencies? That move
decimated the illustration field and slowly de-valued the cost of custom
Emily Ruth Cohen
illustration. One clear solution is that all firms of all sizes compete fairly,
and win based on the quality and impact of their work, rather than on
reduced rates.
264
AGREEING TO UNACCEPTABLE TERMS
Industry Trends
Another bad trend is agreeing to terms that restrict designers from using
their client’s name or the work they’ve done for self-promotional purposes.
This request is becoming increasingly common, and is terrifying. This is
a reasonable request for confidential and proprietary projects, but once the
work is made public, the request is unreasonable. The more often we as
a profession agree to these terms, the more damage we are inflicting on our
industry overall. Without the ability to use our client’s names and the work
we create for them, we lose the opportunity to promote ourselves—which is
how we attract new clients. If we can’t do this, we will stagnate as an industry.
THE “DESIGN BUBBLE”

Just like the dot-com bubble during the late ’90s, I believe we are in the
midst of a similar bubble within our industry. In the last ten years,
particularly as entrepreneurially-driven millennials started entering the
professional world, the number of design start-ups has rapidly increased.
As of now, this bubble has led to a rapid decrease in fees, as many firms have
lowered their rates, simply to stay competitive or out of naiveté. However,
at some point—and I think this is in the very near future—the quantity of
creative firms will greatly exceed market needs and many firms will collapse.
I’ve been writing and working on this book for over two years and I’m already
seeing this happen. It may be a natural and positive evolution of our industry,
but one that we should be aware of, nonetheless, as we think about evolving
our own creative businesses.
EXORBITANT SALARIES
Increasingly, corporations and institutions with their own in-house teams are
doing high-quality work and are able to pay far higher salaries than design
firms or agencies, and are thus attracting top tier creatives to their team. I’ve
seen many in-house teams pay over $75,000 for newly graduated designers!
On one hand, I love that this trend demonstrates that in-house teams are
now valuing the role of design within their business. I also love that salaries
are steadily increasing in larger cities, like San Francisco and New York,
to keep up with the higher cost of living. But such exorbitant salaries make
it impossible for the little guys to compete for the best talent. And often the
higher salaries aren’t parallel with project fees, which seem to be stagnant
or lower than in previous years. This too is perhaps an unsolvable trend, but
is another reason we have to rethink how we price, and the staffing strategies
we implement, so we can continue to afford and keep the best talent.
265
SENIOR-LEVEL DESIGNERS ARE AN ENDANGERED SPECIES
Brutally Honest
Most senior level designers with any talent often opt to open their own firm,
or are lured by the aforementioned higher salaries in-house teams can offer.
Many creative businesses can’t afford to pay the higher salaries that the best
talent now command, or simply cannot compete against those seeking more
entrepreneurial endeavors. Thus, the design firm bubble I mentioned earlier.
WORKLOAD INTENSITY
One integral aspect of my consulting practice is interviewing staff to determine
opportunities for improvements and change. One common complaint
I hear across all size firms is the staff’s perception that the intensity of their
workload has exponentially increased or is untenable. This may be true,
either because of lack of resources, or that the time required to manage
clients and projects is becoming increasingly more complex and fast-paced.
But there is also a generational difference in perceptions about what defines
“working hard.” Many firm principals (often from an older generation)
believe that staff should work overtime, and doing so shows commitment
and dedication. However, the new emphasis on work/life balance—one that
I admire immensely—has certainly impacted and reduced the pool of talent
that is willing to sacrifice their precious and valuable personal time. This
is now a fact of life, one that managers have to get used to. And working
overtime doesn’t necessarily equal efficiency, productivity, or quality.
Those attributes have to be emphasized with your staff, especially during
your performance reviews, to ensure what time they do give you is used
well. Thus, hiring the right staff and conducting more frequent check-ins
and performance reviews, as well as pricing at your value, are increasingly
important to meet this challenge!
Trends come and go, and many new ones will arise even after I publish this
book, while others may not longer be as relevant. You must pay attention
to these trends, as they will impact your business strategies in the future if
they haven’t already. Staying active in the design industry at local and national
levels is becoming increasingly important, and will allow you to stay abreast
of industry trends and work with your peers and team to mitigate challenges
that lay ahead.
Emily Ruth Cohen
266
Industry trends
Industry Trends
can be your
friend or foe.
267
Design
Case Study
Entrepreneurship
One firm’s story of how they turned
a point of pain in their business into
an unexpected opportunity.
By Mary-Lynn Bellamy-Willms, Co-Founder and CEO

