“The more clients you get, the more money you make” is incorrect. In the short run, it is true that you get more money with every client working with you. But in the long run, it is even counterproductive to look for quantity.
Look for quality in your clients
After you can pay your bills, you should aim for getting the highest quality of clients possible. Today, I say “No” more often to new clients than I say “Yes”. And I do it for strategic reasons:
1. High quality clients bring you high quality projects
If you work on 100 logo designs a month, you cannot invest enough time to create one of these as best as you could. You can produce quantity, you can provide decent results, you can satisfy low-paying clients. But you can’t design the next Nike logo with such a workload.
Reduce the quantity of client offers you’ll get by charging more per design and you’ll have more time on your hands for each project you accept. This way, the quality of your work increases which will turn every logo you create into a great “business card” for the next high-quality client to come your way.
And as high-quality clients bring you high-quality projects, the quality of your work will increase the more you change your perspective from quantity to quality.
2. Build your business
If you run your own business, you work 12 hours a day, 7 days a week, and you still feel, that you haven’t done enough by the end of each week. 12 * 7 * 4 gives you around 336 hours of work a month.
If you really accept 100 client projects a month, you can only invest around 3 hours per project, while you’ve got no time to invest into building your website, increasing your reach on social media, doing the accounting stuff, sending invoices, doing real-life marketing …
I spend at least 70 percent of my time on non-design tasks. That leaves me with 336 * 0.3 = 100 hours of design a month. How many projects can I work on with 100 hours, while still producing high-quality results?
Even smaller design tasks need time for research, brainstorming, revisions, delivery, presentation and and and. If I accept 100 clients with only 100 hours of workload, I can’t keep up with the quality that my clients and myself are demanding from me.
3. Creativity needs enthusiasm
Another reason why quantity is a bad goal: Creating designs like doing a factory job, will kill enthusiasm, and creativity.
I want to be enthusiastic about my client’s projects, as this enthusiasm is what I need to deliver creative results of high value.
I charge a lot for a logo design to make sure, that I have the time and the enthusiasm to give a lot back to my client in return.
4. High-quality clients don’t care about money, they care about value
I don’t think that Nike cares about what the Swoosh logo cost them. Knowing how much value it brought to the company, they would have paid millions to get it.
The same applies to every big player on the market. Big companies think about their brand value: Apple, McDonald’s, Disney, Marvel, and even Donald Trump. These names are brands with a value beyond any imagination.
Such companies don’t choose a designer based on his rate. They don’t turn down designer one because he charges $5,000 more than designer two. These companies want the best results possible as the right logo design can increase their brand value by millions of dollars – they know it, just like good designers know it.