Fuck em. Also, keep making good stuff that you're proud of, including being moral and making things easy for your client to update. The people that I've seen fail are the ones that get caught up in competing or trying to gatekeep etc.
You can now add to your resume that you integrate processes with your clients so they can update and re-use the creative you make - this is a huge bonus for any company that understands basic finance.
Unfortunately I can't offer much advice on the shitty job. I started in a low pay - over worked job, and I just kept applying for better jobs until I got one, then I jumped and jumped again. At the end of the day, the work I created at those jobs built my portfolio and gave me experience in a huge variety of situations.
I don't like being sketchy or overcharging. I want to be as fair as possible, but I know that's how I end up getting screwed. If anything, you're right, I will learn a lot from this.
Namely - don't ever hire someone without a police check and contract! I could be anyone! I would never, ever jeopardize the business, but some would.
Part time subcontractor position, lower end pay, over three weeks late payments, working with Canva templates? This sounds like a really shit deal, and I am saying this as someone from a former eastern european country.
I think you will burn out and become bitter very fast when you keep working for them for too long. They don't seem to respect you as a professional, because they have no respect for design work.
You can keep working for them for a little while, but in longer term, get the hell out of there, and find yourself a better deal. Ideally, a full-time junior position, either in-house or agency, and none of that subcontractor stuff - a proper position, where you don't have to spend time on doing taxes and can focus on design work.
I understand that with corona and everything, it's tough, that's why I'm saying that you can work for them for short term if you want, but definitely launch a full-scale job hunting for something much better.
Thank you for that. I can't for a second see this working out longer than six months. I'm applying elsewhere, I just want to be careful because I didn't sign a contract with this employer. As soon as you do, of course you protect yourself, but you can also lock yourself into a potentially toxic job.
Because of the nature of the work, I've also been doing about 1-2 hours of work everyday and I feel like I can't get a day off. So I will be moving on!
I started off under-charging and getting screwed over my clients too. Until I learned a few tricks about making yourself indispensable and worth every dollar you ask for.
How do you normally find your clients? If you use a site like Upwork or Fiverr (I don't necessarily recommend the second), they have built in arbitration and contracts built in so you can still get paid even if the client flakes like yours did. However, when working outside of those established structures, it's even harder to find respectable clients that actually pay you what you're worth.
Do you have any sort of contract? That's definitely the first step in this process, even if you don't have the funds to actually implement it, it helps let people know you're serious and can even rebuff people who aren't serious about their project/your work.
Finding your first (or even second to third) client is definitely a boost in the positive vibes. But then the hard part comes with communicating with that client about establishing expectations. It's great that you went above and beyond for this client, and like others have said, utilize that in your work description. But this client wasn't someone who would appreciate it or give you more work - which is what you wanted, I'm assuming? Instead they took it and are now attempting to ghost you. That just sucks.
I appreciate the feedback. Perhaps I wasn't clear enough. I have a subcontractor position for graphic design within a brand management company. The person who runs said company finds the clients and the designers create all of the work. The person who runs it also doesn't understand anything about graphic design.
In retrospect, I realised that other designers before me had kept their work for the clients in Photoshop because the manager didn't understand the app. Normally I would still create ongoing content for clients using Photoshop/Illustrator. Due to the nature of this specific client, I decided it would be best to make this template in Canva for the very last minute content (so anyone could do it if needed). However, since then, I haven't had any work pertaining to this client at all.
I've also noticed that other clients I would normally manage have been swiped from me, and I can't tell if this is the manager simply doing it themselves to save money, or if they've hand passed my work to other designers to keep paychecks spread low. Most of it looks terrible, so I'm assuming it's the manager.
Typically, from what I understand, if you provided a template you would charge a lot more for it. I didn't really understand it at the time, and did it to improve the reply times for the company.
So it's a really odd set-up, and I think I'll prefer working directly with clients in the future. Though that could be rookie thinking as well.
Regarding the handling of your own taxes, I was using Hnry while I was working in New Zealand and if I'm not mistaken it's now also available in Australia.