Suburbia Studios and FunctionFox
PROBLEM
Twenty years ago, when our company, At the time, we were tracking our
Suburbia Studios, a nationally recog- hours on paper time sheets. No one
nized marketing and communications liked them, so they were often late
firm in British Columbia, Canada, or incomplete, and our management
moved into a new, purpose-built team had to scramble to gather the
office space, we knew we had to up information they needed to manage
our game to make sure our business projects and complete monthly billing.
continued to flourish. One of the We knew things had to change.
biggest pain points we needed to The project management landscape
address was how to manage time was much different than it is today.
and projects more effectively. Creative industry time tracking and
project management systems were
designed primarily for large agencies.
Software had to be purchased
and installed on each computer,
the systems were cumbersome
and complex to use—and it was all
outrageously expensive.
Design Entrepreneurship
“Taking a leap of faith to start

a new business...can be the
beginning of something both
invigorating and rewarding.”
268
EMILY'S INSIGHT
Mary-Lynn Bellamy-Willms, Co-founder and CEO

“Creating a passive source of
income can be a great opportunity
for a more mature business.”
SOLUTION SUCCESS
We couldn’t find anything that met Our fledgling company withstood
our needs, so we decided to do start-up pains, growing pains,
it ourselves. Our web development and ever-increasing competitive
team built us a very simple online time pressures. Today, it is the leading time
sheet—without any bells or whistles. tracking and project management
As soon as we began to use the new software for creative teams in over
system, we recognized its potential. 100 countries.
It made a tremendous difference Taking a leap of faith to start a new
almost right away. There were fewer business, like we did with FunctionFox,
mistakes in assigning time, fewer late is not for everyone, but if the time is
time sheets. Our estimates were more right, and an opportunity presents
accurate, and our billable hours went itself, it can be the beginning
up, too. We could also see exactly of something both invigorating
which clients were profitable for us. and rewarding.
Before long, with input from everyone
on the team, our online time sheet
had become a really useful business
tool. We began to think that other
companies might want it too. When
we did our research, we found that
smaller creative companies across
North America were extremely
interested. That’s when we decided
to create a new company and take our
product to market.
Hiring some key people to move
the project forward was next on the
agenda. We needed management,
tech, and customer service experts,
Suburbia Studios and FunctionFox
and we found some remarkable

people, who are still with the company.
It was the beginning of a tremendously
exhilarating time at Suburbia. We did
everything ourselves. The product—
called FunctionFox—was conceived,
researched, designed, and developed
in-house.
269
Glossary
Brutally Honest
BILLABLE COSTS
Costs for services and time incurred collaborate with; they can become
against a paid client/project. your best ally and strongest referral
source for new business. Connectors
BILLABLE EFFICIENCY RATE can be a range of consultants or
(OR UTILIZATION RATE) firms, including, but not limited to,
Based on data capture by your time- social media strategists, marketers,
tracking system, you can determine writers, new business consultants,
a team member’s utilization rate, developers, and operational experts.
or the percentage of time that each
member of your staff is billable. CONTRACTORS/FREELANCERS
To calculate the number of billable I use this term throughout this book
hours, divide the number of hours to refer to those who work hourly
recorded in a particular time period (sometimes at a project rate), don’t
by the hours that were recorded as receive salary or benefits, and often
billable. For example, if 50 hours work on-site at another team’s
of time was recorded for a particular location.
week, but only 40 hours of that was
billable, the utilization rate would then LEADS
be 40/50 = 80%. Note: it is easy Are the names of anyone you know,
to game the system: if your staff have met, or are interested in working
do not record all their time, billable with who can help you find new
and non-billable, their utilization business, build new business, or
rate will not be accurate. provide you with new business. Leads
are usually a vast number of people
CHANGE ORDERS who, with some effort, can be turned
A written document sent by the into prospects (see Prospects).
creative team to their clients
summarizing additional work/ PITCH WORK
changes (see “Scope Creep”) and Clients who hire several design firms,
related additional costs incurred. and pay them each the same nominal
This document is sent at the time fee, to essentially compete against
of the request and requires the each other to provide initial design
client’s approval before such costs exploration/thinking (3−4 firms may
are incurred. “pitch” the same project). Sometimes
clients even expect to “own” all
CONNECTORS concepts presented during the pitch
Emily Ruth Cohen
Connectors are non-competitive from all firms—all for less than they
consultants who offer a would pay one firm.
complementary service within
your target market whom you can
270
PROSPECTS SCOPE CREEP
Glossary
Prospects are leads who have The amount of additional or
been funneled through your new unexpected work or changes
business development process required by the client that is above
and are seriously interested in and beyond the agreed-upon scope
working with you. Simply stated, of work defined in your proposals
they are potential clients. and agreements.
QUALIFIED LEAD SOPS (STANDARD OPERATING

