re-design and more re-design

junglequestions

I've been designing a website for the past 2 months for a friend. i had previously designed him a cracker of a site, which he is extremely pleased with. a friend being a friend, I ripped myself off and charged him half price.

He is still not happy with the design of his new site and at this stage is really starting to P%SS me off!

I'm not bragging but my designs are professional. proper css and photoshop techniques.

I'm on my 4th template for him now... how do you tell a client (friend in this case) enough changes is enough!!

i'm going to have to start charging him extra!

kjt

junglequestions wrote:

I'm on my 4th template for him now... how do you tell a client (friend in this case) enough changes is enough!!

By telling him the price tag so far. I've done sites for friends in the past and done as you did by charging them far less. I wont be doing it in the future!
I hope your not with this site too.

Best of luck with him/her

junglequestions

i've invoiced him for the website as agreed upon at the start. but the changes are too much what what I invoiced him.

junglequestions

Also - won't be doing websites for friends in future!!

Goodshape

4th template is a bit much. I'd say get done what you have so far agreed to do, agree to nothing else in the meantime, and then tell him your rates for any future changes.

That's the friendly enough way of doing things I think.

DonkeyStyle \o/

junglequestions wrote:

He is still not happy with the design of his new site and at this stage is really starting to P%SS me off!

Yep, sounds like one of those people who don't know what they want, but know they want something else. :rolleyes:
Sit him down infront of the computer and tell him to point out what he likes or doesn't like about each design you've made for him so far.
If he's as discerning a critic as he thinks he is, then I'm sure he'll be able to point you in the right direction.
And once you make a template of exactly what he said he wants, no matter how crap it looks because of his input, he can't possibly refuse it
I dunno, some people just have no taste... their ideal website may be constructed entirely from industry no-no's and may end up looking like crap.
So at what point to you stop protecting them from their own daft design ideas, and just give them what they want?

Working for friends really puts you in a shít position, especially if you take money from them... my advice is to either get tough or bail out... free work is a strain.
Anyway, how good of a friend would put you to all this extra hassle, when they know you're doing them a big favour in the first place? - beware the acquaintances posing as friends... if the phrase "long time no see!" pops up then fúck them.

dahamsta

I hate this kind of crap. My advice would be to play the sympathy card: “I hope you won't take offense but I gave you a very good price on this and these redrafts are cutting into other work I could be doing. We need to settle on a design now or I'm going to have to postpone working on your site for a while.”

If that doesn't work just tell him to piss off, since he's stretching the definition of friendship already.

adam

GoneShootin

Your first mistake was not hammering out an agreed project timeline and milestones to meet. Your suffering from ubar project creep!

The second mistake was charing your friend a different price. Hindsight is always 20/20 but from my own experiences doing sites for friends/freebies is always a royal pain in the arse.

kstanl

Explain that you've done the site for him on the cheap and let him know that your time is being eaten up by his constant demand for changes. If he's really a friend, he'll understand. I don't see what the big problem is!

Figment

For friends its twice as important to have a written agreement if you want them to remain friends. Misunderstandings are too easy through no fault of anyone and friendships are too important.

RicardoSmith

GoneShootin wrote:

Your first mistake was not hammering out an agreed project timeline and milestones to meet. Your suffering from ubar project creep!

The second mistake was charing your friend a different price. Hindsight is always 20/20 but from my own experiences doing sites for friends/freebies is always a royal pain in the arse.

Exxxactly.

Tell him, you've done as much as the you can do for the agreed price. Anymore and you'll charge him by the hour for the extra. Don't get caught like this again.

smeggle

Ever heard the comment Friends and Business don't mix? I never drop my prices for friends. They pay exactly the same as anyone else and I make it totally clear business is business - friends is friends. If they truly are your friend they will remain as such irrespective. If not then you haven't lost much and still been paid the correct value for your work (As you see it).

Business is Business - Friends are friends - they don't mix very well... or so I've found anyway. Bit of a difficult situation you have but like has been said you need to call 'Time-Out' somewhere, I'd say with your post you just hit that moment.

junglequestions

thanks for the advise everybody. i went with a few points. told him it has to be finished this week or else forget it.

think he got the point, and also think he know he was taking the piss! that's those Donegal ones for ya!