Never Hire a Friend or Family Member and/or Never Arrange a Work-Trade for Design Services.

Welcome to my first installment of a ten part series on hiring a designer. Good design is hard to come by, and choosing the right designer is too important of a decision to take lightly. Over the next few weeks, I will be posting “10 Things You Need to Know When Hiring a Designer” and here is number 10.

#10: Never Hire a Friend or Family Member and/or Never Arrange a Work-Trade for Design Services.

You know you need to market yourself to build up your business and create a brand that distinguishes yourself in the market place, but who do you rely on to help you get this done? Hiring a professional designer is the obvious decision.

The hard decision: the money. Its a scary proposition, paying for design and the printing of large quantity of materials all at once, plus applying this design to all piece of your marketing materials, such as web, portfolios, promos, identity and managing the print process, web building and promo mailing can be overwhelming.

Often, photographers turn to friends or try to work out a trade with designers who have hired them, resulting in a hodge-podge marketing effort that does not really pay off. As you are building your career, you eventually need an assistant, a studio manager, a bookkeeper and yes, even a designer.


A designer is a business asset.

Why? The answer is simple. Because, commercial photographers are marketing to creative people, and one of your most important assets is to build a brand that creatives relate to, respond to, and remember. A good designer can do that and an exceptional designer will project you to the head of the pack.

So, we have established that you need a designer, like you need a camera to build a memorable business that creatives respond to. Now the issue is why hiring a friend or doing a work-trade can be a hindrance.

The reality you face is that:

• Work-trades do not give you all you need. Trading of services are often not comprehensive, they may only give you a logo, or one promo, but you need a whole package with consistent marketing. Very rarely does trading work out equally between both parties.
• You may not truly be objective and tell them if you do not like something for fear of hurting their feelings.
• You may want to rush to make sure you are not a burden which could compromise the final design and or the job is low on the designers radar and takes longer than you want.
• Skimping on design is skimping on your business— well executed design is of primary importance. If you chose to invest in brand strategy development, your will see the real value in your investment, utilize it, and continue to invest in it with good promotion. Plus, hiring a designer should be more, it should allow you to establish a yearly marketing plan and have that plan executed. The idea is that you never again have to execute the design of your marketing materials, your designer (maybe along with a consultant) create a marketing plan, select images for all the promos, get them printed and mailed.
  

We recently completed a job for Suzanne Sease, photographic consultant, and believe it or not, it took her eight years to design and execute her website. Here is why: “I left The Martin Agency in 1999 and it took me eight years to get a website, why? because several times in my busy world I agreed to a trade (or barter) with a friend in exchange for my advice. They got my advice but I never seemed to get a website. Finally, I realized it was time to be serious about expediting a website with no more trade. I hired Nadine Stellavato Brown and yes, she is a very good friend of mine but we chose to keep business, business. And what did I get - a great website that has been getting compliments from all who view it. I have never heard a success story from trading with a friend and in fact I have heard of many losing a friend because of it. I have learned it is best to keep your business out of the hands of your friends and treasure your friends for who they are, your friends.” — Suzanne Sease

Now she gets sign ups from people just viewing the site. Imagine what her business could be today if she had that website eight years ago?

Your brand is important. Your business is important. Invest in your business.



Next week we will cover topic #9: Find a Design Firm / Designer that is Current and Understands the Ad Market.