What I learned from a low-paying, high-maintenance, rush job.

I just finished a bit of work that was a difficult client, high maintenance, low pay, and a rush job. Did I mention today is a holiday? Hmm, that’s ZERO incentive (out of a pool of 5). The “Old Bradley” would have trudged along, done the work, grumbled about it, and moved on. The “New Bradley” did the work and told the client that was the last project for such a price and such a deadline. The client then dared to ask me for a follow-up job (obviously, my annoyance didn’t shine through my ever-so-pleasant personality).

“But it’s a rush job and we only have limited funds.” Yeah, good luck with that.

My fabulous art director has a rule of The Three P’s to qualify new projects:

Price
Pride
Prestige

She says she needs at least one of those to make the job worth it. Pride, for example, might be for a really good cause or a non-profit. Prestige would be for a client that might help her bump up her own resume with a big name on her roster. This project this morning qualified for a grant total of zero of her qualifications.

I’m more annoyed than I used to be about this work I just did. I’m annoyed because I’ve had much better projects lately and I haven’t let these slip in there. This one snuck in and I’m annoyed. I’m annoyed enough to not do the follow-up project (already a victory in my book) and I won’t do further projects with this client–or any like them.

Oh, and happy holiday.