Mistakes I made as a Creative

Hi Titilayo, we got your contact through a friend. He said you are good at website content. We’ve got a brief for you. You are to create content for each of the pages. Our price is XYZ.

No Problem, Sir. I’ve got this. You’ll get your content in three days.

Anxious Titilayo responded

Titilayo is exhausted because the brief she got had little to no information.

Hence, she had to do more research. She made the drop-off and discovered she was underpaid.

Whose fault was that?

Is this you? Did I just remind you of something similar?

Welcome onboard.

It’s so painful that creatives aren’t appreciated enough, especially in this part of our world.

If you think foreigners regard us too, you are wrong. My dear, they know we are undervalued so they come to us with prices we will jump on.

Interestingly, we jump.

If told to jump, we ask how high. Pathetic right?

Don’t feel bad. Every creative has gone through this stage, experts included.

Well, I made some mistakes I’m not proud of and they are not far-fetched.

1. Too Forward:

I was too forward. You can’t blame me. I was in a predicament and didn’t have a job for a while.

I was ready to grab the first job headed my way. The annoying thing about this is that you won’t charge them as much as you should because you just want something to tide you over.

Don’t do that. Even if you haven’t worked in a while, charge your usual fee. Money is a good motivation, don’t deceive yourself into thinking otherwise.

2. No Contract:

I was working without a contract. Comrade, you don’t want to do that.

Clients are tricky people. If you don’t have your terms and conditions fully spelt out, they’ll keep coming with corrections.

Just ask designers or web developers.

Create a contract stating how many times they can make corrections, your working hours, payment plan and when you will deliver the job.

I had the good sense to do this for a website job and got paid immediately, with no price hassling.

Those are heaven-sent clients. I begin to wonder if I should have charged more.

The point is that having a contract will set you apart from other creatives. It’s called CLASS. Own it.

3. Settling:
Never settle. Dear creative, your price is your price.

You know why you charge that amount. Don’t let any client tell you stories that will pull your emotional strings.

I learned the hard way.

A friend told me not to settle but because I was in dire need of something tangible, I didn’t listen and it backfired. I was right back where I started.

Do not settle.

They were not there when you spent hours, and nights developing your skills.

Do they want quality work? Then they should pay for it. A win-win transaction.

These are the major mistakes I made and I don’t want you to make any of them.

You deserve better as a creative. We all do. Set your standards, and do not compromise because the right client will come.

What mistakes did you make as a creative? I’d love to hear from you. You can share in the comment section.

Hit the 50 claps for doing a good job reading all through.