It’s always interesting to me to meet business owners. What I try to gauge is their attitude towards design and their perception of the value of it.

In these increasing hard economic times if a potential client is gonna have one main objection it would be cost. When this situation arises (which is almost every project these days) what I do is try to educate the possible client about what they are actually getting for their money.

The main issue is that alot of business owners see design and marketing as a non-essential spend. When in reality it’s one of the 3 things that are keeping their business trading. After all without marketing and brand awareness potential customers won’t know the company is out there anyway.

What is very disappointing is that nearly all business owners don’t really value design or what it does to help their business make more money, grow and be more successful.

What’s even more terrifying is that they then roll out the stock phrase “my 16yr old can do that”

Really?? Seriously really??

So a 16yr old can provide the same unique solution as a person or company that has won creativity awards, that has an international reputation, that works with the largest brands on the planet, that has case studies coming out of their arse proving how great they are and what they have achieved for clients.

I don’t think so.

At best the ‘gifted amateur’ excuse for not employing the professionals is extremely ignorant and at the very worst it’s totally insulting to the professional creative person or company whose dedicated their life, passion, heart and soul to creating the best work possible.

So what do I do in this situation? I say one thing… “ok, we’re probably not the right company for your business yet. I suggest you use your 16yr old genius and when he screws up (which he will) maybe then we can talk proper business”.

To be frank, my company never works with that type of client - period.

From experience I’ve found that any business that buys creativity and ideas purely on price are not worth dealing with as the relationship is one of master and slave. E.g. You’ll get the odd crumb thrown at you but boy are you going to have to work all week for it.

The question I ask these businesses is “are YOU prepared to work for nothing?”. Because if YOU aren’t then why the hell should someone who creates bespoke ideas that make alot of money for your business have too?

Contact me to find out more about finding about value with design :

Pete Burrows, Owner, Design & Creative Marketing Visionary @ SO we create.

e hello@sowecreate.com linkedin : http://uk.linkedin.com/in/peteburrows
twitter : @SOwecreate