Sunday
11 10 Best Tips to Invoice Your Freelance Clients Professionally
Let’s face it, while receiving money can be very addictive, invoicing is a total nightmare for freelancers, especially designers with artistic talent. However, the truth side about the freelance business is you not only need your design skill to succeed, but carefully and wisely managed invoicing to keep you business going smooth without troubles from the financial side, or frustration from the client side.
We talk about professionalism, but in fact all you need is to do it right. Choosing the right invoicing software, implement the right policies and charge method, asking for a right payment method, manage the invoice record right, this article is all about sharing the right tips for you to do the right invoicing. So learn from the tips right, then you’re on the right way on doing the right and most importantly, professional invoicing. Full detail after jump!
It is better to use an online invoicing software as it will help you easily track your clients and the amount of money you are owed. Some of the invoicing software are paid service while others are free. Regardless of the software you decide to use, make sure it meets all your needs with the features you required.
Below are some great recommendations:
As part of your work policies, you should consider the following factors:
Clients can refuse to pay or might be inclined to make late payments if they are surprised by any information on your invoices. As a freelance graphic designer, you need to develop a trust with your clients, thus making everything crystal clear on your policies will not only bring you more trust to clients, but also more jobs to you.
The reason is if you underpriced your services, you are more likely to attract cheap clients who give you long and tedious jobs and then disappear without even paying a cent. Also decide your pricing method. Determine whether you will fix your pricing on the basis of the job done or per hour, inform the client so they have no doubt on how you charge.
Besides, note that majority of freelancer graphic designers prefer their clients to pay upfront before beginning project. Thus, when creating an invoice clearly indicate whether the payment is for the entire or part of the project.
Some of the options you can consider include:
Note that including due dates on invoice is helpful even if your clients always make their payments on time, talking about security.
Failure to include your contact information on the invoice might result in payment delays. Clients might also need your contact information as part of their record keeping policy.
Most of the invoicing software mentioned above includes a numbering system, which you can use to keep track of payments. A good numbering system allows you to monitor payments and keep track of late payments or clients who have defaulted. It simply saves you time and effort searching here and there, or ended up invoicing clients who have already paid.
Grow a habit, always do a backup of your invoice record. You can photocopy them, print them out or download them into your computer’s local storage, as long as you have a copy of them. Store any email and letter related with the invoice so when anything happens, you always have an extra reference, and you will thank yourselves for keeping them well.
Lastly, you need to be systematic when dealing with invoicing issues raised by your clients. Responding in time to your client’s concerns portrays your professionalism and will increase the likelihood of them giving you more projects.
We talk about professionalism, but in fact all you need is to do it right. Choosing the right invoicing software, implement the right policies and charge method, asking for a right payment method, manage the invoice record right, this article is all about sharing the right tips for you to do the right invoicing. So learn from the tips right, then you’re on the right way on doing the right and most importantly, professional invoicing. Full detail after jump!
1. Using Good Invoicing Software
The first thing you need to do when preparing invoices for your clients is to select good invoicing software. There are plenty of invoicing software on the market that will help you create convincing invoices, so you probably don’t need to worry about choosing the right one.Below are some great recommendations:
2. Come Up with Your Policies
It is normal to want to be paid after working for a client. However, in the real world not all clients pay on time. As a freelance graphic designer, you will come across stubborn clients who pay half the amount then disappears. Some of your clients will even refuse to pay you. To minimize the occurrences such cases, you need to come up with policies regarding payments.As part of your work policies, you should consider the following factors:
- What payment mode will you use – cash, checks or credit cards?
- How much should the client pay as a down payment?
- Will you begin the work without any payments?
- How many days you will wait before the client pays?
- Are you going to impose penalties for late payments?
- When will the client receives the final work – before or after making payments?
3. Stick to Your Policies
Clients do not like surprises. Let the clients know about your policies, including your pricing structure. They should also be informed if any changes are made on the policies.Clients can refuse to pay or might be inclined to make late payments if they are surprised by any information on your invoices. As a freelance graphic designer, you need to develop a trust with your clients, thus making everything crystal clear on your policies will not only bring you more trust to clients, but also more jobs to you.
4. Think about Your Charges
You have heard the first rule of pricing is never to undercharge. This is so true. Your prices need to be in line with that of your competitors. Do not dare to quote lower prices in order to attract clients.The reason is if you underpriced your services, you are more likely to attract cheap clients who give you long and tedious jobs and then disappear without even paying a cent. Also decide your pricing method. Determine whether you will fix your pricing on the basis of the job done or per hour, inform the client so they have no doubt on how you charge.