PROCEDURES)
A qualified lead is a contact on
whom you’ve completed some level A set of step-by-step instructions
of due diligence to ensure they are created by a business to help workers
a solid, potentially winnable client. carry out routine operations. Their
In other words, are they the right fit purpose is to achieve efficiency,
for your firm, and are you the right quality output, and uniformity
fit for them? of performance, while reducing
miscommunication and redundancy.
RFP/REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS
Documents, often generated to SPEC WORK
initiate a bidding process, that are Doing work for free (usually at the
sent from prospects to creatives to request of the client). If you had
allow them to submit their proposals a rash and sought a doctor’s advice,
and qualifications. RFPs are usually would you pay the doctor only if you
sent from large governmental agreed with her diagnosis? Doing
institutions or corporations that work for free and upon request
are either required to issue them by is bad business practice and hurts
a procurement team (or consultant), our profession. Don’t do it.
or from someone with way too much
time on their hands who simply like UNBILLABLE
to write long, unwieldy documents, Costs and time incurred to support
or from uneducated prospects who the business overall which are not
were told by some consultant that billed or applied directly to a specific
they needed an RFP when working client or project. Unbillable tasks
with a design firm. It is rare to receive include financial matters, staff
a well-crafted RFP that concisely and operational management, new
includes all the information necessary business development, marketing, etc.
to respond. In fact, responding to
RFPs is often more work than they WIN RATE
are worth.
A term that indicates the percentage
RELATIONSHIP CURATION of proposals that successfully
turn into paid client engagements.
A strategy I’ve developed for pursuing
new business opportunities. (For more
on this strategy, see Chapter 8).
271
Index
Brutally Honest
A
advisory boards, 14–15 as relationship-building
awards, 53 opportunity, 83
strategies, 88–89
what to do during, 85–86
B connectors, 69, 270
before and after format, 52 contacts, 70–71
billable costs/tasks, 214, 270 content, 43, 47–49
billable efficiency rate, 168, 270 thought leadership, 43
blogs, 49 website, 47–49
budgets, 103–104, 114 contractors, 270
business model, 34, 106–107 contracts, 144–157
cancellation, 150–151
C changes, 151
case studies, 41, 50–52 client representative, 151
change orders, 270 electronic files, 148
client management, 228–235, legally vetted, 145–146
242–251 must-have terms, 146–154
advisory role, 246 out of pocket expenses, 151
client interaction roles, 204 ownership, 152–153, 158–161
common challenges, 243 payment policy, 150
evil clients, 228 promotion, 149–150
green flags, 230–231 responsibilities of client, 147–148
guerilla clients, 227–228 schedule-related policies,
guided approvals, 246–248 146–147
ideation, 250–251 self-written, 145
long-term relationships, 227 third-party relationships, 148–149
preventative strategies, tips, 153–154
232–235 tone of voice, 156–157
principles, 200–208 usage rights, 152–153, 158–161
proactive, 243–244 work-for-hire, 158–161
RASCI/RACI approval matrix, cover letters, 71–77
244–246 creative briefs, 252–259
red flags, 229, 233 as invaluable tool, 253
client/customer relationship common mistakes, 257
management (CRM) tools, 41, content guidelines, 255–256
63–64 designer as client's partner, 253
steps for successful, 254
Emily Ruth Cohen
competition, 102–103
conferences, 82–89 tips, 256–258
buddy for, 84 CRM tools. See client/customer
post-conference homework, 86–87 relationship management tools
pre-conference planning, 83–85 curation service models, 36–37
272
D M
Index
design bubble, 265 marketing, 11–12, 40–45, 61–62
design entrepreneurship, 44, case studies as, 41, 50–52
263, 268–269 must-have tools, 40–44
digital platforms, 36–37 promotional products as
unnecessary, 44
qualifications material, 42
E websites as, 44, 46–49, 61–62
elevator pitch, 41, 48
email blasts, 43
estimates. See proposals N
executional firm, 19, 20–22 new business development, 11–12,
expertise, 11, 48 27, 60–107
conferences, 82–89
contacts, 70–71
F cover letters, 71–75
freelancers, 28–29, 270 efforts, 68
full time employees, 178, 270 excuses for not pursuing, 64
follow-up, 76–77
H marketing vs., 60–62
hiring, 174–189 opportunities, 65–70
affordability, 183 qualifying leads, 90–95
consultants, 176–177 relationship curation, 62–67, 271
finding candidates, 175–179 trade association membership,
recruiters, 178 80–81
solopreneur's first hire, 168,
181, 190–191, 201–202 O
one-person firm, 28–29
I
industry trends, 262–267 P
opportunities, 263–264 parent analogy, 13
threats, 264–266 partnership model, 172–173
pitch work, 270–271
J portfolios, 96–97
job descriptions, 186, 188−189 positioning, 10–37, 41
joy, 16–17 envisioning firm, 11–12
firm types, 18–23
repositioning, 28–29
L specialization, 24–27, 30–35
lawyers, 145–146, 152, 160–161 statement, 48
leads, 270 pricing, 110–131
qualifying, 90–95 aggravation factor, 116
siphoning, 99–101 formula, 120–121
lovability, 62, 78 geode, 115
hourly, 117–118
ideas to consider, 111–112
retainers, 124–129
273
techniques, 113–118 considerations, 126–127
Brutally Honest
tips, 112–113 situations best suited for, 127–128

