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.

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 href="http://www.mashinteractive.com">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

[address removed]

www.mashinteractive.com

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

Hi,

Our designer anwered with

href="http://www.design.org.au/content.cfm?id=245">http://www.design.org.au/content.cfm?id=245

style="font-size: 12pt;"> href="http://www.designcouncil.org.uk/en/About-Design/Research/The-Business-of-Design2/Winning-business/"
target="_blank">http://www.designcouncil.org.uk/en/About-Design/Research/The-Business-of-Design2/Winning-business/ color="navy" face="Arial" size="2"> style="font-family: Arial; color: navy; font-size: 10pt;">

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

Larry

 

On 4/3/09, class="gmail_sendername">Nick Barker <[address removed]>
wrote:

style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0px 0px 0px 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;"
class="gmail_quote">

Hi Jon/Harddeep

I’ve used both 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">Using 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">Sourcing low cost logo designs – PART 1

Hope it helps

Best

Nick

On Fri, Apr 3, 2009 at 3:17 PM, Hardeep
Rai <[address removed]>
wrote:

style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;"
class="gmail_quote">

style="font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 10pt;"> color="#000000" face="Arial" size="2">

Hi Jon,

 

I have a good friend that has used moz-do-not-send="true" href="http://www.99designs.com/" target="_blank">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.

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