studio start up
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- 13 Responses
- Spookytim0
I just emailed you Kiko.
- trooper0
tips: dont spend on anything unless you absolutely can not do a job without it this includes getting offices etc as the main failure of any business is cashflow problems which you'll encounter from day 1
getting work is easy just have a website thats seo'd it will generate new leads then its up to you to farm clients and their contacts... then word of mouth will spread
become an llp and get professional indemnity insurance just in case
dont personally guarantee any loans etc
look for grants in your area and offer them to clients too!
theres not too much work coming from agencies as the markets flooded with freelancers unless you have a niche thats less dominated
dont go into a partnership with anything less than 51%
work office hours only and ensure you keep a high quality of life outtside of work... this one killed my 10 yr relationship as i spent too much time at work... in truth theres nothing that wont wait until tomorrow... just call your client and explain.
print your own stationery or ad them to a client job and get them added into the cost
dont be afriad to farm out work... theres money to be made in being a middle man just make sure you keep the client in-house and retain the copyright for any works.
download www.neue.co.uk/docs.zip (limited time offer) and get some stock contracts
work 50% on order and 50% on publication exclusively - dont change this for anyone... seriously its not worth it however big the client is and when i say 50% on publication i mean on launch of the site under their domain, or on reciept of the printed materials... you want the cash BEFORE they get it!
dont do mates rates- for anyone! you'll just get screwed over time and time again and loose friends, 10 years in and im still getting clobbered on this one.
- That link just failed for me any other way to see it? CheersCarl_Weathers
- its right?trooper
- That ZIP is corrupt for some reason?MSL
- Works now. Nice T&Cs, Thanks!MSL
- Excellent post that. Especially the cash-flow situation. Heed those words!thebottlerocket
- SoulFly0
tropper - I don't understand this last point, what do you mean by "order" and "publication", (can you express this in American terminology if you can)
"work 50% on order and 50% on publication exclusively - dont change this for anyone... seriously its not worth it however big the client is and when i say 50% on publication i mean on launch of the site under their domain, or on reciept of the printed materials... you want the cash BEFORE they get it!"
Thanks.
- SoulFly0
Ah I get it--- 50% up front, and 50% on delivery!!!!
- trooper0
it means dont give paymenr terms... its payment on order and payment on hand over, not after the site is published, but on the day you're ready to hand it over... just explain that as a service industry cashflow is always crippling and give them a 'warranty' on work for a fixed term i.e. 1 month in which to fix typos etc on the site (not add new content)
- non0
Buy alot of corporate gifts.
- Spookytim0
I started up a studio in London. It was a partnership with someone who was previously my senior designer at my last job where I ran the visual communications dept.
Would be able to rattle on endlessly about the pros and cons. Did you have anything specific you'd like to know about?
- Kiko0
yes everything please. how you get clients, how you pitch for work how do you find new clients, costs pros cons etc
- Dancer0
*listening to spooky rattle away at his essay
- skt0
i think it might break records.
- Spookytim0
Well now, first and foremost, make you sure have decent, comfortable and above all durable plimsolls, next... (scene fades to black and then back up to an assembly line in a factory. Oxygen by Jean Michel Jarre plays as we watch hair-netted females working rapidly to secure icing sugar flowers to the tops of rectangular biscuits as they whizz past at phenomenal speed. Next we watch the biscuits drop down a few centimetres into a cardboard tray that shifts incrementally each time a biscuit lands, allowing the next one, mere nanoseconds later, to land in an empty space. When the cardboard tray is finally full of 24 biscuits, it drops out of sight and is replaced be an new, empty tray which immediately begins filling up. Scene cross fades to a new conveyor belt upon which the filled trays travel into a cellophane machine. When they emerge at the other end, they are sealed. Two women, also in hair nets, apply stickers to the upper surface and the trays all travel to the end of the line where tubby men lift them on to crates. When the crates are full they are lifted onto palettes, and when the palettes are full, a fork lift truck puts them on a lorry. We see the lorry leave the factory, travel on a motorway and arrive at a corner shop. A nice old lady signs for the delivery, the biscuits are put on display in the old lady's shop window, and a gaggle of children enter and buy some. Then they eat them on the village greean and wave at a passing bobby as he cycles along. Scene fades to black as Jean Michel Jarre concludes his aural oddysey, then we fade back to Studiospooky)... and so you see, if I hadn't wore my trousers that day, well... I wouldn't be here talking to you know HAHAHAHAH.
But seriously though, its worth avoiding that kind of thing.
Any questions?
- neue75_bold0
I'm down...
- Help him up someone.Spookytim
- I'm fine actually... down here on the ground...neue75_bold
- shits, on neue's chest...Concrete
- wtf did you eat last night? holy jesus mother of god...neue75_bold
- dont sanchez um. I gotta go after thatMachuse