value-based, 113, 116–117 terms, 126–127
principals, 164–171 types, 125–126
firm size and role of, 169, 170 RFPs (request for proposals), 118, 135,
involvement, 166 136, 271
responsibilities, 167–168 ROWE. See Results Only Work
solopreneurs, 168, 171 Environment (ROWE)
project management, 236–241
apps, 236–237
principles, 200–207 S
software, 236–237 scope creep, 147, 153, 212, 271
timelines, 238–239 SEO (search engine optimization),
weekly meetings, 240–241 41, 47
promotional products, 44 sharing economy, 263–264
proposals, 134–143 S.M.A.R.T. goals, 63, 194
defined, 135–136 social media, 44, 49
must-haves for, 138–143 solopreneurs, 168–171
qualifications included in, 136–138 first hire, 181, 190–191, 201–202
prospects, 26, 98–107, 271 as unsustainable, 168–171, 198
budget, 103–104 SOPs (standard operating
competition, 102–103 procedures), 195, 271
questions for, 101–105 SOWs. See proposals
siphoning leads, 99–101 spec work, 230, 271
tactics to avoid, 99 specialization, 22, 24–27
benefits, 27
clients and, 25–26
Q as dirty word, 25
qualifications material, 42 identifying optimal area of, 30–35
qualifying leads, 90–95 staffing, 180–199
criteria, 95 attributes of team, 197–198
customization, 94 benefits, 185
methods for, 90–94 business development, 196
business vision, 194–195
client-focused functions, 193–194
R creative leadership, 195
RASCI/RACI approval matrix, financial management, 196–197
244–246 firm-focused functions, 193,
referrals, 61 194–197
relationship curation, 62–67, 271 first hire, 190–191
mindset, 62 hiring process, 174–179, 181–191
personal commitment, 62–65 job description template, 188–189
strategy, 66–67 longevity, 184–185
trade association membership, management tools, 186
Emily Ruth Cohen
80–81 operational leadership, 195

repositioning, 28–29 planning, 181
Results Only Work Environment positions, 182, 184
(ROWE), 208–209 promotions, 185
retainers, 124–129
274
reviews, 185
Index
salaries, 184–185
size of team, 198
titles, 184, 205
Statement of Work (SOW).
See proposals
strategic firm, 19–23
strategic partnerships, 264
T
testimonials, 53
thought-leadership content, 43
time tracking, 210–223
actual hourly rates, 218–220
best practices, 213, 216
as essential tool, 211–212
excuses for not, 211
recommendations, 212
tasks glossary, 214–215
trade association membership, 80–81
U
unbillable costs/tasks, 215, 271
usage rights, 152–153, 158–161
utilization rate, 168, 270
V
value-added services, 263
W
websites, 44, 46–49
content, 48–49
as marketing tools, 61
strategies, 47–48
win rate, 96, 102, 271
work-for-hire, 159–161
275
I’d like to thank the following amazing folks:
JOHN VARGAS My awesome husband, who encourages and supports me