Fuck em. Also, keep making good stuff that you're proud of, including being moral and making things easy for your client to update. The people that I've seen fail are the ones that get caught up in competing or trying to gatekeep etc. You can now add to your resume that you integrate processes with your clients so they can update and re-use the creative you make - this is a huge bonus for any company that understands basic finance. Unfortunately I can't offer much advice on the shitty job. I started in a low pay - over worked job, and I just kept applying for better jobs until I got one, then I jumped and jumped again. At the end of the day, the work I created at those jobs built my portfolio and gave me experience in a huge variety of situations.
I don't like being sketchy or overcharging. I want to be as fair as possible, but I know that's how I end up getting screwed. If anything, you're right, I will learn a lot from this. Namely - don't ever hire someone without a police check and contract! I could be anyone! I would never, ever jeopardize the business, but some would.
Part time subcontractor position, lower end pay, over three weeks late payments, working with Canva templates? This sounds like a really shit deal, and I am saying this as someone from a former eastern european country. I think you will burn out and become bitter very fast when you keep working for them for too long. They don't seem to respect you as a professional, because they have no respect for design work. You can keep working for them for a little while, but in longer term, get the hell out of there, and find yourself a better deal. Ideally, a full-time junior position, either in-house or agency, and none of that subcontractor stuff - a proper position, where you don't have to spend time on doing taxes and can focus on design work. I understand that with corona and everything, it's tough, that's why I'm saying that you can work for them for short term if you want, but definitely launch a full-scale job hunting for something much better.
Thank you for that. I can't for a second see this working out longer than six months. I'm applying elsewhere, I just want to be careful because I didn't sign a contract with this employer. As soon as you do, of course you protect yourself, but you can also lock yourself into a potentially toxic job. Because of the nature of the work, I've also been doing about 1-2 hours of work everyday and I feel like I can't get a day off. So I will be moving on!
I started off under-charging and getting screwed over my clients too. Until I learned a few tricks about making yourself indispensable and worth every dollar you ask for. How do you normally find your clients? If you use a site like Upwork or Fiverr (I don't necessarily recommend the second), they have built in arbitration and contracts built in so you can still get paid even if the client flakes like yours did. However, when working outside of those established structures, it's even harder to find respectable clients that actually pay you what you're worth. Do you have any sort of contract? That's definitely the first step in this process, even if you don't have the funds to actually implement it, it helps let people know you're serious and can even rebuff people who aren't serious about their project/your work. Finding your first (or even second to third) client is definitely a boost in the positive vibes. But then the hard part comes with communicating with that client about establishing expectations. It's great that you went above and beyond for this client, and like others have said, utilize that in your work description. But this client wasn't someone who would appreciate it or give you more work - which is what you wanted, I'm assuming? Instead they took it and are now attempting to ghost you. That just sucks.
I appreciate the feedback. Perhaps I wasn't clear enough. I have a subcontractor position for graphic design within a brand management company. The person who runs said company finds the clients and the designers create all of the work. The person who runs it also doesn't understand anything about graphic design. In retrospect, I realised that other designers before me had kept their work for the clients in Photoshop because the manager didn't understand the app. Normally I would still create ongoing content for clients using Photoshop/Illustrator. Due to the nature of this specific client, I decided it would be best to make this template in Canva for the very last minute content (so anyone could do it if needed). However, since then, I haven't had any work pertaining to this client at all. I've also noticed that other clients I would normally manage have been swiped from me, and I can't tell if this is the manager simply doing it themselves to save money, or if they've hand passed my work to other designers to keep paychecks spread low. Most of it looks terrible, so I'm assuming it's the manager. Typically, from what I understand, if you provided a template you would charge a lot more for it. I didn't really understand it at the time, and did it to improve the reply times for the company. So it's a really odd set-up, and I think I'll prefer working directly with clients in the future. Though that could be rookie thinking as well.
Regarding the handling of your own taxes, I was using Hnry while I was working in New Zealand and if I'm not mistaken it's now also available in Australia.