The Power Of Saying NO!

Over the last couple of weeks as per usual I have been silly busy, despite this I’ve been able to respond to some messages from dare I say it “Fans”.

Ok that’s a bit of a stretch but I’ve had a few designers & friends reach out to me regarding how do I deal with clients pushing the boundaries and essentially taking the piss? and do I have any advice.

Honestly there isn’t any hard and fast rules, it depends on what’s actually happened along the way, after all wars are only told by the victor.

The one thing that’s helped me more than anything while running a design studio is learning the power of NO, now I’m aware this sounds scary and positivity is everything bla bla bla bla but here me out.

No, is your backstop (Brexit pun intended) if someone wants something for free at a supermarket and they go to the cash register and don’t pay they are told NO.

Weirdly enough in Design it seldom is like this, and I think designers really need to buck this trend, so from me this is where you need the power of NO.

If you’ve met the brief, ticked the boxes & the feedback has been good and then those goalposts start to move beyond what was agreed start saying NO. The client won’t like it, offer to make them pay for the move of the goal posts, if they don’t then you use “NO” again.

“But what if it …. “when I started saying NO I thought this, but then I always remember that I only say NO when a client is breaking the terms & conditions that we both agreed upon.

It’s funny how as a designer you forget this part, or at least I did.

99% of the time for me at least, things run nice and smoothly but I thought I’d share this because some of the people I’ve had chats with of late literally I cannot believe what I have heard.

If you’ve got some advice for designers that deal with difficult clients feel free to drop comments below.

Thanks

Mr Nope.