5. Include Services and Charges
All of your invoices should clearly indicate the services rendered and the amount charged. This makes it easy for clients to understand what they are being asked to pay for. This will also help you and the client monitor what has already been paid and the amount outstanding, thus maintaining an up-to-date record of payments and completed tasks.Besides, note that majority of freelancer graphic designers prefer their clients to pay upfront before beginning project. Thus, when creating an invoice clearly indicate whether the payment is for the entire or part of the project.
6. Accepted Methods of Payments
It is important for clients to clearly what payment services have been rendered. Some of your clients may be comfortable paying cash, while others might be willing to write checks or make credit card payments. It’s okay as long as you choose a method that is acceptable to you and your clients.7. When Are the Payments Due?
Many freelance graphic designers fail to receive payments for projects done since they do not inform their clients when payments are due. Make sure to include a due date on every invoice you send to reduce the occurrence of late payments.Note that including due dates on invoice is helpful even if your clients always make their payments on time, talking about security.
8. Include Your Contact Details
When designing your invoice, do not forget to include your full names, address, telephone number and email. Some of the invoices you send will pass through several people before getting paid. It is much easier if the person receiving the invoice knows where it is from. In addition, they might need clarification on a few items and including your contact information makes it easier for them to reach you.Failure to include your contact information on the invoice might result in payment delays. Clients might also need your contact information as part of their record keeping policy.
9. Number your Invoices
As a freelancer, you will have to deal with many clients and in the process, you will send out lots of invoices. Thus, you need to come up with a way of monitoring and organizing your invoices.Most of the invoicing software mentioned above includes a numbering system, which you can use to keep track of payments. A good numbering system allows you to monitor payments and keep track of late payments or clients who have defaulted. It simply saves you time and effort searching here and there, or ended up invoicing clients who have already paid.
10. Keeping A Record of Invoices
Always remember that backup is the savior of all business troubles. It is so essential that if you fail to do it and you lost your record of invoices, there will be no way to track which clients have been billed, and which are not.Grow a habit, always do a backup of your invoice record. You can photocopy them, print them out or download them into your computer’s local storage, as long as you have a copy of them. Store any email and letter related with the invoice so when anything happens, you always have an extra reference, and you will thank yourselves for keeping them well.
Bonus: Make Follow Ups
Not all of your clients will respond to your invoices on time. As the due date approaches, politely enquirer from the clients whether or not they have sent their payments. Yes, be polite when doing follow ups because while certain clients are willing to pay, they could have simply forgotten the payments.Lastly, you need to be systematic when dealing with invoicing issues raised by your clients. Responding in time to your client’s concerns portrays your professionalism and will increase the likelihood of them giving you more projects.
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Friday
6 5 Useful Failure Management Tips for Logo Designers To Never Give Up!
Everyone wishes to attain success and accomplishments in their lives. But all and sundry don’t get the taste of success. Failure is another thing that occurs every now and then. Being logo designers, we also struggle for accomplishments in our profession. But not every logo designer is capable of being successful. If truth be told, some often find failure in the beginning of their logo design occupation. Instead of being disheartened, we should see failure as an indication to perform even better.
If you fear that you will fail, then you will never be able to do well in your career. In order to alleviate the fright of disappointment, you must believe in yourself. Your maxim should be to “Disregard the past, reside the present and prepare for the future.”
1. Admit Your Faults:
The foremost tip is to be brave enough to admit your faults. Since nobody can be considered to be faultless, you should confess your mistakes so that you may correct them. If you will remain stubborn in not accepting your blunders, then you will never be able to remedy them in order to alleviate failure factor.
2. Evaluate your Circumstances:
When the first hurdle of recognizing your mistake is cleared, you can move onto the next part of evaluating the situation. After having accepted your error, you should start analyzing the things that caused failure. Do cause-effect analyses to see what causes result in the failure.
3. Learning from Setbacks:
Most of the designers after facing setbacks go into a state of disappointment. With the aim of preventing from further failure in the future, you must learn from your setbacks in the past. Seek to decipher the causes that escorted you to failure and prepare in advance in order to evade more disappointments.
4. Never Criticize Yourself:
One of the most important tips in failure management is to remain positive. Criticizing yourself after you have faced a major setback in your logo design career is not good. Most designers who face failure start to blame themselves and end up depressed and gloomy. Avoid self-criticism otherwise the remorse will disturb you ceaselessly in the future.
5. Never Give Up:
Last of all is resolve and fortitude of a logo designer. There is a general tendency of giving up after the first failed attempt. We should take a lesson from famous inventors who tried and tried several times until they succeeded in creating a phenomenon.
