They are paying you to do something just charge them for the time

Welcome to the fun and exciting world of freelance artistry! Some words of wisdom: - When pricing things, don't have a "set price"! Hear what they want, and give them a estimated time-frame (plus 2-3 extra hours) of how long you think it'll take. If you finish it quickly, it's a good thing rather than a punishment if you charge hourly. - As a designer, it's a good idea to prepare to present to them 3 "templates" and have them choose one. After choosing and making necessary changes the first round, make sure they know that any changes they want after this will cost extra (such as a $25 editing fee), even if it's something small like a color or font change. - Have them tell you exactly what they want changed. Don't allow them to use adjectives like, "Make it brighter!" or "Can you choose a cuter font, but not too cute?" or whatever to "fix" it; they must be specific ("How about size 14 font, and make the text box's stroke one point larger and see how that looks") or you won't work on it. If you ever have to quote something (if you're doing magazine layouts or something for example) ALWAYS copy-paste what they tell you to write. If there's a typo, that's their bad and you charge them when they come back needing you to correct it. Make sure they know that the typo is theirs, not yours. - Emphasize that the cost is each round, not each edit, so if they come to you with changes, giving you a list of everything they want changed is the best value for them, and the best time spent for you, and benefits both artist and client. If they bitch, I have no idea how to respond to that lol - Start charging clients with a written invoice, outlining everything, and have a pay-by date (usually within 21 days). If they pay you late, add a late fee (usually 10-15%) and resend the updated invoice, letting them know that they are late and you have an updated invoice, 24 hours after the late day. Make sure they know this exists. Have it very clearly written out on the invoice, maybe even in bold. Have a minimum fee (usually 1 hour's rate, even if it's a 15 min job) so they don't waste your time. Also, if you email back and forth with clients, estimate and charge the time you spend on-call waiting for their reply. Make sure they're done for the day before you "clock out". They're paying for your time, not just your design! -If they drop you, GOOD! Do not accept bullshit from penny-pinchers. It's NOT worth it, ever. Even if you need the money, the time spent on doing bullshit undercut projects can easily be spent doing anything else. You have a skill that is extremely disrespected and the market is saturated. Clients are able to pick and choose and sample inexperienced artists because colleges (in my experience) did NOT prepare us for this kind of treatment, and we must learn from others and also unfortuantely from experences such as these. Good luck out there! ><;

I hope you saved each reversion as its own file. Trust me, it helps, even if it takes up more space on your computer.

I never felt the extra work I put in any design wasted. I learn a lot from the struggle to come up with something new, and I always recycle the ideas I didn't use still; usually for the better. And the ones I can't use yet somehow can still help inspire me to come up with more interesting ideas. FYL if you can't see the value in everything you do, used or not, paid or not.

You bill by hours, right? Billing by the piece is for sockers.