Doug,
interesting business model. Reminds me about my favourite
doctor/chiropractor/healer/medicine man in a far away barrio in the
Philippines. After receiving their treatment, patients simply went to a corner
of the room, where they, at their discretion, put money in a bowl. If you have
nothing, you’re not expected to pay anything. If you are rich, you can still
pay what other people normally pay, which is about 60-70p per treatment.
Nobody steals from the bowl, that’s completely unheard of. He simply collects
his money at the end of the day, and treats everybody with the same
professionalism, no matter their payment ability. I doubt this is a very
profitable business for him generally, but he’s more interested in helping
people than maintaining his own personal wealth. He’s actually a really good
doctor, with vast experience and a fantastic use of native medicine instead of
commercial ones where possible, and the result is that sometimes,
after he has cured some rich people, he may suddenly receive major gifts out
of the blue, sometimes anonymous.
So it actually works in his case, but one
important aspect is that the initial “donation” is made cash on delivery.
Plus, he has something you don’t have – everyone he treats are local, or can
be recognized somehow, so not paying their share would be shameful. Here in
London, you’ll never achieve that effect.

One thing that may become
troublesome here in the UK though is that some people seem to use you as a
bank, pushing out the payment date so long they forget what you did for them.
Are you going to demand quick payment, of whatever amount they are willing to
pay, or let them use you as their ow personal credit facility?

Another
potential problem is how much time you spend on each client. For example, if
someone is planning on paying you £150, because that’s what they think it will
cost on 99designs, and they don’t see the difference, should you spend as much
time with them as the ones that are prepared to pay £3k? Do you agree
the amount they pay up front?

Or are you prepared to give away
work to unethical and rouge players? I’d love to hear how this goes, and I’m
tempted to offer the same, and in some cases I have – to a degree, but I have
expenses to pay, both fixed and variable, and I’m not sure if the UK market is
ready for this business model.
Good luck, though!

~Ronny.
PS:
I’m starting up a project now. Do you accept a £1 initial donation and a major
contribution when the project has become successful? You see the problem, I’ve
now pushed the risk over to you without feeling very guilty – because I will
pay you, but it depends on the project’s success.
Avoid becoming a bank,
unless you have lots of money and are prepared to accept some
defaults…


Doug Lyon wrote:

type="cite">Hi,

I’ve been following with interest the thread (and other related
ones) about 99 designs, free design templates and competitions etc,
some interesting points raised and  i’d love to have your opinions on
this:

Throughout my career (and i’m sure i’m not alone!), as a designer up to
creative director for predominately London based design and
advertising agencies, I have tried to add value to all client relationships
and tried to always focus on the work & client business objectives
rather than the cost.

This has not always gone down too well with my bosses but my feeling
was that if we focused on the long-term value of the agency/client
relationship, helping our clients achieve their business objectives without
quoting £xxxx every time we moved a mouse,  that this
approach would be recognised, leading to a stronger relationship
with our clients , where their success would be ours.

Similarly, outside of work, I have used my skills
and experience to help friends & family, from websites to
wedding invites!, In both cases being helpful and useful has
been worthwhile and rewarding.

In part due to the present economic climate, where people are losing
their job’s, budgets are being cut and money is limited, and in part due to
a belief that their may be a better way of working I have set up a
design agency with a difference.

Aimed initially at the start-up groups I’m involved
with, Mash interactive extends the notion of being useful,
helpful and focused on value rather than cost. 

To this end, Mash does not  charge for the work  we do,
rather,  we invite our clients to pay what they can afford or what they
believe the job is worth to their business, after the work
is satisfactorily completed. Simple as that, if our clients are
happy and successful, we feel we will be to!

The url is moz-do-not-send="true">www.mashinteractive.com and it should be pretty
self-explanatory what we do. I’d love to hear your thoughts, comments,
opinions, either on the blog or emailed here, many thanks in advance!

Kind regards

Doug

Doug Lyon

moz-do-not-send="true">[address removed]

moz-do-not-send="true">www.mashinteractive.com

On 6 Apr 2009, at 04:38, Larry wrote:

class=Apple-interchange-newline>

Hi,

Our designer anwered with

href="http://www.design.org.au/content.cfm?id=245"
moz-do-not-send="true">http://www.design.org.au/content.cfm?id=245

href="http://www.designcouncil.org.uk/en/About-Design/Research/The-Business-of-Design2/Winning-business/"
target=_blank
moz-do-not-send="true">http://www.designcouncil.org.uk/en/About-Design/Research/The-Business-of-Design2/Winning-business/ face=Arial color=navy size=2> style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: navy; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">

=
free pitching is not a solid method for a company.

Larry


 

On 4/3/09, Nick
Barker < moz-do-not-send="true">[address removed]> wrote:

style="PADDING-LEFT: 1ex; MARGIN: 0px 0px 0px 0.8ex; BORDER-LEFT: rgb(204,204,204) 1px solid">

Hi Jon/Harddeep

I’ve used both name="st">99Designs & Elance for logos – here are my
experiences, guidelines and advice on both:

href="http://nickpoint.co.uk/2009/01/28/using-99designs-sourcing-low-cost-logo-designs-part-2/"
target=_blank moz-do-not-send="true">Using name="st">99Designs: Sourcing low cost logo designs – PART
2
href="http://nickpoint.co.uk/2009/01/20/sourcing-low-cost-logo-designs-part-1/"
target=_blank moz-do-not-send="true">Sourcing low cost logo designs –
PART 1

Hope it helps

Best

Nick

On Fri, Apr 3, 2009 at 3:17 PM, Hardeep Rai dir=ltr>< moz-do-not-send="true">[address removed]> wrote:

style="PADDING-LEFT: 1ex; MARGIN: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; BORDER-LEFT: rgb(204,204,204) 1px solid">

style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: rgb(0,0,0); FONT-FAMILY: Arial"> face=Arial color=#000000 size=2>

Hi Jon,

 

I have a good friend that has used href="http://www.99designs.com/" target=_blank
moz-do-not-send="true">www.99designs.com. When he showed me his
end product I could not believe he’d only paid US$300 for it ! It
was logo and a business card. Very impressive.

I think the way it works is that various freelancers read
your profile and then produce a mock up. You can then say what you
like / don’t like and they fine tune it until you get what you want.

 

I’ve not used it myself yet, but when I’m ready – I’ve always
thought that would be my first port of call….

What attracts me to it is that there are a number of people
pitching for your business. Needless to say – some of these will not
be any good – but some of them will be…

Thanks.

 

Hardeep.

color=#888888>


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