in all my business endeavors, keeps me laughing, tolerates my craziness,
and, most of all, continually teaches me to be a better person.
HUNTER VARGAS My brilliant daughter and best friend, who was the engine
behind this book. She kept me on track, encouraged me or yelled at me
when I needed it, and edited every detail. Without her, this book would
not have happened.
DYLAN VARGAS My equally brilliant son. His positivity, enthusiasm,

and support for this book nourished me and kept me moving forward.
ONCE–FUTURE OFFICE For creating this beautiful book and helping me to

appreciate the need for the book’s quieter moments and tiniest of design details.
EMILY POTTS My editor, who was there from the very beginning and helped
ensure a unified editorial voice and vision.
VICTORIA BROWN Proofreader extraordinaire. Her attention to detail

was indispensible.
MY GREAT CLIENTS I am incredibly grateful for all of the immensely talented

clients I’ve worked with over the years. Without you, my business acumen
would remain stagnant. You continue to support me, push me, incubate my
ideas, teach me, and tolerate my honesty. A special thanks to those clients who
have stuck with me for more years than I care to admit. You know who you are.
ANDY EPSTEIN AND BRANDIE KNOX For serving as my industry-insiders

by reading through the manuscript and providing your honest feedback
and insights.
CASE STUDY CONTRIBUTORS Additionally, thanks to those colleagues

and clients who were willing to share their best practices with their peers
by contributing a case study for this book. That was brave and generous.
I love you all. Thank you.

Brutally Honest by Emily Ruth Cohen

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No-bullshit

No-bullshit business strategies

Emily Ruth Cohen

Brutally Honest by Emily Ruth Cohen

© 2018 Emily Ruth Cohen

All rights reserved. This publication or parts thereof may

The author, Emily Ruth Cohen, is not a lawyer, nor is the

Cover and interior design by Once-Future Office,

Printed in the United States of America

Library of Congress Number: 2018904782

Marketing and Promotion

Staffing and Operational Models

Client and Project Management

Glossary and Index 270

This book is:

Chapter 1 Envision Your Firm 10

Chapter 2 What Type of Firm Are You? 18

Chapter 3 The Dirty Word: Specialization 24

Chapter 4 Identifying Your Optimal Area of Specialization 30

In order to be sustainable, you need to

Marketing and New Business

Your firm is like a family. Just as dysfunctional.

”This is an ingenious strategy

for gaining objective insight

and feedback from others outside

experiences I never expected to have out or through it was more, more,

Agnieszka Gasparska, Creative Captain and Founder

”Building joy into your work life may

A common challenge creative firms often

Pick a model. You won't regret it.

Where Do You Fit?

Can You Be Both?

of creative firms require different internal processes and staff.

• Focused principal-driven • Future-oriented and well-defined

• More focus on proactive new • Tightly-crafted positioning

or junior level resources, as well as project managers and management

What’s Right for You?

The Dirty Word:

Most creative firms are generalists, working

Put Yourself in Your Client’s Shoes

choices amidst the great work out there?

We All Sound the Same

WHAT PROSPECTS LOOK FOR IN A CREATIVE PARTNER

FOCUS YOUR NEW BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT EFFORTS

AS AN EXPERT, YOU CAN CHARGE MORE

SPECIALIZATION DOESN’T MEAN YOU CAN’T CHANGE

difficult to shift from the nonprofit means other designers, copywriters,

nonprofit trade groups, conferences, or photographers. Promoting this

doing more branding and strategy

A NOTE FROM EMILY

Identifying Your Optimal Area of Specialization

as a point of difference and a driver of their success.

recognize and value.

5. Aesthetic Point of View

Identifying Your Optimal Area of Specialization

adaptable, creatively nurturing and fiscally sensible. For KUDOS,

Identifying Your Optimal Area of Specialization

Model for Digital

• The degradation was happening

management systems, where where they did, those individuals were in