Every single time I didn’t listen to that instinct, I paid the price. I have finally got my “bad job” rabbit ears finely tuned. Some of the wisest decisions I’ve made lately involve deleting certain emails and tossing certain sticky notes to call so and so back. There is no way around it – you have to trust your gut when you feel something is off. 100% of the time, you will be right. Sometimes the right answer is “No”!

Thanks

I committed at least three major crimes in my interview/presentation interrogation:

1. I did a mock-up: I thought that it would be a good way to demonstrate to the (not) client that I was capable of giving him the work I thought he wanted. He had mentioned a competitors website before, so I mimicked the style of the competitor and create a mock-up.

I wasted three days doing a mock-up that did not use his logo (I did not know the logo he had on his original page was their logo), used a different typeface (they actually use Times New Roman as their typeface) and used a color scheme he found repulsive.

No wins at all in that area.

2. Price: I set the bar WAY too low. They paid the previous designer (who stuck a JPEG on four pages and charged them $5,000) without a mock-up at all. I offered to redo the page “correctly” for half.

Dumb move!

3. Since I do not have a big portfolio-and they know that I still work full-time at another job-The (not) client asked me, “If you are so good, why are you still working another job?” I thought the answer I gave was great, now that I think about it, it just made me sound like I was desperate for anything I could get.

In short, I came off as a desperate novice and they gave the job to a gentleman I know for sure does not care anything about decent web design – only about keeping as many clients on a string as he possibly can.

I’m learning…

I STOPPED giving free specs – STUPID of me to begin with!