I also think it’s interesting that so many readers are serving entrepreneurial and startup companies. Most experienced folks I know avoid them like the plague, unless they have a major backer. The reason is they can’t pay the bills.

To me, this points to poor market analysis. When you choose a market, the two biggest questions are:

1) are the dying to have my product/service?
2) can they afford my product/service?

If the answer to either of those questions is no, then you need to choose a different market.

I recently learned this lesson the hard way. I spent $30,000 building a web site package for a small segment of my market. Preliminary analysis told me they needed it badly. Only to find out, 80 percent of them are broke and can’t afford it, even at super cheap prices.

At best, I’ll make a few smart moves and recoup my investment, probably by selling the product to a competitor that happens to have captured the 10% that do pay. Otherwise, it’ll be an expensive lesson. Make sure you’re serving people that can pay.

in my situation, i am finishing my degree and seeking to establish relationships with good people. but reading this post i’m convinced that a relationship with someone, no matter how high they worked at HP, who does not see the value in my work and does not seek to compensate me accordingly is not a relationship i should rationalise.

in my short time as a designer i’ve had dozens of requests to do work for later pay or some ghostly percentage. never is anything spelled out, and i realize that even with this latest job, i have been too cowardly to demand my fair rate. i know others have written about that skill, but i’d love to hear your take (feel free to link to a previous post i’ve missed) on how to establish your value and assert that to the client. i enjoyed your previous post about discarding clients who are of little value, but how do i establish my worth up front so i can be sure to avoid these situations altogether?

I’ve gone down this road many times before, and in the past had even accepted commission-based work for startups. This brought many dangers, I was later to find out.

For starters, many startups fail–that is a given. Be it lack of capital or simple lack of business acumen, the venture fails and thusly we are caught with our pants down, having essentially donated our time and talent, for nothing.

For those few ventures that DO succeed, it may take years to recoup the time invested. It could be argued that the “partnership” was a long-term investment, but I couldn’t help but think about how much billable work I could have earned during that time–a time early on when paying clients was desperately needed!

A bird in the pocket is worth two in the brush, isn’t that how the saying goes? I’m not sure why you would want birds in your pocket, but I think you can draw a parallel. ;)