Blog > Business > 8 Ways to Get Shitty Clients

8 Ways to Get Shitty Clients

1. Use Craigslist

When looking for shitty clients, Craigslist is a great place to start. The ‘gigs’ section is a virtual goldmine for the bad work you’re looking for. Be sure to look for posts that say: “Student Needed” or “This will be great for your portfolio!” ALL CAPS posts are exceptional resources.

2. Show Old Work

As a creative individual you may have years and years worth of work in your portfolio, dating back to before you were even a student. When searching for shitty clients, it’s very important to include all of this work. If you’ve designed 47 logos in your lifetime, be sure to include them all on your website (including copies in different colors). A potential shitty client might find your student branding project set in Arial to be “Super Cute!” and want their new business cards to “Look just like it! Maybe you can copy it?”

3. Lower Your Rates

Shitty clients will often have a different opinion regarding the value of your work. It’s important not scare them off with budgets you would normally think are appropriate. If you charge $100 an hour, try charging $7. You’d be surprised how many bad opportunities present themselves.

4. Offer Discounts

Sometimes lowering your rates isn’t enough to land the deal, so try offering discounts. The shitty client may offer: “If you give us 30% off, we’ll e-mail all our friends about you!” This is a great offer, and should help you land the deal.

5. Be Shy

It’s important to be somewhat of a pushover if your goal is to attract more shitty clients. Confidence in your abilities, as well as any opinions regarding the proposal should be kept to a minimum.

6. Do Spec Work

Speculative design sites make it easy for you reach thousands of shitty clients effortlessly. The anonymous nature of these sites allows you not only do lots of work for little pay, but often no pay at all! If you’re new to working with shitty clients, and would like to learn more about their ideas or proposals, try browsing some spec websites or design contests.

7. Work for Family

Doing work for family members is an easy first step into working with shitty clients. The close relationship or love you may have for your family member allow you to easily get taken advantage of both creatively and financially. You often know each other’s addresses (or may even live in the same house), so details like proposals or contracts aren’t even necessary! Be careful not to work for a successful entrepreneur in the family (they may end up being a good client). Ideally you should only work on projects involving their recent idea to launch an ‘e-book’, or something with ‘candle making’.

8. Say Yes to Everything

Last but not least, always say ‘Yes’. Every client, every budget, every revision. Being confident enough to say ‘Yes’ to a bad proposal is a good first step, but don’t stop there! When confronted with low budgets and endless revisions, always say ‘Yes’ to keep your shitty client happy. This will ensure you an endless network of shitty clients that you can work with in the future!

If for some reason you prefer ‘Good Clients’, check out these links…

Freelance Folder - Ten Characteristics of a Good Client

Clients From Hell - Clients From Hell

Freelance Switch - 12 Breeds of Client and How to Work with Them

Greyscale Gorilla - Seven Rules for Building Online Portfolios

Just Creative Design - Why logo design does not cost $5.00

What do you think? Leave a comment!

17 Comments

February 23rd, 2010

Michelle C.February 23, 2010 | 11:04 am

I’m a makeup artist, and its amazing how well all of these ideas translate to that field!

Kennedy's GarageFebruary 23, 2010 | 12:44 pm

Lately Craigslist has been F*$%ing me. I have been getting people that say they will pay X amount, but right when I am going to pick up the deposit they want to pay me 1/4 of that. They are also the most complicated people to work with. Great post you make me fell like I am not alone. You should have a follow up post with the best places to get clients.

Rob LoukotkaFebruary 23, 2010 | 12:51 pm

@Kennedy’s Garage

Generally people browsing Craigslist (or a few other ‘classifieds’ sort of sites) aren’t looking for long-term, great relationships with designers (or any other creatives). They generally are looking to spend the least amount of money they can for their one-off project. You can’t blame them, really. BUT, them paying you is 1/4 of what was agreed on is outrageous.

If you can handle it, sometimes its best to avoid these places entirely, and put ALL of your efforts into places that have yielded decent clients.

Asking for referrals (if you have a large pool of clients) is always helpful.

But yes, you’re not alone.

Craigslist = Great for free furniture. Bad for designers.

Jamal AhmadFebruary 23, 2010 | 5:02 pm

Love every bit of it, Top Post!!!!!!

leahMarch 11, 2010 | 12:39 pm

Enjoyed this list very much and had to give a few chuckles. It is all so true.

Joann SondyMarch 12, 2010 | 11:40 am

ABSOLUTELY TRUE!!!!

Much success to everyone. Me thinks you should turn this into a poster and offer for sale.

Val WoodhouseMarch 14, 2010 | 4:22 pm

As someone who’s pretty desperate to get any sort of foot in the design door, this article’s one I should have pinned in front of me every day. I’ll admit to having a go at a couple of design contests but mainly for the practice, not for something great to add to my portfolio. Most of the work on those sites is pretty amateurish and contest holders never seem to pick a good winner in the end!

Rob LoukotkaMarch 18, 2010 | 4:00 pm

@Val Woodhouse

It’s hard when you’re starting out. If contests are the only work you can do to learn, then by all means do them. I think when we start out we all hit up craigslist or friends or other bad places to find work.

What’s important is that you recognize the destructive aspects of spec work sites (or craigslist, etc.), and start finding quality work outside of that. If you want to make living as a designer, and not get burned out from stress… definitely avoid these places. The work itself doesn’t kill you, it’s the stress that comes with it, haha.

For those of you looking for GOOD clients, try hitting up local businesses, get your business cards out there. Go to parties, networking events, meet people. Eventually somebody cool will want to work with you, and that might even lead to referrals for more work. Cool people lead to cool work, which means you’ll get paid AND have fun.

Nicole FosterApril 11, 2010 | 5:55 pm

Thanks for giving me a good laugh! I wish I had this posted in front of me when I first started out because I enter a lot of contests and lowered my prices severely to get clients. Trust me, I will never do that again. I price what I’m worth and I’m worth a lot

Rob LoukotkaApril 11, 2010 | 6:12 pm

@Nicole

Live and learn. We all made a lot of these mistakes when we were younger.

“I price what I’m worth and I’m worth a lot” – That is a great attitude. If you’re confident in your prices, you’ll be confident with your work, which always leads to a more respectful relationship with a client. If you know that you’re worth it, your clients will too.

Best of luck!