Sorry, gut

Or why ignoring your instincts is always a bad idea.

Recently I got a phone call from a potential new client (I’ll call her Anne*) looking to have a brochure designed. “Let’s meet” she suggested, “and I can tell you what I’m looking for.”

Anne is a young salesperson at a fairly large insurance company, with multiple regional offices. She wanted a brochure designed to appeal to the young, hip consumer (”You know, young and hip like us” is actually what she said, earning my gratitude and appreciation for what a good salesperson she must be). She felt her company’s current collateral was too general, too dated and too, for lack of a better word, ugly.

“Are you sure you can do this?” I asked, warning bells sounding. “Most larger companies have an established brand and they like you to stick well within it.”

She assured me that she had her boss’ blessing on the project (important, since he would be the one signing off on my invoices.) Then she dropped a small bomb. “You just have to do the design first so I can get the final OK on the project. He wants to see what he’s buying.”

Now, ordinarily I would run away from this kind of project as fast as my legs would take me. I do not work on spec. No designer should work on spec. Spec work can bankrupt you faster than anything else I can think of (except maybe bad design work and bad customer service.) If I’m doing design work for someone, I want to be paid. Period.

But… Anne was so eager, and so nice, and so, I have to say it, adorable in her shiny new sales job that I ignored this warning bell and agreed to do the work on spec. Which I did, and sent off to Anne to await approval.

“My boss said to go ahead”, she told me, and complimented my design profusely. Who doesn’t love to hear that? I sent my standard contract and invoice for half of the project amount and waited.

Anne brought the signed contract to my office, along with revisions on the brochure I’d designed. “The invoice needs to be sent to the main office,” she said, “but I’m really anxious to get this brochure printed so I can start making sales.”

Ding, ding , ding. Warning bell number three. I never move forward with a project until I get a signed contract and a down payment. It’s my policy. But… I’d already worked on spec (which is not my policy), and I did have the signed contract. And she was so happy with my design.

“I showed the brochure to another sales person,” she said, “and he wants one, too, with a slightly different focus but the same general design.” Score! A two-for-one job. But…

“In order for me to get you a check, I need you to send the finished designs to someone in accounting. It’s just a formality.”

OK, I’m going deaf from all the bells ringing in here. But what did I do? I ignored them.

To make a long story short (well, shorter) I did the two brochure designs and sent them off. Only to receive a very sheepish call from Anne a couple of days later telling me that she had been transferred to an office in another state and the project was “indefinitely on hold.” She offered to pay me out of her own pocket for the work I’d done, which I appreciated and showed me that at least I wasn’t wrong in my judgment that she is a very nice person. We figured out a compromise amount that we can both live with.

So who’s wrong in this story? My eager young client, who should have gotten approval before we started the project? Absolutely not. I knew better, I ignored every warning sign, and I ended up wasting my time and money. I should have been more clear with her right from the start, especially when it came to the spec work, and I shouldn’t have started the job until I received an initial payment. I let my opinion of her personally influence my professional behavior.

When something doesn’t seem right with a project, trust your gut instinct. Next time, I will.

* This is a true story, but the details have been changed.