How to Approach Bidding
Lesson 8 from: FAST CLASS: Working Successfully with Clients: A Class for Illustrators and DesignersLisa Congdon
How to Approach Bidding
Lesson 8 from: FAST CLASS: Working Successfully with Clients: A Class for Illustrators and DesignersLisa Congdon
Lessons
Class Introduction
02:41 2Be Prompt, Clear and Succinct
05:23 3Email Communication: What Works, What Doesn't
08:47 4What to Look for in an Assignment
06:39 5Red Flags
04:50 6Questions about the Schedule
03:24 7Fees & Negotiation
08:45 8How to Approach Bidding
02:50Navigating Contracts
03:30 10What Should Go Into a Contract?
08:27 11Negotiating Contracts
03:49 12The Pros and Cons of Having an Agent
06:30 13Phases of a Freelance Illustration or Design Job
02:01 14Sketch & Feedback Phases
05:01 15Ask Questions!
02:04 16Final Artwork Phase
02:21 17Dealing with Change in Scope
02:39 18Wrap Phase
02:06Lesson Info
How to Approach Bidding
So now we're going to get into bidding on a job. And I wanted to cover this because a lot of times what happens is um most of the time when you get an inquiry from a potential client, they want to work with you, They've already chosen you. They might have a backup list if you say no, but they want to work with you and they want to know what you're going to charge or you know like if you're available but there you're basically being offered a job. But there's another scenario that happens probably about 10-15. Sometimes even 20% of the time when a client comes to you and wants you to bid on a job. And I think this is actually more true for designers than it is for illustrators. I'm not really sure what the world is in this regard for photographers, but what that means is they've got um other people interested are there interested in working with other people besides you? They're interested in a slew of you and they want to see, you know, they want to base who they're going to choose on ...
like what your bid is, like how much you would charge. And maybe another question they're going to ask is how long would it take you to complete the assignment? So here are a couple of acceptable bid questions. Name your fee and how quickly can you turn the job around? These are very normal, acceptable questions for them to ask you. And again, I think I used an example earlier of I had a little bit of reservation when I got a big opportunity recently. So before I even gave a bid I wanted to know more about how they wanted to work with me and a little bit more about the assignment. So if you can get that kind of information out of them initially because sometimes coming up with a bid is a little bit of work. Um Especially is in the case that I named earlier it was kind of like for a large amount of work. And so I wanted to make sure that I did some calculations that led me to a good number and I knew that was gonna take me some time. So I wanted to make sure that it was potentially gonna be a good job for me before I did the work of coming up with a bid. So it's okay to ask other questions before you name your fee or how quickly you can turn the job around or whether you even know whether you wanna bid on the job in the first place. Mhm. However unacceptable bid question. Well there's actually just one give us some samples of what you would like to what you would do or how you would approach the assignment. What are they asking you to do work? They're asking you to work and that is called work on spec. So you want to avoid any work on spec unless the client offers to pay you
Class Materials
Bonus Materials with Purchase