To sum up, logo designers must remember that it is better to attempt and fail then to not attempt at all. I anticipate these tips will give confidence to those aspirant logo designers to believe in themselves and never succumb to failure.
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Saturday
3 15 Most Creative Shoes You Most See To Believe It
I decided to create this post for people who love design and love shoes. I found a collection of odd yet very creative ones. These shoes are those that you will not need or probably never wear but you would still want them just because they are cool and different. Enjoy
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Dezeen in Israel: these high-heeled shoes that look like inflatable sex dolls are part of a collection of footwear by Tel Aviv designer Kobi Levi.
The Blow shoes were designed to highlight how high heels are synonymous with sex and accompany a second pair where the heel illustrates the act of sex itself.
Other handmade shoes in the collection depict different animals and birds.
One pair, named Slide, is designed to look like a playground slide with a bright blue ladder for a heel, while another pair resembles banana skins.
If crazy shoes are your thing, you may want to check out all our stories about shoes.
Here’s some more text about each pair from Kobi Levy:
Kobi Levi Footwear Art – About the designs
Elephant
This is a very elegant design, which balances between the heaviness of the huge mammal to the lightness of a high heel shoe. Every aspect of the elephant is tuned down just a little. This creates an illusion of gentleness and calmness that is probably quite rare in the wild. The long trunk extends the length of the shoe and gives is a long and slim look.
The elephant is lovely and even cute, despite his enormous size. Its shape is very recognizable and loved by most viewers.
The upper tries to mimic the big elephant ears, which are always moving from side to side, chasing away flies and so on.
Slide
The basic idea for this design came from listening to customers of Kobi’s commercial designs complaining about their feet sliding inside high heel shoes. This made Kobi think about the connection between slides in a children’s playground and high heel shoes. The resemblance between the two silhouettes is striking.
The colors of this design celebrate the playfulness and joyfulness of playing grounds. The heel is made of steel in a very delicate and elaborate work.
Blow and XXX Pump
These designs try to push the usage of high heel shoes as sex objects to extreme. High heels shoes are promoting sex or hinting about sex all around us. They have become synonym with sexual displays of various kinds. Kobi has decided to show this in the most outspoken way by creating a shoe shaped as an inflatable sex doll and naming it “Blow”.
XXX is a vulgar extreme close-up display of a sexual act, disguised as a basic high heel shoe in a neutral, harmless, nude color.
Both designs challenge us to reflect on the common usage of sexual icons and imageries in the everyday media.
Dog
The idea for this design came from observing a dog breathing heavily with his ears fallen down to the ground. The ears became into a double heel and the mouth is now a peep-toe.
Banana
The combination of banana peels and shoes usually leads to unpleasant accidents.
Kobi saw the banana as a slipper, inviting the feet to slip inside and wear its bright color all around. With the heel shaped as one of the peels, the whole banana is complete. Both heel andsole are made of one aluminum piece, which gives the design strength and durability.
Miao
The inspiration for this style came from watching a cat stretch his back.
The image is obtained by freezing the motion of the cat into a single “frame”. Using a silhouette of a “frozen frame” creates a sense of movement, which gives life to the design. It seems as though the cat is about to jump forward in a giant leap. The long, playful tail and the pink strap with the tiny bell add character and personality. We have all seen this cat somewhere before.
Slingshot
The idea for this design came when Kobi noticed the “tension” created when walking with Flip Flops: The upper stretches and flips back the sole to the foot. Kobi rearranged the sole- strap connection, fixed it, and created a high heel flip flop inspired by a Sling Shot.
This design captures and emphasizes the movement which characterizes flip flops. This movement is stopped and frozen to create the design. The Materials used for the upper: leather. The heel is made of wood.
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Tuesday
32 Best Color Spectrum of Web Design Inspiration
Website designs come along in all kinds of colors and tones, from muted greys right through to psychedelic mixes of every color imaginable. This post rounds up a showcase of some of the best web designs from every color in the spectrum, featuring vibrant designs using reds, oranges, yellows, greens, blues and purples.
Red Bowl Challenge
Mike Smart
War Child
Chad Mazzola
Pongathon
Viljami Salminen
Half Of Us
AbaF
McFarlane Change Management
Bzzy App
3 Sided Cube
PANDR
Freckles & Handsome
Sproutlet
Thomas Aull
Bord
Reverend Danger
Sparkbox
GiveBeyond.me
Sunday Best
TheWP.co
MailChimp
Fork
DrupalCon Denver 2012
Postbox
Shout Digital
Alfred App
Playground
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