Gary had also said that he wanted an extra 150 printing off as well, but before I printed off those, I thought it'd be a good idea for him to actually see them first. However, just so I knew, I went to the print shop first in town and found that it'd cost �105 to print off 150 flyers simply because the name of the shop was blue. Colour printing is a hell of a lot more expensive than black and white.
I went to Gary's shop and showed him the flyers. What annoys me is that I'm trying to do him a favour and actually be a graphic designer for him, yet he doesn't really give me five minutes of his time. You know, actually sit down and sort things out.
Anyway, he said he was happy with them. I said that in order to print off the other 150, it would cost him �105 and he said he didn't want to do that. I attempted to explain to him that it wouldn't cost a third of that if he chose to do the flyers in black and white, but he wasn't listening to me. Also, he expects me to print them off on my printer and again, he doesn't quite understand that that's not how this business works. I design it, take it to a printers and they give me the flyers. Doing it on my printers takes literally hours and wastes lots of ink.
I went to his apartment after that, where my mum was. She pretty much lives there now. It's weird having to go to someone else's place to visit my mum. She had wanted me to drop some of her pills off for her.
It really annoys me when she goes on about Gary. I'm afraid I don't see him as anything more than a client, whereas she of course sees him as her boyfriend. So, it bugs me when she asks me to do things for him, i.e. go and buy him booze. I agreed, only because of the fact that it saved her going to get it.
I explained to my mum what Gary had said about wanting the flyers in colour (and by colour, I mean a blue header and the rest in black) and how it'd cost �105 and so he didn't want to do that, but if you print them off in black and white, it only costs �6. She agreed with me this was a much better idea and called him and then I spoke to Gary again on the phone. It's a lot easier to talk to him on the phone, as you have his attention.
He changed his mind and agreed with me that the flyers should be in black and white and so I went off back into town to go and get them printed. The guy in the shop said that they'd take about 30 minutes to print off so I went to go have something to eat and then went back to collect them. Before I went back to Gary with them, I did some more clothes shopping, but once more, got very very frustrated at it all.
Gary was at the apartment when I went back and I gave him the flyers and the booze. He owed me �16 for the booze and then said that he'd want another 150 flyers doing at some point in the week and asked me when I could do them. I said it would depend on when I was in town again, as coming into town just to get the flyers printed was not worth my time. Both my mum and Gary didn't seem to understand this really.
In total, he gave me �30. �16 for the booze, �10 to get another 150 flyers and the remaining �4 was supposed 'profit'. However, I do not consider this at all adequate. I'll explain why.
In order for me to get to and from town, it costs a minimum of around �5 and more than likely a maximum of �10. So, with that in mind, that supposed profit of �4 has already been spent on simply getting to town and then some.
Then there's the fact that by going into town to do them in the first place, I'm providing a service to a client. This service needs to be paid for. While the cost of the flyers may only be �10, it costs me to get into town and then there's the fact that I need paying for actually getting them printed and delivering them to him. I feel it's only fair that I cover the cost of my travel plus a fee for my services. Offering me �4 is an insult and in future, I may think twice about accepting work from him.
Yesterday (Thursday), I recieved a text message from my mum, asking me if I could get the flyers printed off. I text back, asking why should I? I explained to her that I was providing a service to Gary and that service has a price and that I wasn't prepared to do what he wanted, when he wanted as he wasn't paying for it.
She text back, saying the flyers were for her. No they're bloody not. See, her and Gary are supposedly business partners now. She apparantly owns some of his business but I highly doubt she has any real control and is being a bit naive by thinking she does. The flyers are to promote a furniture shop which is Gary's. I don't care what she says, it's Gary's. As such, as I said, I treat him like I would treat any other client and ask for fair payment.
I text back to her, saying if she paid my expenses to get to and from town (�10), plus my fee of �10 then I'd get them done, otherwise, it'd probably be next week.
About ten minutes later, she sent me another text. "I went and got them myself", she wrote. I knew it was supposed to make me feel guilty for not getting them. I let out a short laugh, not really surprsied that she'd tried to make me feel guilty and deleted it immediatly.
Around three hours later, I recieved another text from her, "I never recieved a fee for doing what I've done for you over the last 21 years".
You see how she likes doing this emotional blackmail thing?
Again, I deleted it without replying. I was quite annoyed. I swear she doesn't quite understand exactly why I had chosen to not do them.
If it costs me �10 of my own money to go and get them printed, how is that beneficial to me as a designer? Just imagine if I did that with every client. Fuck off.
If it was something specfically for her, i.e. she wanted a business card made with her name on it or something then yes, obviously I would have done them for her without charging, but these flyers aren't for her. They're for Gary's shop. Not only that, but since he's plastering them all over Liverpool, he'll be making a lot of money from the stuff that he sells and why should he not pay for the advertising I've given him? But of course, my mum is always right and I'm always wrong and I'm a bad person and blah blah fucking blah. Not this time.
In future, I plan to add �20 to all costs that relate to me going into town and getting extra prints done, should he ask me to do so. Perhaps I made the mistake of actually breaking down my prices. I mean, instead of saying "it'll cost you x amount for me to design the flyers, x amount to print them etc", in future, I'll just saying "it'll cost you x amount for this amount of flyers", with that price including everything from my travel expenses, printing costs and design costs. I think that would be a better idea.
Perhaps this is a good lesson for me really. He's like a kind of test client. I mean, maybe this will teach me some valuable lessons in terms of how to deal with a client. I think I need to learn to stand me ground better when it comes to disagreements with how things should be done. While he may be the client, he only has the final say on how something should look, not the fact that it should be printed on my own personal printer or something else like that.
He mentioned that he wanted me to design him some business cards. He wants 100 in total. So I've quoted him �120 plus �20 to get them printed. This was before I come up with the idea of just stating one price instead of breaking it down. Plus I didn't include my travel costs/fee in that price. He said that he "only wants 100", but I know he'll turn round and ask for another 100 after they're gone at which point, I'll be charging him a flat fee which will include travel costs/fee and printing costs.
So, to get 100 business cards printed it costs �20. However, I'm going to add �10 to that to cover the cost of going to town and getting them printed and another �10 as my profit. I think that's fair. If he doesn't, well he can go get another designer.
In other news, Jamie's having a party at his tonight. He called me earlier to invite me, but I've decided not to go after the fact that I was very unhappy at the last houseparty I went to. He lives a lot further too so if I was unhappy, I wouldn't be able to get home as easy and I'd have to linger at the party all night. I don't like the thought of that.
Another thing is the fact that I've hrut my left finger/thumb. Thankfully it doesn't hurt that much now. I had to unscrew my wardrobe on Wednesday. Lots of the screws where incredibly stiff though. After unscrewing almost all of them, I them my finger tingling a little so I stopped and had a look at it, only to find that it was bleeding and the skin had come away from it. The same was true of my thumb. Not just a thin layer of skin either. So there's a bit of a 'dent' in my finger/thumb. It's going to take a while to heal.
That's all of my news for now.
